NY Boosts Rochester Center Funding

ALBANY, N.Y., Nov. 2 -- New York Gov. George Pataki visited the Center of Excellence in Photonics and Microsystems, located in Canandaigua, near Rochester, this week to announce that the state is investing more money in high-tech industry. It will provide $10 million in new funding to expand the center, bringing the the total public and private investment committed to the facility to $150 million.
The new funds will be supported jointly by the governor's office and the state Senate, with each providing $5 million for the project. The funding will assist in the creation of a packaging and design center, new labs and other equipment and will complete efforts to combine design, simulation, fabrication and packaging processes in one facility.
The Rochester center, also known as the Infotonics Center of Excellence, opened in May 2003 and is a partnership between New York State, the private sector, the federal government and 20 academic institutions. The state has provided $28 million in assistance for the project, and Kodak, Corning and Xerox have pledged nearly $45 million over the next five years and committed to raise an additional $30 million in private resources. Federal sources have provided $22 million.
Under the leadership of Corning, Kodak, Xerox and the state, the Rochester center is collaborating with 20 academic institutions -- including the University of Rochester, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Monroe Community College, the University at Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Alfred University, Cornell University, Columbia University, YU, the City University of New York and others -- to develop photonics, optics and fiber optics technology.
Rochester's center's efforts focus on creating technology transfer and pilot fabrication facilities for high-resolution imaging and ultrafast communications devices that can be shared by center partners to accelerate product development. Work-force development and training programs to provide skilled personnel for these industries will also be supported.
The facility is one of five Centers of Excellence statewide; the others are the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics at Buffalo, the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems, the Albany Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics and the Center of Excellence in Information Technology on Long Island.

For more information, visit: www.infotonics.org