BlackboardEDC Hopes to Lure Engineers to Area
Tallahassee is within 500 nautical miles of most major cities in the Southeast - one reason why the area is in a prime position to become a center of aviation and aerospace technology.
That was the thinking of those at Tuesday's discussion spearheaded by the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County Inc. The launch of the EDC's Aviation/Aerospace Roundtable was the first step toward the area being in a position to lure scientists and engineers here as NASA's space shuttle program concludes in two years.
More than two dozen people from aviation, engineering and economic development gathered at the Compass Pointe building at Tallahassee Regional Airport. They talked about the Big Bend's future in this sector, identified as a growth area by Florida's Great Northwest, an economic development organization.
Farrukh Alvi, a mechanical-engineering professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, said opportunities are there, but they must include a method to ensure engineering graduates and other skilled employees do not leave the state after obtaining degrees here.
Alvi will be the director for the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion (FCAAP), which will be unveiled Thursday.
"The focus is on the science and engineering and problem solving," Alvi said about FCAAP, a partnership between faculty at FSU, the University of Florida, University of Central Florida and Embry-Riddle Areonautical University. "We want to devise technology that we can take to the industry and say 'Hey, this is something you can use,' or have industry come to us and say 'Hey, here is a problem. Fix it.'"
Attendees said it's a great win for the community to be home to the FCAAP, but Travis Yelverton, EDC director of existing industry development, said there are caveats. There has to be support from the community in addition to city and county government if the aviation and aerospace industry is to take off in Tallahassee.
It also takes cooperation from the universities. Though the center will foster some of that collaboration. Kyle Hartmann and Chad Wegeman said the engineering schools at UF and UCF do a better job of providing internships and co-ops for their upperclassmen at locally based companies.
Wegeman is the director of business operations for Aerotek, while Hartmann is president of TRS Inc., a technology and engineering recruitment company based in Panama City. The men agreed the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering produces excellent students, but not enough remain here because of a lack of internship opportunities for students to display their talents.
