U.S. senators Charles E. Schumer and Kristen E. Gillibrand, along Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills), announced on Thursday the endowment of $1.2 million in federal funding for New York Institute of Technology to create an Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center for its School of Engineering and Computer Sciences.
The center will be built through the renovation of an existing building on NYIT’s Old Westbury campus and is expected to serve as an urban entrepreneurship program to assist in the creation of businesses and grow the area’s health-care and high-tech communities, the elected officials said in a joint statement.
“The center will create jobs, save jobs, create human capital and invest in market-place technologies and hi-tech enterprises of the future,” NYIT President Edward Guiliano, said in a statement. “That is a winning formula for us locally, regionally and nationally. We are delighted to have our investment supported by the U.S. Economic Development Administration and our elected representatives in Washington.”
According to the statement, the center will create 65 jobs, save six jobs and leverage $425,000 in personal investment. Funding was awarded by the Economic Development Administration.
The center is expected to bolster economic development by focusing on information technology and cyber-security, bioengineering and health analytics energy and green technologies, according to the statement.
“The high-tech industry will provide the jobs of the future, and this investment will help ensure those jobs are created right here on Long Island,” said Schumer in a statement. “NYIT’s new Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center is exactly what the Long Island economy needs and I look forward to hearing of its success.”
The center will serve as a link between entrepreneurs, governments and industries, as well as connect venture capital and angel investors with academia and the workforce, according to the statement. To do this, NYIT will provide an Industry-University Tech Innovation program with established companies and an Entrepreneurship Program with start-ups.
“This important federal investment will go towards creating a new innovation center at the New York Institute of Technology,” said Gillibrand in a statement. “The growing high-tech industry is the future of our economy, and we need to help make sure it starts right here on Long Island.”
