U. GENIUS!
Cornellnyc’s first prof. is tech brain
A BRILLIANT computer scientist whose cutting-edge work links technology and health care is the first professor hired to work at the city’s new genius school.
Deborah Estrin, 52, has been tapped for a teaching and research post at CornellNYC Tech, Cornell University’s soon-to-be-built Roosevelt Island campus that Mayor Bloomberg calls a “game-changer” for the city’s engineering and tech industries.
Estrin is a pioneer in the field of “networked sensing” — technology that uses mobile devices to collect and analyze data about the physical world.
At CornellNYC Tech, the brainy computer maestro will focus initially on new ways cell phones can be used to understand and manage personal health.
“Managing health is a complicated process and one that becomes very personal,” said Estrin, a computer science professor at UCLA.
“We need very detailed information from individuals about what’s working for them in their health care,” she said. “How do you do that when somebody’s not in the hospital with their vital signs being measured all the time?”
Estrin believes the answer — at least in part — can be found by using mobile phones.
Her work at CornellNYC Tech, which begins this summer, will zero in on applications for cell phones that track and understand exercise, diet and medication on an individual level.
Daniel Huttenlocher, the dean of Cornell’s new 2 million-square-foot engineering campus, said he sought out Estrin for the genius school’s first faculty member because her work with mobile phones and health could have a positive impact on millions.
“She’s somebody who’s been using technology to improve people’s lives her entire career,” he said.
Cornell was selected in December to build the city’s hotly anticipated ap- plied engineering graduate school.
The city is providing land for the project and $100 million in startup funding, but economic officials believe the payoff will be huge: the school will generate $23 billion in economic activity, according to estimates.
In May, Google CEO Larry Page pledged some 22,000 square feet within the Internet giant’s Chelsea offices to the school, so students can start studying before the $2 billion campus is completed in 2017.
Estrin will be leading classes there in the fall.
In her down time, she said, she’ll be running along the West Side Highway and scouring the East Village for Moroccan food.