Upstate's manufacturing news has been as glum and gray as a New
York winter, but in Tompkins County this week, there was another
patch of blue sky.
Kionix Inc. attracted $28.5 million from investors to expand its
Lansing operations that make microscopic mechanical and electronic
systems used in cars, cell phones and biotechnology.
Kionix is a small firm -- about 55 employees -- that hatched in
1993 when founders Greg Galvin and Tim Davis built the firm on
research they and others conducted at Cornell University. By
adapting research to product applications, Kionix has produced an
array of products ranging from protecting your laptop from theft to
deploying the airbag in your car.
While Kionix deserves to take a bow, it's part of an increasing
number of promising firms in Tompkins County that have figured out
how to turn Cornell research to new products and services.
A few among these emerging Tompkins County firms are:
Binoptics, a firm that maker lasers and photodiodes.
Silicon Video Inc., a maker of imaging sensors and scanning
equipment for bar codes and parcels.
Viral Therapeutics Inc., which has helped develop therapeutics,
vaccines and diagnostic tests.
The success of these small Cornell spin-offs is making an
significant change in the Tompkins County economy. Most of the
spin-offs are located in the Cornell Business and Technology Park.
Today, about 1,600 people work for the 90 firms in that facility.
The park's annual payroll totals $57 million. During the next 10
years -- even without further development -- the park is expected to
produce $11 million in property taxes, said John Majeroni, director
of real estate for Cornell.
Many of those jobs at the Cornell Business & Technology Park
are in manufacturing and that has made a distinct difference in
Tompkins County. In the last 10 years, New York has lost a third of
its manufacturing jobs. During the same time, Tompkins has seen a 10
percent growth in manufacturing to about 4,000 jobs.
These aren't your father's job in a smokestack factory either.
They're manufacturing labs with workers in moon suits and post-docs
building machines that are smaller than the width of a human hair.
The devices made today in Tompkins County treat diseases like
diabetes, turn sewage sludge into energy and guide space missions to
Mars.
While our Upstate neighbors struggle with retooling their
economies, Tompkins County has been growing businesses and jobs.
That is a remarkable feat in Upstate, made sweeter by clever local
entrepreneurs, investors and public planners who figured out how to
build a bridge from Cornell's laboratories to the global
marketplace.
