ANDRO lands $2 million contract for 5G test environment

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ROME, N.Y. — ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC has been awarded a $2 million Direct-to-Phase II contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Washington, D.C. The pact will establish a federated fifth generation (5G) testbed ecosystem, called 5GTE, for advanced telecommunications experimentation, the company said. The award is highly competitive and part of […]

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ROME, N.Y. — ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC has been awarded a $2 million Direct-to-Phase II contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Washington, D.C.

The pact will establish a federated fifth generation (5G) testbed ecosystem, called 5GTE, for advanced telecommunications experimentation, the company said. The award is highly competitive and part of the multiphase Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracting vehicle, which paves the way for additional funding.

The purpose of the 5GTE is to develop scalable, open-source Internet of Things (IoT) 5G test environment capability to support research and development of nascent 5G technologies and advanced telecommunications-use cases, both fixed and mobile. The focus is to provide an open-source, realistic 5G radio-access network (RAN) to enable rapid prototyping of wireless protocols and applications including, but not limited to, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), and multi-access-edge-computing.

The 5GTE will serve as an open-validation platform for government vendors, industries, and academia to validate their 5G solutions prior to commercial rollout.

The contract will help create up to 10 new jobs at ANDRO and lay the foundation for future growth, company officials said.

The 5GTE project will leverage ANDRO’s extensive research base in AI and wireless cybersecurity applications development for next generation 5G innovations. A key requirement is the ability to rapidly and accurately scale as new technologies and devices are introduced.

“The 5GTE must also provide remote access and device update capabilities,” ANDRO President Andrew Drozd said. “To broaden the range of supported devices and to facilitate development, 5GTE will have the ability to support different wireless communication technologies, for example 4G, wireless fidelity, and others.”

The award allows ANDRO to explore the boundaries of deploying AI models for enhancing security to infuse Zero-Trust principles within the open RAN architecture standards.

ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt AI Innovation Lab, led by Jithin Jagannath and Anu Jagannath, will spearhead the research effort with ANDRO’s academic partner, the Wireless Internet of Things Research Laboratory at Northeastern University, which has a wealth of 5G assets and related test resources. The team also includes ANDRO researchers Suhail Shaik and Mohammed Abu Zaid, residents and graduates of the University at Buffalo.

The company anticipates potential future funding would look to expand the 5GTE ecosystem participation, bringing greater 5G, Beyond 5G, and Future-G presence for commercialization and military transition benefit.

ANDRO provides research, engineering, and technical services to defense and commercial industries in advanced spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, software-based waveform development, cognitive software-defined radio networking, multi-sensor data fusion, and sensor-resource management.

Broome County IDA to host June 25 webinar on proposed technology park

Southern Tier, Construction, Design & Real Estate, Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Manufacturing & Engineering, New York News, Nonprofits, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The Broome County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) will hold an informational webinar on Tuesday, June 25, at 6 p.m., to provide the pubic with an overview of the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQRA) environmental-impact assessment process for the proposed Broome Technology Park in the towns of Maine and Union. The webinar will

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The webinar will cover why a general environmental impact statement (GEIS) is being prepared for the project and the steps involved in the process. Leaders from the IDA, along with subject-matter experts, will present information about the project’s objectives and explain how the environmental review and public engagement will shape the project’s future.

The webinar is part of the IDA’s strategy to engage the public, inform the community about the vision for the Broome Technology Park, and solicit input crucial to shaping the plan for a sustainably designed technology park.

As part of the SEQRA process, community members have an opportunity to provide formal comments on the scope of the draft GEIS and what potential environmental impacts the IDA should assess.

The IDA expects to release a draft scoping document for public review later this summer. Once public comments are received and a final scope is accepted, the IDA will prepare a draft GEIS. That draft will also be released for public comment before it is made final.

“We are dedicated to ensuring transparency and active community participation leading us to a Broome Technology Park that secures a brighter economic future for the county and the region,” Leadership Alliance CEO Stacey Duncan said in a press release. The Leadership Alliance is the strategic partnership between Broome County Industrial Development Agency/Local Development Corporation and the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce. “We welcome the public’s input throughout the SEQRA review and believe that at the end of this process, we’ll be able to move ahead with a site that becomes a model for sustainable economic development statewide.”

The Broome Technology Park is a proposed 526-acre development aimed at creating a new sustainably focused technology park to attract businesses in advanced electronics, semiconductors, test packaging, and related supply chains as well as life sciences and agricultural processing.

If it comes to fruition, it will be the first new business park since the Broome Corporate Park site in Conklin opened in the mid-1980s. With that park nearly 100-percent occupied, the county lacks other sufficient space large enough to accommodate the needs of high-tech-related development.

The IDA’s vision for the project is a park that features facilities built with sustainable materials, has access to renewable-energy resources, utilizes green infrastructure, and incorporates amenities that benefit on-site workers and the community such as walking trails and public art.

More information about the project is available online at broometechpark.com.

Those interested in the webinar are asked to register in advance at: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yO_swWi5SKqCFPqrF-Qj5g

Operation Oswego County annual meeting reviews 2023 projects, honors Onondaga SBDC

Small Business, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Featured, New York News, Nonprofits, North Country, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

OSWEGO, N.Y. — Operation Oswego County (OOC) and the County of Oswego IDA (COIDA) in 2023 assisted on projects that resulted in the creation or retention of 630 jobs with more than $130 million in capital investment. The projects were associated with 33 new, expanded, or retained facilities in the targeted industry clusters of manufacturing,

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The projects were associated with 33 new, expanded, or retained facilities in the targeted industry clusters of manufacturing, health care, tourism and hospitality, agribusiness and energy, OOC said in its Thursday, June 13 announcement.

Austin Wheelock, executive director of OOC, reported the data during the annual meeting of OOC, noting that the projects were spread over 16 municipalities around Oswego County.

Operation Oswego County held its 72nd annual meeting on Thursday at the Lake Ontario Event and Conference Center in Oswego. Ellen Holst, president of the OOC board of directors, welcomed 170 representatives of businesses, government, education, labor, and other community organizations to the meeting.

The OOC also announced that its board of directors elected Pete Cullinan, who is retired from Exelon, to succeed Holst as the board president, although Holst was also reelected to serve as a board member.

In his remarks, Wheelock also reported on marketing highlights and collaborative initiatives with key stakeholders such as National Grid, Oswego County Tourism, SUNY Oswego, the Port of Oswego Authority, Oswego County Workforce New York, and the Greater Oswego Fulton Chamber of Commerce.

Joseph Pacher, senior VP of operations at Constellation Energy, was the annual meeting’s keynote speaker. In his remarks, Pacher discussed Constellation’s economic impact on Oswego County, how its plants help New York state to meet its clean-energy goals, and the firm’s plans to continue to invest in and relicense Nine Mile I, Nine Mile II, and the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plants.

The annual meeting also included the announcement of several awards, including the Ally Award for 2024, which was presented to the Onondaga Small Business Development Center (SBDC) “in recognition and appreciation of the vision, commitment and leadership exhibited by the Onondaga [SBDC] to provide critical entrepreneurial training and technical assistance to the small businesses and entrepreneurs of Oswego County; and for being a vital and essential partner in economic development in Oswego County,” per the announcement.

AFRL Rome lab’s economic impact topped $509 million in 2023

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Mohawk Valley, New York News, Nonprofits, Small Business, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only, Technology

ROME, N.Y. — The economic impact of the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL) in Rome has decreased slightly but remained significant at $509 million for fiscal year (FY) 2023, the AFRL announced. The impact is down $1.2 million, or 0.2 percent, from the previous year. Both the Utica–Rome metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and

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The impact is down $1.2 million, or 0.2 percent, from the previous year.

Both the Utica–Rome metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and Syracuse MSA, which include the counties of Herkimer, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego, are included in the impact statement.

In FY 2023, the AFRL Information Directorate allocated $230 million toward annual expenditures within the five-county region. The spending encompasses various contracts for local service and facility modernization along with research and development contracts awarded to contractors within the impact area.

The AFRL Information Directorate received funds totaling more than $1.4 billion in FY 2023. It had 861 military and civilian employees during the year and paid over $120 million for their combined annual salaries. About 93 percent of the civilian workforce lives in the five-county region.

During the year, 529 local contractors were under Air Force contracts with a combined annual payroll of nearly $83 million.

The Information Directorate estimates it was responsible for an additional 1,516 indirect jobs in the regional with an annual dollar value of $88 million for those jobs.

The comptroller of the AFRL Information Directorate collects information about the organization’s purchases, contracts, utilities, construction, personnel numbers, and their salaries from various sources. The data is then compiled and analyzed according to official Air Force directorates. Multipliers, such as the indirect-jobs multiplier, have been developed according to U.S. Department of Defense standards based on the employment base size for each region surrounding an installation and the mission set of the installation.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force and has more than 12,500 employees across nine technology areas and over 40 locations around the world. The Rome facility is located at the Griffiss Business and Technology Park at the Steven J. DiMeo Campus.

Hochul provides update as Syracuse Developmental Center demolition work is underway

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Education & Training, Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Manufacturing & Engineering, New York News, Nonprofits, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday announced progress toward the $100 million project to turn the site of the former Syracuse Developmental Center into a mixed-use development on Syracuse’s West side. Demolition work is underway at 800-2 S. Wilbur Ave., which is not far from the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. Following the demolition, the

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Demolition work is underway at 800-2 S. Wilbur Ave., which is not far from the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.

Following the demolition, the plan is for a project that will include more than 250 new homes, 7.5 acres of green space, and 3,600 square feet of retail commercial space as part of the first phase of construction to redevelop the site, Hochul’s office said in a Friday announcement.

“With demolition under way, we are transforming the long-abandoned Syracuse Developmental Center into high quality, mixed-use, mixed-income housing that will rejuvenate this community,” the governor said. “You don’t win transformative projects like Micron without building and investing, and we will continue to work with local leaders like Mayor Walsh to keep building the housing we need, keep investing in new opportunity, and keep driving toward an economy of the future.”

Hochul on Friday afternoon provided a project update to a gathering of local officials inside Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler High School at 227 Magnolia St. on Syracuse’s West side.

New York is providing up to $29 million in state funding for the project, which Hochul’s office says will help to support the statewide goals of increasing New York’s housing supply with new market-rate and affordable options and establishing a regional job hub to help drive the local economy.

State funding will support pre-development site preparation work, including the demolition and remediation of the existing structures on the site as well as infrastructure investments to expand water and sewer service lines, roads and sidewalks, tree planting, canopy and lighting throughout the site.

Mohawk Valley contractor Ritter & Paratore Contracting Inc. has been selected to undertake the demolition/environmental remediation of the existing structures and grading of the site in the building demolition location.

“Demolition of the former Syracuse Developmental Center is a critical step toward the long-awaited transformation of this property,” Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said in the state’s announcement. “The site has been a neighborhood eyesore and public safety concern for years. Getting it back on the tax roll and into productive use will be a catalyst for continued investment in Syracuse’s west side. The 47-acre site is ideally suited to meet the growing need for quality mixed-income housing and high-tech manufacturing space in Syracuse. I thank Governor Hochul for making this long-awaited transformative mixed-use project a reality.”

The redevelopment of the 600,000-square-foot Syracuse Developmental Center is a multi-phase, mixed-use project that will include hundreds of new housing units, an advanced manufacturing facility with office space, vibrant new green space, and retail. Phase I of the project is set to begin in late 2025, Hochul’s office said.

The state contends the project will help Syracuse and the surrounding Central New York region prepare for the arrival of Micron, whose $100 billion commitment to build a new campus in the town of Clay is expected to create 50,000 new jobs over the next 20 years.

Some cardiac surgeries set to resume at Wynn Hospital

Mohawk Valley, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Featured, Health Care, Law, Accounting & Taxes, New York News, Nonprofits, Subscriber Only, Technology

UTICA, N.Y. — Some, but not all, of the paused cardiac surgeries at Mohawk Valley Health System’s (MVHS) Wynn Hospital will resume this month, according to a press release from the organization. MVHS’s structural heart program will resume June 20 with the caveat that a cardiac surgeon is required to be present in the operating

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UTICA, N.Y. — Some, but not all, of the paused cardiac surgeries at Mohawk Valley Health System’s (MVHS) Wynn Hospital will resume this month, according to a press release from the organization.

MVHS’s structural heart program will resume June 20 with the caveat that a cardiac surgeon is required to be present in the operating room while any structural heart procedure is being performed.

As of June 20, MVHS will have cardiac-surgeon coverage to perform transcather aortic valve replacements (TAVR), WATCHMAN procedures, and MitraClip implantations.

TAVR is a procedure that replaces a diseased aortic value with a man-made valve. WATCHMAN involves implanting a device in the heart to treat atrial fibrillation and reduce the risk of a stroke. MitraClip is an implanted device that stops mitral valve leaking. It is implanted in a procedure called a transcatheter-edge-to-edge (TEER).

Open-heart surgery is still paused at the hospital and will likely remain so for several more months.

“Patient care and safety has been and will always be our top priority,” MVHS President/CEO Darlene Stromstad said in a release. “While there has been a frenzy of negativity around our decisions, the fact remains that the MVHS administration and board of directors keep patients as the focus of all that we do, and we act accordingly.”

MVHS announced on May 8 that open-heart surgeries were paused at the Wynn Hospital, which opened last October, after the New York State Department of Health (DOH) expressed concerns during a site survey.

At the time, MVHS said it would bring on an external organization to review the cardiac service and would collaborate with other facilities for those patients requiring open-heart surgery.

MVHS received an immediate jeopardy notice, which is a term used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a situation in which a provider’s noncompliance with one or more requirements of participation has caused or is likely to cause serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a resident or patient, according to an email from DOH spokesperson Cadence Acquaviva.

Facilities that receive an immediate jeopardy notice must submit an acceptable plan to improve the process that led to the deficiency and remove the immediacy of harm to patients. The immediate jeopardy is removed when surveyors verify the approved plan is fully implemented.

According to the release from MVHS, review of the open-heart surgery program is well underway with an unnamed external medical agency. Officials expect the review to wrap up at the end of June, with it taking several more months to restart the program.

MVHS officials stress the community should continue to visit Wynn Hospital for all cardiac treatment, especially time-sensitive issues such as heart attacks. Patients who may need open-heart surgery can be stabilized at Wynn before being transported to another facility for care.

MMRI welcomes 19 summer fellows for 2024

Education & Training, Health Care, Mohawk Valley, Subscriber Only

UTICA — The Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI) announced it will welcome 19 undergraduate students to its 2024 summer fellowship program where they will study under MMRI principal investigators and administrative executives for 10 weeks to gain scientific-research experience and insights into operations. Participants were selected based on academic excellence, innovative scientific-project ideas, and demonstrated

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Participants were selected based on academic excellence, innovative scientific-project ideas, and demonstrated drive. They will engage in hands-on research and participate in professional-development workshops covering topics including applying to medical and graduate school, the scientific code of conduct, and didactic lectures on various scientific disciplines, MMRI said in a release.

At the end of the program on July 27, the fellows will present their research to MMRI staff, colleagues, families, and community members.

This year’s fellows are: Rebecca Caruso, Bucknell University; Richard Chen, University of Michigan; Mariah Foster, SUNY Fredonia; Afomiya Kassie, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences; Nay Linn, Binghamton University; Alexandra Volo, Syracuse University; Dmytro Davydenko, Davidson College; Raegan Weems, University of Florida; Gianna Frank, Syracuse University; Houze Li, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Hope Garramone, Clarkson University; Alinur Jaboldinov, Hamilton College; Julia Sassower, Syracuse University; Zhijie Han, Syracuse University; Raeghan Sassower, Binghamton University; Emily Hemstrought, Nazareth University; Anna Zamperetti, LeMoyne College; Alexander Seeley, Clarkson University; and Owen Trela, St. Lawrence University.

“We are delighted to welcome our largest class to date into MMRI’s coveted summer fellowship program,” Maria Kontaridis, executive director, said in the release. “The halls of MMRI are bustling, and we look forward to seeing the culmination of their research experiences at the end of this program. This is a testament to our mission, which includes our commitment to training future generations of science and medicine.”

MMRI is a scientific-research facility that focuses on improving health and quality of life through the study of diseases and development of cures and treatments.

Five Star Bank parent company to pay Q2 dividend of 30 cents a share in early July

Banks & Credit Unions, Regional News

WARSAW, N.Y. — Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISI), holding company of Five Star Bank, recently announced that its board of directors approved a quarterly cash

Crouse Health Foundation names new board chair and members

Health Care, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — The Crouse Health Foundation recently announced the appointment of Anthony (Tony) Fiorito, a member of the board’s executive committee, as the new foundation board chair. Fiorito, an architect and real-estate developer, is president of Partnership Properties and board chair of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse, the foundation said in a release. He replaces

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ConMed to pay dividend for second quarter of 2024 in early July

Manufacturing & Engineering, Mohawk Valley, Subscriber Only, Technology

ConMed Corp. (NYSE: CNMD), a surgical-device maker with roots in the Utica region, announced that its board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 20 cents per share for the second quarter of this year. The dividend is payable on July 5, to all shareholders of record as of June 14. At the

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