Source: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

NYU Tandon will open a research center for wireless technologies in a further bid to bolster a technology hub in downtown Brooklyn.

About 23,000 square feet of research space is scheduled to open at the downtown Brooklyn campus this winter. The center—called NYU Wireless—will combine research in wireless technologies, computing and medical applications.

“NYU Tandon has always had some good researchers in wireless,” said Theodore Rappaport, founder and director of the research center. “What we’re doing now is ramping it to critical mass and creating a new research environment.”

The center, launched in partnership with NYU and National Instruments Corp. of Austin, Texas, represents the next step in NYU’s efforts to cement its presence in the area. In April, NYU and the city announced a deal to create an applied-sciences institute at the former transit authority headquarters at 370 Jay St. Columbia University and Cornell University also are expanding their engineering programs in the city.

It also will help bolster the number of companies in what the city has called a technology triangle, stretching from Downtown Brooklyn to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Dumbo, said Alexandria Sica, executive director at the Dumbo Improvement District. The area is currently home to more than 500 companies in roughly 1.7 million square feet of space, according to a survey commissioned by local economic development groups.

“The clustering of this sector is really important,” Ms. Sica said. She added that the center “will really spark a whole new field of entrepreneurs.”

More than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers as well as 25 engineering, computer-science and medical professors are already doing research on campus. Projects range from cellular networks to medical imaging.

“Wireless is starting to enter its Renaissance,” said Mr. Rappaport, who started academic wireless centers at University of Texas and Virginia Tech.