4/26/2012 8:13:41 AM

ROC NOW: Big job-growth potential seen for Canandaigua high-tech center

ROC NOW

The STC Center in Canandaigua, a high-tech facility specializing in microelectronics, has received a key government designation that could bring a flood of lucrative military contracts and jobs, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.

The Department of Defense award makes the STC Center the first nanoscale facility connected to a university — it is an arm of the State University at Albany — to be designated a “trusted foundry.” Only one company in the nation also working on nanoscale sensors, in Idaho, has the special government label.

The designation allows the Pentagon, other federal agencies and contractors and foreign allies to use the STC Center for a range of defense and intelligence applications. One project the center already works on involves sensors used by combat forces in detecting roadside bombs.

“This is as elite as it gets,” said Alain Kaloyeros, chief executive of SUNY Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. “SUNY has this. Not Stanford, not Caltech. It’s a big step forward. This classification establishes STC as the go-to center for 21st century military technologies.”

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