Binghamton University will receive nearly $2 million from New York as part of $16.6 million in technology and science awards designed to ensure long-term growth in the state’s high-technology and biotechnology industries.

The Integrated Electronics Engineering Center (IEEC) will get $1.7 million to develop systems integration technology and packaging and to enable the commercialization of new flexible electronic applications.

In addition, Assistant Professor Lijun “Jerry” Yin received a $200,000 award to develop a system for dynamic modeling, recognition and analysis of faces in a three-dimensional space, an innovation that could have important homeland security applications.

Project partners in the IEEC include Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Cornell University, the United States Display Consortium, Army Research Laboratory and the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing at Binghamton University.

The IEEC award was made through the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR). NYSTAR’s Centers for Advanced Technology (CAT) development program creates nationally recognized research centers and brings high-technology innovations to the marketplace.

The existing CAT program supports university-industry collaborations in research, education and technology transfer, with a focus on helping New York businesses gain a technological edge on their competition. There are 15 CATs statewide, each of which receives $1 million annually in state funding; seven were chosen to receive additional awards.

Yin, of the Computer Science Department, was one of six researchers in the entire state to receive a grant through the James D. Watson Investigator initiative.

“These awards will support the world-class innovation being done by some of the best young minds at New York’s colleges and universities such as our Centers of Excellence program,” Gov. George E. Pataki said.

Candidates for the grants must have less than five years experience since receiving their doctoral degree. The winning applicants were chosen through a peer-review process based on the best science and the best likelihood of economic success.

Yin received his doctorate from the University of Alberta in 2000 and his master’s degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1992. He is the director of Binghamton’s Graphics and Image Computing Laboratory.

Since 1995, the state has fostered the growth of New York’s high-tech and biotech industries by supporting the investment of more than $1 billion in the state’s technology business sector and its world-class research laboratories and academic centers.