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Spacemate, a Runway Startup at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, is a data-driven workplace design and management platform that helps organizations make informed decisions to boost safety, productivity, and business success. Spacemate transforms workplace strategy using spatial intelligence and human behavior analytics to flexibly and dynamically optimize peoples’ safety and experience, organizational efficiency, and space utilization within the workplace. 

This can be applied in many ways, such as: reactivating and continuously optimizing workplaces to enhance safety and attract, retain, and empower talents, optimizing patient flow and people experience in healthcare facilities to enhance safety and operational efficiency, or optimizing the flow of people and items in warehouses and distribution centers to maximize throughput and space utilization.

Learn more about Spacemate in this Q&A with CEO and Founder Dávide Schaumann.

What does your company do?

Spacemate enables AI-powered optimization of space utilization, operational efficiency, and people’s experience in mission-critical facilities such as hospitals, offices, transportation hubs, and warehouses. Our platform predicts and analyzes space utilization and people flow in built environments and provides data-driven insights for portfolio size optimization, flexible scenario planning, and dynamic space-people allocation.

How has the Jacobs Institute’s Runway program helped you to develop your company?

The program provided us with the much-needed financial support, mentoring, and guidance necessary to bring a “deep technology” to the market. Thanks to the pre-seed investment, extended network of mentors, and educational programs, the Jacobs Institute gave us the tools and confidence we needed to start our entrepreneurial journey. 

What impact do you hope your company will have in the industry/world?

Built environments are becoming increasingly more complex, expensive, and mission-critical. Their design and operations must become more efficient and adaptive to dynamically changing spatial, operational, and staffing needs. Our technology enables data-driven optimization of space utilization, saving capital and operational costs and maximizing business outcomes.

Where did you earn your Ph.D. and what was your research focus?

I earned my Ph.D. at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, in the Faculty of Architecture & Town Planning. My research combined tools and methods from Architectural Design, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Behavior Science to develop computational models of occupant behavior in built environments to inform architectural design.

Why did you want to commercialize that research? What was the inspiration behind your company?

My motivation and inspiration come from a deep desire to push the boundaries of the Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry beyond the dissemination of knowledge through teaching, mentoring, and publishing. The Runway Program allowed me to embark on a unique career path at the intersection of academia and entrepreneurship to gather the knowledge and skills required to bring a transformative impact on how buildings are designed and operated.

Why did you apply to the Runway program?

Different from other academic programs or accelerators, the Runway program provides a unique combination of financial support, mentoring endeavors, academic affiliation to world-class institutions such as Cornell and the Technion, while also providing access to the lively business ecosystem of NYC – the world capital for real estate and urban technologies.

What has been the biggest challenge switching your mindset from a researcher/academic to an entrepreneur?

A major challenge has been to realize that powerful technology is necessary but not sufficient to create a successful product. Understanding the customer’s needs and motives to buy are essential steps to designing a product that people love and are willing to use to solve a meaningful problem they face.


Cornell Tech alumni startup Otari was recently acquired by exercise equipment and media company Peloton. Peloton’s equipment uses technology and design to bring the community and excitement of boutique fitness into the home.

Otari is a smart exercise mat that uses computer-vision algorithms to recognize how your body is moving in three-dimensional space, and then gives real-time feedback and improvement tips. Designed with city dwellers and space-saving in mind, the mat can be stored in a closet and easily taken out for use.

Otari was founded in Startup Studio in spring 2019 by Chris Kruger and Skyler Erickson, both Masters of Engineering in Computer Science ‘19, and was one of four winners of Cornell Tech’s 2019 Startup Awards.

Learn more about Otari’s story and read a Q&A with Co-Founder and CEO Chris Kruger.


Scott Hillman, Johnson Cornell Tech MBA ‘21, is from Pittsburgh. He received a B.A. in Philosophy and Politics with a Minor in Entrepreneurship from Wake Forest University prior to coming to Cornell Tech.

What is your favorite class this semester?

My favorite class is probably Startup Studio since it’s most reflective of the product management career I’m pursuing. It provides the unique opportunity to combine theory with practice. So, I’m gaining experience building products in an incubator-like environment while reinforcing that experience by also building skills through academic instruction. 

What excites you most about your program?

I love that I can take tried and tested business courses, like Financial Statement Analysis and Management Presentations; as well as leading-edge tech courses, like Startup Studio, Introduction to Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, and Smart Contracts, and Fundamentals of Modern Software within the same degree. For me, the ability to integrate these academic worlds is the beauty of the Cornell Tech MBA. It’s also extremely beneficial to be surrounded by peers (engineers, designers, other MBAs) who are focused on technology. A lot of synergies and latent learning occur in this environment where everyone brings a tech-oriented background and career path.

Why did you choose Cornell Tech?

The uniqueness of the curriculum, culture, and community. I explored other graduate business programs, many of which seemed to offer great opportunities in Tech, but none were as explicitly focused on tech as Cornell Tech. Ultimately, this program stood out to me as the most efficient way to accelerate my trajectory in the industry.

What has surprised you most about Cornell Tech?

The amount of work! While I fully expected an institution of Cornell’s standing to demand a lot (I wouldn’t have it any other way) the experience has been, in some respects, an exercise in prioritization. To be successful, I’ve had to thoughtfully consider exactly what I’m here to learn. In one year, there simply isn’t enough time to do it all (even if you find almost everything intellectually appealing).

What’s the most interesting use of technology you’ve seen lately?

The rapid development and deployment of big data tools to track COVID-19 have been pretty cool to see and use. The scale at which it’s taking place, and the collaboration that it requires across governments, academia, the open source community, and private businesses is remarkable. Many times in the past, tech has excelled at uniting these forces to make progress — it’s great to see a more recent example of that collaborative effort. The New York Times’ Covid tracking project is a great example. There are so many disparate contributors to that effort, and it’s obviously delivering a very important service. 

What is one of your favorite things to do on the weekend in NYC?

Leave the apartment, get on the subway with no real agenda, and see where the day takes me. Maybe I’ll call friends to meet up along the way and we end up in a park with street food. Maybe I run into someone unexpected and we grab a drink. Also, I love walking and listening to music. Before the pandemic, I saw a lot of live music on weekends — but with good headphones, a walk, and a musical itch to scratch I’m pretty happy. For a quick break, I really enjoy going for runs around Roosevelt Island with classmates.

In what way do you hope your work might affect others and society at large? 

Regardless of where a tech company lies on the spectrum between pure commercial entity and social enterprise, I think by building things that solve problems, and not believing “the status quo is fine with me,” tech companies inherently contribute to progress. I acknowledge that society’s relationship with technology must be continuously redefined, as we often can’t foresee the societal impacts that innovation brings. But by and large, I believe technology solves problems. As long as I’m making an earnest contribution to that effort, I’ll be happy knowing I’m moving the world forward.


Irene Font Peradejordi, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Dual Master of Science Degrees with a Concentration in Connective Media ‘21, graduated in Communications, Design, and Media from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona — her hometown. While participating in an exchange program at Boston College she interned at an MIT Media Lab startup in Cambridge, MA, and eventually co-founded Saturdays.AI, a community-driven movement aimed to make AI education accessible to everyone. Prior to coming to Cornell Tech, she earned an MS in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence from Tilburg University, The Netherlands. 

What is your favorite class this semester?

It is hard to say! I am in my last semester at Cornell Tech and there are still too many courses I would like to explore. However, Technology, Media, and Democracy is exceptionally good. The course is a collaboration between NYU, Columbia, CUNY, The New School, and Cornell Tech to examine the socio-technical aspects of our information ecosystem and its challenges in monitoring media platforms, providing high-quality and trustworthy information, and enabling a healthy public sphere. So far, we have had amazing speaker guests like Roger McNamee (Mark Zuckerberg’s mentor and an early investor on Facebook), Julia Angwin (Editor-in-Chief of The Markup and former ProPublica journalist), and Katherine Maher (the CEO of Wikimedia Foundation).

Another class I am thrilled about is Core Leadership Skills for a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) World taught by General George Casey, the 36th Chief of Staff of the United States Army, now retired. Listening to his career journey while extracting life-long leadership skills is priceless. 

What excites you most about your program?

My peers coming from all around the world! Norway, South Africa, Mexico, China, Japan, The Netherlands, Colombia, and more. Think about a room with people from a hundred different educational, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds discussing how to solve the most pressing issues technology is challenging humanity with. Collaboration in a highly diverse environment is probably the most critical skill to learn in today’s world.

Why did you choose Cornell Tech?

Cornell Tech is home to multidisciplinary people and this is precisely why I feel I belong. I think my career path has been everything except linear, and I believe this is the result of a decision-making process motivated by deep curiosities and inner motivations. Non-linear career paths, as well as non-linear algorithms, are more complex and uncertain but they can also have a much bigger expressive power.

What has surprised you most about Cornell Tech?

Its startup ecosystem. Cornell Tech is not only home to numerous successful tech startups (and growing!), but the campus feels like a startup itself. Although Cornell Tech is part of an Ivy League school, the Tech campus is still in its early stages and it is great to be able to shape what I believe will be the best startup hub in NYC!

What’s the most interesting use of technology you’ve seen lately?

I recently saw a very interesting computer vision application to help people with visual impairments to follow sports — in this case, tennis — in real-time using auditory clues (3D sound design). Check it out!

What is one of your favorite things to do on the weekend in NYC?

Take the Tramway from Roosevelt Island to Manhattan, walk to 5th Avenue and 59th Street and run Central Park up until the Reservoir. Then, on the way back home, pick up a Magnolia Bakery banana pudding or some chocolate chip walnut cookies from Levain Bakery. And I can not forget to mention the famous fried Oreos from Ray’s Candy Store.

In what way do you hope your work might affect others and society at large?

I hope my work helps to identify and address real human needs and uphold human values to design for augmentation, not automation. I believe we have entered into the age of automation extremely confident and hopeful yet naively underprepared. If we fail to design ethical and inclusive AI, we risk losing the gains made in civil rights and gender and racial equity. 

How do you describe your program to your friends and family?

I like to say it is a two-year program in which we take as many computer science courses as the students under the one-year CS program, plus other courses that focus on the psychological and sociological aspects of technology.


Carina Corbin, Master of Engineering in Computer Science (CS) ‘21, hails from Brooklyn, New York. She received a Computer Science and Asian Languages & Civilizations double major from Amherst College prior to coming to Cornell Tech.

What is your favorite class this semester?

That’s a tough question. I will have to say Privacy in the Digital Age. It’s the perfect course for a person who wants to learn the technical, legislative, and ethical components of privacy online.

What excites you most about your program?

I love that I am learning concepts that are topical in the field. I equate it to when you learn a new word and then suddenly you see it and hear it everywhere. It is the same thing in the Computer Science program. Just the other day, a few friends asked me “what makes Signal a secure messaging platform,” which I learned in my Security and Privacy Concepts in the Wild course a couple of weeks prior. Now, they all think I am a cybersecurity genius!

Why did you choose Cornell Tech?

I chose Cornell Tech because I knew I wanted to continue my education in computer science. However, I wanted a curriculum that was fit for students who want to go into/continue working in the industry. Since I had three years of full-time work experience prior to starting at Cornell Tech, I knew what skills I wanted to brush up on: security concept, human-computer interaction and design, and development optimization. Cornell Tech has helped me to explore these concepts academically and then translate them into real-life applications.

What has surprised you most about Cornell Tech?

The community at Cornell Tech really wowed me. The students, faculty, and staff are all passionate about their domains but are still down-to-earth. Having a great sense of humor and community is always important, but during a remote environment, it has been even more appreciated. Everyone is approachable and easy-to-reach. 

What’s the most interesting use of technology you’ve seen lately?

I’m part of a group where we follow technology to assist the elderly. In that group, I learned about Zeppi. Zeppi is creating floating video call devices to enable caregivers and home care agencies to video visit aging-in-place older adults at any time. As someone who grew up close to my grandparents and loved the Jetsons, I am excited to see how this startup develops.

What is one of your favorite things to do on the weekend in NYC?

Before COVID-19, it was going to the Central Brooklyn Public Library and browsing the stacks. Now, I have settled for putting a hold on my books and taking a walk to my local library to return and pick up my weekly novel.

In what way do you hope your work might affect others and society at large? 

I just want to make someone’s day a little easier. In my previous roles, I always focused on building tools that people forgot they were using. I want to continue building technology for everyone and to continue to propel the tech industry towards that vision.

How do you describe your program to your friends and family?

“Cornell Tech’s Computer Science program is the perfect program for technical innovators that want to take the tech industry by storm. It has all the perks of attending Cornell University while enjoying New York City, aka the best city. What more could I want?!” 🙂