Google provides temporary Cornell science campus

Google on Monday agreed to provide a temporary home to a high-tech science college run by Cornell University in New York City. The Silicon valley firm's chief executive Larry Page announced that Google will allocate 22,000 square feet (2,000 square meters) of its New York headquarters to CornellNYC Tech, while the university completes its campus on Roosevelt Island. The Internet giant will provide the space free of charge for up to five years. "We're about to find out what happens when you marry one of the world's most innovative companies with one of the most innovative economic development strategies any city has undertaken," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who joined in the announcement. "When we first envisioned the Applied Sciences initiative, we hoped the winning school would establish strong relationships with the tech sector. But this kind of synergy is beyond anything we could have imagined." The permanent home for the science and research facility to be built on little-used property on Roosevelt Island is hoped to become a leading incubator for high-tech research and innovation. Page said Google is providing the funding to help train new people in information technologies. "We still don't have enough people working in these areas," he said. New York City is contributing $100 million for construction costs and the site itself, sitting at one end of the long, narrow island in the East River, a short distance across the water from the skyscrapers of Manhattan. The campus is designed to imitate the success that Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have had with prestigious and highly lucrative science facilities.