Product Development Company Uses CUSpot
POTSDAM- A product-development company based near Syracuse will begin using some vacant space in Clarkson University's Peyton Hall this spring.
C Speed LLC, Liverpool, recently signed a partnership agreement that would bring a few of the company's nearly 40 employees to Potsdam full time to work on various projects in conjunction with some of the university's researcher divisions, including those in the Center for Advanced Materials Processing.
"I'm certain for smaller companies, their own internal research and development operations aren't as extensive, so they like to be near universities," said Kelly O. Chezum, vice president for external relations at Clarkson. "They're hoping to open later this spring."
The partnership will offer more internship opportunities to Clarkson students, as well as access to some of C Speed's equipment.
"We're looking to bring some of our equipment into Clarkson projects," C Speed President and CEO David A. Lysack said. "Our technology works for them and we'll have some of their brain power and knowledge."
That combination, according to Mr. Lysack, will translate to more job offers to Clarkson students at the company, which was founded in 1996 by two Clarkson graduates.
"The best access to interns that we get is over the summer. What this allows us to do is really get 12 months of coverage and have access to students year round," he said. "We'll hire employees right out of the internship."
How much space the company will have in Peyton Hall, which is currently mostly vacant, has yet to be determined. Company officials will come up in the next few weeks to go over floor plans and architectural drawings. Peyton is in the process of being renovated to make room for other companies and start-ups. It currently holds Clarkson University's high voltage and material processing labs.
Though some of the projects that the two will collaborate on are confidential, according to Mr. Lysack, one of them will deal with the effects of wind turbines on radar.
Radar signals can be interrupted by the blades of wind turbines, making it difficult to tell if there is aircraft flying above a field of turbines. As turbines become more prevalent, especially near military installations, problems have come up.
"It's a combination project," Mr. Lysack said. "Radar systems are being interfered with by wind turbines, so it's a combination of renewable energy and radar technology. We seem to have the solution to that, but we'll be working with Clarkson to perfect it."
Not all of Peyton Hall has been rented out, but the college plans to market the space to other potential tenants in the hopes that the partnership with C Speed could become a model for other, similar, arrangements, Ms. Chezum said.
"One of our goals is to make the north country a great place to live work and learn," she said. "We send students all over the world and many of them are from the north country. This may give them the opportunity to stay."
