Innovation Community: Linking LIC
through Tech
Bartos Screening Room | 12:00PM - 1:00PM
Smart technology can play a role in solving some of LIC’s greatest challenges, particularly those
working to connect our diverse community across its large and complicated geography and multiple
sectors. Our current LIC Compass Smart Wayfinding project is at the forefront of re-thinking how we
use technology in the public realm, and sparking an exciting conversation about inherent possibilities.
What other technology innovations can assist LIC grow in a smart, efficient and equitable manner?
Tapan Parikh
Cornell Tech
Tapan Parikh is an Associate Professor of Information
Science at Cornell Tech in New York City. His research
interests include human-computer interaction, design
and use of information technologies for supporting youth
and community development. He currently teaches the
Remaking the City course at Cornell Tech, which connects
graduate students with civic organizations. Previously, he
was a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information,
where he was one of the founders of the field of Information
and Communications Technologies and Development
(ICTD), and helped start several international social
enterprises in this area. He has received the NSF CAREER
award, a Sloan Fellowship, a UW Diamond Early Career
Award and was named Technology Review magazine’s
Humanitarian of the Year in 2007.
Seema Shah (Moderator)
LaGuardia Community College
Seema B. Shah is the Director of Technology and
Innovation Initiatives at LaGuardia Community College. In
her role, Seema works closely with key government, nonprofit
and private partners to help elevate the dialogue of
LaGuardia’s tech education beyond its classroom. Prior
to this role, she founded Urban Strategies & Solutions
LLC, a strategic advisory firm that consulted with a range
of nonprofit, government, academic and public entities
around urban technology projects. Seema earned her
Master’s in Urban Policy from Milano, The New School
University and her Bachelor’s from Barnard College,
Columbia University. She is currently pursuing an
Executive MBA from the Zicklin School of Business at
Baruch College.
Melva Miller
Queens Deputy Borough President,
Director, Economic Development at
Queens Borough President’s Office
Melva Miller was appointed Deputy Borough President in
2015 after serving as Director of Economic Development
since 2007 for the Queens Borough President’s Office.
Miller leads and supports the economic development
agenda for the Borough President’s Office, from business
and job development, to housing to quality-of-life to
tourism and culture.
Carl Cornilsen
Citisense
Carl Cornilsen is the COO and a co-founder of
Citiesense, a technology company creating a map-based
Neighborhood Knowledge Platform™. The platform
enables local community organizations and their
members to create a valuable knowledge-base for data
about their neighborhood by centralizing the tools used to
manage community assets, such as local businesses, real
estate, streets, and parks.
With 10+ years experience spanning real estate
development, investment, and project design, Carl is
focused on place-making and urban growth strategies.
Carl received his MBA from Yale University’s School of
Management, and his Master of Architecture from Yale
School of Architecture, where he was Teaching Fellow for
Planning & Development.
Chris Egeler
Envrmnt
Christian Egeler is Head of AR, VR, and 360 Product
Development and Research for Envrmnt, a large creative
and cross-disciplinary engineering organization that is
centered around innovation and excellence in the XR
space. As a Product Strategist, he explores new strategic
and emerging mobile product areas for Verizon and is
also a key contributor to the development of product road
maps, business cases, proofs of concept, and commercial
products around the integration of 5G, Mobile Edge
Compute, Extended Reality (XR), AI, and Computer Vision
technologies.
Before Envrmnt, Christian was the Advanced Concepts
Development Manager for Verizon. Before joining Verizon,
Christian served as Senior Software Engineer for Motorola
Solutions. Christian received his Executive MBA, Business
Administration and Management, from the Jack Welch
Management Institute and his BS, Computer Science,
from Purdue University.
Ruth Fasoldt
Intersection
Ruth Fasoldt serves as the Director of External Affairs for
Link, the most comprehensive, free public Wi-Fi network
in the world. Ruth manages Intersection’s public-private
partnership with the City of New York for LinkNYC, City of
Philadelphia for LinkPHL and City of Newark for LinkNWK
in addition to overseeing all community outreach and
timely local partnerships to help make Link a welcome
part of the community.
Prior to joining Intersection, Ruth was the Business
Development Manager for ACCA USA. Previous to ACCA
served as the Director of Membership and Special Events
for the Association for a Better New York (ABNY).