July 16, 2012
by Mark Ollig
This week, your humble columnist is on
assignment in Florida, so I thought it would be interesting to investigate
Florida’s technology scene.
The Florida High Tech Corridor
Council (FHTCC) is where I ended my search.
The FHTCC is where business and
higher education are working together.
One of the reasons stated on its
website for starting the FHTCC “is to grow high tech industry and innovation in
the region through research, workforce, and marketing partnerships.”
“The FHTCC came about in the
mid-1990s, as an effort to save a $1.4 billion, 1,500 job expansion from going
off-shore,” said Randy Berridge, president of the Florida High Tech Corridor
Council.
Berridge went on to say the FHTCC
has grown into supporting 400 companies, and 1,200 projects engaging 2,400
students working side-by-side with Florida universities.
According to Berridge, the FHTCC has
invested $56 million into various Florida corridor projects. The return to the
state, the companies, and the universities has been over $1 billion dollars.
“That’s a pretty good partnership,” said Berridge.
The FHTCC is, according to its
website, “a regional economic development initiative of the University of
Central Florida (UCF), the University of South Florida (USF), and the
University of Florida (UF).”
Encompassing 23 counties across
Florida’s mid-section, one of the FHTCC’s fastest -growing technology sectors
covers computer modeling, simulation, and training.
The simulated situations students
participate in create real emotions, real interaction, and real learning.
The FHTCC STEM (science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics program) called techPath, is a focused educational
curriculum. It was established to help students explore future science
technologies and science-driven careers.
One of techPath’s online videos
explained some of the amazing things being accomplished using a combination of
computer software and hydraulics.
The simulated technicians, or
“simtechs” as they are called in the video, are working on the cutting-edge of
technology, as they create real-life working simulations students can use to
learn, and gain experience from.
One member in the FHTCC is the
Raydon Corporation.
Raydon is located in Port Orange FL.
The company develops simulation training products.
“I get to work with software,
hardware, engineering . . . all different types of fields,” said Ron Knighton,
who is a simtech and works at Raydon.
In one example, a realistic
human-like plastic patient simulator, composed of computer circuitry, was used
for training nursing students.
This realistic-looking, plastic
patient is a combination of a high-speed computer, intelligent software,
pneumatics, hydraulics, and electronics.
Medical Education Technologies, Inc.
(METI) located in the Florida high tech corridor, manufacturers and maintains
these plastic, human patient simulators.
The human patient simulator is being
used to train nursing students to save lives.
“It’s unbelievable. You have the
heart sounds, the chest is rising . . . it talks, and the eyes works” said Jim
Grimm, a student who worked with the patient simulator.
“You could actually see what you’ve
been reading . . . it was cool!” commented Nadia Hayes, another student.
“It’s like the first encounter of a
real person,” said student Mary Montgomery.
“One of the greatest challenges is
just making it as close to a human being as possible,” said METI field service
technician, Eric Carrasquillo.
“We have to make sure these
simulators are capable of fooling a clinician into believing that what they are
actually practicing is real,” said Tom Bloomfield, METI manager of
Production/Test.
There are also many community
colleges located within the Florida high tech corridor, including the Daytona
Beach Community College (DBCC).
“You can incorporate many lessons on
biology, mathematics, physics, computer sciences . . . all by demonstrating
facets of this in the simulator,” said J.S. Gravenstein, M.D., at McKnight
Brain Institute at the University of Florida, where the human patient simulator
was originally developed.
Steve Burley, Director of Economic
Development at D.B.C.C. said, “With the help of our industry partners, we have
developed a two-year program for simulation maintenance technicians. There are
plenty of jobs . . . our graduates have their choice of several jobs, and the
pay is outstanding.”
Some of the students who graduated
from the DBCC. were quoted on techPath’s online video as saying they had
received various computing degrees.
The techPath’s motto is “Cultivating
tomorrow’s workforce.”
“So what will the future hold?
Whatever it is, we’re ready,” states the message at the end of a techPath
video.
Florida is definitely as active a
participant in the high-tech industry as any high-tech company out in
California’s famous Silicon Valley.
You can follow the FHTCC at
“FloridaHighTech” on Twitter.
Its website is located at:
http://www.floridahightech.com.
