For decades, the U. S. economy has been caught up in the whirlwind of global festival and immediate technological change. Some regions have experienced immediate growth, while others have noticed that their production economies were crushed by the festival of low-wage countries.
Leaders in troubled regions have turned to U. S. high-tech superstars, such as Silicon Valley and Boston, for models to revitalize their economies. Still, new centers of high-tech innovation and production are emerging and thriving in perhaps unforeseen regions and corners of the United States. States like Tennessee, South Carolina, and Indiana.
For example, Donde Plowman, chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, recently said, “America’s greatest asset has been our people and for a long time we have led the world in innovation simply by leveraging the capacity of a handful of cities and regions. This is no longer enough. To remain competitive, we will need to harness the skill and ingenuity of places like Tennessee, where we can leverage it along with existing industries and infrastructure to create new opportunities for our state and our country.
Innovation hotspots like Tennessee are spreading the expansion of high technology and jobs to new populations and communities. Despite some regional specificities, these promising innovation drivers have a manual and tactics, including:
· Strong exploitation of available economic assets, adding schools of studies and universities;
· Long-term commitment and engagement of state and regional government, industry, university, and national laboratory leaders;
· Willingness to take risks and make investments in the future;
· A competitive to put and processes for collaboration between industry and academia and other permutations of collaboration;
· Workforce schooling and schooling to meet the industry’s conversion desires; and
· Patience, perseverance and that transformation takes time.
Let me list 3 examples of states that have implemented local approaches:
Tennessee
Tennessee colleges and universities are engaging in a comprehensive approach, snowballing into a hub for complex mobility and next-generation car manufacturing. Volkswagen, Eastman and other corporations have established operations at the University of Tennessee Research Park, where industry, university professors, graduate academics and postdoctoral fellows collaborate. Ford chose Tennessee for its new electric truck plant, a $5. 6 billion investment called Blue Oval City, in 2021. This site was prepared for economic progress years later in cooperation with the Tennessee Valley Authority and in good condition when Ford sought a new site. LG Chemical announced the structure of a $3 billion battery plant near the following year.
Tennessee is also stepping up artificial intelligence technology. Vanderbilt University has created a 16-kilometer-long real global checkpoint, the largest in the world, to check a variety of AI-based traffic controls. Vanderbilt collaborated with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to install sensors on the road that allow cars to drive down a highway with AI-activated cruise control. Nissan has built 100 traditional vehicles with AI-enhanced cruise control, capturing one billion terabytes of data that Vanderbilt researchers analyze to better understand traffic congestion and its safety and energy implications.
Finally, the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Tennessee Valley Authority operate a Techstars Industries of the Future accelerator to invest in start-ups, with the goal of building companies in the fields of artificial intelligence, complex manufacturing, and quantum technology. , complex technologies. Wireless, biotechnology and energy in white.
Daniel Diermeier, chancellor and professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University, recently summed up the state’s improving economic situation by stating, “Tennessee’s developing economy has generated increasing prosperity for many years, thanks in large part to its business-friendly climate and its ability to attract giant companies, multinational builders, especially in the automotive industry. It will now need to move towards a knowledge-based economy driven by the inventions in artificial intelligence, software and connected technologies of the future. “
South Carolina
South Carolina has been building a new economy anchored in partnerships with automotive manufacturing, aerospace, and next-generation energy industries. Electric vehicle and battery-related companies have announced billions of dollars of investments in the state.
Clemson University has established five innovation campuses in South Carolina to bring its studies and expertise to industry, adding centers for complex automotive, energy, human genetics, biomedical engineering, and complex materials studies. The Army and Clemson operate together with a budget of $40 million. Partnership to expand next-generation autonomous floor vehicles.
Workforce expansion is a major factor for the state’s auto industry. To help, Clemson created a master’s degree in automotive engineering and introduced the nation’s first doctorate in automotive engineering and first bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering.
In addition, the Clemson Energy Research Center is home to the $98 million Dominion Energy Innovation Center. The facility is home to the world’s most complex wind turbine transmission facility, as well as the Duke Energy eGrid, which can simulate the power grid of any country in the world.
Indiana
When you think of microchips, Indiana probably doesn’t come to mind. Still, Purdue Univery is catalyzing a semiconductor ecosystem in Indiana. The university has created a semiconductor degree program, in which business leaders in the semiconductor sector come together to make sure that educational systems are applicable to the industry. Purdue has taken on Skywater to build a $3 billion “baby factory” on campus, and Imec, Europe’s first semiconductor innovation center, has opened a think tank.
Purdue’s Discovery Park district in West Lafayette is also building an aerospace center. It is home to Purdue’s Hypersonic Research and Test Center with partners such as Rolls-Royce, GE, Lockheed-Martin, Northrup Grumman, the U. S. Air Force, and the U. S. Air Force. U. S. Navy, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Navy. U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . And a new urban campus in West Lafayette will be dedicated to Eli Lilly’s new $3 billion pharmaceutical production facility.
Competitiveness Conversations
These communities and regions broaden and deepen America’s geography of high-tech innovation and production, and we have much to learn from their different approaches. The National Commission’s Council on the Frontiers of Innovation and Competitiveness is launching a new three-year initiative called “Countywide Competitiveness Conversations,” which will begin in April in Tennessee. We’ll analyze and read about those new drivers of innovation and growth, and identify the most innovative and emerging productive practices that can be scaled up and adapted to regions and cities across the United States. Our purpose is to bring new hope to other people and contribute to a better and richer future.