Monthlong series of events begin with Saturday open house

By Larry Rulison

Published 8:31 pm, Thursday, October 30, 2014             

Albany

SUNY Polytechnic Institute's annual, monthlong "Nanovember" educational celebration kicks off on Saturday with a Community Day open house at university sites in Albany, Utica and Canandaigua.

The Albany open house event will include tours of the new Tech Valley High School, which relocated from East Greenbush to the SUNY Poly campus over the summer. There will also be tours of the NanoFabX facility, which houses a next-generation computer chip factory, as well as up-close views of the new ZEN, or "zero-energy" building under construction next door.

Similar events will also take place at SUNY Poly's campus in Marcy, outside Utica, as well as its Canandaigua lab outside of Rochester.

Alain Kaloyeros, the CEO of SUNY Poly, which also has sites in Saratoga County, Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo, said the series of events showcase the state's investment in nanotechnology research and education.

Nanotechnology is the basis for much of today's chemical, material and biological engineering.

"Taking place at a number of SUNY Poly locations across New York state, these engagements will showcase the vast potential of this exciting scientific field, inspiring and empowering people of all ages," Kaloyeros said.

The Community Day event Saturday at the Marcy campus of SUNY Poly will showcase the university's almost complete Computer Chip Commercialization Center, or Quad-C, that is the focal point for SUNY Poly's $1 billion Nano Utica research program focusing on computer chip packaging and 3-D microchip stacking that can help electronic products such as smartphones run better.

Kaloyeros will be hosting a "question-and-answer" event on the night of Nov. 17 at the Albany campus that will likely be one of the highlights of Nanovember. The event, which will take place from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. that Monday, will be open to the public with pre-registration through the SUNY Poly website at http://www.sunycnse.com/NANOvember.aspx.

SUNY Poly is also sponsoring "Nano Night With the Comets" at the Utica Comets hockey game on Nov. 12 at Utica Memorial Auditorium. The Comets are the minor-league AFL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks.

On Nov. 22, there will also be a free family fun day at CNSE CMOST, the children's science museum at Rensselaer Technology Park in North Greenbush.

lrulison@timesunion.com • 518-454-5504 • @larryrulison