Mr. Huttenlocher

A source tells Betabeat that Mayor Bloomberg has a "big announcement" about the city's tech campus slated for his 11.30am appearance at Tumblr's 21st Street offices today.

Does that mean the New York City Economic Development Corporation is finally revealing a second-place winner for the campus competition? Nope! Although a decision was expected in January, city officials say they may have underestimated the time frame based on the ease of its negotiations with Cornell-Technion. (Stanford dropping out of the race probably streamlined the process as well, we imagine.) While the Roosevelt Island campus nabbed the city's entire $100 million grant, the EDC is optimistic that some kind of financing negotiations can be worked out to support one (or all!) of the remaining proposals: NYU in Downtown Brooklyn, Carnegie Mellon at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, or Columbia in Manhattanville.

In the meantime, we did get the early word on one big personnel decision as far as Cornell and Technion's $2 billion Roosevelt Island applied sciences extravaganza. Professor Daniel P. Huttenlocher, Cornell University’s Dean of Computing and Information Sciences, has been named Cornell Vice Provost and founding Dean of the new campus.

We first met Mr. Huttenlocher—at the Cornell Club, natch—when Betabeat was working on the first big feature about the campus back in September. Indeed, he has been spear-heading Cornell's ambassadorship to NYC, if you will. Back then, Mr. Huttenlocher, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, made a compelling case, even in the face of Standford's bold brand, for Cornell's more nimble structure, focusing on "interdisciplinary hubs focused on concepts like the mobile space, or built environment, or health informatics that involve along with the outside world. We came away with .edu stars in our eyes.

Along with Mr. Huttenlocher's appointment, Cathy Dove, who currently serves as associate dean in Cornell’s College of Engineering, will co-lead the campus as Vice President. And Technion Professor Craig Gotsman will serve as the founding director of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (TCII).

Here's the Mayor's full press release:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that Professor Daniel P. Huttenlocher, Cornell University’s Dean of Computing and Information Sciences, has been named Cornell Vice Provost and founding Dean of the university’s historic tech campus, home of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute. Cathy Dove, currently associate dean in Cornell’s College of Engineering, will co-lead the campus as Vice President, and Technion Professor Craig Gotsman will serve as the founding director of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute. Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement at the headquarters of Tumblr, one of the City’s fastest-growing technology companies, was joined by Tumblr CEO David Karp, Dean Huttenlocher, Cathy Dove, New York City Economic President Seth Pinsky, Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne, Office of Media & Entertainment Commissioner Katherine Oliver and representatives from Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Bitly and YouTube.

“New York City is quickly becoming the center of the digital universe, and today’s announcements will help us get there,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “With this fantastic leadership team in place, the tech campus will help us attract and develop more talent to energize our growing tech sector. And our social media platforms will give New Yorkers the information they need on the channels they want to use.”

“Dan Huttenlocher and Cathy Dove have employed their extensive knowledge and expertise, as well as their acknowledged leadership skills, during every step of the development and promotion of our proposal, and they continue to drive our effort to bring the new campus to fruition for the people of New York,” said Cornell University President David Skorton. “And the addition of Professor Craig Gotsman as director of the campus’s Techion-Cornell Innovation Institute brings added luster to this impressive team. Cornell, Technion and the city are very lucky to have such talented people leading our exciting new campus.”

Huttenlocher, Dove and Gotsman were instrumental in formulating and promoting the winning proposal and working with the city during the selection process for the new state-of-the-art graduate campus, to be operated in partnership with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Inaugural instruction will begin in off-site locations in the city in September of this year, with groundbreaking scheduled for 2015 and on-campus operations slated to begin in 2017. Huttenlocher and Dove will oversee the formation of the environmentally sustainable campus, whose operational costs are expected to exceed $2 billion over 30 years; the building of the campus’s expert faculty, planned to be about 280 strong in 30 years; its highly selective graduate student population, targeted at about 2,500 by 2043; as well as capital construction of the 2 million square-foot campus. The campus’s innovative academic “hub” concept, which Huttenlocher helped develop, will feature curriculum and research organized across multiple disciplines and directed toward particular sectors of New York City’s economy.

As dean, Huttenlocher will have overall responsibility for all programmatic aspects of the new campus, including responsibility for the academic quality and direction of the campus’s hubs and their evolution over time. He will develop strategic plans for the most effective ways of working with companies and early stage investors in New York City, and he will lead the campus’ faculty recruitment and entrepreneurial initiatives. He also will serve as a member of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute Joint Governance Board and oversee the Tech Campus Advisory Committee. Huttenlocher will report to Cornell’s provost, work closely with Cornell’s deans, including Cornell Engineering Dean Lance Collins, and he will serve as a member of Cornell’s senior leadership team. He also will retain his post as Cornell’s CIS dean, until a new dean is appointed.

As the Vice President for the new tech campus, Dove will be responsible for all development, outreach and operational aspects of the campus, including areas such as human resources, external and student relations, development and facilities, IT, marketing and communications, finances and outreach. She will serve as the campus’s lead on its facility construction team, oversee corporate relations, student services and lead community outreach and programming, including K-12 programs. She will report to Cornell’s provost, will lead the Operating Committee, and she will serve as a member of Cornell’s senior leadership team. Gotsman will lead the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (TCII), a centerpiece of the Roosevelt Island campus, as its founding director. The TCII will confer dual Cornell/Technion Masters of Applied Sciences degrees, based on a curriculum with a unique emphasis on the application of sciences, entrepreneurship and management.

“Cornell and the Technion have outlined ambitious plans for a world-class applied sciences campus in the heart of New York City, and executing on those plans will require outstanding academic leaders like Daniel Huttenlocher, Cathy Dove and Craig Gotsman,” Deputy Mayor Steel said. “Congratulations to Presidents Skorton and Lavie and the entire Cornell and Technion communities on the selection of the NYC Tech leadership team.”

“With the selection of Cornell and the Technion, we were fortunate to find the perfect partners - two world-class institutions which together shared our vision of how to change the City’s economy forever,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation President Pinsky. “To fulfill this bold vision will require strong leadership, and there are no leaders better equipped for this challenge than Dan Huttenlocher, Cathy Dove and Craig Gotsman. With this team at the helm, the NYCTech campus will soon begin creating the new technologies and businesses that will ensure our place as the undisputed world capital of innovation.”

“We welcome the appointments of Professor Dan Huttenlocher and Cathy Dove, to which we add that of Technion Professor Craig Gotsman as Founding Director of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute,” said Peretz Lavie, President of the Technion. “We have complete faith that this team can and will efficiently and professionally promote the ambitious program we have planned for New York City.”

“This is an unprecedented opportunity to build a new kind of university campus, focused on technology commercialization rooted in the very best academic research, with educational programs that tie fundamentals to practice, and strong ties to the tech sector of the city's economy,” said Huttenlocher. “We are already actively working towards identifying leased space for the start-up phase before we move to Roosevelt Island, gaining approvals for degree programs, involving local tech leaders in our planning, and preparing to hire world class faculty.”

“I am incredibly honored to be able to contribute to this game-changing enterprise that will have such a great impact on Cornell, the Technion and New York City,” said Dove. “It is especially meaningful to me as a Cornell alumna, who has always believed that Cornell should have a significant presence in New York City. I’m looking forward to working closely, not only with our faculty, staff and students, but with companies, alumni, our Technion partners and our New York City and Roosevelt Island neighbors. There is a lot of work to do, but I’m excited to be moving forward toward our shared goal.”

“The Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute will be dedicated to fulfilling Mayor Bloomberg’s far-reaching vision for the future of New York City as the high-tech capital of the world. The TCII will become a fertile breeding ground for engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs who will contribute to the city’s tech ecosystem, even before they graduate. The Technion is confident that its experience in building the Israeli high-tech sector will serve it well in New York City. Having a local partner as distinguished as Cornell University, can only guarantee a runaway success,” said Prof. Gotsman.

“Dan Huttenlocher’s leadership has taken Cornell’s Computing and Information Science department to new heights as one of the top programs in the world,” said Eric Grimson, chancellor of MIT. “Dan has a keen sense of how research and education can drive entrepreneurship and innovation, and I can think of no one better to lead the new tech campus going forward.”

“Dan Huttenlocher is an inspired choice to lead the new tech campus as he has excelled in both the academic world and the entrepreneurial world,” said Jeff Hawkins, Founder of Numenta, Palm, and Handspring. “The Tech Campus’ mission is to train the engineers and innovators who will continue to fuel New York City’s rise as a global technology leader. Knowing Dan and his talents I can think of no one better suited to achieve that goal.”

“Dan is the rare academic leader who knows not only how to cultivate great engineers and innovators, but also understands both the social and technical sides of tech entrepreneurship from his own years of experience working in the tech sector,” said John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist of Xerox Corp and past Director of its Palo Alto Research Center said. “Dan is a brilliant choice to lead the new tech campus forward as its founding Dean, and I am confident that his students and New York City itself will benefit from his unique approach.”

“Dan Huttenlocher is the perfect choice to lead the new technology campus,” said Rob Cook, VP of Advanced Technology, Pixar (Emeritus). “Today’s engineers need both an excellent education in technology and the practical business skills to make a difference in the real world. Dan excels in both areas: he is a brilliant and innovative academic researcher and also a seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur. I’m confident that with Dan as its founding dean, the campus will become renowned for producing technology leaders.”

In addition to his post as Cornell’s dean of CIS, Huttenlocher holds the John P. and Rilla Neafsey Chair in Computing, Information Science and Business. He has been on the faculty at Cornell since 1988, leaving at various times to work in industry, including at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center , where he founded the Image Understanding Group and served on the senior management team, and at Intelligent Markets, a small financial technologies firm where he served as Chief Technology Officer. While his academic interests are rooted in computer science, particularly computer vision, he has worked in a number of other domains including autonomous vehicles, competing in the DARPA Urban Challenge, and analysis of online social networks. He has taught in both the Department of Computer Science and the MBA program at Cornell, and he has been recognized on several occasions for his excellence in teaching, including as the New York State Professor of the year in 1993 by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and as a Stephen H. Weiss Fellow at Cornell in 1996. He has published a number of award winning scientific papers, was named a Presidential Young Investigator by the National Science Foundation in 1990, and was honored as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in 2007. In 1998-99, Huttenlocher chaired the Cornell Task Force on Computing and Information Science, which led to the creation of CIS, for which he was Cornell’s second dean. In 2005-06, he also chaired Cornell’s Task Force on Wisdom in the Age of Digital Information. Huttenlocher currently serves on the board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan and his master’s and doctorate at MIT.

Dove most recently was associate dean in the Cornell College of Engineering. Previously she served as Associate Dean for MBA Programs and Administration at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and also served as director of Financial Management Services for the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Throughout her tenure at Cornell, Dove has served on or led a number of institutional initiatives – most recently as co-chair of the university’s Budget Model Task Force. Prior to her arrival at Cornell, she served as Assistant Town Manager for Arlington, Mass.; as a financial analyst and marketing planner for Eli Lilly & Co.; and as a manager of Engineering Systems and Development for Anaren Inc.  She holds a B.S. from Georgetown University, an MBA from Cornell, and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

Prof. Gotsman joined the Technion in 1992. As Associate Dean for External Relations, he founded and led the Computer Science faculty’s Industrial Affiliates Program, a successful platform for promoting academic-industrial cooperation. In this capacity he conceived and developed an “Industrial Project” course, which allows students to perform software projects offered and supervised by industrial experts; and the “Lapidim” study program, which identifies and nurtures the next generation of high-tech leaders. He has founded and ran two start-up companies, one based on technology he developed at the Technion, and has consulted for numerous Fortune 100 companies. Prof. Gotsman holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was a visiting professor at Harvard University and ETH Zurich, and a research scientist at MIT. He has published more than 150 papers in the professional literature and has been awarded five U.S. patents.