ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Vice President Joe Biden was in Rochester on Monday to announce a new photonics manufacturing center.
Biden joined political, business and education leaders at SUNY Polytechnic at Canal Ponds to announce details of the new photonics manufacturing center. The $110 million startup grant will aid local universities and business in researching photonics. An estimated 6,000 jobs could be generated.
"You need a vision, and that's where the government comes in. Government, your vision, the billions that have already been invested by the state of New York in this generic area, specifically, is the reason why you won that competition," Biden said. All the intellectual horsepower we need is here."
Biden said it's only fitting this project be housed in a former Eastman Kodak facility. After all, former Kodak engineers are the ones that initiated the local photonics industry.
The public-private partnership includes the federal and state governments, colleges and universities along with local companies.
"The Department of Defense is going to invest $110 million over five years while $500 million will come from a consortium across 20 states including 55 companies, 33 community colleges, 16 non-profit organizations, 20 universities led by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York," Biden said.
Photonics are used in nearly every part of our daily lives, from cell phones to bar coding. It is also used in medical technology, defense, telecommunications, the internet and more.
"The public-private partnership we're establishing here today to invest in the innovative photonics can help revolutionize the movement of American commerce as well with traffic monitoring and collision appointing systems. Increased speed and efficiency in the transmission of data," said Biden.
The University of Rochester and RIT will play a major role.
The $625 million investment is expected to span the entire region.
"We have partners in this consortium from Alfred University, Cornell University; we got 55 companies around the Finger Lakes, Western New York, Upstate area," said Rep. Tom Reed, 23rd District. "This is about a game changer for our area of Western New York."
Government leaders believe the Integrated Photonics Institute will make the Rochester region a mecca for jobs and innovation.
"When the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy recognize that everything that they need is being done here and being done with the superb workforce that we have, we sell ourselves," said Rep. Louise Slaughter, 25th District.
In the end, this could bring thousands and thousands of jobs to the Rochester region.
"We're now going through the process of determining who does what in part of the consortium. There's research, there's prototyping, there's manufacturing and development, so there's a lot of work to be done," said Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle, D-Irondequoit.