The 2010 program year (7/1/09-6/30/10) marks an important milestone for the Center for Automation Technologies and Systems (CATS) – we have been re-designated by the New York State Foundation for Research, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR) as a Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) for another 10 years.  This will be the start of our third decade; the CATS was first designated in 1988, and re-designated in 1999.  It is no secret that New York State is facing severe financial challenges, but its continued investment in the CATS has been a wise decision: The CATS has an impressive record of delivering results for companies across the entire state. In the past four years, since CATS’ current leadership took over, CATS’ economic impact in New York totaled $154M in revenues ($38M/yr average) and 399 new and retained jobs.  
In Fiscal 2009, we continue to emphasize the development of industrial projects assisting companies with problem solving, product development, process improvement, and training, and the abstraction of these projects into cohesive focus research thrusts: Manufacturing Automation, Sensing and Monitoring, Simulation and Design, and Precision Motion and Assembly. In this period, we have 37 new or continuing projects with New York State companies, 10 new or continuing projects with firms outside of New York, and 12 federally funded projects. These projects strengthen ties with our existing industrial partners as well as establish links with new sponsors.   For example, CATS faculty Qiang Ji assisted a new CATS partner company, Kitware, in Clifton Park, NY, to secure a multi-year multi-million DARPA project on image-based database management, and the CATS team led by CATS Director for Industrial Automation, Ray Puffer, helped Progressive Machine & Design (PMD) in Victor, NY, to multi-million dollars increase in sales.  We have been very successful in teaming up with companies for research projects sponsored by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), including projects with Construction Robotics, Ducommun Aerospace, Kintz Plastics, Mech-X, MPI, SOMS Technology, and Sonotek.  These projects all involve reducing energy consumption and ameliorating environmental impact through the integration of modeling, design, and automation. We have also teamed with small companies in winning SBIR/STTR awards, including Infoscitex and Ceralink. The CATS has been steadily growing research programs related to energy systems and advanced manufacturing.  Our fuel cell manufacturing research program remains a leader in the field with strong industrial (BASF Fuel Cell), state (NYSERDA) and federal (DOE) funding.  We are now leveraging the fuel cell expertise to the manufacturing of battery and energy storage systems.  Our power systems research (including smart grid) also has strong industrial, state and federal support. 
The CATS continues to be a strong partner of the Computation Center for Nanoelectronics Innovations (CCNI) at Rensselaer.  Several CATS projects draw on CCNI for complex systems simulation and design.  Together with SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Buffalo, and NYSERNet, CATS and CCNI secured a $1M CAT Development Program funding to support this world-class supercomputing capability.
At the CATS, our philosophy is to be inspired by challenging industrial problems and abstract the solutions to general principles and methodologies. As an example, we had a number of heat transfer and thermal modeling and control projects in diverse application areas, from semiconductor processing to crystal growth to titanium processing.  Building on the team and experience, we now have a vibrant research program in thermal management.  An important part of the CATS strategy is to leverage the industrial partnership for government funding to develop new capabilities and conduct fundamental investigations.  This approach has led to the first ever Department of Energy grant on fuel cell manufacturing, a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant funded by Office of Naval Research on thermal management for high heat flux electronics, and our strong participation in the NSF Engineering Research Center on Smart Lighting.
There have been several recent personnel changes.  We bid farewell with tremendous gratitude to the CATS Associate Director, Mike Shimazu, who took up a new post in NYSERDA; CATS research scientist, Bill Gressick, who re-joined Barron Associates in Virginia; and CATS faculty, Murat Arcak, and Volkan Isler, who went to University of California at Berkeley and University of Minnesota, respectively.  We also welcome our new Associate Director, Craig Dory, who was instrumental in our re-designation effort; new CATS research engineer, Justin Gullotta, who came to us from Brookhaven National Laboratory; and several new CATS faculty members, including Jeff Ban (Civil), Diana Borca-Tasciuc (Mechanical), Victor Chan (Industrial), Douglas Chrisey (Materials), David Corr (Biomedical), Agung Julius (Electrical), and Jennifer Ryan (Industrial).
Several CATS IAB members have reached the end of their terms in the past year.  We’d like to thank Andy Cohn, John Evans, Jim Smith, Mark Unrath, and Tony Wilson for their advice and help as members of the board.   We will miss our board member and dear friend, John Papazian, who passed away last year.  John had provided steadfast support since our renewal five years ago.   We would also like to welcome new board members, Tom Coller, David Gross, Gordon Hirschman, Bill Hoffman, Shaun Mahoney, and George Rodgers, as well as welcome back returning members Alex Cable, Gordon Calundann, Jeff Lawrence, Miriam Pye, and Dan Sexton, who have graciously and generously agree to volunteer their time to help the CATS.
It has been an exciting and exhilarating year.  I would like to thank the NYSTAR for its continuing guidance and support, our outstanding and dedicated faculty, staff, and students for their enthusiasm and contribution, and our industrial, educational, and outreach partners for their collaboration.  We look forward to continuing our productive journey together!
Sincerely,

John T. Wen
Director, Center for Automation Technologies and Systems (CATS)
Professor, Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering (ECSE), and
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY