Austin, Texas-South by festival-goers from the Southwest, local leaders and Longhorns recently gathered at Hook ‘Em HOOK’ EM in Antone to hear an estimated panel on the opportunity for technological transformation in Austin, Texas and beyond, when the right groups come together to reintegrate the possibilities.
The discussion was led by Mark Arnold, Vice-President of Discovery to Impact at the University of Texas and Managing Director of the UT Seed Fund. Discovery to impact serves the ecosystem that connects UT innovators – and their revolutionary research – to the resources they need to get their ideas out of the laboratory and in the world to have a lasting impact.
When Mark asked the panel what made Texas, and Austin in particular, ripe with opportunities, the panelists agreed that there was a spirit of optimism and a culture of innovation in Austin and in the state of Texas which is unprecedented. As a renowned visionary venture capital, the Panelist Jim Breyer, founder and CEO of Breyer Capital, added that a large university is at the heart of the location of the best entrepreneurial opportunities. He explained that human capital is also more important than ever because of the rate of change and decision -making that emerging technology brings. The key is to bring together university talents, venture capital, entrepreneurs and industry in a way that can accelerate the marketing of research to transform lives. Breyer shared that it was transparent integration and the sharing of ideas, tests and hypotheses with Retestés, which occurs here in Austin, and the optimistic maintenance about the future.
Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti, dean of the Dell Medical School and Vice-President Director of Medical Affairs of the University of Texas, underlined the medical complex that the university built with the concept of an immersive learning laboratory as an example. It is a place of convergence where university, technology, private sector and education can meet so as not to simply react to what is happening in health care, but to be part of shaping it. Dr. Lucchinetti has illustrated the importance of building a hospital specially designed at the time of a great transformation of information technologies and the opportunity that is for Austin and beyond. She added that the University represents one of the most important technological trends: the convergence of organic – the gathering of AI, biotechnology, engineering and computer science to stimulate health transformations. By bringing together these components, health leaders are able to transform our way of browsing treatments, the way we predict disease, avoid diseases and favor a longer and healthier lifespan.
The advantages of public and private partnerships can also be observed in the growing semiconductor industry in Texas. As a co-founder and technology chief of Texas Institute for Electronics (TIE), SV Sreenivasan explained how TIE plays a crucial role in the manufacture of semiconductors and advanced electronics in Texas and the Nation. With 84,000 square feet of cutting-edge white room in Austin, Tie serves as a semiconductor consortium supported by the Austin UT, semiconductor and pre-eminent defense companies, national laboratories and academic institutions recognized at the national level. Sreenivasan described how TIE is building a manufacturing installation (FAB) which can allow people to make early production with low volume of highly innovative systems, but in a way that can be extended to market it. The Fab ecosystem allows people to meet and build the most advanced prototypes, then deploy them in real applications, creating an ecosystem that allows people to innovate.
With rapid innovation, has also just been addressed in the future of artificial intelligence. The panelists discussed how the UT already kissed the use of AI to develop new generation technologies faster, better and economically in a range of fields, whether it is the discovery of drugs compatible with AI, the design of semiconductive fleas or robotics. Looking towards the future, it is exciting to imagine how AI coupled with Medtech or humanoid robotics could change its life in the next five years – but one thing is certain: innovation occurs in Texas and at the University of Texas in Austin.