Educators Stress Tech Training at all Levels
Published Apr 15, 2005
Children get involved in hands-on projects at Tech Valley Tech Camp.
In Tech Valley, wise politicians, educators and industries have teamed up to create new educational opportunities to ensure that graduates – at all levels – are ready for tomorrow with high-tech training and on-task education.
That’s why initiatives such as the world’s first College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the Albany NanoTech campus, which welcomed students in fall 2004; the KIPP Tech Valley Charter School, which opens in July 2005; and Tech Valley High, a technology-focused high school set to open in 2007, are being given top priority.
The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University at Albany already has 75 graduate students who learn in a 450,000-square-foot NanoFab megacomplex that includes the only 200 mm/300 mm wafer facilities in the academic world. Also, more than 65,000 square feet of cleanroom facilities house more than $1.5 billion in wafer device fabrication and integration facilities. Nanotechnology is a field of research and product development that feeds industries such as computer chip development, biotechnology, telecommunications, homeland defense and environmental science. With more than 1,000 high-tech companies already in Tech Valley, the facility will serve as both a feeder and a magnet for the region’s workforce.
“CNSE is pioneering a new paradigm of academic innovation in teaching and research: scientific in nature, interdisciplinary in focus, collaborative in practice, and with an eye towards practical application,” says Alain E. Kaloyeros, the college’s vice president and chief administrative officer. “This paradigm provides the next generations of scientists and engineers with a unique skill set for the highly competitive environment of the 21st century global economy.”
Tech Valley High, a 400-student, $30 million, regional technical high school, is being developed through a partnership between the Questar III BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) and Capital Region BOCES. The school will train students in emerging technologies, and will pull enrollment by lottery from 48 school districts across Tech Valley. BOCES officials are awaiting passage of “special act” legislation, which is necessary to establish funding.
Rather than targeting overachievers, the school is for mid-level students who may not be learning at their full potential in a traditional setting. In August 2004, Questar III’s Cliff Hebert oversaw Tech Valley Tech Camp, which gave 24 middleschoolers and their parents a taste of what to expect.
“The feedback was phenomenal,” Herbert said. “I wish we had a school ready to put these kids in now. One mother wrote, ‘You gave my son a once-in-a-lifetime experience. He’s now really excited about the sciences.’”
The KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Tech Valley Charter School, under construction on Albany’s Northern Boulevard, will provide at-risk students a challenging learning environment. Extended hours (7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and four hours on Saturday), two-three hours of nightly homework, college prep instruction and educational field trips combine to create a program that, while daunting, has been proven to work, says John Reilly, president of Dynamic Applications Inc. and president of the KIPP Tech Valley Charter School Board.
“We want to give these kids a sense that they are responsible for their own destiny – that to be successful, you work hard,” Reilly says. “It seems to me that too much of our society is looking for the shortcut. KIPP’s motto is, ‘There are no shortcuts.’”
Story by Jill Clendening
Photo by Dan Sherman
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