In a continued attempt to bolster the future of New York’s technology sector, the New York City Economic Development Corporation will host a “NYC Tech Talent Draft” at several universities, including Cornell later this month, according to a press release issued Monday by NYC EDC spokesperson, Patrick Muncie.
The initiative — billed by CornellNYC Tech Dean Daniel Huttenlocher as “part of the larger focus in the Bloomberg administration on growing the tech center” in the city — brings career information sessions to “leading universities in the region” and aims to provide New York City start-up companies with the opportunity to recruit top computer science and engineering talent, according to the press release.
Leaders of NYC’s tech start-up companies will participate in tours of universities from late September until the end of October, according to the press release, visiting “world-class institutions” such as Cornell, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University.
While Huttenlocher said that he is “very happy” that Cornell is among the universities on the NYC Tech Talent Draft roster, the program is not an exclusive collaboration between Cornell and the Bloomberg administration, he said in an interview with The Sun.
“While we work on a regular basis with the EDC, Cornell is not specifically involved in the Tech Talent Draft program,” Huttenlocher said.
The dean said that the EDC was instrumental in creating CornellNYC Tech. The council’s Applied Sciences Initiative competition led to the inception of the campus.
The Tech Talent Draft’s stop at Cornell will dovetail with other events held by the student entrepreneurial community, including a “special NYC Tech Talent Draft Career Fair” and a “kickoff for Cornell’s startup weekend,” according to the EDC’s press release.
At Cornell’s Startup Weekend, which will take place later this month, participating students invent companies in three days while networking with other students, local entrepreneurs, various mentors and competition judges, according to Ali Hamed ’14, one of the event’s organizers.
This will not be the first NYC Tech Talent Draft at Cornell. NYC EDC hosted the event on campus in February.
Hamed said that Startup Weekend, while not directly linked to the Tech Draft, will provide a great opportunity for Cornell students to show off their engineering talent to New York’s growing tech industry. It will also give the leaders of the industry “access to young Cornellians who may be the future of the NYC tech start-up scene,” he said.
“We have such a wealth of skill, and a lot of it has gone into the corporate world,” Hamed said. “But with NYC’s tech scene becoming pretty robust, it makes sense that demand for engineers is as high as ever.”
As for the Tech Talent Draft itself, Huttenlocher said that the project is one of the many aspects of New York City’s technology innovation push “that can help the rapidly growing tech center in New York City continue to grow and thrive.”
He said that CornellNYC Tech and “the other NYC schools that are making increased investments in tech-related fields” are also initiatives that will help bolster the tech sector in New York City.
“All of these together are important and are mutually supportive of the goal of creating a world-leading tech center in the city,” Huttenlocher said.
Original Author: Jacob Glick