July 17 2020
Advanced Materials,Manufacturing,Nanotechnology,Research & Development

CEG Continues to Represent the Capital Region at SEMICON West – Now Virtually

Regional industry attraction efforts continue despite COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic will not be stopping the Center for Economic Growth from promoting the Capital Region’s innovation assets and manufacturing capabilities at the nation’s leading semiconductor industry event. Except instead of traveling to San Francisco to attend the 50th annual SEMICON West, CEG and other regional partners will be participating in its virtual event.

SEMICON West

From Monday through Thursday, CEG, as part of New York Loves Nano, will be representing the Capital Region at the virtual New York State Pavilion for SEMICON West. Also at the Pavilion, which is supported by National Grid and Empire State Development, will be Exyte, NY CREATES and Microtronic. The NY Loves Nano members include CEG, Mohawk Valley EDGE, Onondaga County IDA, Greater Rochester Enterprise and Genesee County Economic Development Center.

These groups will be highlighting the key industry and academic assets across upstate NY’s tech corridor (I-90), including Luther Forest Tech Campus, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Marcy Nanocenter, White Pine Tech Park and Western NY STAMP. SEMICON West’s keynote speakers are former Vice President Al Gore and Gary Dickerson, the president and CEO of Applied Materials, which is investing $600 million in a first-of-its-kind R&D center at SUNY Polytechnic Institute.

This year’s conference comes amid a major effort to vastly increase federal funding for semiconductor R&D and domestic manufacturing of computer chips, through acts such as the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act. The CHIPS for America Act would create a $10 billion federal program to incentivize new domestic manufacturing facilities and boost federal funding for semiconductor R&D.

For a free SEMICON West Expo Pass that grants access to the virtual booths, register here.

Advanced Electronics in NY

According to data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, businesses in New York invested $405 million in semiconductor component R&D in 2017, outpacing states such as North Carolina ($373 million), Colorado ($301 million) and Pennsylvania ($230 million). With Cree building the world’s largest silicon carbide device facility at the Marcy Nanocenter near Utica and Applied Materials developing a Materials Engineering Technology Accelerator (META Center) at SUNY Poly, this type of private sector R&D spending in New York will likely increase.

The Capital Region’s advanced electronics cluster drives much of that R&D spending. One in five semiconductor device patents awarded in U.S. in 2018 listed at least one Capital Region inventor. In 2019, the eight-county region averaged 5,675 jobs in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences industry and 3,635 jobs in the semiconductor and related devices manufacturing industry. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is one of less than 50 MSAs nationwide where the private sector spends more than $1 billion annually on R&D.

CEG Industry Attraction

In its efforts to attract more technology companies to and drive job growth in the Capital Region, the Center for Economic Growth (CEG) promoted the Capital Region at 78 industry attraction events in 41 cities worldwide between 2015 and 2019. While coronavirus-related cancellations of mass gatherings have temporarily halted this industry attraction-related travel, CEG is continuing to pursue industry attraction by participating in virtual conferences for key industries and engaging key business leaders.

While CEG began 2020 attending events such as SEMI ISS in Halfmoon Bay, California, the Offshore Wind Executive Summit in Galveston, Texas, and the Site Selectors Guild Annual Meeting in Atlanta, the organization has been participating in virtual industry attraction events since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples include the International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum and SEMICON West. CEG has also hosted an Offshore Wind (OSW) webinar with NYSERDA and Orsted, an international OSW developer.

See the gallery of CEGs 2020 industry attraction promotional flyers.

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