Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy Receives $1.5 Million Grant from Koch Foundation

The Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy — a seven-year-old program that tackles the ins and outs of infrastructure — just got a big boost with a $1.5 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation. This program focuses on “improving the delivery, maintenance, and operation of physical infrastructure,” according to its website. Based in the College of Human Ecology, the program funds research about infrastructure, hosts events to discuss important issues in the field and maintains an advisory board of experts in both public and private industries to help carry out the goals of the organization. According to Prof. Rick Geddes, policy analysis and management, the founding director of CPIP, these goals are to “further research, teaching, public engagement, and outreach in the area of infrastructure policy.”

One of the goals of the program will be “to research technology and infrastructure,” specifically the adoption and implementation of these programs in cities and counties, according to Geddes. Geddes pointed out the immense technological advancements that infrastructure is currently undergoing.

Students Reimagine Campus Space from ‘Half-Built’ Ideas

From bacteria-driven energy collection to shade and light analysis of Uris Hall to mental health space on campus, 13 groups of students across multiple majors and colleges gave four-minute presentations on how Cornell’s campus could be reimagined at the Half-built event last week.

OF MARGINAL INTEREST | An Olympian Feat: the Economics of Hosting the Games

As we speak, college students worldwide pull out their shotskis and ice luge molds in celebration of the most riveting quadrennial exercise in patriotism, team spirit, and demolition of self-worth—the Winter Olympics. This year’s games are being held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a city of 40,000, of which only 35.6% were interested in the Winter Olympics, according to a survey taken last April by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. While the Games have proceeded swimmingly and the drone light show/technical precision/flagbearers (I’m looking at you, Tongan flag man) of the opening ceremony were spectacular, the potential $13 billion price tag for this year’s Olympics has raised some questions, particularly as Rio, host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, still faces $40 million in debt. Between Rio and Montreal, which took 30 years to pay off debt from its 1976 Olympic Games, a valid question can be raised: why do countries even want to host the Olympics? And when they do, how does it work out for them economically?