Civil engineering technology students studying construction administration took their classroom across campus recently for a closer look at the CNSE-SUNYIT Computer Chip Commercialization Center (Quad-C), a joint project of the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), SUNYIT, and Mohawk Valley EDGE that supports Governor Andrew Cuomo’s vision and leadership in harnessing the power of education and innovation to spur economic opportunity and growth. Project contractor M+W Group brought the class up to speed about Quad-C construction, and officials described the many opportunities the completed project will bring with it for young people across the region.

“From the start of this project, SUNYIT students have had unique, hands-on educational opportunities—the Quad-C is literally right outside their classroom window,” said Robert E. Geer, acting president of SUNYIT. “Thanks to Governor Cuomo’s innovation-enabled strategy for high-tech education and economic development, our current and future students will have access to facilities and opportunities available to few other college students in the world.”

Scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014, the $125 million 253,000 sq. ft. Quad-C facility, which will include 56,000 sq. ft. of Class 1 capable cleanroom space, will host public-private partnerships through Governor Cuomo's $1.5 billion 'Nano Utica' initiative, a consortium spearheaded by CNSE and SUNYIT that includes leading technology companies such as Advanced Nanotechnology Solutions Incorporated (ANS), SEMATECH, Atotech, and SEMATECH and CNSE partners, including IBM, Lam Research and Tokyo Electron. With an annual operating budget to exceed $500 million, the Quad-C will result in the creation of 1,500 high-tech jobs, groundbreaking academic programs, and cutting-edge workforce training opportunities.

Stephanie Wurz, a SUNYIT senior from Utica who plans to graduate in December, says the project means new options and a new future for her and other young adults. And those opportunities will now be closer to home than ever before.

“You can see the energy here. Living here in Utica, you could sometimes fear not having a job,” Wurz said. “It’s nice to see that the reality is you don’t have to pack your bags after college, and that there will be high-paying jobs in this area.”

Tanner Metzko, a senior from Delhi, N.Y., said the briefing was a real eye-opener.

“Most of the construction I’ve been involved with has been residential, small-scale. With this, I saw the science behind construction management of a massively large operation,” Metzko said. “The money going into this, the revenue they are expecting to come out of it, I feel it’s really going to revitalize this area.”