· NJIT's Dr. Donald Sebastian and Dr. Tim Franklin gave an update on their ongoing business partnership and the newly formed New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), which they are President and Vice President of, respectively.
· Rowan University's vice president for research, Dr. Shreek Mandayam shared their plans for their new virtual reality laboratory at the South Jersey Tech Park and the world's first ten-sided CAVE.
· Rutgers University's director of the Center for Integrative Proteomics Research and director of the RCSB Protein Data Bank, Dr. Stephen K. Burley presented on their new biomedical collaborative program at the Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine.
"It was great to see our leading universities partnering with the business community," said Melanie Willoughby, Senior Vice President of NJBIA. "Nothing is more important to this effort than developing a strong innovation ecosystem – an environment in which business, academia and government work together to develop new ideas into practical products and services and then bring them to market."
The Council's meeting was part of ongoing discussion to emphasize the importance of aligning businesses and academic institutions to grow New Jersey’s economy, attract more federal funds, and bring innovative products and ideas to market.
Secretary Rochelle Hendricks, head of the Office Secretary of Higher Education, Council member and part of the New Jersey Partnership for Action, opened the meeting and was extremely impressed by the presentations. She discussed how an innovation ecosystem will help build new industries, attract successful high-tech companies and increase both public and private investment in research and development.
Lauren Moore, executive director of the Business Action Center, New Jersey's "one-stop shop" for the business community, and Michael Chrobak, chief economic development officer of Choose New Jersey, the state's privately funded marketing and business attraction organization, were also in attendance having similar sentiments. Both mentioned how these universities are model engines of economic development, supporting starts-up, spin-offs and accelerators.
Click below to check out the NJIT, Rowan and Rutgers University power points:
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