UMass Boston is unsung hub of tech innovation

Without going too far out on the limb, it's probably safe to conclude that by now every industrial country and major business has announced its plan to pursue an innovation-based strategy.

Innovation, whether in science, technology, manufacturing, or in business practices, is expected to expand economic fortunes, and generate hefty returns in revenue, power, growth and the quality of life. Implementing an innovation strategy requires smart and opportunistic packaging of capital, leading-edge research, talent and infrastructure. Everyone seems to understand this, most especially those in high tech environments.

When University of Massachusetts president Jack Wilson says the road to innovation and sustained economic development for the commonwealth runs through UMass, he's not making an idle boast. Our five campuses -- Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell and Worcester -- are key contributors in the state's innovation strategy and economy. Whether it's developing new technologies, finding and solving day-to-day problems in the workplace, or producing the kind of talent that is capable of developing new ideas and turning those ideas into reality, the UMass system delivers.

The impact of UMass Boston is particularly noteworthy, for example:

• A recently released Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, produced by Academic Analytics, rates UMass Boston fifth in the nation among small research universities with respect to publications, grants and honors accorded to faculty members. This past fiscal year, the campus was awarded in excess of $41 million dollars in external grants and contracts and had more than 520 sponsored programs under way -- impressive numbers for Boston's public research university.
• With support from the National Institutes of Health, UMass Boston, in collaboration with biomedical research institutions in the Boston region (Children's Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Harvard School of Public Health) has worked on moving discoveries out of the lab and bringing them to the bedside.
• Through our National Science Foundation-supported Boston Science Partnership, UMass Boston is applying new understanding of the learning process to fundamentally change the way math and science are taught.
• In another NSF-funded opportunity, the college has developed BATEC, the Boston Area Advanced Technology Education Collaborative, which has brought together the region's secondary school teachers, community colleges, regional employers and our IT and computer science faculty in a collaborative project focused on the design and delivery of a new IT educational continuum.
• We played a leading role in the Boston Harbor cleanup through our capabilities in measuring environmental hazards, advancing remediation strategies and establishing marine monitoring systems.
• UMass Boston supplies a large share of the region's skilled work force in areas that have traditionally seen shortages such as IT, nursing, education and business management.

Next year, UMass Boston plans to open a Venture Development Center, a 15,000-square-foot state-of-the-art laboratory and office facility, designed to facilitate the transfer of promising technologies into new commercial enterprises. The VDC is no ordinary academic center, but a new front door to the university's expertise and facilities for innovative collaborations between our faculty and partners. By leveraging campus resources and expertise, the VDC would also provide an enormous learning advantage to our students who would be engaged in the center's work.

As both a research university and as a public university, UMass Boston is an extraordinary place, where innovation in teaching, research and service to the commonwealth happens each and every day. As UMass Boston chancellor Keith Motley has often said, research and development are the cornerstone of our urban mission and a means to grow our region's economic competitiveness and quality of life. We are delighted by Gov. Deval Patrick's call for renewed investments in our infrastructure, faculty and funding for basic research and student scholarships. It's an innovation strategy that's bound to pay continued dividends, as past returns have shown.

(Monday, January 7, 2008 Mass High Tech article by William Brah is executive director of the Venture Development Center and assistant vice provost for research at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Philip L. Quaglieri is dean of the UMass Boston College of Management.)