These are diverse and seemingly distinct fields, but they intersect in many of the most significant research quests of our time. It was the opportunity for myriad collaborations—particularly between labs in areas that are already in CUNY’s spheres of strength—that guided the center’s planners. Led by Vice Chancellor for Research Gillian Small, what they have conceived is the DNA of a distinctive research culture—creative, collaborative, convergent—to take on scientific challenges ranging from Alzheimer’s disease to the future of the global water supply. The CUNY Advanced Science Research Center brings the nation’s leading urban public university to a landmark moment in its multibillion-dollar commitment to innovative science. The ASRC focuses on CUNY initiatives in five dynamic fields of applied science: Nanoscience, Photonics, Structural Biology, Neuroscience, and Environmental Sciences. Through its innovative architectural design, the center reflects a uniquely collaborative culture, where scientists work across disciplines to take on some of global science’s most vital and tantalizing challenges.

“FOR WATCHES TO BECOME MORE POPULAR AND MORE MAINSTREAM, THEY HAVE TO DELIVER A NUMBER OF CAPABILITIES TO BE RELEVANT,” SAID ANDY GRIFFITHS, HEAD OF SAMSUNG’S U.K. AND IRELAND DIVISION. “OUR EXPECTED TIMELINE IS OUT TO 2020.”

The hurdles are formidable. At IFA, Intel demonstrated wireless charging plates that can be fixed under desks or tables to charge devices, but said the system won’t be available until the end of next year at the earliest. “We are having to invent this from scratch,” Kirk Skaugen, Senior Vice President of Intel’s Client Computing Group, said in a presentation announcing the initiative. Meanwhile, new watch makers are crowding the market. Gartner Inc. estimates that about 40 million of the devices will be sold this year. While tech companies will sell 40 times as many mobile phones as watches this year, smartwatch sales will see an eight-fold increase, Gartner says.

Called Protect & Swerve, the website and companion app were created by six Bronx high school students who recently presented their work to business and community leaders, including the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, at an economic summit in Midtown Manhattan.

The students received applause, then a question: How much money would they need to further develop the app? “Tell your people to call our people,” Shemar DaCosta, 15, replied. “And I’m just putting this out there: We’re all free for internships.”

The students’ success highlights a growing movement in the Bronx to equip young people with the knowledge and the skills to write code, the language of computers, so that they can become creators rather than simply consumers of apps, video games, websites and other programs. There have been coding lessons in schools, so-called weekend hackathons for students to code together for as long as 24 consecutive hours and training institutes for teachers across the borough as educators, leaders and others aim to help students navigate an increasingly digital world and better prepare for jobs in the future.

Coding has already become a way of life for students at the Bronx Academy for Software Engineering, which opened in 2013. “It’s the students who know how to program that can have an impact on their world,” Mr. Grossman, who supports the city’s efforts to bring computer science to all schools, said.