WSU Prez: Michigan Has No Choice But To Move Techward

If Diego Rivera was drawing frescoes for the Detroit Institute of Arts today, he'd probably be drawing robots, not men.

That's the picture of a blended manufaturing and knowledge economy painted Tuesday by Wayne State University's still relatively new president, Jay Noren, at the Detroit Economic Club.

"While manufacturing will always be importnt it must continue to transform in the era of the knowledge economy that is very much upon us," Noren said. "The classic assembly line you see in newsreels is now dominated by robots and sophisticated applications of information technology, and this transformation will continue."

Noren said the "very future of the auto industry" depends on sophisticated technologies like advanced batteries, alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles, "and a lot of products yet to be found that are being reserached and tested at Michigan's research universities."

Noren, a physician who started up the University of Nebraska's first college of human health, said Michigan simply has no choice but to transform its economy to emphasize the industries of IT, the life sciences, nanotechnology and renewable energy.

Noren was to have appeared with the presidents of the other two universities in the Michigan University Research Corridor, but University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman was called away. So Noren was introduced by, and appeared at a press conference after his speech, by only Michigan State University President Lou Anna K Simon.

Noren used the example of Pittsburgh, written off for dead following the collapse of its steel industry in the 1980s. But the city has transformed itself into a thriving center of software, biotechnology, health care and medical research.

Can Detroit do the same? "There's no tougher community than Detroit," he said. "We've got the will and capacity to reinvent ourselves."

Noren said the URC has a crucial role to play. He said research shows the URC is already ahead of some of its competition -- six other regional university-tech industry collaborations in Boston, Northern California, North Carolina, Chicago, Southern California and Pittsburgh.

Noren said the universities are "working on projects toward packing economic punch that could generate jobs." He said Michigan State University's new federal atom smasher, the University of Michigan's announced purchase of the former Pfizer Inc. research campus and a Boston battery company's relationship with UM will result in thousands of jobs.

The URC is also investing its own funds in alternative energy research, and is deeply involved with business incubators.

The universities are also working together on cutting the brain drain of recent graduates leaving Michigan -- and 46 percent of 2007 graduates left, Noren said, mostly Illinois, California and New York. "In order to boost our economy in a meaningful way we need to turn the brain drain into a brain gain," he said.

Noren said the federal stimulus package will help the universities in several ways, including boosting research funding and new appropriations that will help avoid tuition increases and a boost in federal tuition grants for less-fortunate students.

The full speech can be heard at http://www.wwj.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=3536824 and the Q&A at http://www.wwj.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=3536852.