| Purdue University: Discovery Space |
| Education | |||
| Written by John Zorabedian | |||
| Friday, 29 February 2008 | |||
 Dr. France Córdova tells us how this public research university is forming partnerships to spur entrepreneurship and economic development.
 Dr. France Córdova, President At a time when research dollars are drying up and public universities face growing funding constraints and rising costs, Purdue has established itself as a major regional engine of economic growth, business incubation, and breakthrough research in an array of fields, including life sciences, engineering, and nanotechnology. And as Córdova explains, Purdue intends to extend its impact to a global scale. “I’m spending a lot of my time focused on what it means to be a global university and what our footprint abroad should be,” Córdova said. At her inauguration in April, Córdova will host a forum of international academic leaders to discuss the theme of globalization and the university’s place in expanding peace, security, and prosperity. Although Córdova’s ambitions are grand, they are founded in earlier successes. At the university’s main campus in West Lafayette, construction is nearly complete on the final stage of the five-building research center Discovery Park, begun in 2001. The center comprises 10 centers for research in various fields, all interconnected to inspire an interdisciplinary approach. Just outside the main campus is one of the university’s four commercial research parks, located across the state (two of them will come online this year). Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette hosts 148 companies, many formed by Purdue faculty. A research park will open in Indianapolis in the fall of 2008 at the AmeriPlex-Indianapolis development that will host up to 75 businesses and 1,500 employees. “The concept is to have a path from discovery to delivery,” Córdova said. “The discovery and innovation that’s produced at the Discovery Park on campus translates to getting start-ups going at the commercial research parks, where there’s more freedom for industry activity going on.” In January, information technology company EDS announced it would construct a facility at the West Lafayette Purdue Research Park due to a $200 million contract with the state of Indiana’s Medicaid system. Córdova said the company will employ between 200 and 700 people at its new center. “Economic development has been something Purdue has really been involved in with the state,” she said. “We’ve created centers of technology, assistance programs, and research parks all over the state. We really want to enhance the ways in which we partner with the state to increase its portfolio.” Since 2001, Discovery Park has been responsible for seeding or assisting 21 new companies, creating hundreds of new jobs and hundreds of licenses and options on intellectual property. There are currently more than 100 companies engaged with the 10 research centers at Discovery Park, and more than $200 million in externally sponsored research has been awarded to these centers. “That’s a pretty big success story for something only a few years old,” Córdova said. “I look to our research parks as being a new paradigm for universities—how to create that pathway between discovery and innovation and get it out to the marketplace. That’s one of the things we want to be known for.” As research funding becomes more difficult to come by from the federal government, Purdue is partnering with private foundations and corporations to bring research funding to the next level. “Everywhere you look, you see the resources draining before your eyes. But there’s also a lot of opportunity. We want to be geared up for large-scale partnerships, including strategic global partnerships,” Córdova said. Ideas for the future Córdova’s first task after assuming the presidency last July was to launch a 100-day listening tour to engage with faculty and students about their ideas for the university’s next five-year strategic plan. The framework she and the strategic plan working groups have laid out involves, in part, increasing synergies between the sciences, engineering, and liberal arts. A major contributor to that interdisciplinary development is Discovery Park, with its own strategic mission to “transcend traditional academic boundaries, fostering an innovative interdisciplinary environment for learning, discovery, and engagement that leads to intellectual excitement, scientific achievement, and economic growth and opportunities.” Developing future scientists and innovators is key to the park’s and the university’s success, Córdova said. That means attracting the best and brightest students to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math—women in particular. An astrophysicist, Córdova was the first woman to be appointed as the chief scientist for NASA. She is also the first woman to serve as president of Purdue in its 140-year history. Speaking to a National Institutes of Health conference last November, Córdova cited a 2004 National Science Board report showing that the number of US citizens 18 to 24 years old receiving science degrees has fallen from third in the world in the 1970s to 17th. “Deeply disturbing in this and a major factor in the technology gap is a shortfall in the number of women choosing careers in science, engineering, math, and computer science,” she said. |
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American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
