“We’ve already branched out into single-cell isolation in life science and medical research, 3D printing, additive manufacturing, that’s leveraging some of the inkjet printing capabilities. And we’ve started a development effort around chip cooling, and those are all elements of the tech hub,” Benning says. “It’s really a way to invite small companies, startups and other interested parties to come and access infrastructure, and also the expertise, the people and capabilities that have been built up around that.” Skip Newberry, president of the Technology Association of Oregon, another member of the CorMic Hub, says the team assembled for the microfluidics hub, as well as Oregon’s talent pool, makes it a lucrative option for companies looking to commercialize the technology. “In terms of the project team, we have a mix of larger players like HP, NVIDIA and Intel. We have some of the largest players in semiconductors and microfluidics, so if I’m looking for strategic partners and go-to-market partners, those are some of the more interesting ones that any company could want to be with,” says Newberry, who adds that recent developments and partnerships between academia and industry have helped set the stage for the CorMic Hub to be successful. “There’s a sort of confluence of things that I think are pretty exciting: One of them is the recent investment by the CEO of NVIDIA to OSU for a high-performance computing or supercomputing center. From a workforce standpoint, there was really interesting data that the State of Oregon shared during a presentation that I was involved with back in November. It showed the percentage of semiconductor R&D talent that is located in Oregon compared to the next 10 states that have a high concentration of semiconductor workforce, and in Oregon, the percentage was essentially greater than all the other 10 states combined. So that underscores the fact that Oregon is really a leader globally when it comes to a base of talent; a concentration of talent that is doing really critical semiconductor R&D work.” Weller says federal funding from the CHIPS and Science Act would grant the tech hub the resources to grow dozens of companies and create thousands of jobs in the rural areas between Eugene and Salem, where he says the EDA wants to see job growth. Since the primary focus of the tech hubs proOur Business is Yours Nathaniel Brigham & Aimee Brigham, Co-Founders of Aluma Aesthetic Medicine Your success is our success—and the success of our entire region! Our mission and purpose is clear: We support businesses of all types and sizes in succeeding and thriving throughout our region. gram is to drive job creation, the tech hub is already partnering with community colleges and the Oregon Workforce Partnership to be able to staff new microfluidics companies. He says the industry requires people with two-year degrees at the technician level all the way up to Ph.D.s focused on research and development. “We’re also trying to create a pipeline by engaging in some K-12 activities as well,” says Weller. Even if the CorMic Hub isn’t selected for the first round of EDA funding, Weller says the collaborations made possible by the tech hub will continue, that more grant opportunities will eventually be available and that the partnerships will continue well after the application deadline closes. For Montoya Mira, the practical applications of microfluidics technology are still being discovered. He says his cancer-screening device could potentially be used to detect any type of cell and could help in the screening of Alzheimer’s and other metabolic conditions. He says the industrial side of microfluidics manufacturing is still waiting to be developed, but when it comes to microfluidics in chips, he can already see the potential benefits of continuing collaboration. “A lot of our [microfluidics] devices, underneath the devices, we have exactly the same cooling system that has been done in all these other devices that need that cooling. So we use the same technique on our technologies for our benefit,” says Montoya Mira. “There is not a single center or specialist, no single person who can have all the know-how and all the ideas of how to take the microfluidic field to the next level, so it’s a community push. There is more that has to happen than can happen in one single lab.” “Oregon is really a leader globally when it comes to a base of talent; a concentration of talent that is doing really critical semiconductor R&D work.” SKIP NEWBERRY, PRESIDENT OF TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION OF OREGON PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN 21
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==