Clarkson technology center to open in fall

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Feb 8, 2008 by Tampone, Kevin

POTSDAM - There is no shortage of resources in the North Country to support what Anthony Collins calls "traditional business expansion."

That means helping companies line up loans or find new office and factory space. What the region needs more are resources to support younger and riskier, but potentially faster-growing businesses, says Collins, president of Clarkson University.

"That's where lots of job growth across the country is occurring," he says. "The kind of entrepreneurial and financial support that goes into that is not common here."

Clarkson is doing its part to help change the situation with the construction of a new $6 million building on its campus. When finished in October, the two-story, 15,000-square-foot Technology Advancement Center will serve as a bridge to commercialization for the early-stage research of Clarkson's faculty.

"That is quite a distance to go from fundamental research to commercial products and activities," Collins says. "There are many stages along the way. The most difficult are the earliest."

Most of the funding for the center is coming from the state, he adds. Gov. Eliot Spitzer was on hand in the fall for the building's ground breaking.

"I go to colleges wherever I can, because that is our economic future," Spitzer saidduring the ceremony. "And those of you who have been listening to me over the last number of months, know that I have been stressing the need to invest in our educational infrastructure - not only K through 12, but our public and private higher educational system, our SUNY system . . . must be the backbone of our economic growth."

Clarkson's Technology Advancement Center will specialize in renewable energy and environmental technologies and serve as a satellite location of the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems. Such technologies include everything from software to manufactured products, Collins says.

In addition to space for early-stage companies to incubate, the center will house personnel from Clarkson's Division of Research and Technology Transfer. Those people will help identify promising research at the. university and help guide the technology toward commercialization.

The idea is to give early-stage companies as many of the resources they need all in one place, Collins says. As those businesses grow, they could eventually move to another incubator Clarkson has for somewhat more established firms at its 33,000-square-foot Peyton Hall building in downtown Potsdam.

"You can see it's an integrated set of activities and steps that need to occurto actually create a successful business venture," Collins says. "We're trying to develop that."

The Technology Advancement Center will also focus on outreach to students in high school and younger kids as well, Collins adds. The goal of that work is to encourage more students to pursue technological careers by exposing them to the actual results of a technical or science-based education.

Clarkson's students will benefit from the chance to see and work with high-tech companies as well.

Collins says the resources needed to develop high-tech companies can be hard to find anywhere, not just in upstate New York. Many would argue, he says, they can only be found in places like the Boston area and California's Silicon Valley.

He hopes the center will help encourage more entrepreneurial, risk-taking thinking locally.

"It's a whole different world, and we would certainly like to play a role in helping to create that kind of environment here," he says. "[Economic development] is a natural role [the university] should be undertaking in the kind of economy we see developing nationally and globally."