Center for Technology in Government Celebrates 10 years of Improving Government Technology
Award-winning research center hosts open house in new facility Jan. 28

Contact: Karl Luntta (518) 437-4980

ALBANY, N.Y. (January 26, 2004) --The University at Albany's Center for Technology in Government celebrates its 10th anniversary as it expands to new offices. An open house is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 28, from 3:30 to 6 p.m. at the center's new location, 187 Wolf Road. University President Karen R. Hitchcock will speak at 4 p.m. to attendees, including: Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings, State Assembly members Paul Tonko, Pat Casale and Robert Prentiss.

CTG is an applied research center working with local, state, federal and international government agencies to improve the way they invest in and use information technology. The center was founded on the early success of an experimental all-volunteer project, a joint effort with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles in 1992 that lead to reducing the vehicle title issuance process from 100 days to 30, at a savings of $3 million. The Center was formally established the following year.

CTG has recently completed a study on government response to the World Trade Center attacks, particularly the crucial role that IT played in those responses.

Two nationally funded research projects are looking into ways government organizations are sharing and integrating information across traditional boundaries-- a problem facing most of today's governments.

One of those projects is exploring the public health response to the West Nile Virus outbreak of 1999, which required an unprecedented coordination of agencies across all levels of government, supported by the rapid exchange of timely and accurate information.

In another of those projects, the center is studying the information-sharing method of justice agencies � including police, probation and the courts-- as a means to improve public safety.

The center also recently developed a prototype state-local gateway to test methods to improve the way state agencies and local governments work together.

These projects, along with other research, will be on display at the open house.

In 1995, the Ford Foundation awarded the center $100,000 and named it one of initiatives at federal, state and local levels that provide creative solutions to important public problems.

Since 1995, the center has received more than $5.8 million in research grants and awards from several organizations, including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

CTG's projects have included a variety of academic and corporate partnerships with more than twenty companies, including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and AT&T.

CTG Director Sharon Dawes, named a 1997 Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine for her collaborative strategy encouraging innovation in New York's information management community, is also a recent inductee of the prestigious National Academy of Public Administration for her work in government IT and information research.

For more information about the Center for Technology in Government, visit www.ctg.albany.edu.