Florida Is Home to Extensive Technology Development

Voice of America ^ | 15 August 2005 | Paul Sisco

[Our_Man_In_Gough_Island]

The odd shaped piece of the American geographic puzzle is Florida, the southern-most of North America's United States.

An aerial view of the Central Florida Research Park, located in Orlando The service sector is the number one industry in Florida, fueled by 40 million annual tourists to the state. But what many of those visitors don't know is that central Florida is now a major technology center, among the fastest-growing anywhere. There is Disney, of course; besides the theme park, its film studios and animation center are among the most sophisticated in the world. Here too is defense contractor Lockheed Martin, video game leader Electronic Arts, and the University of Central Florida, in Orlando.

Joe Wallace Joe Wallace is the Executive Director of the Central Florida Research Park, located next to the University of Central Florida. "In 1968 this university opened its doors to students. It is now approximately 44,000 students, approximately one of the top 12 universities in terms of size in the United States. In 1968 we had one technology company in Orlando, which was the Martin Marietta Company on the west side of Orlando, and of course we had the Kennedy Space Center, 30 miles [50 kilometers] to the east."

With America in the middle of the race to the moon, this was an exciting place to be.

"In 1980, the decision was made to try to bring business close to the university,” says Mr. Wallace. “We elected to form a research park in 1981. We are partnered with the university. In 1981 my organization was created. We actually purchased this land and put in the roads, the utilities, and created a research campus next to the university. This is the seventh-largest research park in the United States. We have 106 companies; approximately 10,000 employees."

And more than 3.2 million square feet [300 hectares] of office, manufacturing, and laboratory facilities. Clearly, the marriage between high tech industries and the University of Central Florida is flourishing.

Dr. Eric Van Stryland is Dean of the University of Central Florida's College of Optics and Photonics. This is the only college of photonics in the nation, and 20 percent of its research budget comes from industrial partners.

Industry and university teams are doing traffic and driver simulation studies, improving optical communications systems, and designing advanced biomedical technologies.

Yasser Hosni Dr. Yasser Hosni runs the rapid prototyping laboratory."...If you look at it you probably think it is made of wood or something, but the reality of it is that this actually made out of paper."

Disney World and Mickey Mouse may always be the number one attraction here, but some of what's going on nearby would qualify for "tomorrow land" -- except it's happening today

[Our_Man_In_Gough_Island]

The article may seem a bit basic if you are familar with this area, but Florida's image is so strongly shaped by recreation that I thought a reminder on the other aspects of the state would be useful.

[misterrob]

Yeah, like being the state with the highest amount of sex offenders...

[Our_Man_In_Gough_Island]

The morning pretty rough today? I'm sure every location has at least one bad point, and as the day wears on perhaps you will think of some happier and healthier aspects of the state.

[poobear]

"Yeah, like being the state with the highest amount of sex offenders..."

I was not aware of this statistic. Where can I get this information?

[Moonman62]

but Florida's image is so strongly shaped by recreation

I though it was shaped by crime, rudeness, nuttiness, humidity, insects, and hurricanes, yet everybody wants to move here and spend half a million for the privilege.

[misterrob]

My wife actually brought that one to my attention and they don't get any worse than that one, my friend. I would rather have liberals in my neighborhood....

[Last Dakotan]

Life is good if you can have the Federal government rebuild your state at least once (twice in election years) every hurricane season.

[Last Dakotan]

Dr. Yasser Hosni runs the rapid prototyping laboratory."...If you look at it you probably think it is made of wood or something, but the reality of it is that this actually made out of paper."

This clown has a PH.D and doesn't know paper is wood.

[Laur]

Interesting. I knew UCF was cutting-edge, but I didn't know to what extent. I am amused by the amount of green in the responses, tho.

[Our_Man_In_Gough_Island]

Maybe I was assuming too much on background familiarity when I posted. I work with defense aerospace firms all the time, and there are many very large ones located in Florida.I have heard people say that this is due to, rather than in spite of, the recreational climate. For example, it is easier to conduct outdoor tests at all times of the year in a warm weather state. And, of course, the whole Cape Canaveral group of firms is there due to the location in USA near the Equator and on the seacoast.

With regard to your other comment, I have noticed something on FR I term the " Stale Cheeseburger Effect". When a news article comes on about something that is unusual, hard-to-place, or unfamiliar in some respect, a lot of initial posts are rather short, negative, and not-on-topic humorous, comments like " Hillary stinks" or " Blame Bush for It" or something. I call that the Stale Cheeseburger Effect because by referring to something commonplace in a tongue and cheek way, this provides mental security against having to think about something different in an unusual way - which can be quite scary for some mindsets.

[doc30]

Very interesting article. It highlights something I've known for a while. UCF is becoming a flagship research center in the U.S. and it is thanks to the FL legislature. There was a time when dwindling government spending at NASA and at defense contractors caused a major loss of high paying jobs in FL. Those jobs were important to the tax base. Back before then, there was great resistance from major Florida businesses against college spending and against education in general. The thought was that you don't need someone educated to work in citrus or to run a cash register at Publix so why spend more tax dollars on something that won't benefit the current big players in Florida business? The legislature saw that a good university and graduate education was key in developing good paying jobs that would ultimately help grow and broaden the economy of Florida. The growth of UCF, and other campuses, plus the creation of the research park, was a direct result of this foresight. Landing the Scripts Institute is another example. These examples are incubators that are just now starting to bear fruit.

The only problem is that the public education system in FL is terrible. A lot of high tech and science related companies have a hard time attracting talented employees because prospective employees see how bad education is here, plus the high price of homes, and bawk at relocating. Some of my coworkers are homeschooling because there is so little emphasis on reading, writing, math and science. And what there is is at such a low level, they worry their kids will be bored and do poorly.