How fast can ivy grow?

New York”™s got a bunch of them, Massachusetts, too.

New Jersey”™s got two and you”™ll find them sprinkled across the rest of the country in Virginia, Florida, Georgia and California, among others.

We are talking about highbrow institutes of technology, polytechnic schools and the kind ”“ universities and colleges focused almost exclusively on high-tech, with a few dabbling in design as well.

Connecticut has one ”“ kind of ”“ in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute”™s (RPI) campuses in Hartford and Groton, but RPI is only offering master”™s degrees geared toward students with day jobs.

Is it time for a comprehensive Connecticut Institute of Technology?

The benefits are obvious to a technology campus in the form of high-end research and spin-off activity. Yes, Yale, UConn, the University of Bridgeport and others produce that kind of activity on their own accord, but there is something about a technology institute that seems to fire the synapses at an entirely different level.

There are relatively recent examples in the East of new, high-tech schools, and not even counting Cornell University”™s joint venture in New York City with Technion. In Pennsylvania, the Harrisburg Institute of Technology launched in 2001 offering bachelor”™s and master”™s degrees in select disciplines such as bioscience and computer engineering.

Outside Boston, the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering began offering undergraduate degrees in 2002 after a five-year ramp up. By 2006, Newsweek had already dubbed it one of America”™s “25 new Ivies,” mentioning it in the same breath as RPI, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvey Mudd College and others renown for their technology and engineering disciplines.

A new “Ivy” in Connecticut would sound pretty appealing a decade from now, no?

How fast can ivy grow?