IIT-B to set up urban science centre in New York

The consortium proposes to create an applied science institute which will focus on researching and developing solutions to complex urban challenges,locally and even globally. “It will be the first such entity by an Indian institution in the US in a consortium mode,” said AQ Contractor,dean of alumni and corporate relations,IIT Bombay.

Even as NYC will be used as a real-life setting for research and development work,they aim to work with municipal agencies in partner cities by focusing on actual problems,while simultaneously applying solutions to real settings. A similar centre will be set up at IIT Bombay to look at problems of Indian megacities in particular.

“The CUSP will look at all areas like health,sanitation,communication,water,schools,transportation among others. The centre will have 50 faculty members,equal number of post-doctorates and 100-200 masters students in the first year. The number of students is expected to go up to 600 in five years. They will have a studio and students from different specialities will come together and solve problems with multiple skills,” said professor S Chaudhuri,dean of international relations at IIT Bombay.

It will be located at 370 Jay Street in Brooklyn,in an already existing building,opposite the Brooklyn Poly.

The centre will offer a master’s programme,an executive programme and interdisciplinary PhD programme,all in the area of urban science and engineering. The New York University is leading the consortium.

“The centre presents a great new opportunity to address the challenges of megacities by the generation of new knowledge using New York City as its laboratory and by imparting education with a focus on the planning,building and managing mega cities. The centre’s work will benefit NYC directly and will provide a template to address many issues of megacities,in general. The issues of our home city,Mumbai,will provide unique new insights and will be a source of ideas for the work of the centre,” said IIT Bombay director Devang Khakhar.

The initial proposal or expression of interest submitted by IIT Bombay was for setting up a campus in the NYC. However,since the proposed campus required significant amount of funding,IIT Bombay looked at the possibility of setting up a partnership with other well-established universities. Subsequently,a proposal was submitted in October 2011 for setting up CUSP in consortium mode. The NYCEDC had received seven qualifying responses from 17 institutions towards the initiative for setting up an entity in the NYC in exchange for access to City-owned land and up to $100 million in City capital”.

In December 2011,the NYCEDC announced the selection of Cornell/Technion consortium to build an applied science and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island. For the second consortium,NYCEDC will provide part of the $100 million as seed money.

Besides the seed money from NYCEDC,New York University will fund $10 million yearly. While some part of the revenue will be generated from tuition fee,the plan is to bid for projects and industry partnership. “We are supposed to break even by 2020,” added Chaudhuri.

The process of admission is expected to start by early 2013 and admissions will be based on international enrollment standards. The degree could be given by New York University or it could be a joint degree by the consortium.

“The exact modalities are yet to be worked out. The curriculum will be developed jointly. We may also look at possibility of teaching courses in the distance mode. We will have to do a lot of brainstorming on academic and finance aspects among others,” said IIT Bombay professor S Biswas.