December 19th, 2011. The eyes of the world focus on New York City and Haifa as a new paradigm of higher education is born. In a dramatic press conference given by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it is announced that Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and its Ivy League partner Cornell University have won a New York City contest to build an engineering campus with a grant of land on Roosevelt Island and $100 million for infrastructure improvements. TCII – the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute is born.

On the eve of Technion 2012 cornerstone centennial celebrations, directly after attending the Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden in which Technion brought home Israel’s tenth Nobel Prize, Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie received the exciting news that Technion would be Israel’s first university to initiate an institute of higher education in the United States. “I just came from Stockholm… this is as exciting as a Nobel,” he said. “The Technion was founded in 1912…100 years later we come to New York to close the historic circle. We are building the bridge between Israel and the US, Technion and Cornell, New York and Haifa.”

The NYCTech Campus is intended to bolster job creation in the city and may generate 600 spinoff companies and $23 billion in economic activity over the next three decades, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “The goal of the entire NYC Tech campus, and the TCII within it, is to turn NYC into the hi-tech capital of the world,” says Technion Prof. Craig Gotsman, newly appointed Director of TCII. These engineers will receive a top-notch technical education, but beyond that, will work closely with affiliated companies during their studies.”

TCII will offer a unique master’s degree, which will allow students to specialize in one of three tracks or “hubs”. The first Hub is related to digital media in the networked age, the second hub is related to medical informatics and devices, and the third hub to smart buildings, urban environments and infrastructures.

“Technion now has an entry ticket into the top league of global universities,” continues Gotsman. “It puts us on the map, so to speak. It gives us international recognition and a number of very important long-term benefits. It will be a vibrant institute, located on the permanent Cornell NYCTech campus on Roosevelt Island, with some 100 faculty and more than 500 graduate students. It will be strongly engaged with and impact the local NYC high tech industry. It will be an integral part of the City.”

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