A Hot Location for Collaboration
bwtech@UMBC , the university’s on-campus research and technology park, is maturing into a hot location for research.
This week, the park announced a multimillion dollar investment from the commercial real estate market at a time when the number of UMBC faculty, students and alumni working with the park’s tenant companies and organizations has grown to nearly 200 .
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has agreed to move its Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Water Science Center to bwtech@UMBC. The move will bring to campus more than 60 scientists and support staff who monitor the ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the health of the region’s water supply, rivers and streams.
The USGS news comes as technology transfer and workforce development connections collaboration between UMBC, the research park and its nearby business incubator, techcenter@UMBC, areon the rise. Thirty-six UMBC faculty members collaborate on research and development with tenant companies. One hundred students are employed part-time or as interns and 54 alumni work or partner with the UMBC family of on-campus companies.
Research collaboration with UMBC’s core of water and environmental science expertise was the key factor in the USGS decision. The USGS has a longtime research partnership with UMBC’s Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, as well as the U.S. Forest Service and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study.
“Like many of my colleagues, I have worked with USGS or used their data for decades,” said Andy Miller, associate professor of geography and environmental systems. “In my view they are the premier science agency in the federal government.”
“This move gives the citizens of Maryland a unique, new resource in higher education as USGS scientists will work shoulder-to-shoulder with UMBC professors,” said Claire Welty, director of CUERE. “UMBC science and engineering students will receive an outstanding education that combines classroom training with hands-on research experience by simply walking across the street.”
According to Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the UMBC Research Park Corporation, bwtech@UMBC’s growth depends on both human capital and bricks and mortar. “The entire UMBC community is buying into the value of the park, which makes us much more attractive to the market,” said Hemmerly.
Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT), one of the region’s largest suburban office companies, will build the USGS building, to be located at 5522 Research Park Drive. Ground breaking is slated for summer, and the completed facility is expected to open in spring 2007.
(3/14/06)
