Craig Gotsman

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Craig Gotsman
GotsmanBloomberg.jpg
Craig Gotsman and former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press conference.
Born
Birmingham, UK
Alma mater Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Known forCo-Founder of Cornell Tech (NYC), tech entrepreneur
AwardsFellow, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Fellow, National Academy of Inventors
Fellow, Academy of Europe
Scientific career
Fields Computer Science
Institutions New Jersey Institute of Technology
Cornell Tech
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Craig Gotsman is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). He was the Dean of the Ying Wu College of Computing at NJIT between 2017-2023. He was the Founding Director of the joint Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute at Cornell Tech prior to joining NJIT. [1]

Contents

Early life

Born in the UK, Gotsman spent his early childhood in South Africa. His family immigrated to Israel in 1973. He was awarded all his academic degrees, including a PhD in Computer Science in 1991, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During 1984–89, Gotsman served as an officer in the Technological R&D Unit of the Israel Defense Forces, retiring from active reserve duty in 2005 with the rank of major. [2]

Academic career

Specializing in computer graphics and geometry processing, Gotsman joined the Computer Science Department at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa as an assistant professor in 1991. In 2005 he co-founded the Center for Graphics and Geometric Computing, [3] and in 2006 he became the first incumbent of the Technion's Hewlett-Packard Chair in Computer Engineering. [4]

Gotsman was Visiting Professor at Harvard University and Research Scientist at MIT during 2003–2004, Visiting Professor at INRIA, Sophia Antipolis in 2006 and Visiting Professor at ETH Zurich in 2010. He was appointed Founding Director of the joint Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute at Cornell Tech. and served on the faculty there between 2012 and 2016. [1]

Gotsman has published over 150 research papers [5]

Gotsman is an ACM Fellow, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors [6] and a Fellow of the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea). [7]

Cornell Tech

Gotsman was a member of the leading team in the formation of the Cornell Tech campus in New York City. [8] Cornell Tech is an applied sciences campus dedicated to fostering innovation and producing entrepreneurial engineers, a project conceived and driven by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, with the purpose of growing the tech sector of NYC. [9]

In 2011, Gotsman got involved in the proposal to establish an Applied Sciences campus, submitted by Cornell University and Technion to the City of New York. The proposal subsequently won the bid, competing against a number of groups of international universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. [10] [11] Technion was cited as "the MIT of Israel" and a key player because of its innovation culture and contribution to the emergence of Israel as a global technological superpower, as documented in the book "Startup Nation". [12]

In 2011, Gotsman was appointed Deputy Senior Vice-President (equivalent to Vice Provost) at Technion, responsible for the joint Technion-Cornell venture. In Feb 2012 he was appointed Founding Director of the joint Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute at Cornell Tech. [13] In this role, Gotsman developed a number of novel academic and entrepreneurial programs, including the successful Runway program, [14] supporting PhDs forming commercial ventures based on their deep technical expertise. He also engaged in faculty and student recruiting, corporate relations, media relations and fund raising. [15]

New Jersey Institute of Technology

In 2017, Gotsman was named Distinguished Professor and Dean of the Ying Wu College of Computing at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). [16] At NJIT, he worked with inter-disciplinary faculty members and the university leadership in expanding the college with a new department of Data Science, [17] and the Institute for Data Science, [18] and the new NJIT satellite facility in Jersey City. [19] He was a member of the NJIT team that took the lead to establish the joint Institute for Future Technologies with Ben-Gurion University of Israel. [20]

Entrepreneurship

Gotsman co-founded three startup companies: Virtue3D was founded in 1997 and developed advanced technologies for Web-based 3D computer graphics based on Technion intellectual property. The technology was eventually acquired by German Mental Images. Estimotion – a precursor to Waze – was founded in 2000 and developed technologies for real-time traffic-based applications for cellular phones. The principal investors were Partner/Orange Communications and Shlomo Group. Estimotion was acquired by British ITIS Holdings. [21] CatchEye – commercializing 3D camera-related video-processing technology that Gotsman developed with colleagues at ETH Zurich – was founded in 2014 and acquired in 2017. [22]

Gotsman also co-founded in 2006 an active consulting company – Geometrika [23] – which develops graphics and geometric software technologies.

Other Activities

Outreach

While at Technion, Gotsman served as Associate Dean for Computing during 2001–2003. He also founded its Industrial Affiliates Program [24] and Alumni Program and served as Associate Dean for External Relations during 2005–2008. [25]

Industrial Activity

Gotsman served as consultant for HP Labs in Haifa and spent summers during 1993–1996 at HP Labs in Palo Alto. He has also consulted for companies in Israel, Europe and the US, including Nokia, Shell Oil, Disney, Intel, Rafael, Autodesk and Samsung. [1]

Public Service

In 2014, Gotsman served as a technology expert on the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority Reinvention Commission, appointed by the governor of NY State. [26] In its report, the commission recommended a number of reforms to the public transportation systems in New York City. Gotsman is also active in the entrepreneurial community in New York and New Jersey, in particular through the New York City Economic Development Corporation. [27] and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Craig Gotsman". Cornell Tech. Cornell. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "Craig Gotsman" (PDF). AJC New York. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Technion Center for Graphics and Geometric Computing". Technion CS. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "HP Chair in Computing Engineering Ceremony". Technion. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Google Scholar citations". Google Scholar. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  6. ↑ "National Academy of Inventors Announces 2018 Fellows".
  7. ↑ "Elected Members". Academia Europaea. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  8. ↑ "Technion-Cornell NYC partnership given jump start by Google". Focus – Technion. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "Mayor Bloomberg, Cornell President Skorton And Technion President Lavie Announce Historic Partnership to Build a New Applied Sciences Campus on Roosevelt Island". NYC.gov. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  10. ↑ Wong, Marisa (24 July 2013). "Cornell NYC Tech: Building a Culture for Innovation on Roosevelt Island". MetroFocus. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  11. ↑ Harman, Danna (12 April 2013). "The Technion: Israel's Hard Drive". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  12. ↑ Senor, Dan, and Saul Singer. Start-up nation: The story of Israel's economic miracle. Random House LLC, 2011.
  13. ↑ Perez-Pena, Richard. "Three Named to Lead Science School". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  14. ↑ "Runway Startup Postdocs". Cornell Tech.
  15. ↑ Kusisto, Laura (22 April 2013). "Cornell Tech Campus Gets $133 Million Gift". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  16. ↑ "Dr. Craig Gotsman Named Dean of Ying Wu College of Computing at NJIT". NJ Business. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  17. ↑ "College of Computing Creates New Department of Data Science". NJIT. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  18. ↑ "NJIT to Establish New Institute for Data Science". NJIT. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  19. ↑ "NJIT@JerseyCity Officially Launched". Patch. 9 December 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  20. ↑ "Why NJIT's new partnership with Israel's Ben-Gurion University is a Big Deal". NJTechWeekly. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  21. ↑ "O2 UK and ITIS Holdings to trial traffic-flow system". Telecompaper. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  22. ↑ Michael, Sean. "CatchEye and the Kinect allow you to have eye contact over Skype". WinBeta. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  23. ↑ "Geometrika". Geometrika. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  24. ↑ "The Technion's Computer Science Industrial Affiliates Program". Technion. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  25. ↑ "NYC tech campus top leadership team named". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  26. ↑ Hawkins, Andrew J. (24 June 2014). "MTA 'reinvention commission' takes shape". Crains New York. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  27. ↑ "Smart and Sustainable Cities Advisory Board". world2nyc. New York International. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
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