Professor Adam Shwartz, Director of Jacobs Technion Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, gave a talk discussing the graduate school and what the main focus and aims are for the educational institution. Shwartz talked about how technology, e.g., computer science, plays an important role in today’s society and its significance will only increase in the future but there exists a disconnect between this advancing field and fields like medicine that would benefit from it. Essentially, there aren’t necessarily many programs that focus on healthcare and technology and how computer science majors for example would be able to effectively communicate with doctors. Often people specialized in the technology sector would be able to create an apparatus that would speed procedures or yield important data that doctors and other medical professionals could use but each use different jargon that makes it difficult to create the device that is most beneficial. According to Shwartz, Cornell Tech aims to bridge that gap from the outset of a graduate student’s education.

Not only does Cornell Tech frame their education to be more representative of the real world in terms of knowledge and ability to communicate, there is an emphasis on group-style learning and projects. Instead of having students being lectured at, Cornell Tech implemented more interactive and dynamic ways of learning where groups would consist of a mechanical engineer, a computer science student, an entrepreneur and more (with a minimum knowledge of engineering and technology but diverse in specialties) and they would receive projects. The diversity within the groups allows students to walk away with multiple perspectives on approaching a problem and will be better capable of not only building new products, but also to sell and communicate to people on its merits. There will be many opportunities for students at Cornell Tech to get live feedback on their projects from not only professors but also VCs and angel investors, people who form the bread and butter of these future visionaries.

As someone inclined towards the medical field and also the technology sector, the emphasis on the intersection between the two fields is quite compelling to me and makes Cornell Tech stand out and seem like an attractive option. It seems that former Mayor Bloomberg’s initiative of creating NY’s version  of Silicone Valley and promoting the technology sector being passed onto Cornell Tech seems to have paid off. Shwartz mentioned how Cornell Tech is willing to push the envelope in integrating technology in various areas, humanities or otherwise, that normally would have some sort of disconnect between the two because of a difference in education and poor communication. Because of the changing nature of technology, Shwartz promised that the education at Cornell Tech will continue to change and adapt accordingly. What you might have learned at the college now might be different from what might be taught 10 years down the road. It is a promising initiative and definitely makes Cornell Tech a school to keep an eye on, especially when considering its ambitions for a sustainable zero-energy campus! Are you considering going to Cornell Tech?