Innovation doesn’t just happen. It requires research, collaboration, risk-taking, and persistence. To speed the pace of innovation, New Yorkers are leveraging assets funded by NYSTAR, Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation. At the 2019 NYS Innovation Summit, held on October 7 and 8 in Rochester, participants learned about some of these assets through a video presentation. Now, you can watch the video on FuzeHub’s YouTube channel and see how NYSTAR can help fuel your success.
Here’s some of what you’ll discover.
Centers of Excellence
What do digital gaming and weather forecasting have in common? They’re both served by NYSTAR-funded Centers of Excellence (COE). As Dylan McKenzie, Director of the COE for Digital Game Development at New York University explains in the video, there’s strong support for smaller gaming companies through an incubator program and connections to publishers and crowd funding sources. Thanks to these efforts, New York City is a gaming hub not just for New York State, but for the entire world.
For businesses affected by changing climate conditions, the Center for Emerging Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM) at the University of Albany offers access to a network of weather observation stations called NYS Mesonet. As Christopher D. Thorncroft, Interim Director for the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center notes, most businesses are sensitive to weather. Utility companies can especially benefit from data-driven decisions about when and where to deploy crews.
Centers for Advanced Technologies
NYSTAR’s university-based assets include Centers for Advanced Technology (CAT) across New York State. As the video shows, the Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering (CASE) at Syracuse University is a CAT with high hopes for the future. Recently, CASE landed a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) test site for drones at Griffis International Airport. According to Pramod Varshney, CASE Director, this facility is the only one in the world that supports non-line of sight testing for drones.
Federal State Collaborative
In Ithaca, the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) is a federal-state collaborative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NYSTAR for the development of new materials. In the video, Dr. Michèle van de Walle, CCMR’s Industrial Partnerships Director, provides an overview of this first of its kind initiative. Katie Spoth, Electron Microscopy Research Support Staff, explains how CCMR provides access to multi-million-dollar instruments with high-resolution imaging at the atomic level.
Joel S. Tabb, President of Ionica Sciences, then shows how his early-stage company leveraged CCMR assets in its search to develop an affordable assay for Lyme Disease. Finally, Yong L. Joo, BP Amoco/H. Laurance Fuller Professor in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, shares what he says would not have been possible without NYSTAR funding – a safety harness that indicates excessive exposure to damaging sunlight.
Innovation Hotspots and Certified Business Incubators
The NYSTAR Asset Highlights video also spotlights NextCorps, a NYS innovation hotspot and certified incubator that’s also a Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Center. As James Senall, president of NextCorps explains, the organization helps entrepreneurs launch companies and assists established businesses that want to increase revenue and profitability. Last year, NextCorps opened a 40,000 sq. facility in downtown Rochester. Today, there are 60 companies there.
Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers
Last but not least, the new video showcases the Alliance of Manufacturing & Technology (AM&T), one of ten regional NY MEP Centers. (FuzeHub, the statewide Center, is the eleventh). As Carol Miller, AM&T’s Executive Director, explains, AM&T provided valuable assistance to Doron Precision Systems, a Binghamton manufacturer of simulator equipment for first responders, federal agencies, and Disney. With AM&T’s help, Doron improved processes and performed a cybersecurity assessment and remediation. The resulting increase in business is another testament to how NYSTAR powers innovation.
