Upstate New York's Tech Valley in the Capital Region can put another feather in it's cap on Tuesday, May 8, 2012, as it hosts President Barack Obama's 3rd visit to the area, landing this time in Malta, NY.
The focus of this visit will be the world class Global Foundries Fab 8 Chip Plant located in Malta, NY. President Obama's speech is expected to highlight the benefits of how the public and private sector can work together with the academic world to create a second-to-none manufacturing sector.
Upstate NY's Tech Valley is the perfect venue for this speech. The area has long been known for it's nanotechnology expertise, research, and for combining manufacturing with education supporting the manufacturing skills. UAlbany's College of Nanotechnology and RPI College have brought students and professors alike from all over the globe. Hudson Valley Community College (a previous venue for a trip from President Obama) has exceptional courses in nanotechnology, as well, and has recently added
Hudson Valley Community College’s TEC-SMART, in Luther Forest, Malta, NY, a Training and Education Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing and Alternative and Renewable Technologies. (The video shown here is from the HVCC Tec-Smart website connected to this link).
The Rensselaer Incubator program (started in 1980) is one of the oldest incubator programs in the nation and the first to be fully sponsored and operated by a university.
In 2006, Russell Sage College and Evident Technologies of Troy, NY (a company that pioneered the usage of quantum dots in semiconductor applications) joined together to form a partnership that encourages, amongst other things, middle school and high school girls interested in Math & Science, through their GEMS program. Although Evident Technology has gone through some ups and downs, financially, in the past few years, in May of 2011 they signed a licensing and patent agreement with South Korea's Samsung Electronics for Evident's Quantum Dot LED technology.
The Watervliet Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership has also grown rapidly in recent years, hosting tenants in manufacturing, R&D, biotechnology, energy, etc., and includes corporate offices, as well. There are also several clean rooms there, built and operated by leading global technology companies. All this, while the Watervliet Arsenal continues to be the US Army's only manufacturer of large caliber cannon.
Living here in the Tech Valley, we tend to take it all for granted, especially if you grew up here. Our local teens thought of Hudson Valley Community College and UAlbany as the places to go to if you didn't want to leave home to go to college. They looked on in disbelief when they heard that teenagers all over the world HOPED they could go to HVCC or UAlbany to become a part of the cutting edge in technology. President Obama's 3rd visit in 3 years is helping to change all of that. Something big and world changing is happening, here.
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