IU and the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, have extended their strategic partnership.
Initiated in 2012, the collaboration includes high-performance computing, AI, machine learning, cybersecurity and regional economic development.
Joe Carley, director of economic development at IU, said that this partnership allows IU to help commercialize Crane’s intellectual property.
“What we need is overarching agreements that help to make all of that more efficient. And so this agreement really is kind of an enabler that gives us the ability to access their labs, their equipment, their personnel, and vice versa,” he said.
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Carley said the aim is to stimulate economic growth in southern Indiana.
“We're trying to build those areas of excellence where we have alignment, and we have unique capabilities that nowhere else in the country has, and that's going to drive new opportunities,” he said.
Carley also stressed the importance of developing industry clusters in regions such as Uplands.
“The defense cluster in the Uplands region is particularly strong. It has not only a large number of jobs, but a large number of high paying jobs,” he said. “The benefits of it are spread across many counties within the region. By working more closely together by aligning, by developing scale, we're giving ourselves the ability to increase quality of life throughout the region.”
The partnership renewal is the latest in a recent series of IU collaborative activities with Crane that continue to link IU’s teaching, research and development resources with initiatives at the base.
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