$150,000 grant will fund cutting-edge detection camera WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-25) announced today that  Rochester-based Sydor Instruments, LLC (Sydor) has been awarded a $150,000 STTR Phase One grant.  The grant will be used to fund development of a Spectro CCD X-Ray Camera for Energy Dispersive Spectrometers.  Sydor’s work to develop the camera will...Continue Reading

State officials have approved commercial site plans for eight SUNY-linked schools that want to lure businesses under Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s Start-Up NY initiative — including the blueprint proposed by the University at Albany. Story in the morning’s Times Union Albany.    Continue Reading

For twenty years many of us have worked together to get the Rochester community to recognize what the world already recognizes: the importance of optics, photonics and imaging (OPI) to our region. We are recognized around the world for this strategic advantage. The lion’s share of this region’s patents are for applications in OPI. We...Continue Reading

All Three Units of 392 megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System Now Delivering Solar Power to California’s Electric Grid At full capacity, the facility’s trio of 450-foot high towers produces a gross total of 392 megawatts (MW) of solar power, enough electricity to provide 140,000 California homes with clean energy and avoid 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide...Continue Reading

Five years ago the Monroe Community College (MCC) Optical Systems Technology Program graduated two people and had a total of six enrollments. Today, the program has new labs, new laboratory equipment, dual-credit relationships with three area high schools and an annual optical systems immersion program for high schoolers with the Optics Summer Sizzler.  There are...Continue Reading

…agrees to purchase of 88 acres from the city of Buffalo New York State has agreed on terms to buy the 88 acres of city-owned land in South Buffalo that will house a new high-tech and clean-energy complex at RiverBend. The deal marks what officials call “swift progress” in advancing a monumental project that seeks...Continue Reading

This can only be accomplished by doubling down on the essential DNA of the region: engineering, manufacturing, logistics, a reasonable cost of living and bountiful natural resources. This approach builds off what some local urbanists, notably Jim Russell, have dubbed “rust belt chic.” Read the full Forbes article here.Continue Reading

Mr. Cuomo will seek to reduce the state’s corporate tax rate to 6.5% from 7.1% while also offering a 20% property-tax credit to manufacturers. For manufacturers upstate, that relief package will be augmented by an elimination of the corporate income tax. Mr. Cuomo estimated that these reforms could save New York’s manufacturing industry $161 million...Continue Reading

Manufacturing grew in December at the second-fastest pace in more than two years, fueled by a gain in orders that will help propel the U.S. expansion. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-02/u-s-ism-manufacturing-index-fell-to-57-in-december-from-57-3.html Ben S. Bernanke said the headwinds that have held back the U.S. economy may be abating, leaving the country poised for faster growth as his tenure as Federal...Continue Reading

“Rochester, Syracuse, Ithaca and Binghamton get to share the old car” Hey, that’s not my analogy, it’s Governor Cuomo’s.  In announcing the investments in Buffalo this morning, Governor Cuomo said that the state investing $1B in Buffalo was like having five children, and on Christmas morning, handing a set of keys to one of them...Continue Reading