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By David Nutt

The Cornell Board of Trustees today voted to appoint Michael I. Kotlikoff, who has served as interim president since July 2024, Cornell’s 15th president, effective immediately.

“Over the last eight months as interim president – and his 25 years on Cornell’s faculty – Mike has demonstrated the leadership and vision that the university needs right now,” said Board of Trustees Chair Kraig Kayser, MBA ’84. “His institutional knowledge, expertise and passion for our shared mission will continue to help him lead Cornell through a period of great uncertainty and provide much-needed continuity at a critical time.”

As interim president, Kotlikoff has sought to foster connection and dialogue on campus and to highlight the unique attributes of Cornell – including its history and its ethos.

Read more at the Cornell Chronicle.

David Nutt is a senior staff writer for the Cornell Chronicle.


With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, fintech, and digital technology in general, companies of all sizes  – whether they are an early-stage startup or a publicly traded corporation – need lawyers who specialize in the legal and commercial aspects of these technologies.

Rooted in its entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to fueling the growth of the technology industry in New York and beyond, in 2016 Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School created the first Master of Laws (LLM) in Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship in the world. Now, the Cornell Tech LLM program is launching a part-time structure to invite those who may need a more flexible schedule to participate.

We spoke with Matt D’Amore, the Director of the Tech LLM program and Professor of Practice at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School, to learn more about the new part-time program and what individuals can expect who take advantage of this new structure.

Can you give us an overview of the LLM program and your role in it?

I’ve been at Cornell Tech since 2017, when I joined the campus after a 20-year legal career at a technology law firm in New York City. Since joining Cornell Tech, I’ve largely run its law program, and I teach technology, transactions law, trade secrets and legal technology. We currently have a one-year full-time LLM degree that serves as a post-graduate program for students who already have their JD degree or equivalent. The Tech LLM program provides our students with deep disciplinary experience in technology law, practice and policy, and also allows them to participate in Cornell Tech’s flagship Studio program where they learn how to build products and act as founders.

We’re now rolling out a new part-time version of our LLM program to allow law graduates with flexible work schedules to take advantage of this unique educational opportunity while continuing to work at least part time. The part-time program will be best-suited for individuals who can reduce their hours at work and reorient their schedules to participate in classes two days a week for the next two years.

What makes the LLM program unique? What can participants get from this program that they can’t get elsewhere?

So there are a few key aspects that set the Cornell Tech LLM program apart. The first is a deep dive into technology law. Unlike most LLM programs, all of our classes are technology law focused. Participants in our programs get exposure to finance for tech companies, technology transactions, internet law, intellectual property, privacy law and other essential courses needed to represent a technology company. In the program, they’re being taught by both leading academics and leading practitioners, which gives the program a very practical edge. That’s the legal side of it.

In addition, they will gain experience through Studio, working on interdisciplinary teams that include students from Cornell Tech’s computer science, engineering, business and other programs. This provides our students an opportunity to experience what it’s like working on a development team and get an inside view of what it’s like to work at the kind of companies that they’re hoping to serve as a lawyer. Along the way, they will build a network of people who in a few years may well be potential clients.. So, it’s unique with the combination of the deep dive into technology law, plus the interdisciplinary experience of Studio that allows students to have that experience as a founder and also build their network beyond just lawyers.

How does New York City complement the program itself? What does New York City offer as opposed to a program based in another location

We are very well connected to the New York City ecosystem in a number of ways. First, we draw a lot of our practitioners and guest lecturers from the New York City legal community, which includes some of the top technology lawyers and law firms in the world. Second, we have a deep alumni base, both at the law school and from Cornell Tech in New York City, forging another opportunity for networking and developing connections. And third, students have the opportunity to connect with several New York City-based organizations, particularly the New York State and City Bar Associations, both of which are very active and in our experience, eager to engage with tech-oriented law students.

For the Tech LLM program, what would you say are the ideal outcomes that participants can gain?

The Cornell Tech LLM program offers students the opportunity to deepen their understanding and knowledge of how technology law is practiced today, and the kinds of needs that technology law companies have. When it comes to ideal applicants, we are looking for people with some initial technology law exposure and interest, and we’re hoping to provide a bridge for those students with a formalized education.

We’re casting a wider net to welcome students. Perhaps they didn’t get it in law school, but they’ve worked at a firm and done some work for tech companies and they feel that they need to get some formal education. Or perhaps they are looking to return to legal practice after some time away. Or maybe they’re working at a very small firm or solo practice, for startups or small businesses, and are looking to deepen their experience and exposure to the technology law field. If they have a practice that is mostly small businesses and not a lot of tech, this background and education might help them expand into doing more technology-centric work for small technology companies, startups, either in the New York City community or elsewhere.

We hope that students who graduate from the program end up working in technology law firms, technology companies or expanding their existing practices.

What would you hope to see from the first part-time cohort that would help further shape how this part-time program may look or evolve in the future?

The part-time Cornell Tech LLM is a program designed for professionals who want to advance their careers and build on the strong foundations they already have. This new part-time program not only equips students with knowledge and skills to excel within their current position and organization but to thrive in an array of roles more closely connected to law, technology, and policy. Additionally, being rooted in professional networking, students in the program will be exposed to unique opportunities to connect with peers, leaders, and organizations in New York City and the legal ecosystem to help maximize their opportunities after graduating.

As the part-time program grows, we’re looking forward to better understanding our students, their needs, and how they will take advantage of and utilize the learnings and network from the program in current and future work options.

To learn more or to apply, visit https://tech.cornell.edu/programs/masters-programs/master-of-laws-llm-in-law-technology-and-entrepreneurship-part-time/.


By Sarah Marquart

The Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine, led by Binghamton University with support from Cornell and other prestigious partners, is setting the stage for a regional revolution in energy storage technology. With backing from the National Science Foundation (NSF), this initiative aims to bolster large-capacity battery manufacturing and drive advances necessary for use in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage, with the potential to transform the economy of upstate New York.

A crucial part of this effort is Cornell’s focus on technology translation — guiding new discoveries from the lab to the market. At the helm of this core function for the new energy storage engine is Fernando Gómez-Baquero, director of the Runway and Spinouts Program at Cornell Tech. Gómez-Baquero’s expertise in moving research into real-world applications is central to achieving the Engine’s ambitious goals.

In this interview, Gómez-Baquero sheds light on the strategic importance of the initiative, its potential to reshape the regional economy, and how the Engine is equipping the next generation of innovators to tackle the energy challenges of the future.

Can you describe your specific role in the Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine initiative?

As Director of the Translation Pillar, my role is to accelerate the commercialization of energy storage technologies. The Engine’s goal is to help startups and companies by giving them SuperBoost grants and technology acceleration assistance, helping them understand their supply chain resiliency, giving them access to educational/mentoring programs, and connecting them to Venture Capital investment.

What does leading technology translation on behalf of the Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine entail?

Cornell Tech is a recognized leader in entrepreneurship education and spinout creation. We are sharing this expertise with a consortium of academic partners (Binghamton University, Cornell University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Syracuse University) and, through our guidance, work on regional economic development that will benefit Upstate New York.

What does “translational mindset” mean to you, and why is it important for this initiative?

[It] means that we purposefully accelerate technologies that we know have a high potential to resolve real problems and become products and services quickly integrated into the energy storage industry. Another way of thinking about it is ‘use-inspired,’ where we focus on advancing technologies and recognize an explicit use and application.

How does your experience with the Runway Startups program at Cornell Tech inform your approach to technology translation?

The program has successfully experimented with developing a set of tools, resources, and training to move scientific innovations into commercial practice. After building more than 115 companies, we understand the challenges and the failure points, and by recognizing them, we know how to overcome them. We will bring this skill and knowledge to translation at the Engine.

How do you and others leading the initiative plan to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world energy storage solutions?

The primary mechanism to bridge the gap will be through SuperBoost grants. These will be specific grants given to startups or companies where that grant can quickly accelerate their Technology Readiness Level (TRL) —a system used to assess a technology’s maturity — to above a seven. TRLs range from 1, the initial research and observation phase, to 9, representing a fully mature and operational technology. Grants will be provided for prototype development, customer validation, quality validation, and certification. These grants aim to reduce time to market by funding the use of hundreds of millions in capital equipment available in Upstate New York to help startups succeed.

How will Cornell’s technology translation efforts differ from other institutions’ approaches in this collaboration?

Cornell’s approach is very hands-on and laser-focused on eliminating the barriers that stop entrepreneurs from succeeding. We don’t believe money is enough; it takes a community to mentor, guide, strategize, ideate, and ultimately develop the best approach to get to a commercial application that solves a significant need. Our approach focuses less on bringing external expertise and [more on]empowering current innovators to pivot, grow their knowledge, and make decisions as quickly as possible.

Why is building a strong energy storage ecosystem in upstate New York essential?

Energy storage is, without a doubt, a critical driver of economic growth. Every one of us uses devices that rely on energy storage daily, but in the US we don’t produce the majority of that technology. The opposite is true: we depend highly on a Chinese supply chain for this critical technology need. Upstate New York has the right combination of scientific knowledge, engineering skills, and application industries to ensure we become the growth engine for that industry in the country.

What specific advancements in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage are you hoping to achieve? What current challenges will these address?

We want to focus on critical areas such as new materials for increased energy density, non-flammable and safe batteries, faster-charging batteries, improved battery manufacturing, and recycling and reuse. These areas address the need to adopt technologies and set the stage for a cleaner and more productive battery production capacity to be built in Upstate New York.

What are some of the biggest benefits and challenges of collaborating with multiple institutions in this engine?

The most significant benefit is the additional resources that are now shared. Binghamton University and Cornell have great R&D characterization equipment and resources. RIT has a fantastic battery prototyping and testing center, and Syracuse University is a leader in workforce development programs. This partnership helps startups and researchers access those resources faster. At the same time, we know that it is challenging to know all available resources, and sometimes work is duplicated; that’s why the Engine will deploy a team to assess each project and guide them through the best path to success. We will also collaborate with partners such as NY-BEST and LaunchNY which have been critical supporters of the battery industry in the state for over a decade.

Looking ahead five years, what does success look like for the initiative? What impact would you like to see both regionally and nationally?

The goal of the  Engine is to create a significant impact in this industry fast. By the second year, we will have clear examples of technologies that we were able to accelerate from TRL3–4, where early-stage concepts and proofs of feasibility are developed, to TRL7–8, where the technology is nearly ready for deployment in its operational environment.

We will have a roadmap for any company that wants to be SuperBoosted, and have examples of critical places where we have cut the dependency on the Chinese energy storage industry — for instance, in the recycling and reuse of batteries. By year five, we know this Engine will be seen as the most important energy storage hub in the United States.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sarah Marquart is a freelance writer for Cornell Tech.


With the artificial intelligence sector projected to see an annual 36.6% growth rate until 2030, it’s increasingly important that those impacted by the technology are at the forefront of its development. Yet only 12% of leading machine learning researchers are women. Cornell Tech’s Break Through Tech initiative addresses this inequity head on. The one-year extracurricular program equips undergraduate students with the skills needed to secure a job in fast-growing areas of tech and not only advances a more inclusive tech workforce, but also drives the AI era toward lasting economic and social prosperity in New York and beyond.

To advance its efforts of democratizing access to AI/ML coursework, Break Through Tech recently received a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The funding will allow for the expansion of its Instructional Hub model for the AI program over the next five years, which will establish a national network of instructors for their courses to reach diverse learners from across the country who would not otherwise have access to this curriculum.

“Artificial intelligence is the future of our economy that will impact all of us – including societal impacts from health to climate and personal impacts on how we all live and work,” said Judith Spitz, Founder and Executive Director of Break Through Tech. “There are long-standing barriers to entry and lack of accessibility that stand in the way of women and non-binary individuals from underrepresented backgrounds pursuing an education and career in technology. This is a workforce issue, an economic opportunity issue, but it is also an innovation issue because we’re missing out on crucial perspectives and lived experiences when developing and evaluating machine learning models. This transformational grant from the National Science Foundation will ensure that we can create a strong and diverse talent pipeline that is representative of the people that use it.”

The grant will increase funding for the three existing Break Through Tech hubs – at Cornell Tech, Hofstra University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign – and will fuel new collaborations to create five new hubs. The award will also be leveraged to develop and implement a “Train the Trainer” program, which will provide faculty and graduate students with resources on how to teach applied, industry-relevant machine learning coursework using inclusive education, teaching experience and virtual best practices for a racially and gender diverse audience.

Prioritizing learning across the industry, the NSF also recognizes the importance of evaluating and sharing findings from the results and impact of the grant. Break Through Tech will disseminate best practices and lessons learned through research presentations and workshops at computing education conferences, create open source materials generated from this grant work via the Open Education Resources archive, develop a community of practice with the instructional hubs to scale support using collaborative problem solving and learnings, and host virtual webinars on best practices for inclusive computer science and virtual teaching.

“Since their inception, Cornell Tech and Break Through Tech have been working to educate and empower the next generation of tech leaders while supporting efforts to create a more inclusive and equitable tech industry,” added Deborah Estrin, Associate Dean for Impact at Cornell Tech. “This NSF grant will allow us to broaden those efforts to reach more communities around the country and meet the industry’s talent needs to bolster the future AI workforce. Our aim is to create a tech ecosystem that not only reflects the diversity of the people it serves but also incorporates a broad range of perspectives in AI development.”

Reflective of Cornell’s “any person, any study” promise, Break Through Tech is focused on constructing solutions to real-world problems by expanding entry into the tech industry. The organization’s AI program launched three years ago, thanks to a $26 million investment from Melinda French Gates’ company Pivotal Ventures, Ken Griffin, Citadel and Citadel Securities, the Hopper-Dean Foundation and New Venture Fund. Following an expansion from New York to MIT’s Schwarzman College of Computing and UCLA’s Samueli School of Engineering, over 1,000 students have participated in the program, 64% of whom were Black, Latino, Native American, a first-generation college student and/or from a low-income background. The NSF award aims to double the number of students Break Through Tech serves by the end of December 2027.

“With the explosion of AI we recognize both the extraordinary promise as well as the potential peril of this advanced technology. The most important thing we can do to ensure that this next wave of innovation uplifts all of society, is to make sure that the people developing this technology represent all of us,” Spitz said. “It was an honor to receive this grant which focuses on democratizing access to academic opportunity. We will leverage our learnings and continue our mission to improve access to technology education and the tech industry and act as a catalyst for the NYC tech ecosystem.”


Bridging the gap between innovation and market viability is a challenge that startups, corporations and venture-backed firms alike face. That’s where the newly launched Cornell Tech Venture Fellow Program at the Jacobs-Technion Cornell Institute comes in—a unique initiative designed to help exceptional corporate professionals and individuals backed by venture capital firms to help them develop their groundbreaking deep-tech ideas into transformative solutions by refining business strategies and scaling their technologies while fostering leadership skills.

DefenseArk, a cybersecurity company with a revolutionary AI-driven Cyber Reasoning System (CRS) called Interceptive, is the program’s inaugural participant. As the program’s inaugural Venture Fellow, Bert van Keulen, Chief Data Scientist at DefenseArk, is working alongside Cornell Tech’s academic researchers, industry mentors, and the company’s CEO, Harish Prasanna, to refine Interceptive. The technology identifies and resolves software vulnerabilities in real time without human intervention. “With Cornell Tech’s support, we’re bridging the gap between cutting-edge research and commercialization,” van Keulen says.

“It’s not a degree program nor a traditional incubator,” Carley Hart, Director of the Venture Fellow Program explains. “It’s an immersive, hands-on experience that combines technical workshops, business development training, and mentorship. Fellows work on real-world ventures to create tangible value for their organizations.”

While DefenseArk’s participation underscores the program’s flexibility, the broader mission of the Venture Fellow Program is to equip corporate leaders and venture-backed firms with the tools to commercialize innovations effectively. “Bert embodies the kind of technologist we want to support,” Hart says. “His deep expertise in AI and cybersecurity, combined with his willingness to innovate, makes him a natural fit.”

DefenseArk’s decision to enroll van Keulen was driven by their goal to launch Interceptive successfully. “The program has allowed us to tap into Cornell Tech’s academic network while gaining valuable insights from other entrepreneurs and industry experts,” Prasanna adds.

The program’s approach goes beyond theoretical teaching—it’s about making entrepreneurship actionable. Instead of learning concepts in a classroom, fellows are encouraged to apply their knowledge directly, bringing new products and solutions to life. As Hart describes, the goal is to help technologists and corporate innovators advance from concept to commercialization.

Harish Prasanna and Bert van Keulen
Harish Prasanna, CEO of DefenseArk, and Bert van Keulen, inaugural Venture Fellow at the Cornell Tech Venture Fellow Program and Chief Data Scientist at DefenseArk

With Cornell Tech’s resources behind them, van Keulen and Prasanna are refining DefenseArk’s technology through workshops, mentorship, and collaboration with students, professors, and other startups. Van Keulen highlights how pivotal these resources have been to DefenseArk’s development.

“The program allows us to work alongside some of the brightest minds in both AI and cybersecurity as we are benefiting from the strong academic foundation Cornell Tech offers,” he says.

Notably, their work on Interceptive was bolstered by insights gained through participation in the DARPA AI Cybersecurity Challenge, where DefenseArk emerged as a semi-finalist.

The need for robust cybersecurity solutions has never been greater. Van Keulen and Prasanna see Interceptive as a powerful tool for businesses, offering real-time solutions to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities automatically. “We’re building a product that can analyze software, find security gaps, and fix them—all without human intervention,” van Keulen explains. The potential of Interceptive to streamline cybersecurity processes and save time has been instrumental in DefenseArk’s growth and success.

Working at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity presents challenges and opportunities, but Cornell Tech’s ecosystem has been essential in helping DefenseArk navigate this complex field. “Having access to Cornell Tech’s network of mentors, professors, and other entrepreneurs has expanded our understanding of cybersecurity,” Prasanna says. “It’s given us the confidence to bring our product to market with the backing of a renowned institution.”

Looking forward, Cornell Tech’s Venture Fellow Program is poised to grow, with plans to bring in more fellows from diverse industries, especially those within deep-tech fields like AI, cybersecurity, and machine learning. “We want to help corporate partners by giving them a space to explore new ventures and develop real solutions that can drive their companies forward,” Hart says.

For van Keulen and Prasanna, the experience at Cornell Tech marks an important milestone. With Cornell’s support, they are well on their way to making Interceptive a significant player in cybersecurity. As Cornell Tech continues to nurture groundbreaking ventures like DefenseArk, the broader tech ecosystem in New York City—and beyond—stands to benefit from the innovations emerging from the Venture Fellow Program.


It’s no secret that coordination between marketing and sales is an important component of generating revenue for businesses – unfortunately the reality isn’t quite so harmonious. Businesses invest countless hours and thousands of dollars crafting compelling content and targeted campaigns to capture high-quality leads. Yet when it comes to deciding what actions to take to close those deals, sellers find themselves flying blind. Marketing and sales silos, and competing KPIs, mean crucial buyer intelligence never makes it into the hands of salespeople who need it most. Instead, sales teams are left to navigate their deals with fragmented data and gut instinct, trying to piece together the signals that could help them close more deals, faster.

Ron Fisher ’16, CEO & Co-Founder of Avina, is working to solve this problem. Avina leverages artificial intelligence with a business’s unified marketing, sales, and external data stack to surface key recommendations for sellers during prospecting, outreach, meeting prep, and while working deals.

The project recently closed a successful $3.2 million seed round co-led by nvp capital and RRE Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, to support their work revolutionizing account intelligence with its AI model. Through analyzing all marketing and sales touchpoints and external buying signals, Avina is able to help its users maximize the likelihood of closing a deal by providing them with the knowledge they need to approach any conversation with confidence.

“Our project is unique in its utilization of AI to create real-time insights directly to sellers’ flow of work, enabling them to see exactly what marketing a business is consuming, spot trends, and recommend the ideal next action,”  Fisher said. “We’re excited to leverage recent breakthroughs in AI and data management to pioneer a platform that transforms a data mess into quick actions for businesses to maximize their growth at a lower cost.”

Fisher founded Avina with partners Michael Wang ’16 and Vivek Sudarsan ’16, all three of whom are graduates of Cornell Tech. In 2015, while Fisher and Sudarsan were working at Nielsen in research and development, they were invited to attend Cornell Tech as mentors. After their mentorship they decided to return to Cornell Tech for its Johnson Cornell Tech MBA & master’s of engineering programs, compelled by the emphasis on tech-focused startups during a program spanning only one year.

He and cofounder Sudarsan, already close friends at the time, applied together and were accepted to the graduate program. On the very first day of the program, they met their third cofounder Wang, and upon being introduced, the three instantly formed a close personal and professional bond. They hit the ground running, collaborating on innovative startups.

During their time at Cornell Tech, Fisher, Wang, and Sudarsan worked together in Cornell Tech’s Product Studio to create Bowtie.ai, the first AI receptionist for fitness, beauty, and health businesses. From working with engineers for the duration of the project’s development to collaboration with international teams in Shanghai and Beijing, the three capitalized on the opportunities Cornell Tech provided to both acquire and foster technical talent and tangibly utilize that talent to break into the tech industry.

After proving their startup to investors and receiving funding, Bowtie.ai grew exponentially, and in 2019, was acquired by the software and service company Mindbody.

Knowing that whatever project they embarked on next they would want to develop together, the three began jointly looking at the pain points of enterprise companies and started to juggle and bounce ideas off each other. After a period of ideation, they arrived at the proposal of Avina, collectively unearthing a massive need to understand how to create consistency for modern sales teams in a chaotic world and the ways in which AI could be revolutionary for the process, garnering interest and funding from nvp capital and RRE Ventures.

“Avina’s AI platform provides a quantum leap in coordinating marketing and sales efforts. It focuses attention on key areas of opportunity and provides targeted, actionable recommendations, creating real value for customers,” said Tom Wisniewski at nvp capital. “Avina stands out not only as a new product but a new category. Its seamless user experience and ability to drive real results are key differentiators.” nvp was an investor in Bowtie, and was eager to back the team a second time in this new venture.

Now, with the $3.2 million seed round, Fisher, Wang, and Sudarsan are planning to further grow the business. They just secured a new office on Wall Street, hired an additional engineer, and will continue to expand the team. Working alongside his best friends to create a startup that will help the economic growth of countless businesses in the years to come, Fisher’s professional pursuit in the field of AI and data analytics is proof of entrepreneurship both personally fulfilling and communally beneficial.


Four recent Cornell Tech Startup Studio companies have been selected for Founder Fellowships offered by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). Each of these startups were founded by Cornell Tech students while they were pursuing their master’s degrees on Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus.

The Founder Fellowship, a cornerstone of NYCEDC’s Venture Access NYC initiative, is specifically designed to ensure capital and networks are more accessible for underrepresented founders across various tech-enabled sectors. Selected teams benefit from individualized work plans, cohort convenings for collaborative problem-solving and crucial connections to potential investors and collaborators. This holistic approach aims to address the needs of each startup while cultivating a supportive community.

The four Cornell Tech startups that were selected to continue their entrepreneurial journeys as NYCEDC Founder Fellows over the last two years are:

  • MyLÚA Health, a digital maternal care platform that predicts risk of pregnancy complications through a patient app and clinician dashboard
  • Fig Medical, which facilitates the Prior Authorization process for healthcare providers through intelligent automation and predictive analytics
  • Project B, which uses 3D body scans to create custom-fit bras that are tailored to each customer’s unique breasts and produces them on demand
  • Kaveat, an AI-powered contract management platform for media and entertainment industries that simplifies and automates the contract lifecycle

 

J’Vanay Santos-Fabian, MBA ’22, CEO/Co-Founder, MyLÚA Health
Florence Luna, MBA ’23, CEO, Fig Medical
Bella Baidak, M.S. ’23, Co-Founder, Project B
Elizabete Ludborza LLM ’22, Co-Founder and COO of Kaveat, and Dorothee Grant M.Eng ’22, Co-Founder and CEO of Kaveat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The success of these startups clearly reflects the collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit we cultivate at Cornell Tech,” said Josh Hartmann, Chief Practice Officer of Cornell Tech. “By aligning with NYCEDC’s Venture Access NYC initiative, we are supporting these brilliant founders and contributing to the broader mission of creating a more inclusive and dynamic tech ecosystem in the city.”

“The four startups progressing from the Cornell Tech Startup Studio to our Founder Fellowship program speaks to the talent pipeline NYCEDC is cultivating in the city’s evolving tech industry,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) President & CEO Andrew Kimball. “Growing businesses in New York City begins with supporting entrepreneurs from all backgrounds and at all stages of development – we look forward to the next chapter for these innovative Founder Fellow alumni.”

Each of the four startups were past award winners at Cornell Tech. In 2022, MyLÚA Health was granted the inaugural Siegel Family Endowment PiTech Startup Award, a testament to the company’s positive societal impact. Fig Medical and Project B were honored as Cornell Tech startup award winners in 2023 and Kaveat was a startup award winner in 2022.

Cornell Tech surpassed a critical milestone in its central role supporting, boosting, and championing the City’s tech ecosystem by spinning out its 100th tech startup in 2023. With a combined total valuation of $695 million and 94% of the companies headquartered in New York City, Cornell Tech startups are enmeshed in the New York City economy and culture.

On October 16, NYCEDC announced the launch of applications for the 2025 Founder Fellowship program edition. Applications for the 2025 Founder Fellowship are now open through December 6, 2024, and the Fellowship will commence in March 2025. To learn more, click here.


By James Dean

Ratan N. Tata ’59, B. Arch. ’62, one of India’s most influential and respected business leaders and philanthropists, and a former Cornell trustee who became the university’s largest international donor – supporting scholarships, research to reduce rural poverty and malnutrition in India, and technology innovation – died Oct. 9 in Mumbai. He was 86.

Tata was chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, the holding company for the Tata Group, a multinational conglomerate with interests ranging from steel, cars and infrastructure to financial and digital services, consumer brands and hospitality. The company expanded its global reach and grew significantly under Tata’s leadership from 1991 to 2012, with revenue exceeding $100 billion upon his retirement, while being recognized for a focus on the public good. From 2012 until his death, Tata chaired the Tata Trusts, India’s largest private-sector philanthropic organization and owner of a 66% stake in the Tata Group, as well as his own venture capital firm.

In 2008, a $50 million gift from the Tata Trusts created the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition, a long-term research initiative, and endowed the Tata Scholarship for Students from India. In 2017, a $50 million investment from Tata Consultancy Services helped build the Tata Innovation Center on Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus in New York City.

“Ratan Tata has left an extraordinary legacy in India, across the world and at Cornell, which he cared about deeply,” said Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff. “Ratan’s quiet demeanor and humility belied his international profile. His generosity and concern for others enabled research and scholarship that improved the education and health of millions of people in India and beyond, and extended Cornell’s global impact.”

Born into a prominent industrial family in 1937, Tata forged his own path through Ithaca, enrolling at Cornell at the encouragement of close family friends in the U.S. Arriving as a member of the Class of 1959 who planned to study mechanical engineering, Tata after two years decided to major in architecture instead.

Though he did not pursue an architecture career – being called back to the family business and starting as an apprentice on a shop floor at Tata Steel – Tata from 2014-19 served on the jury panel for the Pritzker Architecture Prize, one of the field’s top honors. He credited his Cornell architectural training for some of his success in business, including learning to approach problems creatively and from multiple perspectives.

“The miles of tracing paper that all of us wasted on one concept after another did one thing: It taught us that we didn’t stick with one thing,” Tata said in a documentary produced by classmates for his 50th reunion in 2009. “We tried and we tried, and we improved, and we reconceived what we had to do. It’s no different in business.”

“When Ratan Tata graduated from Cornell with a degree in architecture, it would have been impossible to imagine the global impact his visionary leadership, philanthropy and commitment to humanity would go on to have – advancing education and research across many sectors,” said J. Meejin Yoon, the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of AAP. “Looking back over Ratan’s life and career, I am not only filled with gratitude for all he has given and accomplished, but also with a deep respect for his kindness, generosity and eternal optimism that has improved lives in India and around the world.”

Tata’s engineering and design background was instrumental in Tata Motors’ 2008 launch of the Tata Nano, then the world’s most affordable production car, which sought to improve safety for lower-income drivers limited to motorcycles and scooters.

In the reunion documentary, Tata discussed his aversion to Ithaca winters, appreciation for his fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi, and love of flying, a hobby he pursued as a student. (With several classmates on board, he once safely executed an emergency landing at what is now Ithaca Tompkins International Airport after a strut failed in the single-engine Tri-Pacer he was piloting.) He also discussed some of the challenges international students faced, at a time when few came from India – numbers his 2008 gift would boost. As of this academic year, 305 Tata scholarships have been awarded to 89 students from India, with a special emphasis on supporting students from “non-feeder” schools, helping to attract talented applicants and elevate the university’s profile there.

The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition, meanwhile, continues to develop and assess innovative food systems-based approaches to reducing poverty and improving nutrition and livelihoods in the developing world, with a specific focus on India. Multidisciplinary teams with expertise ranging from economics and development sociology to international nutrition and food science are based in Ithaca, Mumbai and New Delhi.

Those initiatives followed then-President David Skorton’s 2007 visit to India with a Cornell delegation to learn more about the country’s growing influence and foster closer ties. Tata helped facilitate the delegation’s meeting with then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior officials in government, business and education.

At Cornell Tech, the Tata Innovation Center provides space for education, research and interaction with industry partners. The building also provides space for Cornell Tech students and recent graduates who are developing and commercializing new ideas, technologies and products, as well as launching startups.

“What we’re here today to recognize is not just the naming of a building, not just a new campus, but a very bold statement,” Tata said at the building’s dedication in 2017.

In addition to serving three terms as a trustee, from 2006 to 2022, Tata was named Cornell’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013, and served from 2014 on as a member of AAP’s Advisory Council. Among many international awards, Tata received two of the Indian government’s top civilian honors; was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering as a foreign associate in 2013; and in 2012 received a lifetime achievement award in philanthropy from the Rockefeller Foundation for “thoughtfully incorporating the public good into the business model of the Tata Group.” In 2007, the Tata family was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy and Barron’s magazine named Tata one of the world’s 30 most respected CEOs.

Tata, who never married or had children, valued his years in Ithaca and returned regularly for trustee meetings and reunions.

“Getting through Cornell gave me a sense of achievement,” Tata said in 2009. “Those years at Cornell were probably the best investment that one could have made in time.”

James Dean is a writer for the Cornell Chronicle.


By Sarah Marquart

An iconic red shuttle bus ferries commuters and visitors along the winding streets of New York City’s Roosevelt Island. But this isn’t a typical sightseeing tour.

Passengers all don virtual reality headsets for an eye-opening experience – a cutting-edge blend of the physical and digital worlds, designed to engage communities in new ways through the Communal eXtended-Reality (CXR) system.

Passengers were transported into a realm where virtual environments seamlessly merged with their real surroundings. Guided by audio narration, they encountered nine striking scenes depicting the escalating impacts of climate change, with a particular focus on rising floodwaters.

“In the fragmented media landscape we live in, and with differences in regional issues, the shared physical experience is a very unique way to bring people together,” said Wendy Ju, associate professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, whose research group created CXR.

Ju and her team presented the CXR system at the July 2024 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, where it earned an honorable mention. Co-authors included Cornell Tech postdoctoral associate and project lead Sharon Yavo-Ayalon, along with doctoral students Adam Yuzhen Zhang and Fanju Bu; Cooper Murr ’24; and researchers from New York University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Projections suggest that a 100-year flood could submerge most of Roosevelt Island. Despite these alarming forecasts, research indicates that such a catastrophe doesn’t feel real to many in the public.

This disconnect between knowledge and urgency is precisely what the CXR system aims to address. The technology – which synchronizes real-world movement with virtual overlays – provides a fully immersive, shared extended reality (XR) experience designed to foster a unified understanding of pressing challenges, such as climate change.

This integration allows participants to experience a shared reality while physically traveling through their environment, making the experience both communal and deeply rooted in place.

The deployment of the CXR system on Roosevelt Island proved to be more than just an educational exercise. After seeing “worst-case” flooding scenarios, scenes of Superstorm Sandy, and future sea-level rise forecasts, participants reported strong emotional responses, with many expressing increased concern about climate change and a desire to take action. One participant was even moved to tears upon seeing a simulated flood reach the steps of her school.

These types of reactions were not surprising, Ju said.

“In the planning and development phase, we were warned about scaring people about flooding and climate change because people can become hopeless,” she said. “We tried very hard to employ humor and emphasize possible interventions to mitigate this. We did find that people got worried, but we also noted that the worry seemed to galvanize people to act, which is a good outcome from our perspective.”

Potential applications of the CXR system extend far beyond its initial deployment, Ju said. CXR can play a crucial role in urban planning by engaging communities in discussions about new developments. By providing a clear and immersive presentation of proposed changes, it helps to reduce misunderstandings and conflicts, fostering a more informed and collaborative approach to future planning.

“Immersive technologies can bring future challenges into focus,” Ju said, “which is important for generating the social will to address and prepare for things to come.”

The research received funding from Tata Consultancy Services and was supported by Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation.

Sarah Marquart is a freelance writer for Cornell Tech.


At the 2024 Startup Awards, the four companies that won each received awards worth $100,000. The award includes $80,000 in pre-seed funding as well as co-working space in the Tata Innovation Center and mentorship by the Cornell Tech team valued together at $20,000. A fifth runner-up received working space and mentorship. Pictured above: Chief Practice Officer of Cornell Tech Josh Hartmann (middle, back row), with the startup companies Cipher, Compose AI, Mindsight, RapidReview, and MercuryVote.

Cornell Tech awarded four student startup companies with investments worth $100,000 each in its eleventh annual Startup Awards competition. The award includes $80,000 in pre-seed funding as well as co-working space in the Tata Innovation Center and mentorship by the Cornell Tech team valued together at $20,000. The awards were announced at Cornell Tech’s Open Studio, the campus’ end-of-year celebration of startups and presentation of cutting-edge research, projects, and companies founded at Cornell Tech.

A panel of tech industry leaders and executives, along with members of the Cornell and Cornell Tech faculty and staff, selected the winning student teams. This year’s panel of judges included Greg Morrisett, Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech; Fernando Gómez-Baquero, Director of Runway and Spinouts at Cornell Tech; Josh Hartmann, Chief Practice Officer of Cornell Tech; Jenny Fielding, Co-Head of Startup Studio at Cornell Tech; Alberto Escarlate, Co-Head of Startup Studio at Cornell Tech​; Sam Dix​, Co-Head of Startup Studio at Cornell Tech; Amanda Eilian, Partner of _able Partners; Tanzeem Choudhury, Roger and Joelle Burnell Professor in Integrated Health and Technology at Cornell Tech; Howard Morgan, Chairman of B Capital Group; and Momo Bi, Partner of Watershed Ventures.

“This year’s cohort of Startup Award finalists impressed me with their ingenuity and problem-solving,” said Josh Hartmann, Chief Practice Officer of Cornell Tech. “By seeing real-world issues, addressing their roots, and tackling them head-on, these students have come up with innovative solutions that build upon the skills they gained through their Cornell Tech education and Studio experience. I am proud of all they have accomplished and am excited to see where the future takes them.”

The 2024 Startup Award Winners are:

  • Cipher, an end-to-end marketplace that connects businesses to music professionals, tracks negotiations, and automates payments and licensing agreements. “By facilitating music licensing deals, Cipher will unlock the true value of music,” the founders said.
  • Compose AI, a marketplace to scale product placement ads using generative AI. According to the company, the product placement industry is highly manual with deal-times that take months. “We automatically insert brand assets in influencer videos, reducing deal-times to days,” the founders said.
  • Mindsight, which offers an end-to-end care management platform that leverages AI to deliver personalized outpatient mental health treatment recommendations.
  • RapidReview, which enables researchers to navigate through thousands of papers by converting documents into structured tables.

MercuryVote, which enables shareholders to sell their votes so that changemakers can mobilize previously unused proxy votes, was a runner-up. Although MercuryVote will not receive the Cornell Tech cash award, the team will receive office space and mentorship through Cornell Tech’s Runway Program.

Since the inception of Startup Studio, 11 alumni companies have been acquired: Enroute, acquired by Ichilov Tech; LitOS, acquired by Navana Tech India; Pilota, acquired by Hopper; Otari, acquired by Peloton; Datalogue, acquired by Nike; Auggi, acquired by Seed Health; Uru, acquired by Adobe; Trigger Finance, acquired by Circle; Gitlinks, acquired by Infor; Bowtie, acquired by MINDBODY; and Thread Learning, acquired by CentralReach. In total, startups that have been founded and spun out on campus — including Startup Studio and the Runway Startup Postdocs at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute — have raised more than $330 million in funding and employ nearly 500 people in NYC.

This year’s Open Studio also included a presentation of select BigCo Studio teams, which showcased the challenges they worked on with Studio’s partner organizations throughout the semester. In BigCo Studio, students learn how to navigate working within big companies (BigCos) by being matched with a C-suite or VP advisor from a real BigCo to research, prototype, and present a new product that helps the company achieve its mission. This year’s BigCo Studio partner organizations included Capital One, Google, JP Morgan Chase, Merck, Microsoft, Verizon, and Wayfair.

This year, the Startup Studio program was led by Jenny Fielding, Sam Dix, and Alberto Escarlate, along with Cornell Tech’s Chief Practice Officer Josh Hartmann and Studio Directors Naomi Cervantes and Tyler Rhorick. The Startup Awards are a capstone of the Studio curriculum, a critical component of the master’s experience at Cornell Tech, which brings together multi-disciplinary teams to solve real-world problems. In their final semester, students can choose to form teams and enroll in Startup Studio, where they combine their diverse program disciplines — computer science, operations research and information engineering, business, health tech, urban tech, connective media, electrical and computer engineering, and law — to develop ideas and prototypes for their startup in an academic setting.

Students who don’t enroll in Startup Studio could choose to take the BigCo Studio or PiTech Studio tracks. In PiTech Studio, or Public Interest Tech Studio, students focus specifically on product development and business models that accelerate positive change in public, non-profit, for-profit, and hybrid sectors.

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About Cornell Tech

Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students, and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.