Finger Lakes Region Wins New York State Economic Award
By: WROC-TV
Updated: December 20, 2012
Big developments are happening at the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology. At the U of R $5 million dollars will buy high speed computing equipment. It will create one of the most powerful, energy efficient, high performance computing facilities in the world, "you hear about studying genomes and what types of diseases each one of us might be susceptible to, that computer's got the power to do it," explained Danny Wegman, Vice Chair of the Finger Lakes REDC, "we've got a real opportunity ahead of us."
Another $5 million dollars will buy equipment for the Golisano Institute of Sustainability. The improvement will help make RIT an international leader in the sustainability field and will put the school in a great position to receive more funds, "the governor has a new initiative coming on sustainability that's going to be $30 million dollars of grants in New York State coming out and let's see if we've got a chance at winning," said Wegman.
$600,000 will buy mobile learning labs for Monroe Community College. They'll be used to teach advanced manufacturing, construction, and health care skills to help get Rochester back to work, "the biggest issue we're facing right now honestly not lack of qualified training programs, MCC has them, Finger Lakes Community College, Genesee Community College as well," explained Anne Anne Kress, President of MCC, "but also what we're really looking at is how do we build a pipeline of students into those programs."
The other big projects include $8 million dollars to develop the Midtown Tower and College Town properties, $2.5 million dollars to create a network of business support services and incubation facilities for the region, and $2 million dollars to fund a loan for small businesses in underserved rural and urban communities in the region.
$738 million dollars was given out state wide. Governor Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy toured every region to see first hand what progress has been made, and determine the potential for growth.
To get more information on how the money will be divided, click here
