Additional Backing Will Support Three More Rounds of Optics, Photonics and Imaging Competition Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced $15 million in additional funding is being made available to support three more rounds of the Luminate NY business accelerator competition in Rochester. The Luminate competition focuses exclusively on the optics, photonics and imaging industry. The program...Continue Reading

The Rochester region may be one step closer to its future as a National Manufacturing Institute centering on optics and photonics with the passage of the $1.1 trillion federal budget over the weekend. Among the appropriations, $300 million has been designated under the Revitalize American Manufacturing Innovation Act (RAMI) to establish up to 15 centers for manufacturing...Continue Reading

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have  highlighted MCC’s  job training partnership with local firms such as Optimax as a bright spot in the push to fill higher-paying manufacturing and tech jobs. In a guest essay  in the Democrat and Chronicle on Saturday, Obama and Biden cited MCC’s  partnership with the optics industry, funded through the Advanced Manufacturing...Continue Reading

Rochester has a leg up on other areas trying to capitalize on the growing photonics industry. “Rochester has been, since 1853, since the founding of Bausch + Lomb, the center of the optics industry in the United States,” said Paul Ballentine, deputy director of the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences at the University of...Continue Reading