THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 27, 1995 TAG: 9502250149
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ted Evanoff
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Not to diminish Salt Lake City's achievement, or paper over Tidewater's mediocre score, but there's more to economic development than computer science.
We're talking about Hampton Roads' score in a recent survey by Forbes ASAP, a business magazine. Forbes graded 100 cities according to the best places to live for smart people. Tidewater finished mid-range and Salt Lake ranked first, followed by Houston and Dallas.
``What would kick up the scores would be the presence of a major university,'' a Forbes editor said. ``It would bring in more high-end brains, more engineering/science expertise, a smarter, younger workforce, a lot of people starting companies.''
True, all true. There's more to high-tech economies, though, than leading edge research universities.
Throughout the country, engineers are trying to adapt high technology to practical uses. One vivid example is computer-assisted design machinery.
Engineers and architects who once drafted plans with paper and pencil can be far more productive with computer-aided design equipment. Taking the technology out of the labs and figuring how to put it in a practical tool like a design computer is a task that perfectly suits Hampton Roads.
``I can understand why we can be behind the Silicon Valley, Boston and the Research Triangle, but I'm shocked we're not in the top 10 in the country,'' said Doug Juanarena, chairman of the Peninsula Advanced Technology Center, about the Forbes' survey.
The center counts more than 50 companies oriented toward high technology on the Peninsula alone, as well as CEBAF, the federal physics center in Newport News, and NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton.
If Hampton Roads' high-tech edge looks blunt, one reason is simple. Much of the technology is still on the shelf.
In fact, Joseph S. Heyman, deputy director of technology applications at NASA Langley, is trying to move the ideas into the hands of entrepreneurs.
``We can be the Measurement Valley,'' Heyman said.
Measurement Valley?
``We measure area and space things,'' said Heyman, a physicist by training, about NASA Langley. ``CEBAF measures the atom.''
Heyman likens NASA Langley to a pole. Alone, it can't hold up Hampton Roads' economic tent. Put together Langley and CEBAF, the six colleges and universities, and there are enough poles to support the tent.
Ideas in the federal labs can spawn a new wave of manufacturing if the ideas can be put in the hands of manufacturers already present in the region.
Special X-ray devices used to measure soil characteristics on the moon can be adapted to probe farmland for the proper amount of fertilizer.
Thermal insulation properties used in the space program can be applied to home insulation products.
Aluminum shaped to order, using special metal-bending techniques developed for the space program, can replace wooden studs in houses.
Special bonding techniques can be used to join plastic pipe. Composite plastics can replace metal products. Tough carbon material can replace steel pistons in engines.
One California company already makes submarine hatch covers out of a rubber composite material based on NASA Langley rubber expansion molding technology. The new 35-pound covers replace 200-pound titanium covers.
Moving the technology into the hands of entrepreneurs is the big if, right now. Scores of electronic fabricators, precision machine shops, software houses and electrical engineers in Tidewater could make use of the ideas. But they don't know about them.
Langley has been trying to pull them together, pair companies with ideas. ``What we're going to do is form partnerships two people at a time, five people at a time,'' Heyman said.
That's a welcome effort. Spreading technology in the marketplace can strengthen the manufacturing base of Hampton Roads.
While that may not sound like high technology by Forbes' standards, it is the basis for a strong economy. And when Forbes surveys again in a few years, Hampton Roads might climb up the ladder.
``It's probably a fair assessment to say that in the past, not enough was done to transfer technology'' into the private sector,'' Juanarena said. ``But in the last two years you've seen NASA really pick up the pace.'' by CNB