About Us
The Edison Tech Center is an organization that celebrates the progression of technology and importance engineers have made in our society. The organization was founded by electrical engineers and provides orignal-source digital content about history. The organization also houses artifacts showing progression of technology, and some of which is available for tinkering in a workshop. Our audience consists of young people interested in the engineering profession, and the general public hungry for quality non-AI generated content made by actual engineers. Digitally the organization has reached millions, and locally the organization has inspired people of all ages through hands-on displays.
History:
The Edison Tech Center (New York DOS ID: 2647722) was founded in 2001 (as the Edison Exploratorium) by General Electric engineer John D. Harnden Jr. with a vision of a hands-on discovery center with educational media content. The organization is located in a historic epicenter of industry and engineering at Schenectady. Schenectady is where George Westinghouse Jr. made his first advancements, and General Electric pioneered over 120 years of innovations.
The organization has worked with grants from the IEEE, ASME, The Schenectady Foundation, General Electric and others to develop resources over the last 25 years. The organization is focused on electrical and mechanical engineering.
The "Edison" name and logo:
The Edison Tech Center is named after Thomas Alva Edison due to his role in Schenectady working in Building 31 on the Erie Canal. The Edison Tech Center logo depicts electrons in orbit as the use of electricity by engineers of all types is a central theme in all of our work.
A Region built on Engineering:
Since 1795 Schenectady has attracted some of the world's greatest engineers: Edison, Westinghouse, Steinmetz, Langmuir... just to name a few. It is home to the General Electric Research Lab (GE Global Research Center), Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, RPI, Union College, and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Interactive map of the region with engineering feats >
2026 Updates:
The organization moved out of downtown Schenectady to Maxon Road Extension temporarily. Future plans include moving back to a public workshop setting where many of the prototypes of technology can be seen by the public. See our second website for more status updates: Check our blog for news on our 2nd website here.
Learn about the engineering pioneers who helped improve our world through our artifacts, or via our online articles.
Outreach: Our YouTube channel reaches over 25,000 people per month (2026 figures), promoting engineering history.
Notes on names and legal status:
The Edison Tech Center was founded in 2001 in the State of New York under the name "Edison Exploratorium" and changed to the "Edison Steinmetz Center" briefly. It became known as the Edison Tech Center in 2009 and is not associated with the Edison Career and Technology High School in Rochester, NY. That school is informally referred to as the Edison Tech in some online publications. The organization has been a 501c3 non-profit for much of its life. Check with us for the current status.
