When Phillip Ardell, a 31-year-old Glenville resident first went back to college after being laid off from GE Power Systems in 2002, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do.
“I didn't know what was available,” said Ardell, who decided to go to Schenectady County Community College to earn a degree in electrical technology. “I wanted to try a new field.”
Ardell is now a technician at SuperPower Inc., a five-year-old company in Schenectady that makes superconducting electric cables. On Thursday, the company unveiled a new joint program with Union College and SCCC that would help prepare students like Ardell for working at high-tech companies like SuperPower.
Two months ago, the state Legislature pledged $5 million to SuperPower and the two schools to set up undergraduate programs to prepare students for such work. The money will be be used to build curriculum for new classes at both colleges, as well as to design and purchase quality-control equipment for the students to train on.
“We are becoming the high-tech Silicon Valley of the United States,” said state Sen. Hugh Farley, who was one of a half-dozen speakers who celebrated the program at SuperPower. “Schenectady has to be a part of it.”
SuperPower, a fully-owned subsidiary of Intermagnetics General Corp. in Latham, has been working on a superconducting cable that could transmit electricity with almost no noticeable loss of power through resistance. A normal copper cable loses about 7 percent of power through transmission.
The cable uses a ribbon-shaped wire designed by SuperPower, which is woven into a thick cable that itself is housed in a pipe filled with liquid nitrogen and chilled to 77 Kelvin (minus 321.07 Fahrenheit).
The company is in the midst of constructing a $26 million test site for the system in Albany, funded partially by state and federal grants. The company hopes to have a viable product by next spring. They envision a market for such cables in new underground power lines in urban areas and in heavy-duty transformers and other power equipment.
Officials say the company could triple its staff of 50 in the next five years. And finding qualified workers has been difficult. In some cases, the company has gone as far as Korea, China and India, said Philip Pellegrino, president of SuperPower.
“I'm sick and tired of seeing high-tech jobs go offshore,” he told a crowd of 50 politicians, college officials and SuperPower employees. “We need to keep these high-tech jobs in the United States, and we need to keep them in New York.”
The $5 million is to be divided three ways: $2.3 million to SuperPower; $1.7 million to Union College; and $1 million to Schenectady County Community College.
Both Union President Roger Hull and SCCC President Gabriel Basil spoke in favor of the new programs. Each school expects to have around 15 students enrolled in SuperPower-related classes and internships within the next year. Both colleges will offer new courses on the subject starting in September.
“This partnership is the type of thing that this community needs to see more of,” Hull said.