florida.HIGH.TECH florida.HIGH.TECH 2016 | Page 21

University Research Growing High Tech Industries High tech industries get a boost from research universities around the world and this holds true in The Corridor. Corridor universities – the University of Central Florida (UCF), the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of Florida (UF) – have created a more than $1 billion economic impact in the region over the past 20 years through research projects that continue to further high technology. By leveraging an investment of more than $65 million from The Corridor, UCF, USF and UF partner with local businesses through The Corridor’s Matching Grants Research Program (MGRP) to advance high tech innovations and commercialize new technology. Together, they are responsible for helping to grow technology that reduces plastic waste, trains medical professionals, aids stroke patients back on their feet and more. University researchers and scientists, including students, have worked on groundbreaking concepts since inception of the program in 1996. Their work, alongside private industry researchers and scientists, helps spur the spirit of innovation in the Corridor and mark the region as a high tech hub boundless in capabilities. In these pages, you’ll read a sampling of MGRP projects conducted by UCF, USF and UF this year and more on each university’s achievements. It is important to remember these stories of innovation are merely a handful of experiments in the lab and people collecting data and thinking creatively. These researchers represent varied clusters of high tech activity in the Corridor and numerous stories have yet to be told. florida.HIGH.TECH 2016 19