Jan 12 2009
In the coming year, South Bend will continue to take giant steps toward building its high tech future, according to a national authority on nanoelectronics.
Jeffrey Welser, Ph.D., director of the Semiconductor Research Corp.'s Nanoelectronics Research Initiative, made those comments following South Bend's Jan. 5 announcement of a brand new name for an emerging 83-acre technology park - Ignition ParkSM - which the city will market to nanoelectronic and other technology-based businesses.
Ignition Park, along with Innovation Park at Notre Dame, make up a dual-site technology park in South Bend - Indiana's first ever state-certified technology park affiliated with two research universities: the Indiana University School of Medicine at South Bend and the University of Notre Dame.
For its part, Innovation Park is a collaborative venture between the City of South Bend and the University of Notre Dame, which will translate research discoveries from initial concept to commercialization.
The success of both Ignition Park and Innovation Park will be bolstered by the Midwest Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery (MIND), which Welser's organization established last year in South Bend.
MIND is one of four primary research centers nationwide, and is comprised of Notre Dame and other universities, and is funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as well as a consortium of the world's leading computer chip makers - including IBM, AMD, Intel, Micron and Texas Instruments.
In the following interview, Welser offered his insights about MIND, South Bend, and the area's future as a center of nanoelectronic discovery.
Q: How did South Bend end up as the location for MIND?
A: The NRI's main goal is to advance research that will be the basis for the next generation of computer chips. The current transistor architecture - CMOS, which means Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor - is expected to reach its limits probably by 2020, so we need to accelerate the development of revolutionary nanoelectronic technologies that are quite different from what we have now.
Toward this goal, the NRI has been looking for game-changing locations with a strong research and development base, combined with economic support at the local and state levels.
And South Bend was one of those key locations.
The University of Notre Dame's technical work in nanotechnology was attractive to us, and the university's commitment to building a new engineering center also was important, too.
Officials from South Bend's city government, as well as Project Future [which promotes economic development in the area] met with us and made it clear that they wanted to support MIND in very real ways.
The city supported the development of Innovation Park, which will provide research and commercialization support for discoveries coming out of MIND and Notre Dame. It also provided land and millions of dollars toward developing another technology park - Ignition Park - in what is known as the Studebaker corridor - for technology businesses to grow.
This was very much a tipping point in our decision to locate MIND in South Bend.