Siemens and SUNY CCC Celebrate Opening of STEAM Innovation Center and Collaboration

Projects Parul Dubey on April 26, 2019 - in News

STEAM Innovation Center leverages cross-disciplinary collaboration to drive innovation

Energy savings project to help reduce College’s carbon footprint, improve energy efficiency, and raise student awareness

Siemens to collaborate with the college to shape future academic curriculum for energy careers

SUNY Corning Community College (CCC) will leverage a $3.5 million partnership with Siemens to begin the process of making the College’s Spencer Hill campus more energy efficient and prepare professionals for leadership roles in new and emerging areas of technology, design, and science. At a ceremonial groundbreaking held April 22, 2019, SUNY CCC and Siemens officially launched the project that will establish the College’s STEAM Innovation Center, where state-of-the-art equipment will allow the College to explore and expand public-private partnerships with local employers in order to meet their workforce needs, as well as implement a campus-wide effort to reduce the College’s carbon footprint, improve energy efficiency, and raise student awareness about the importance of environmental sustainability. Faculty and industry mentorship in the STEAM Innovation Center will prepare students with a rigorous education in professions that support industries like Advanced Manufacturing. Academic programs to be incorporated include Mechatronics and Digital Design.

“We are grateful to New York State and the Governor for the continued support of our mission to prepare students for rewarding careers in the 21st century as we meet the needs of local business and industry,” said Dr. Katherine P. Douglas, President of SUNY Corning Community College. “The STEAM Innovation Center will be an interdisciplinary facility that will unleash the power of innovation and collaboration as a result of the transformative power that comes from working in synergy across boundaries. The programs that the Center will help us develop will further empower us to meet our region’s workforce needs – with new programs and new training techniques, including apprenticeship opportunities.”

“SUNY CCC and Siemens share similar values of sustainability, energy efficiency, and creating perfect places for students to learn and grow,” added Joseph Peters, Zone Vice President at Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA. “SUNY CCC took proactive measures on its Spencer Hill campus to improve faculty and student comfort, increase energy savings, and reduce its carbon footprint. This holds true to the college’s vision of ‘being a premier community college where learning transforms lives.’”

The STEAM Innovation Center at SUNY CCC’s Schuyler Hall will house the Mechatronics Lab and Innovation Hub where the College will explore and expand public-private partnerships with local employers to help meet their workforce needs. The STEAM Innovation Center and equipment for paradigm-shifting careers is supported by Siemens as well as several grants and related matches, including a $1 million Empire State Development award (for the Mechatronics Lab), a $150,000 Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) grant matched with state capital funds (for the Innovation Hub), and $500,000 from county capital funds – matched by SUNY capital funds.

On-campus energy efficiency measures include replacing more than 10,000 mercury-containing fluorescent bulbs with long-life, no-mercury LED units. Digital controls turn the lights on and off, based on schedules and occupancy sensors. Similarly, demand-controlled ventilation will reduce energy usage in unoccupied spaces. New high efficiency heating systems will replace an inefficient and outdated boiler plant, allowing for additional energy savings and improved reliability. Weather sealing and other building envelope improvements are also being made. Additionally, a small solar photovoltaic installation will also generate energy and provide learning content for students in engineering technology and environmental studies courses.

These facility improvement measures, along with additional digital metering and controls, will help the Spencer Hill campus reduce its energy usage and its carbon footprint by approximately 4,835 metric tons annually. This is equal to removing 1,026 cars from the road annually or supplying 579 homes with energy for one year! Future energy saving initiatives will involve solar photovoltaic power, electric vehicle charging, energy storage systems, and microgrid controls.

In addition, Siemens is also collaborating with SUNY CCC to build a curriculum that connects faculty and students to campus energy systems for new energy career pathways in areas like Mechatronics, Advanced Manufacturing, and Building Automation Systems. This collaborative effort will help create a campus as a living laboratory, where students and faculty will use Siemens’ Navigator cloud-based energy and sustainability management platform to track and analyze real-time on-campus energy performance data, including building energy consumption, system performance, and energy supply.

“In the months and years ahead, the STEAM Innovation Center will continue looking at incorporating new programs and training techniques, including apprenticeship opportunities, that will provide students with a rigorous education in new and emerging areas that will ensure the health and safety of the world around us,” said Douglas. “We’re committed to preparing our students to take a leadership role in making a difference in their communities and world around them.”

About SUNY Corning Community College

More than 20,000 alumni have started their professional journeys at SUNY Corning Community College since its founding in 1957, with support from the Corning area school district. In the 1980s, SUNY CCC became the first regional community college in New York State. Today, SUNY CCC’s student body comes from all parts of the state, and the college is a member of the State University of New York (SUNY). As a SUNY school and a premier two-year college, SUNY CCC is committed to intellectual and personal growth; meeting the educational needs of the community through transfer, career, certificate, and training programs; and enhancing economic development. The College’s diverse population of full- and part-time learners enjoys a high-quality experience at an affordable rate, with an extensive range of educational, cultural, and social opportunities.

About Siemens

Siemens Smart Infrastructure (SI) is shaping the market for intelligent, adaptive infrastructure for today and the future. It addresses the pressing challenges of urbanization and climate change by connecting energy systems, buildings and industries. SI provides customers with a comprehensive end-to-end portfolio from a single source – with products, systems, solutions and services from the point of power generation all the way to consumption. With an increasingly digitalized ecosystem, it helps customers thrive and communities progress while contributing toward protecting the planet. SI creates environments that care. With around 71,000 employees worldwide, Siemens Smart Infrastructure has its global headquarters in Zug, Switzerland, and its U.S. corporate headquarters in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, USA.

Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global powerhouse focusing on the areas of power generation and distribution, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, and automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Through the separately managed company Siemens Mobility, a leading supplier of smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is shaping the world market for passenger and freight services. Due to its majority stakes in the publicly listed companies Siemens Healthineers AG and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital healthcare services as well as environmentally friendly solutions for onshore and offshore wind power generation. For more than 160 years, the company has innovated and invented technologies to support American industry spanning manufacturing, energy, healthcare and infrastructure. In fiscal 2018, Siemens USA reported revenue of $23.7 billion, including $5.0 billion in exports, and employs approximately 50,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico.