Technology Clusters

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• Technology Clusters
• A Model for Expanding Collaborative RD
• H. Lee Beach, Jr.
• December 3, 2007

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Hampton Roads, VA

• 16 diverse cities and counties in the southeast
  corner of the state population of 1.6 million.
• Economic issues are well documented regional
  emphasis has been directed at
• Increasing per-capita income
• Increasing diversification/decreasing reliance on
  military
• Stopping out-migration
• Technology based economic development is a target
  objective

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Hampton Roads Research Partnership (HRRP)

• Created to facilitate the enhancement of
  technology based economic development
• Goals
• Research collaboration among members
• Building bridges to the business and economic
  development communities
• Promoting collective capabilities of the region
• Concept
• Leverage assets to enhance competitiveness and
  take advantage of unique co-location of two
  national laboratories
• Combine and build expertise in selected focus
  areas

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HRRP Membership

• Christopher Newport University
• College of William and Mary
• Eastern Virginia Medical School
• Hampton University
• Norfolk State University
• Old Dominion University
• Virginia Wesleyan College
• Jefferson Lab
• NASA Langley Research Center
• National Institute of Aerospace (NIA)
• JFCOM

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Current Operational Model

• Funding from US Dept. of Commerce Economic
  Development Administration (EDA) University
  Center Program and HRRP Members
• Primary focus is university-business
  relationships facilitated through Technology
  Clusters
• Activities are accomplished through Cluster
  Groups.
• Clusters are led by universities, who provide a
  Cluster Leader.
• Technology Clusters become Economic Clusters

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Cluster Concept
Small Companies
Prime Contractors
Events
Cluster Group
Collaborations
Application Areas
HRRP
NSU
CWM
ODU
JLab
CNU
LaRC
JFCOM
HU
NIA
EVMS
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Modeling Simulation ClusterBuilding on Success
Medical
MS ODU Lead 150 Companies
Military
Homeland Security
Transportation
Education/ Serious Gaming
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MS Cluster Building on Success

• Primary current customer US Joint forces Command
  and other military, building since mid 1990s.
• 2004 Economic Impact Study
• 4000 jobs supporting military applications,
  growing at 12
• Average salary nearly double the region average
• 430 million annually to Hampton Roads Economy
• Opportunity to substantially strengthen the
  overall economic impact with proper emphasis
• Both public and private sectors have made strong
  commitments
• Key role of Governor 17 new faculty positions
  and supporting economic development funding
• EMTASC consortium 15 companies and ODU

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MS Cluster Activities

• Aggressive extension into 4 new application areas
• Military, Homeland Security, Transportation,
  Medical, Education/Serious Gaming
• Facilitating small business incubation
• 3 spin off businesses to date
• Promoting regional recognition as an
  international leader in MS
• MS Summits in 2006 and 2007
• Conferences (eg, ModSim World 2007, Sept 13-15)
• Representation of region to national and
  international companies and organizations
• Developing workforce capabilities K-12 through
  Ph.D

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Virtual Operating Room
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Sensors Cluster
Military/ Homeland Security
Medical
Sensors CWM Lead 50 Companies
Marine Science
Manufacturing/ Machine Health
Aerospace
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Sensors Cluster Activities

• Targeted efforts to bring specific companies and
  universities/labs together
• Technical Assistance
• Tech transfer/commercialization
• Partnering/commercialization
• Larger efforts designed to broadly promote
  regional collaboration, or to promote the region
  nationally and internationally
• Events (Symposia, Conferences, etc.)
• Infrastructure improvements (Enabling/unique
  assets, new databases, etc).
• Major Collaborative Ventures (New Centers of
  Excellence, formal industry/university consortia,
  companies, etc.)

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Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
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(New) Bioscience Cluster
???
Defense/ Homeland Security
Cancer
Bioscience EVMS Lead Economic Study Pending
Womens/ Pediatric Health
Diabetes/Aging
Marine/ Environmental Science
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DNA and Protein Arraysfor Disease Biomarkers
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Critical Success Factors for Sustained Growth

• Universities strong commitment to economic
  development
• Must come from the top
• Incentives for and nurturing of entrepreneurial
  faculty
• State and Communities commitment to cluster
  support
• Critical to maintaining momentum
• Must be comparable to MS in new areas
• Better use of unique infrastructure to create
  critical mass
• Aggressive marketing

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Partnership with Other Organizations

• HRRP Member business assistance groups
• Regional/state organizations
• Hampton Roads Partnership (HRP)
• Hampton Roads Technology Council (HRTC)
• Hampton Roads Technology Incubator (HRTI)
• Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance
  (HREDA)
• Hampton Roads Planning District Commission
  (HRPDC)
• VA Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)

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Lessons Learned

• Cluster building (in our context) is a contact
  sport
• Cultural differences between industry and
  universities must be overcome
• Intellectual property
• Metrics
• Must create win-win scenarios

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BACKUPCHARTS
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Technical Assistance Success Story Siemens

• Siemens/Newport News fabricates more than 50,000
  automotive fuel injectors per day
• Project goal was substantial improvement (speed,
  quality) in micro-machining of holes by use of
  lasers instead of mechanical devices
• In 2000, three co-located universities supported
  Siemens in a research laser laboratory setup in
  the Applied Research Center 280K to
  universities augmented 1.2M.
• Excellent example of university/industry
  collaboration
• Nine invention disclosures
• Laser moved from research lab to prototype lab at
  company site in 2003
• Laser began production use in 2004

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Laser Micro Machining
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Tech Transfer/Commercialization Success Story
Dilon Technologies

• Dilon began as a 3-way collaboration between
  Virginia Center for Innovative Technology, the
  University of Virginia and the Department of
  Energys Thomas Jefferson Lab National
  Accelerator Facility (JLAB), located in Newport
  News, Virginia.
• Brought innovative medical imaging technologies
  to market based on scientific research conducted
  at Jefferson Lab.
• Received private investment in 2003 to launch
  marketing and sales and recently received
  significant equity investment in spring of 2006.

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Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI) with the
Dilon 6800 Gamma Camera

• Nuclear breast imaging technique that
• captures vital tumor information by viewing
• the metabolic activity of cancerous lesions in
• the breast not available from other imaging
• modalities.
• Ideal diagnostic complement to
• mammography for the early detection of
• breast cancer
• High-resolution, small field-of-view.
• Portable, compact design, allowing for same- day
  evaluation at the point of care .
• High sensitivity (96) for identifying earlier
  stage cancers.
• Ability to differentiate benign from malignant
  masses in excess of 96.
  

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Partnership/Commercialization Success Story
EVMS/WM/Incogen

• Research Partnership activity led to a
  multi-year, multi-faceted partnering between two
  universities and a bioinformatics company in the
  area of proteomics (use of mass spectrostrophy in
  study of cell proteins with application to cancer
  diagnostics)
• VA Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) award
  to develop software
• NIH/NCI SBIR Phase I and II to continue software
  product resulted
• NIH award to increase detection sensitivity

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Partnership/Commercialization Success Story New
Opportunities

• EVMS/WM/Incogen collaboration led to
• New applications for the technology
• FBI contract for anthrax spore detection
• DHS contract for biological threat
  characterization
• New technology areas
• Cancer research (onset, diagnostics, spread and
  treatment using laser light)
• New collaborations/partners
• Jefferson Lab, UVA, Harvard, Bionetics, ...