ALBANY, NY – SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s (SUNY Poly) College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) announced that Michael Fancher, Director of SUNY Poly’s Advanced Manufacturing Performance (AMP) Center and the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Nanomaterials and Nanoelectronics (CATN2), has received $397,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The purpose of the grant is to train on-site employees and to serve as a regional training hub for Building Operations & Maintenance (O&M) of mission-critical facilities that will utilize a “digital twin” of the Building Management System (BMS) and the Energy Monitoring System (EMS) that are used to operate the Zero Energy Nano (ZEN) smart building.

The ZEN building, completed in 2015 and located at the Albany NanoTech Complex, is a 356,000-square-foot facility that serves as a living laboratory for smart building technology innovation and workforce development in data science, facility operations, and clean energy technologies. ZEN Smart PATH is a multi-year project that will train more than 100 on-site and regional partner employees by utilizing multiple data science platforms tailored for the many exciting careers in facility operations.

Using a combination of training simulators, use cases, and data system platforms, ZEN Smart PATH will expand upon the previously announced Career Alignment Platform (CAP) that was developed with support from ReWire Group to organize career content by each facility system and provide access to the AMP Skillup America Learning Management System (LMS) to establish clear “career pathways” for equipment technicians and engineers. AMP Skillup America was co-developed in partnership with MetrixLearning to provide free access to commercially available online self-directed training content (e.g. Amatrol, Comptia, BIN 95, etc.) in the hardware and Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA) architecture software systems.

Al Evans, one of the Managing Partners of the ReWire Group said, “NYSERDA’s ongoing financial support and SUNY Poly’s deep subject matter expertise are two major components in why New York leads the nation in high-tech skills development. As a proud partner to SUNY Poly and a NYSERDA-designated Clean Energy Training provider, ReWire looks forward to its supporting role in helping to lay the building blocks for our most important resource–our skilled people. As an NYS Certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), and a firm working at the intersection of energy, technology, and training, ReWire is uniquely qualified to help foster the development of skilled trades of all New Yorkers, ensuring we continue to develop the best and most diverse workforce in the US.”

For more information visit SUNY Polytechnic Institute.