The program is offered in conjunction with Parent University, a community collaboration involving the Saratoga Springs City School District and the Saratoga Partnership for Prevention. To learn more, visit the school district website at www.saratogaschools.org/parentuniversity.
"Road to the Future" is one of several STEM initiatives offered by the school district as part of its commitment to prepare students for STEM fields in college and the workforce. All around Saratoga County, students and residents are seeing growing local opportunities in the science and technology fields. On Monday, October 24, Congressman Chris Gibson was joined by College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany Senior Vice President and CEO Dr. Alain Kaloyeros to announce the launch of CNSE's Solar Energy Development Center in Halfmoon. The new center is an integral component of the CNSE green energy initiative that will retain 17 green collar jobs, create opportunities to grow the high-tech workforce and further expand CNSE's growing portfolio of clean energy research, development and commercialization.
"Today's announcement continues our region's growth as the next place for 21st century technology,” said Gibson. “This facility will preserve existing jobs and ensure that our area remains at the forefront of research into clean energy technologies that are so vital for our future. I applaud CNSE's efforts to invest in our local communities and look forward to continuing to work with them to expand public-private partnerships here in Tech Valley."
CNSE is now managing and operating the former Veeco facility at 13 Corporate Drive, which features a state-of-the-art, 100 kilowatt prototyping and demonstration line for next-generation copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film solar cells. With the ability to be manufactured at lower cost on both glass and flexible substrates and significantly improving energy efficiency and reducing the cost of installation to less than $1 per watt, CIGS-based cells offer great promise to dominate the market for building integrated materials, including commercial and residential rooftops, among applications ranging from solar farms to portable devices.
The opening of its Solar Energy Development Center further expands CNSE's growing presence across upstate New York. The world's most advanced university-driven research enterprise with more than $12 billion in high-tech investments, CNSE's footprint also includes its world-class Albany NanoTech Complex, an 800,000-square-foot megaplex currently being expanded by more than 50 percent; the Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center of Excellence (STC) in Rochester, which offers state- of-the-art capabilities for MEMS fabrication and packaging; the Computer Chip Commercialization Center at SUNYIT in Utica, which CNSE co-founded and manages; and the Nanotechnology Innovation and Commercialization Excelerator in Syracuse, which CNSE co-founded.
