SUNY Upstate Medical University’s leadership team visited SUNY Oswego recently as the two higher education institutions build ways to serve the region’s needs in research and development.

SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley welcomed them to campus, noting that Oswego and Upstate have collaborated on successful projects and proposals through SUNY 2020, the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council and the Upstate Revitalization Initiative.

She told how the college worked with major engineering firms in the region to establish degree programs in software engineering and electrical and computer engineering as a way to attract talented people to Central New York who will stay to work and thrive here.

Similarly, she said, Oswego and Upstate are committed to “putting our hearts and minds and expertise together for the good of our community and the sustainability of the intellectual foundations for the region.”

The group toured Oswego’s Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation, including the Advanced Wireless Systems Research Center. The center is part of the Institute for Environmental Health and Environmental Medicine, funded by a SUNY 2020 grant on which Oswego and Upstate partnered along with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Onondaga Community College.

Pat Parimi, director of the center, explained equipment and projects in the wireless teaching lab in Shineman and the construction under way to create the wireless research lab next door in Wilber Hall.

Faculty from Oswego’s programs in human-computer interaction and biomedical and health informatics spoke as the two institutions explored avenues of additional collaboration.

Interim Upstate President Gregory Eastwood was accompanied on the visit by Eric Smith, senior vice president for finance and administration; David Amberg, vice president for research; Lynn Cleary, vice president for academic affairs; David Duggan, dean of the College of Medicine; Mark Schmitt, dean of graduate studies; and Leah Caldwell, assistant vice president for marketing and university communications.