Dean Jignesh Patel sees Carnegie Mellon’s new Miami campus as a chance to build a different kind of university, one designed around collaboration, real-world problems and entrepreneurship.
For Jignesh Patel, the opportunity to build Carnegie Mellon University’s new Miami campus from the ground up has a lot in common with launching a startup.
“It’s an opportunity of a lifetimeto create a campus with all the modern ideas and technology and reality that we have around us,” Patel, the newly appointed founding dean and vice president of CMU Miami, told Refresh Miami in an interview.
As technology advances at an unprecedented pace and global competition intensifies, Patel believes universities need to rethink how they operate, from the way research teams are organized to how students are trained.
“Universities, a lot of universities like ours, have a huge legacy, which is also a strength,” he said. “But along with that, we have certain structures which maybe sometimes gets in our way. We have to break through those structures to find a way to innovate.”
The idea is to bring together researchers from different disciplines to tackle complex problems that cannot be solved by any single field of expertise.
And in Miami, Carnegie Mellon – which recently announced a 35-acre CMU campus would be coming to Wynwood – has an opportunity to do exactly that.
Building a university from the ground up
Rather than replicate the traditional university model, CMU Miami plans to organize its academic and research programs around major societal challenges, including national defense, cybersecurity, health and climate.
“We want to invert the model for higher education,” Patel explained.
Traditionally, universities organize faculty into departments based on their areas of expertise. But Patel argues that today’s most pressing challenges require a different approach.
“You don’t want to bring together people with the same skills, but rather you want to bring together leaders with different skills, put them together to help solve a problem,” he said.
While Carnegie Mellon already has a strong track record of interdisciplinary collaboration, Patel said much of that collaboration happens organically, when faculty members from different departments happen to connect around a shared interest. “We hope that happens, but hope is not a strategy,” he said.
At CMU Miami, the goal is to make multidisciplinary collaboration fundamental to how the campus operates, from the physical spaces where researchers work to the structure of its academic programs.
Students will also be expected to participate in research as an integral part of their education. “We want that to be a necessary part of all the education pathways that go through CMU Miami,” Patel said.
An entrepreneurial approach to higher education
Patel brings an entrepreneurial perspective to the role, having co-founded four companies that were ultimately acquired and helped develop programs supporting science and technology startups at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He sees parallels between the challenges of building a startup and the ambitious task of creating an entirely new university campus.
“This is the dream from an entrepreneur, right? You start with a big idea, and then you find the resources, and you find benefactors like Ken to come along with your big idea, and then you go get it done,” he said, referring to billionaire investor and Citadel Founder/CEO Ken Griffin, whose support helped make the Miami campus possible. “And it’s going to have a lot of obstacles, but that’s what founders do. That’s what startups do.”
For Patel, the same qualities that make successful entrepreneurs, including bold thinking, perseverance and the ability to bring others along with a vision, are essential to building CMU Miami.
He also emphasized the importance of adaptability, particularly when translating research into commercially viable products. “When you take a product to the market, reality hits, and then you realize this product looked great in the lab, but it doesn’t produce in the market,” he said.
Successful innovators, he believes, need both the determination to pursue ambitious ideas and the humility to adjust their approach when necessary. That mindset will be important as CMU Miami works to develop technologies that move beyond the laboratory and into real-world applications.
What success could mean for Miami
Asked what success would look like a decade from now, Patel pointed to two measures: the technologies developed at CMU Miami and, perhaps more importantly, the students it produces. “Our success depends upon the technologies we create and the students that we create, right, and what they bring to the table,” he said.
His vision is to develop graduates who approach problems through multiple disciplines and have the skills and mindset to turn ideas into meaningful innovations.
“They’re going to create amazing technologies. They’re going to become leaders in industry. They’re going to create startups,” he said.
For Miami’s technology ecosystem, the arrival of a major research university represents an opportunity to strengthen the connections between academic research, technical talent and entrepreneurship. And Patel appears eager to become part of the local startup community.
“I’m really excited to get to know the startup culture, because it’s really with the small ideas that you build these big businesses, and it’s at the heart of what makes a city really work,” he said.
Finding common ground with Miami
Although still getting acquainted with the city, Patel said he has already been struck by Miami’s energy, creativity and collaborative spirit.
Originally from Bombay, he sees some familiar qualities in his new home. “I come from Bombay, so the minute I step into Miami, I feel that energy. It’s like just an extra gear turns on, and I love that,” he said.
He also sees parallels between Wynwood, where CMU’s new campus will be located, and Pittsburgh’s own history of urban reinvention.
But what has particularly impressed him is the willingness of Miami’s entrepreneurial community to work together. “People are not trying to compete with each other. They’re trying to work with each other,” he said.
That collaborative mindset, he believes, will be essential to Miami’s ability to compete on a global stage.
And while the ambitious work of building CMU Miami is only beginning, Patel has already discovered one distinctly local source of inspiration: Cuban coffee.
“I’m not a big coffee drinker, but it is so incredible and amazing and packs quite a punch,” he said.
That’s a fitting introduction to a city whose energy he hopes to channel into building the next generation of researchers, entrepreneurs and technology leaders.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
