Quantum for International workshop held at Skydome in Rome

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ROME — It’s an event developed to serve as an “unprecedented” gathering of expertise around quantum computing and science. The 6th annual Quantum for International Workshop (Q4I) is described as a “global connectivity initiative” that “aims to build an open ecosystem of government, academic, and industry collaborators shaping the future of quantum innovation.” The Air […]

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ROME — It’s an event developed to serve as an “unprecedented” gathering of expertise around quantum computing and science.

The 6th annual Quantum for International Workshop (Q4I) is described as a “global connectivity initiative” that “aims to build an open ecosystem of government, academic, and industry collaborators shaping the future of quantum innovation.”

The Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) held Q41 from June 25-27. The Griffiss Institute hosted the workshop inside Skydome at the Innovare Advancement Center in Rome.

Participants at Q4I heard from sector experts, top-tier researchers, industry executives, higher-education leaders, and students as they showcased different pathways to engage in quantum-information science.

“We were thrilled to welcome pioneers in the quantum community to this year’s Q4I workshop. This event was a prime opportunity for experts to learn, collaborate, and network, fostering innovation in the field,” Michael Hayduk, deputy director of the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate, said in the event recap. “The Air Force is committed to supporting this workshop as it serves as an effective platform to strengthen our nation’s quantum capabilities. Creating an open ecosystem that bridges government, academia, and industry is also a vital part of the global effort.”

Centered around technology transfer, potential partners had the chance to understand when and how to work together and enter into contracts with the AFRL/RI. Participants discovered how to navigate processes, procedures, and productive paths toward bringing their concepts to life for both military and commercial uses. By leveraging military advancements from the lab bench to the community, the Griffiss Institute works to grow the pool of talented STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students and professionals who will discover “the next big idea,” per the July 1 summary from the Innovare Advancement Center.

“The Griffiss Institute was excited to host the sixth annual Q4I workshop at the Innovare Advancement Center,” Heather Hage, president and CEO of the Griffiss Institute, said in the announcement. “This event is pivotal to advancing our mission to bridge talent and technology for our partners. The energy was palpable as the brightest minds came together to showcase their achievements and look ahead to keep America at the forefront of innovation.”

This year’s program featured keynote presentations from Kevin Geiss, director of Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) in Arlington, Virginia, on the topic of working with AFOSR; and Maria Galli, quantum optics researcher, Quantum Interfaces Group on the topic of “Entanglement of Trapped-Ion Qubits Separated by 230m.”.

SUNY Poly shifts mission to build workforce of tomorrow

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Education & Training, Mohawk Valley, Subscriber Only, Technology

MARCY — Take one look at the bustling SUNY Polytechnic Institute campus in Marcy today, and you’d be hard pressed to figure out why so many in the Mohawk Valley were worried just a few years ago. It was late 2022 when news broke that the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering (CNSE), which had

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MARCY — Take one look at the bustling SUNY Polytechnic Institute campus in Marcy today, and you’d be hard pressed to figure out why so many in the Mohawk Valley were worried just a few years ago.

It was late 2022 when news broke that the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering (CNSE), which had been housed at both SUNY Poly and the University at Albany for years, was being consolidated solely on the Albany campus. At the time, local leaders were fearful of what it meant for the Mohawk Valley region and for SUNY Poly at a time when its leadership was in flux.

By late summer 2023, SUNY completed the CNSE move to Albany, and Winston Soboyejo took the helm as SUNY Poly’s next president on Oct. 2.

He’s been busy since then.

Just nine months into his term, Soboyejo spoke to The Central New York Business Journal about how SUNY Poly has repositioned itself to better serve the community by training the workforce of tomorrow.

“It’s a good time for us,” he says. Since last fall, SUNY Poly has been awarded millions in funding from the state for an array of projects on campus including $44 million to expand its health-science wing, update nursing labs, and create the Semiconductor Processing to Packaging Research, Education, and Training Center.

The goal, Soboyejo says, is not only to train tomorrow’s workforce in the semiconductor and advanced manufacturing industry, but also for SUNY Poly to become a catalyst for the Mohawk Valley.

“We’re in the era of resurgence of manufacturing in New York state and America,” he says. SUNY Poly wants to be part of that.

Look at companies like Danfoss or Indium or nearby Wolfspeed. “They want people who are ready to work on day one,” Soboyejo says. SUNY Poly can train them.

The new framing of SUNY Poly’s mission wasn’t that difficult, he says. The key parts? Align and anticipate. It’s all about finding real-world problems and figuring out how SUNY Poly can solve them. Shifting to a demand-driven focus will allow the college to remain responsive to what employers need.

“We’re trying to provide the education, the workforce development that’s supporting the needs of industry that’s rising in the Mohawk Valley,” he says.

SUNY Poly isn’t just focusing on advanced manufacturing, but also has its sights on the health arena.

“We have this capacity to produce nurses in a world where there’s a growing need for health-care workers,” Soboyejo says. The new nursing labs will help the university train them well.

The university is already anticipating the future needs of health care, with an amped up focus on microbiology and robotics in health care.

To make all of this happen, it takes more than just one university. It takes a community, and SUNY Poly is working closely with businesses, K-12 schools, and other colleges to make sure the Mohawk Valley, and the entire region, has the workforce it needs.

“We’re doing things like reaching out to schools and bringing girls interested in manufacturing to our campus,” Soboyejo says.

SUNY Poly also recently joined the Innovare Alliance, signing a memorandum of understanding with Griffis Institute with the goal of leveraging collaborations among the academic, industrial, and defense sectors in upstate New York to advance technical and professional development disciplines. The hope is that nurturing a skilled workforce will maintain the region’s competitiveness and position it at the forefront of technological advancements and careers.

“What’s exciting for me is that we can be part of this emerging renaissance,” Soboyejo says.

The university isn’t neglecting its own either. With about $3 million in funding aimed at expanding research activity, it opened a space to bring faculty together in its new Hilltop building.

SUNY Poly has between 30 and 40 professors across all fields actively working with artificial intelligence. Now they have a place to gather and trade notes, Soboyejo says.

“It’s just been wonderful to see how people from all these multiple fields are coming together,” he says. “It’s exciting to see this approach to education and research.”

Munson projects seek to welcome community to the arts complex

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Mohawk Valley, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

UTICA — With an estimated economic impact north of $20 million, Munson is more than just a museum or an arts school. It’s an important part of the city of Utica’s economy and helps serve as a welcome to visitors from outside the area. “We do over 600 events a year,” President/CEO Anna D’Ambrosio says

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“We do over 600 events a year,” President/CEO Anna D’Ambrosio says in an interview. Those events range from art classes, to concerts, exhibitions, and more. And the events are just as much for out-of-town visitors as they are for area residents.

In fact, an average of 50 percent to 55 percent of attendees for a major summer exhibition at Munson will come from outside of Oneida County, D’Ambrosio says. For some exhibition events, attendees came from 47 states and several countries.

It’s rare for a community the size of Utica to have a facility like Munson, she notes. “There are very few organizations that compare.”

Many people recognize Munson for its Museum of Art, but there are two other divisions. Pratt Munson is its school of art, in partnership with the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Munson also operates a performing-arts program. Through all three divisions, Munson offers opportunities to experience and learn a variety of art forms.

However, Munson has also recognized that in the past, it was perceived as a little distant from the community, D’Ambrosio says. Its new strategic plan tackles that issue head on with multiple prongs of community interaction to remind Utica and beyond that Munson is for everyone to experience and enjoy.

Now, Munson is hard at work sprucing up its “welcome mat” with a project that is transforming its “front yard” along Genesee Street into a 49,000-square-foot park and community space.

Armed with $800,000 in Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding, Munson hired Sue Steel Landscape Architecture, LLC of Rochester to design the project with the goal of creating a neighborhood feel along Genesee Street.

“We want that space to be an active community space,” D’Ambrosio says. The project will restore the museum building to its original intended look as designed by architect Philip Johnson by removing the visual barrier created by a chain-link fence and hedge and replacing it with a clear railing that provides security while also offering views of the building.

The front steps are being redone, and landscaping work will include adding benches along with plants and trees. “We’re using native species,” D’Ambrosio says and that includes Oneida County’s newly named official tree — the red maple.

Restoration work is also underway at Munson’s Fountain Elms building, which was once home to Munson’s founding family. Munson was originally known as Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, named for three generations of one Utica family. Today, Fountain Elms is home to a collection that includes objects collected by the Williams’ and Proctors.

The work looks like one big project, but really encompasses three separate projects. The third project involves the installation of an accessible entrance to the museum from Genesee Street.

Munson Museum — Construction workers at work on Munson’s Fountain Elms building. PHOTO CREDIT: ZOEYADVERTISING.COM

“We have been busy and enjoying every minute of it,” D’Ambrosio says of the bustling projects. She expects work will wrap up in November.

Munson will remain busy with several other projects, ranging from community outreach — Munson has nearly 50 community partnerships — to events including First Fridays, Munson After Dark, and its annual sidewalk art show.

“We’re also renovating a building,” D’Ambrosio says. Located at 500 Henry St., the structure is one of the 26 buildings Munson owns in the surrounding neighborhood.

Munson is still working to raise the funding but would like to renovate the vacant building into a live-work space for its artist-in-residence program along with a community gallery. This summer, Munson is replacing the building’s foundation.

“We’re working on some plans for some potential renovations in the Museum of Art,” D’Ambrosio adds. “It’s an exciting time.”

Founded in 1919, Munson employs about 170 full-time and part-time employees and has an annual budget of
$15 million.

ANDRO’s Drozd named to FCC council, providing advice on the nation’s communications systems

Technology, Mohawk Valley, Subscriber Only

ROME — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently reappointed ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC President and CEO Andrew L. Drozd to serve a two-year term on the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council IX (CSRIC IX). The council provides recommendations to the FCC to promote the security, reliability, and interoperability of the nation’s communications systems. Drozd

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The council provides recommendations to the FCC to promote the security, reliability, and interoperability of the nation’s communications systems. Drozd was selected for reappointment from a list of candidates from across public and private sectors nationally, ANDRO announced.

Under its current charter, CSRIC IX will address issues including best practices for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enhance the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of nationwide communications networks; ensuring consumer access to 911 on all available networks as technology evolves; and the security and reliability risks unique to emerging sixth generation (6G) networks and services.

Under CSRIC IX, Drozd will focus on the policies and methods for the use of AI/ML to enhance 6G communications and wireless network cybersecurity, reliability, and interoperability. This includes agile spectrum regulatory modernization, dynamic spectrum-management governance, leveraging Beyond 5G and Terahertz technology best practices, decentralized and fault-tolerant network architectures, and multiaccess edge computing.

Drozd previously served on the CSRIC VIII Council that dealt with the security of 5G Open RAN (radio access networks), where he focused on the coexistence of heterogeneous radio-access technologies and applying AI to detect and mitigate security risks, according to ANDRO.

Drozd leads scientific research and development teams at ANDRO toward advancing the general field of AI for secure wireless communication and demonstrating radio-frequency, machine-learning solutions. He also leads STEM workforce preparedness initiatives through the Project Fibonacci Foundation aimed at enhancing global competitiveness emphasizing technological innovation, the company said.

An Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers fellow, he continues to extend his AI research and ANDRO’s software-based waveform-development research into the field of quantum computing. He holds advanced degrees from Syracuse University and St. John Fisher University and was inducted into the Rome Academy of Science Hall of Fame in 2019.

VIEWPOINT: Supporting the Region’s Revitalization

Business Mentors, Construction, Design & Real Estate, Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Mohawk Valley, Subscriber Only

Central New York’s economy is at the threshold of a period of steep, lucrative growth for the first time in decades. Thanks in part to major public and private investments, our region gained more than 5,300 jobs in the past year across all industries and is forecasted to continue growing. As a major employer of

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As a major employer of more than 5,600 people in Upstate, National Grid is proud to support our region’s revitalization with the Upstate Upgrade, a portfolio of energy-infrastructure improvements to build a smarter, stronger, cleaner energy grid for our customers and communities.

The Upstate Upgrade is a collection of 70-plus projects aimed at improving and expanding electricity transmission, and many of these projects are planned in and around Central New York. Much of our current grid was first built in the years before and immediately after World War II. While it has served us well, it needs to be upgraded to support future growth in electricity demand while improving reliability and resiliency for our customers. We are strengthening the transmission grid to improve reliability in the face of more frequent impactful weather events, helping to prevent outages and restoring power more quickly when they do occur. The Upstate Upgrade will increase capacity by thousands of megawatts, helping our economy grow and our communities prosper.

With increasing demands on our electric system, National Grid must act now to meet the expanding needs of Central New York’s growing economy. Micron’s historic investment in Central New York is a boon for our region that will spin off growth. New loads on the grid such as electric vehicles, heat pumps, data centers and advanced manufacturing continue to develop and will need additional grid capacity. New sources of energy from wind and solar need reliable connections into the electrical grid so that energy produced in Upstate can be used across our region.

A third-party analysis of the Upstate Upgrade by the consultancy West Monroe shows the potential for economic growth and impact. Across Upstate, the effort will create more than 1,700 new construction-related jobs, the majority hired locally, and bring with it at least $1.9 billion in overall economic output during and after construction. The Upstate Upgrade will also create thousands of additional jobs for local businesses, such as hospitality and retail positions, thanks to increased spending in the region by our project teams.

In addition, energy-intensive businesses like manufacturers and data centers could choose to take advantage of the improved energy delivery system and the abundance of renewable energy in our region. These new jobs will provide a boost for our customers and communities, generating exciting opportunities for growth, which will bolster our economy for future job creators and will attract new innovators to our communities. Emerging technologies will need local installers and service technicians to set up and maintain customer equipment. Overall, these investments will generate a total of up to 2 percent economic growth in counties across Upstate that host our electrical transmission infrastructure through 2030.

National Grid is committed to strengthening the communities we serve. Thoughtful outreach and communications are core to who we are as a company and our approach on these projects is to ensure that all impacted residents, businesses, and landowners are aware of the scope of our work and can engage meaningfully with our teams to provide input and have questions answered. You can find more information at our website: upstateupgrade.nationalgrid.com.

This is a large-scale investment in the future of Upstate and National Grid is proud to be a part of that future. Together we can build a robust, resilient, and secure grid to serve Upstate for decades to come.

Alberto Bianchetti is regional director of customer and community engagement for National Grid. Contact him at alberto.bianchetti@nationalgrid.com.

Max Berkovich

People on the Move

Strategic Financial Services has named Max Berkovich portfolio manager and new partner. He is a seasoned investment professional with a strong track record in developing

Using Smart Technology to Control Building Energy Use

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VESTAL, N.Y. — The Koffman Southern Tier Incubator at Binghamton University has expanded with the addition of a new facility in Vestal, which it calls Koffman on Plaza.

The Koffman Incubator provides key resources and programs to aspiring entrepreneurs and growing startup companies. The Koffman Southern Tier Incubator, which is located at 120 Hawley Street in Binghamton, opened in 2017.

The new Vestal facility, which formally opened Tuesday, is an extension of the incubator, providing advanced-stage startups with a “professional environment that mirrors the c-suite experience,” Binghamton University said. The facility offers office spaces and continued mentorship from experienced professionals within Koffman’s extensive network.

“We are thrilled to celebrate the opening of Koffman on Plaza, a testament to the Koffman family’s enduring commitment to fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in the Southern Tier,” Bandhana Katoch, executive director of the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator, said in the school’s announcement. “The addition of Koffman on Plaza not only expands our resources but also invigorates our mission to support and grow innovative startups. We are deeply grateful to the Koffman family for their generous support and dedication to our community’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

The building at 300 Plaza Drive, which the Koffman family donated, was built in 1967 and previously served as the headquarters for multiple Koffman family businesses.

This two-floor facility offers seven office spaces for startups on the first floor, with large and small options available.

Three offices are currently occupied by startups advancing in the entrepreneurial process. Rent prices start at $825. The lower floor houses existing tenant Smith Brothers Insurance, Binghamton University said.

“As the family discussed what to do with the building, it became clear that we should donate the office to Binghamton University to keep in the spirit of the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator,” Betsy Koffman said in the announcement. “The energy and spirit of entrepreneurs brainstorming and working to create and grow their businesses, people helping each other out and the beautiful space igniting creative ideas, keeps in the spirit of my dad and the rest of the family. My dad would be happy knowing the building has new energy and youth on its side.”

Verona Collective set to open flagship dispensary

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Mohawk Valley, New York News, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

VERONA, N.Y. — The Oneida Indian Nation’s Verona Collective cannabis enterprise will open its newest dispensary at 5528 NY-31 in the Verona Crossroads retail plaza

Former CFO starts as president of Human Technologies and will become CEO at end of year

Nonprofits, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Mohawk Valley, New York News, Subscriber Only

UTICA, N.Y. — Human Technologies (HT), a Utica–based a social enterprise employing people with disabilities, has a new president who will also become its new CEO to start 2025, the organization announced. HT’s board of directors approved the promotion of Carl Reistrom from chief financial officer to the role of president, effective June 1. Tim

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HT’s board of directors approved the promotion of Carl Reistrom from chief financial officer to the role of president, effective June 1. Tim Giarrusso will remain as HT’s CEO until his retirement on Dec. 31, 2024, with Reistrom assuming the CEO role then.

“I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to succeed Tim Giarrusso as the next president/CEO,” Reistrom said in a Tuesday news release. “I am committed to building on the strong foundation that is in place, ensuring we continue to make a positive impact on the lives of our employees and in our communities. As an organization, we look forward to new and innovative growth opportunities that will support our mission of finding the abilities within people.”

Reistrom, who served as CFO since 2016, has more than 25 years of progressive management and leadership experience in various industries within both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. According to the release, his record in developing and executing strategic plans, building effective teams, and collaborating with all levels within an organization will serve him well in his new role, along with his potential to identify growth opportunities and adeptness at leveraging resources.

“Carl’s strategic insight and commitment to our mission make him the ideal person to lead Human Technologies into the future,” Giarrusso said. “I am confident that the organization will continue to thrive and expand its impact under his leadership.”

Headquartered at 2201 Dwyer Ave. in Utica, Human Technologies creates employment for people with disabilities by developing, investing in, and growing its business lines. They include supply chain and order fulfillment, uniform and apparel management, environmental services, facilities management, and manufacturing and packaging. Human Technologies employs 330 people across locations in New York, Pennsylvania, and northern Virgnia and generates more than $40 million in annual revenue.

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