Technion University, based in the hills overlooking Haifa, is partnering with Cornell University to open a new world-class applied science and engineering campus in New York City.

The Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island will combine both institutions’ academic strengths as well as Cornell’s entrepreneurial experience and connections with the city’s emerging tech sector. Technion boats its global leadership in commercialization and technology transfer.

The universities are counting on the new campus to help will transform New York City into a world hub of innovation and technology commercialization. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is visiting Israel this week, has envisioned the city’s future in technology.

The partners will be joining in a full-scale campus – not a satellite of either school – to open in 2012, initially in either leased space or existing Cornell facilities in New York City.

The NYC Tech Campus will eventually grow to more than 2 million square feet and accommodate nearly 2000 graduate students and 250 faculty, as well as visitors and corporate researchers.  

Technion graduates head 59 of 121 Israeli companies on the NASDAQ, and these companies have a combined market value of over $28 billion.  More than 70 percent of Technion graduates are employed in the high technology sectors that drive Israel’s economic growth. 

Israeli companies headed by Technion graduates employ 85 percent of Israel’s technical workforce, and the Technion also has an established presence in New York City with the American Technion Society (ATS), which maintains a national network of thousands of alumni and supporters.

Cornell’s is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York. Its portfolio in New York City includes the world-class Weill Cornell Medical College as well as its Cooperative Extension-New York City, Industrial and Labor Relations in Midtown and its Architecture, Art and Planning Center.