NYIT Unveils Unique Clean Room in Nassau County

Government and corporate officials joined the NYIT community at the opening of Nassau County's first and only "class 10,000 clean room" at NYIT-Old Westbury's campus earlier this week. Pictured are Cara Longworth, regional director for Long Island, Empire State Development Corporation; NYIT President Edward Guiliano, Ph.D.; Sen. Carl L. Marcellino of New York's 5th Senate District; and Nada Marie Anid, Ph.D., dean of the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences.

"We are here to contribute to advances in electronics, photonics, communications, medicine, and many other fields," Guiliano said at the ribbon-cutting event. "We are here living NYIT's DNA vision of performing applied research for the betterment of society."

Clean rooms are classified according to the number and size of particles permitted per volume of air. These particles are measured in microns: one micron equals one millionth of a meter—smaller than a living cell. NYIT's class 10,000 clean room will enable students, faculty members, and industry researchers to perform experiments in an atmosphere that allows only 10,000 particles (half a micron or larger) per cubic foot of air. In comparison, typical office building air contains 500,000 to 1,000,000 such particles per cubic foot of air.

NYIT's clean room houses a sputtering machine and microscopy tools that allow researchers to nano-engineer unique composite materials and create microchips, sensors, and implantable and wearable medical devices. The facility is part of NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences' materials science and microscopy lab. Faculty scientists and engineers will use the space to create, test, simulate, and characterize materials and composites, and give students invaluable insights on how material properties and structures work at a sub-molecular level.

Anid emphasized that the facility will help to boost Long Island's economy by promoting and providing access to advances in high-tech research and development. The Empire State Development Corporation and the National Science Foundation provided funding for the clean room.

Several government officials participated in the ribbon-cutting event, including Marcellino, Longworth, and Peter DiSilvio, director of special projects in the Nassau County Executive Office, who presented a citation to NYIT in honor of the new facility.

"Our vision to promote 'engineering for society' is alive today," said Anid. "It lives through the innovation brought into our classrooms by our industry and community partnerships, our school's advisory board, and NYIT's Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center."

Tom Van Laan (M.B.A. '84), CEO of CloudCalc Inc., an entrepreneur and member of the NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences' advisory board, noted that a facility like the clean room supports industry and business, thanks to the research and development it enables and the productivity it drives. He said: "It engenders a great sense of pride in NYIT."