High-Tech Entrepreneurs Find Fertile Soil Here
Published Sep 16, 2008
Technology entrepreneurs are finding that West Texas has just the right climate for R&D.
From a composite material to protect America’s soldiers to tiny illumination chips and critical cell-phone software, technological advances are redefining The High Ground, where entrepreneurs find fertile soil.
“This is a great business climate,” says Ed Rose, president and chief executive officer of Falcon International. When the time came to establish a production facility for his business, based in Huntsville, Ala., Rose chose Odessa, where he grew up. He left 22 years ago to join the U.S. Air Force.
Rose’s military experience is the reason he surmised that a sturdy yet lightweight material the company was using to encase asbestos held promise as armor. He was proved right. Bullets are deflected by the fiberglass-reinforced plastic, now marketed as Falcon Protective Coating, and the company has landed military contracts to outfit Humvees, helicopters and other equipment.
“Our primary mission is to protect the war fighters out there. It’s our responsibility to give them the best equipment that we possibly can,” Rose says. “People are very patriotic out here, and they’ve all rallied to the cause.”
Falcon received $1.7 million in incentives over five years from the Odessa Development Corp. and another $850,000 from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Rose says the support “made it very attractive for us to move,” adding that he anticipates having 60 employees on the payroll by the end of 2008. Falcon’s corrosion-resistant coating also has applications for infrastructure such as storage tanks and bridges. Moreover, its high-technology water-jet cutter, used to craft the ballistic panels, “can make anything from flanges for oil wells to tweezers for surgery,” Rose says, noting the company’s growth potential.
R&D IN NANOPHOTONICS
A $2 million grant from the Emerging Technology Fund also helped lure two highly renowned researchers to Texas Tech University. Another $2 million from the university and $5.35 million from AT&T to establish two endowed chairs for the husband-and-wife team sealed the deal.
In 2008, Drs. Hongxing Jiang and Jingyu Lin moved their research endeavors from Kansas State University to Lubbock, where they are continuing their work in nanophotonics – the study of light at the tiniest of scales.
The couple also brought with them the entrepreneurial enterprise they founded, III-N Technology Inc., to help move their research from the laboratory to the marketplace. “We have been doing this kind of nanophotonic research for many years. In the beginning, it was more laboratory curiosity. But as we go along, we actually make devices, which we have found are very practical,” Lin says. One innovation may someday replace the residential light bulb, while another may allow computer use without a screen by projecting the image on a wall, a windshield or even eyeglass lenses.
PINPOINTING 911 CALLERS
In fact, Texas Tech has emerged a hub of technology-related activity, and Michael Powers, an owner and the president of GBSD Technologies Inc., says his company’s software gurus feed off their interactions with engineering and computer faculty. He anticipates the same kind of intellectual cross-pollination in the Reese Technology Center in Lubbock.
GBSD-developed technology allows cell-phone carriers to pinpoint the location of a cell phone. The obvious application is a 911 call when the caller doesn’t know the location or is unable to communicate. “We actually have four levels
of technology that we use, based on what the carrier wants to spend,” Powers says.
The company is doing more business overseas than domestically, he says, although the newest customer is the New York City subway system.
Photo by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Current Weather Conditions In Stratford, TX (79084)
Snow, and 34 ° F. For more details?
Click here...
