Local high-tech gets legislative boost
BYLINE: Courtney Sherwood, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.
Apr. 24--Clark County's high-tech businesses emerged from the 2007 legislative session victorious this week, having helped lay the groundwork in the state's two-year budget to fulfill a decade-old dream.
Washington State University Vancouver, founded in part to meet industry needs for engineers, will enroll its first 25 electrical engineering majors in 2008, said Hal Dengerink, university chancellor. By the time they graduate, the university also could be home to new electrical engineering and semiconductor labs where professors, students and technicians from private industry are expected to collaborate on original research.
Underpinning these steps are $2 million from the legislature to start the academic program, and $4.8 million to plan construction of new labs. The state will need to send more money if the labs are to be built.
"This is significant for the long term," said Bart Phillips, president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council. "We're building education capacity in science and engineering, which is really about the businesses that will be here tomorrow."
When the development council went to Olympia in January, it was asking for the very programs that the Legislature funded -- new electrical engineering curriculum at WSUV and construction of research facilities here. To fully fund these items could eventually cost $54 million, according to an estimate from the development council, which it prepared with business leaders and the university.
Adding new engineering programs at WSUV will do more than develop a much-needed work force, said Scott Keeney, chairman of the Clark County High Tech Council and president of nLight Corp., a Vancouver laser and optics firm. It will also provide new arenas for businesses and academia to work together.
"We are in the only high-tech cluster in the nation that doesn't have a world class research university in the region," Keeney said. "We see that as a pressing need, hence our efforts at WSU Vancouver."
Room for growth
The semiconductor lab will also give small businesses room to grow, said Lee Cheatham, director of the Seattle-based Washington Technology Center, which would staff the facility.
Software developers can start programming in a garage, but semiconductors and circuit boards require expensive clean rooms and million of dollars in equipment to develop.
"If you're a small company and you want to test your technology, you can either find a building, build a clean room, spend tens of millions of dollars" -- risky if the technology doesn't work -- "or you can pay for access to an existing facility, then once your preliminary work is done, go out and find space for your business," Cheatham said.
The Washington Technology Center already staffs one microfabrication lab on the University of Washington campus. The Vancouver lab would be the second on this scale in the state, and could become a major resource across the Pacific Northwest, Cheatham said.
High-tech projects for Clark County
Washington State University Vancouver applied technology building and microfabrication lab. So far: $4.8 million for planning. Local business leaders project a total cost of $51.3 million, with some private funding.
Creation of Washington State University Vancouver electrical engineering program. Funding: $2 million.
Expansion of high-school math and science mentorships in Southwest Washington. Funding: $140,000.
Creation of a statewide "innovation zone" system that could bring more money to the area. Funding: $135,000 to study the idea. More could come in two years.
Courtney Sherwood covers high-tech businesses. Reach her at 360-759-8041.
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