Union will pay tribute to New York State Sen. Hugh T. Farley for his help in advancing the sciences and engineering at Union in a ceremony in Butterfield Hall Thursday, June 5, at 4 p.m.
President Stephen C. Ainlay and the Board of Trustees invite all members of the Union community to attend.
Sen. Farley, who represents the state’s 44th district, led efforts to secure $5 million in legislative funding for a collaborative project among Superpower Inc., Union and Schenectady County Community College.
Union received $1.7 million of the state grant for mechanical, microscopy and quality control testing equipment; a clean room and characterization laboratory; and internship and professional development programs.
The collaboration is aimed at developing a workforce for Superpower’s commercial production of superconductiong wire. The Schenectady-based company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intermagnetics General Corporation, was created in 2000 to address the emerging market for high-temperature superconductivity. It uses core capabilities in materials, cryogenics and magnetics to develop fault current limiters, second generation (2G wire) and related electric power components for power cables, transformers, motors and generators.
The grant money was designed to help Union and its two partners develop the highly skilled technical workforce that SuperPower and other related high tech industries will need in the 21st century, said Ronald Bucinell, the Thomas J. Watson, Sr. and Emma Watson Day Professor of Mechanical Engineering and department chair.
“Union is very grateful for Sen. Farley’s ongoing support,” Bucinell said. “His leadership in this regard is key to the future of sciences and engineering at Union and in the Capital Region.”
The U.S. Department of Energy has ranked SuperPower as the top development program among its peers, and Sen. Farley has described the business and education collaboration as “transformational” and “reflective of Schenectady’s history of innovation.”
Among those speaking at Thursday’s ceremony will be President Ainlay; Vice President for College Relations Thomas Gutenberger; Prof. Bucinell; and Charles Wood ’08, a Mechanical Engineering major.