US Airways Magazine - City of Syracuse

PROFILE
Syracuse
usairwaysmag.com May 2006
Garden that is partnering with the Research
Foundation of the State University
of New York to commercialize
technologies in biosciences, life sciences,
medical devices, and more, and the
Technology Garden’s PreSeed Workshop,
which puts
university technologists
through an intensive
review with
business coaches,
intellectual property
lawyers, and MBA
students. Sixteen
potential companies
have gone through
the program in Syracuse,
and some have offered jobs to the
MBA students.
Says Syracuse Mayor Matthew
Driscoll, “We were progressive before it
was fashionable, and now people across
Get Connected
Visitors to Syracuse in October
can see more of its technology
potential at fuse2007, a two-day
showcase at the Oncenter of
the area’s business potential.
Go to fuse2007.com
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the country are looking at how progressive
Syracuse has become.”
Irwin Davis agrees. “I’m convinced
that, a century from now, historians
will look back on this period as a golden
era for Syracuse and the entire central
upstate region,”
says Davis, president
and CEO of the
Metropolitan Development
Association.
“We’re building
on a tradition of
innovations that influenced
the world.
We have some of
the most exciting
new companies in the country, developing
products that will shape the 21st
century as much as Willis Carrier’s invention
of the air conditioner shaped
the last century.”
Going places? Funny, so are we.
ZEROING IN
ON RADAR
When your plane touches down safely
today, remember this: Somebody in Syracuse
probably helped make it possible.
The central New York region is home
to a collection of businesses that make
systems to keep you safe in the air and on
the ground. The systems watch for
threats against U.S. soldiers abroad and
to the quality of our drinking water at
home. Companies here include Sensis,
which makes air-traffic control and air defense
systems, and SRCTec, which
makes a counter-mortar radar and a device
for jamming radio-controlled explosives.
Lockheed Martin also runs a facility
in the area making undersea radar.
Sensis started 22 years ago with five
employees from a former General Electric
radar operation in Syracuse. Jud Gostin,
its CEO, says that if he tried to move the
business now, he’d face a mass revolt. “I’d
lose half my technical talent,” he says.
That talent has helped the company
grow to 570 employees with more than
$100 million in annual sales. Where is he
finding it? Among other places, at Syracuse
University, where Gostin sits on
the board of advisers for its College of
Engineering.
SRCTec was spun out of a company
founded by the university 50 years ago.
SRCTec president, native Syracusan Mary
Ann Tyszko, credits the area’s engineering
heritage, its strong manufacturing base,
and its educational resources. “You can
further your education and be in touch
with leading-edge research here,” says
Tyszko, who did graduate work at SU.
Another local firm, Anaren, develops
radar technology for space and defense
purposes. But it also employs the basic
technology of radar — RF signals and their
high-frequency counterpart, microwave
signals — in developing components for
cell-phone towers and for consumer electronics
such as handsets.
An air traffic controller uses Sensis’
Airport Surface Detection Equipment
Model X Program (ASDE-X) and display.
So a city known for its snow is actually
on to some fairly hot radar technology. As
Sensis’s Gostin says, “the systems-engineering
capabilities, the problem-solving
capabilities — there is no place that does
that better than Syracuse.” — VC
C o u r t e s y o f S e n s i s C o r p o r a t i o n
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