ALC-Higher Education Subcommittee

You're still. To turn. Okay. I'm trying. Share sees a quorum. The January meeting of the higher education subcommittee will come to order. I want to thank those of you who can make it today. I want to thank those of you who can make it today and evidently turns out that another events been scheduled so it's probably going to suppress or a. Turn out today but. We'll get used to that. I'm thrilled that you are here because today we've got incredible bunch of folks with us to tell us about some things that you may have heard about I know personally I've heard about a peripherally but I wanted to get them here so we can get I mean potatoes of these incredible hi tech research that's going on and possible future applications statewide. Before we get to begin I want to explain Senator English is at that announcmenet and will be joining us later and like also to welcome in our audience today Mr Bryan Byrne House presidency of the Arkansas research alliance that's him waving his hands back there and M. accompanying him is any hopper the program manager of course all of these exchange for the Arkansas research alliance thanks for coming. We'll go ahead and not get right into the program. Agenda item C. we like to call to the table Dr Alan Mantooth distinguished professor the 20 first century research leadership chair in engineering department of electrical engineering you a fat bill. An oral printer MMS Melly. Okay. Very good well. Mr chairman hi Randy Masta university of Arkansas Fayetteville. Asin Allen Mantooth professor like to engineering universe of Arkansas office and everybody's are not for me so I'm gonna let you launch right into your presentation thank all right great. Well it's my my honor and pleasure to to speak to all of you ladies and gentleman first of all thank you for your service to the people of Arkansas and has a fellow servant of those people I will hope you be excited about some of the things we're gonna talk about today because we have some unique things that are that are occurring I think you can make a big impact so the title of this talk as you can see on the screen is music multi user silicon carbide national semiconductor research fabrication facility quite a mouthful that's what we had to come up with a clever little acronym there. So we call it music so we're gonna be making some beautiful music here with an ensemble of equipment that we have been able to procure as a result of the grass that we've receipt and we'll talk about just what does it all mean and and what does it mean for our cans. So 2 parts to this the first part is motivation context I start with just a brief introduction of myself and then I move on into my team and the people behind this and talk about the what what all the noise about here so let's see if I can make this thing go here we go. Area okay so I am from Jacksonville Arkansas originally I'm native our cans and and I got my bachelor's and master's at the UA then went to Georgia tech for a PhD so I went sort of straight through and you all know what senior walk is but when I give this talk to people around the country they sort of look at it goes Lester installed so you know but anyway so it's it's it's kind of kicks things off a little bit I did work in industry for 8 years in Oregon for a for a start up company that then went public and was acquired that came back to the university in 1998 and through the years progressed and now I'm a distinguished professor of electrical engineering. And I've co founded the 3 start ups here in in Arkansas and then help nurture force to its acquisition by the company call will speed that's now had cool has a large office in the in favor. The logo that you see on the slide represent just a few of the organizations that have supported our work through the last 23 years and I've been here and there are more probably to the tune of 50 companies that have supported as well but the the department of energy and the National Science Foundation of the 2 big big groups and then a little bit on the defense side as it relates to DARPA and the army. So. But again to conclude the introduction part I I am the leader of what's known as the U. a power group you a power group is the largest Parlett tronics research group in America it's a 15 faculty members when we hire this fifteenth one this year and his has several federally funded centers of excellence these were nationally competed the grapes is grid connected advanced power electronic system so that's for grid modernization poets is our power optimization for elector thermal systems that's electric vehicles of all types of planes trains automobiles and heavy equipment. Seizes our cybersecurity center and that's focused on the grid and so these are all operated out of the U. a power group this is the largest research enterprise and at the university of Arkansas Fayetteville about $15000000 a year in research expenditures in in these areas very vertically integrated program from the basic physics all the way to the 6 megawatt test facility that we have which is known as encrypt over on the left there so I'll talk mostly about music today but we do have great facilities that allowed us to students that we've developed through the years and this is been a long journey I mean it took 20 years to get here so we we're now starting to see the fruits of that labor really pay off and on and on in a large way. So without any further ado let's get right into it you're all familiar with the semiconductor shorted you've heard about this you see it on car lots are you see the absence of it on car lots and use you know that it's impacting supply chains all over the place and people are starting to realize just how semiconductors are indeed everywhere. In fact after serving as the president of our professional society of a Tripoli parla tronic society I was known for saying power electronics is everywhere it's in your lighting it's in your laptop it's in your phone it's not always high power stuff sometimes it's micro power stuff but it's still power electronics and it's everywhere and this is what we're gonna be talking about today is All of those electronics and what does it take to make our world go. So you can see that the you know there's a great demand for the semiconductors up from my from my slide and just take a look at some of the applications that it touches on here in in the next slide and this is anywhere from you know the the small voltage levels to the very high voltage levels and then you start talking about the the the impact that this has in our infrastructure wise in our nation okay health care if you don't have any electric power you know you're in trouble so it's just all of our world is so interconnected so you know the the it's it's it's affecting our everyday way of life we're starting to see this we certainly see it it in in our in our everyday lives so what's the current situation will of course the United States has recognized this problem and they're starting to to realize that not only do we have this global shortage United States is not as well positioned as it once was and they were the pioneers that invented these circuits in these these these technologies. And yet you can see by the curve on the lower left there how other nations are starting to take over and only one in 5 semiconductors is produced in America now where it was all invented here so we've got to turn this around and this is one of the ways we can that we can do it and a big focus is yes we have to revitalize what happened in the original of invention of all this on the coast but in middle part of America here's where the big opportunity is to have a workforce problem. We cannot if all the engineering schools and all the country put all of their electoral engineers into semiconductors right now we could not meet the shortage. We have got to turn this tide around this opportunity that's what this is it's opportunities looking is right in the face as these universities in the middle part of America that can make the big difference. So we're taking a leadership role in that regard. So if you start thinking about. Semiconductors most people think of the word silicon silicon is what you would find in your cell phone and your laptop and you wouldn't see any exotic semiconductors as we call them okay SO carbide AS one of those exotic semiconductors NO what makes it so exotic it can survive in very high temperatures we have inserted this material and electronics based on this material in natural gas turbines for health monitoring. Adding a 500 degree C. continuously 5 times boiling. Okay that would take your cell phone and melt okay everything in it but not these electronics these electrons can survive in this harsh environments and that makes things more energy efficient and that's the grid modernization work that we do but now let's imagine putting it into a caterpillar bulldozer. Because if you didn't know caterpillars had hybrid electric bulldozers for over 10 years John Deere's farming equipment hybrid electric why it's easier on the back the hydraulics jerk you around okay the operator can operate longer and save 25 percent on the fuel costs. So it's a win win for the farmers to win win for the operator the bulldozers win win a way around and this cost parity not paying any more for that hybrid electric then they are any other bulldozer because bulldozers are just expected to start with. Now unit and you know when you start looking at electrification name a car company that doesn't have at least a hybrid version coming out everyone's pursuing it we're looking at $1000000000000 industry $0 industry electric cation as it relates to cars and is certainly when you start adding and heavy equipment and electrifying aircraft. Your University of Arkansas will be the first university in this country to produce an FAA qualified electric drive it's been qualified this year and 2022 by company in Los Angeles AMP air B. Google AMP air A. I. R. E. okay you will find that company is retrofitting Cessna 33 sevens with electric engines in the front with the gas engine back it's a twin engine plane it's going hybrid it can flex crucially on electric when does it burn most fuel taxi and take off I can go all electric. So as a result of this kind of growth you're saying this tremendous opportunity economically in Arkansas is an aircraft business right down came to. We have a lot of aerospace company to produce a lot of parts they could be producing these power electronics as well. Okay so we already have the infrastructure to do some of this so this is an exciting thing and so you know. Is the United States going to be the country where we believe so because the silicon carbide like trunks were invented again in America and we're trying to make sure that they don't go off shore. So. What is really needed for US researchers to leave this one of the things that's needed and this is what we have started filling a gap on is a gap between your research and innovation whether being universities or small businesses our national laboratories and high volume manufacturing there's a gap. Low volume prototyping any small business owner will tell you if I can prototype it for a reasonable cost I can then scale to manufacturing we have the scale of manufacturing we have the innovation ecosystem we don't have any way of doing low volume prototyping and bringing that research into that and that's what music does. And all the stars that you see mapped out here these are provided support letters for this to be located in Arkansas. Because over a 20 year period we've establish that credibility to be able to do just that so one investigator from Purdue asked me the question why Arkansas and I said. Because it's a gap that needs filling and we've got the expertise to do it. It is a simple as that. Okay so this is this is a what has happened most recently you might have heard about the new so over the last 2 years we have received first a $1000000 grant from the National Science Foundation then an $18000000 grant from the National Science Foundation for a total of 19000000 to establish this national silicon carbide facility only one of it in the like in the country will be focused on filling this gap. Okay so while many others as you hear about the chips ACT and other things that that the federal government might be looking at that we focused primarily on silicon this is silicon carbide electrification it really enables a lot of the electrification of vehicles and these grid modernization activities and other things that silicon carbide that's what we'll be doing okay and we can do silicon as well with a silicon carbide facility which is kind of nice we can do either. The army research labs thanks to some assistance at the federal level has also put in a 5.4000000 toward this effort. And so this is a this is clearly a need that will serve both our commercial needs as well as military needs because let's face it there needs for electrification are very similar and for different reasons but still there's that similar and they also have needs for extreme environment like trucks that can handle those harsh temperatures which this can't so this is exciting part of it and you know if I just were to fill in this is why choose the University of Arkansas back to that question again why choose us over all of the other possible universities that could have this large large effort. Well you can read the bill is for yourself it goes from having a critical mass of expertise to having largest program in the country that can support this. Having a proven track record through the through the centers of excellence of handling very large programs okay so we can handle that part of it award winning research a very productive faculty in just one year alone are group produced almost 100 journal articles and an 80 conference papers this is tremendous productivity. And so I think what you can see is it's it's definitely achieved a level of respect and you don't when an NSF grant like this if you're not respected by the peers that are reviewing it I think that's something that you can be proud of so. What's the impact of Arkansas let's let's bring it home now what is the impact on us well imagine this national facility is the only place in the United States researchers can bring their research and develop these ideas further and and move them all the way to the commercial sector this is that accelerator this is that place. People from Berkeley to MIT to Wisconsin Madison Virginia Tech the start ups in Texas other protect all want to jump into this utilize this facility paying members of this facility. That's what this is and where it's a confluence of all that expertise that's what it is it's all meeting right there in Arkansas. So yes it's going to have an impact on students he's gonna have a big impact on students not just in Arkansas but nationwide those students will come with their advisors to study here the things that we're doing. Yes it'll be a tractor axle factory there already knocking on our doors wanting to come be a part of this. Would increase our federal industry support I have a slight on that yeah just a little bit would lift the visibility of your first of Arkansas we believe so certainly and it will produce the next generation well trained leaders in the semiconductor industry. And we hope that that springs up right here in Arkansas. So would attract other industries thank applications now okay so thank electric vehicle companies like canoe whose announcer moved their headquarters to Bentonville okay and they're building the service trucks okay so they're gonna be electric vehicles these are the kinds of people that this facility attracts because they want to be near where the semiconductors are produced and with these recent supply chain issues you can see why because even Ford and GM are making the decision to start their own fabrication facilities so that they can have their own captive supply chain. Okay so yes there's no question this is a big opportunity for Arkansas not just in Fayetteville certainly in in in Northwest Arkansas but statewide I've already mentioned candles certainly here in Little Rock there's other areas where this will make a big difference thank you in terms of the automakers that are just across the border from from up from West Memphis this this is something that could start in an Eastern Arkansas as well in terms of a fabrication facility so there's a lot of opportunities. So what does that mean for us in terms of increased opportunities federally well I've done this analysis pretty carefully and let me let me let my own credibility here in 23 years I've been here I brought in $175000000 and external funded research okay that's the number one in the history of the university okay. So when I tell you there's $45000000 sitting on the table over the next 5 years I know who's going to be giving it. I know these people okay and so these are they're lined up in as soon as we have this thing stood up and it'll take us about 2 to 3 years to stand it up once it's all stood up that's when this starts that's when this timer starts and you're happy to hold me to that because a we did this with the national center for live lectures power transmission started it with $1000000 we selected 40 times okay so it's it's this is the way we think in terms of the research that we do it's the work that we're doing drives the development of it. Okay. So. In my. In the second part of this I want to just talk about what's coming next briefly okay I mentioned to you we have a great team I'm here representing that team it's not just me but this is a great team of people okay great faculty. And there's many other beneficiaries both at that the you a favor campus and other universities in the state that will be a part of this. We have the support Mr just a partial list these are the companies universities and national labs that and funding agencies that have all of given their support to what we're doing so you can see in green the funding agencies in read the university's and black the companies this is a partial listing. This list is growing almost daily. I'm and then when you think about the financial details when I presented this project to the university 3 years ago yes this was this is we've been at this a while okay we're just now getting to the punch line 3 years ago okay this is what I said it would take in green is what we've been able to accomplish okay and so I've already been over the numbers with you but it's it's it's tremendous and there should be additional funds that will be coming. And one of the things that we discovered is that yes. Why we've been able to start procuring equipment and fund the staff even that will be running this and I've heard the first the fab managers been hired okay I heard from expand we have industry expats so he's coming from Lubbock Texas to Arkansas to run the fab okay we have people who really know what they're doing here then we're gonna have a top notch facility. So site planning has begun for a new building to house this. And so as a result of that new building you know this is probably gonna go from say 2530 $0 deal to the north of 50000000 because this will be a building that houses this this dedicated facility which is what's needed for us to have the process control we need and so this is just a quick lay out of it it's the the key thing here is this is much much cleaner than a medical operating room. 6 or 7 times as clean this is very very specialized location that we're putting all of this equipment into to be able to produce the semiconductors. So you know if you wonder if your words of if you were. Not sure what we were talking about okay these electronics essentially end up into. Packages like this thank you arrayed inside larger units such as those bulldozers one of them is like trying to look like and I'll see if I can get to so. If the the wafers that we produce are on the order of roughly 6 inches in size as part of this okay and that's what I'm trying to get out here is that is of that size. Okay this is the way for is that we have the shortage of right here this is the thing everybody's talking about you take this thing up and dice up the little squares on it put in a package like this with this package in your car and you're ready to go that's what we're missing. This is what we'll be producing right here. Okay and so as a result of that you know it's a a unique opportunity for our young people and I'm certainly hoping if the message gets out to all of our youth here in Arkansas that they're some great opportunities coming. And a great chance for them to step into so I'm just going to stop here with the last bit here I'll summarize. You know. A recognized program substantial funds timing is excellent things are coming together in a great way okay so the time is right for us industry needs the talent will be producing we want much of that to stay here if we can okay and with respect to industry relations you can read the list there Toyota caterpillar John Deere for GM Boeing these are all interested parties in the types of things that we build. So as a result of that I'll draw to conclusion answering questions you've got thank you for your time. Senator Chesterfield you're recognized for a question. Thank you so much thank you for this brilliant presentation was just exciting because one of the things I've been concerned about is why is it we can't produce our own chips. Yeah we keep hearing about the shortage of hearing about the shortage my question is since you have a plethora of technical institutions under the U. a Boeing in. How will you help to make sure that some of that training or do you anticipate helping make sure some of that training goes to other members of the U. a family because they are they are stationed throughout the state and that would allow the growth of knowledge in all parts of the state so how are we looking at that and if so how we looking at so part of the $18000000 grant from the National Science Foundation was several $0 just for students to come and learn about this. Technology that we're developing in research experiences in the summer you're visiting opportunities so it really is meant to be a hub where people can come study and and and put their hands on it that's the because we can certainly do remote delivery of of instruction that's fine but but you know seeing and touching is believing so we have the funds to house them to pay their travel and to get them on site so that they can have a chance to get first hand with with this technology and we think that will really make a difference well they self identify Willie institution determine who they will be we will advertise and make it available to all of our partners here in the U. a system of course and and a issue of course because we have partnerships with all of these all of these relevant departments to other programs that we run in the past so you A. L. R. A. issue you a P. B. we worked with all these Arkansas tech and I'm just naming a few but we've worked with all of these and we recruit students from all of the undergraduate is to come as graduate students so in fact that's a that's that's a very big key is we're we're looking at it as a way of having gained experience where they go straight to work or come to a graduate school maybe they'll come to the U. a favor for graduate school Sanskrit thank you so much for sharing this very exciting mmhm. Senator garner you're recognized for a question thank you Mr chairman you mention the defense contractor down in Camden Calhoun County that's my district what conversations you had with them as far as where they think it's because they could use these kind of people who are trained to have any Pacific government contracts I know how to get the majority of their revenues from government contracts what what what exactly would that look like a mean person how they train people of south Arkansas to work job I'm very. Excited about that like you know how concrete those discussions are being thank you great great question so in fact one of my master students right now is working full time in Camden and so we're at we're able to to work with them remotely to help them continue their education so this is one way okay another way is. One of the work force problems we're going to have in the semiconductor industry is people with 2 year degrees community colleges we are definitely going to need those to step forward you know and be able to sort of understand so the early curriculum that we need that those young folks to know after a 2 year degree because those technicians are key to running facilities like this their operators very high paying jobs and so forth these are the types of people that could could step into to many positions in the in the organizations in Canada as well as engineers so it's both I want to stress that it's both levels not just engineering talent but the technician talent and quite frankly across the country it's the technician talent that we have a really big gap so. And with respect to a working with the company's directly in terms of programs and things like that I think it's a matter of us making them aware of what we have to offer right there and maybe this fits more closely with programs they either have ongoing or future programs that they might bid for knowing that this is right here thank you president Senator Garner I'd like to add something to its I'm down here trending one of the things that how may not mention we have numerous grads engineer grants that working campus prince specifically Laki we do you know in our house and all those types of things as well and one on one of his early slide you saw the acronym A. R. A. R. L. you know I know you know what that is army research lab we're going back in one things I work with documented on is we're going back in for a third generation of army research lab money he's working on next generation combat vehicle we're associate some of that work were we using with the navy would not vision goggles as well and the other things we're trying to do is mine I would say I'm trying to that is mine a lot of these agencies DOD that the people you and I may have served with something one time or they have you of a time we have a masters of of operations management you saw one of the our graduates who recently became the first female,nder U. S. constitution we're we're constantly minding those graduates to see with a artsy within Bennett and DOD because of self but of the DOT is funded documented twice here on this next generation combat vehicle there could be some roll off applications that would apply to campaign as well. Representative makes you're recognized for a question thank you gentlemen for or for being here as the chair the technology committee and someone who holds a 2 year technology degree I definitely appreciate the work you're doing here and of course you know Arkansas has. Not have a reputation for being a high technology state and I appreciate you being here so the people of Arkansas know that there are great cutting edge science research opportunities happening with our state so I've got 2 questions my first one. Is is there anything that we as lawmakers can do to help encourage disk type of innovation within our state. Thank you for asking I'm prepared for that one. You know quite frankly messaging is really basic message getting the message out to moms and pops you know because kids still listen to mom and dad and and and and when there's opportunities like this coming down the road this is this is something not next year not 2 years from now this is gonna be here for the next 30 years this is this is something that is a big deal $1000000000000 market doesn't develop that quick okay it's going to grow and is to be opportunities to grow with it and so that's the thing that I want the young people to know that this is something that is exciting is happening in our backyard and they have the opportunity to not only work with us with great universities throughout the nation through this whole up to this hub that we will establish they'll have that opportunity currently we we interact with Stanford MIT Illinois and many other schools you heard of that are that have great that have great reputations and that's a message that you know through those collaborations they get a very rich education very rich education so I think that's the thing that's that's I'm so excited about I'm most excited about for our students I'm most excited because they are our main product we love our research but the student product is the main product that we produce and that's and and so as a result of that that messaging that you can take back home that that is the biggest thing you could do for us and and so so I and my and that leads to perfect segue to my follow up I represent Greenbrier and remember our schools are gonna be adding a engineering program to CT engineering program in a start that next year and so I know you've obviously the focus has been on college and university students but have you given it and it may be premature but have you given any consideration to reaching down to some of those high school that are gonna be offering these engineering programs to just like you said let them know that Hey this opportunity exist here in Arkansas absolutely we we firmly believe in that in fact we have a program program running right now called senior scholars and and these are these are so. Seniors in high school trying to get them on campus for 2 to 3 week period in the summer where they have an opportunity to really sink their teeth a bit into a little project you know and little bit more than a camp you know we're it's a little bit more directed and and more focused and they're working with the students that are actually doing the work okay are graduate students and that's an exciting time form so in that results so to your point yes we definitely wanted to tie in with the high schools and as much as we can consort of carry them all the way through. A you know high school as undergraduates get him involved in the research a bit it helps augment what they're learning in the classroom and then of course as graduate students and I'm being selfish now because of course all graduate students but. But yes that's that's a that's that's the pipeline we want to establish absolutely excellent thank you thank you Mr. Senator Elliot you're recognized for a question. Thank you Mr Serra thank you so much for your presentation document to my question really does have to do with the pipeline kind of the way you were talking right now I'll just tell you just really quick experience I had it as a high school teacher I taught both Advanced Placement classes and not invest Placement classes. And we would always get to those pre AP classes or AP classes or some folks would until stirs be stricken by the fact that everybody in the class looked alike. And how did this happen and what can we what can we do about it now and so by then you have 2 problems you know we've not prepared kids to be there and secondly the kids who really could catch up don't believe they could because we have sent the message they can't do in the first place and I saw that happen and and sadly even that kind of thing still happens so as not until I got to a point where I said I'm not teaching AP at all unless we can get some kids in here and make this classroom with the way it should look mmhm. So when it comes to our of our universities even have an invitation one thing I've learned is that y'all com thing does not work to make whatever we are doing all of the way our population works I'm sad about that. So I'm just wondering when you said the pipeline. What your thoughts are about the pipeline has to go much further back than safe when they're seniors and how we might work with our schools and even have some metrics and some requirements that's the thing I found as we have requirements we kind of. Don't make the mark of and I think this is even more important going forward just because we are changing so you know our demographics are changing and if we don't get to everybody we're going to miss market in Arkansas Missouri your thoughts about going deeper OR and not just you but having a part of the plan to going deeper and that's true for girls as well you know. Not just by race and ethnicity ethnicity. What about that. I've seen it in my 23 years there's no question and R. R. I mention this national center for live lectures power transmission or encrypt that that that we started back in 2005. To date we've we've reached out to more than 12000 students in Arkansas with that and and we have found what you're talking about that we need to go even down to grade school level yes. We need to make we've done our dead level best to make the energy sector exciting you know there are jobs in in the energy sector here in Arkansas I mean one third of the nation's powers controlled out of Arkansas okay between us PPE my so the energy cooperatives 80 P. is so much of electors use is controlled out of Arkansas you don't realize there's jobs for those people right here so we we I think we got that message through we had a very successful venture throughout the state of Arkansas we've brought the young people in. By the busload from all 4 corners of the state okay so that's a success I'm happy to continue to stand on. What it will take in this particular instance we're going to have to go for some additional funding from from NSF to do it because the the funding we got in this particular case was focused on high school and and undergraduates to wish that take that pipeline and develop it but I agree we have to develop the grade school and junior high pipeline as well. And you're familiar with the statistics as well as I when when young ladies when the science fair in junior high for some reason there's this drop off where do they go okay. I am 23 years the average number of women students in our laboratories this 30 percent or the national average is more like 11 percent and electrical engineering Arkansas is doing it. It's not a story that's told much. But I'd love to introduce you to my young ladies you know they're very good and we have so so what we're doing works but it's working in a in a in a in a you know it's it's it's it's somewhat narrow how do we broaden it and we make it better. And so I think that's something that we want to tackle and I don't have the answer for you right now in terms of how we would roll it out. I just know what we've done has worked for what for the limited amount that we we've done yeah and I and I know I certainly do appreciate that consists its is a difficult thing to do because we generally just are not used to have to be more intentional about doing it intentional everywhere and that takes work you have to put the effort in yeah it can't just be young constable we know that and the other thing I just wanna thank you for is you know when you. When you talk about we're gonna need people across the spectrum from technicians all the way up I I just appreciate. That you talk about that is all of it is workforce. Which I I I hope your presentation today will help us see that even more and. Try to get around some of the. Sport feels like competition but it shouldn't be and not have another students here so much. That we are degrading almost a college education in so many ways by saying we don't need a bunch of college graduates we need a bunch of whatever we need a bunch of every I just wanna thank you for making that point so we do not. I appreciate that yeah thank you so much Senator one had something about you mention females curl curl how we recruit girls we have girls in engineering program I'm not I'm familiar one particularly because I work with this engineering department on campus called mark track which is our maritime transportation research center center they have what we call girl trek in it is is a camp that we do in the summers for young young ladies from the fifth grade to the seventh grade to get them interested in engineering of a maritime transportation you know we're we've got barges rivers unlocks in those things and it was we get that funded partially funded we which provides money to the department of transportation grant or March reading random for years so we run that Senator in part of that Senator so I looked in July 11 through the fifteenth will be the camp this summer with that but if you would like any information I'd be more than happy can you I I absolutely would be good because I have one I just want to make sure we're reaching everywhere and could because we do we won't have to have those moments of oh my goodness look at where we are we did answer it way back there undocumented I might suggest since the question that was asked of representative makes what could we do that pipeline that you're talking about there may be a chance for you to say to us you could help us develop that part one way way back there is just absolutely welcome that thank you thank you. Senator Pitsch you're recognized for a question thank you I'm over here to your left well the problems with clicking on a button is some of the things that I want to visit with you about have been answered by representative Meeks I'm the former dean of engineering at the university of Missouri or at the university of Fort Smith got degrees from the university of Missouri or all of work with them for Children you mentioned females my daughter's everyone has a doctor of aeronautical the others about to have another doctor of nuclear in mechanical engineering all 4 kids are engineers but what happened in their family was they encountered engineering at a very young age and we can't wait you know the old saying that if you don't use fork knife and spoon to your 18 years old you probably don't have very good table manners and I bring to light the concept that eighth grade and ninth grade algebra I would tell you as a former dean of engineering work with Georgia tech work with road Holman work withdrawal of. That H. the ninth grade year. If we don't have them at the top of that cliff that's to senator Elliots point that's where we've got to come that's where we have to hit these children and and I use a small school in Oklahoma as the dean I have a young lady in my course and I ask I said we're both your parents engineers and she said on the first person out of 11 children to go to college I kept finding students from this little backwoods town high school in my electrical and mechanical engineering program their school district took their best math teacher made her an eighth grade math teacher how different pre algebra and students learn that foreign language called my house and it kept growing and we literally had their clothes their average ACT and that school went from a 17 barely anybody college ready date years later was averaging at 25 cross their senior class that's numbers that this state needs to replicate I've talked with the education folks at cetera and your your mission is kinda like you're at the very end of a pipeline we're all those marbles at the front end aren't getting what they need in the eighth and ninth grade and at some level you know we started the lots the program that you a Fort Smith the trying to get kids into pre engineering and that type of thing but there we were probably starting to late as well junior and senior and at some level the need in the request you come to this body and I'm gonna be done with this body in a few months. They need to hear that this eighth grade math much like the third grade reading those are 2 of the biggest cliffs and education that we don't get right. We are going to get there and I guess I'd like to hear your comments may be finished with that don't you agree but it's we just heard the Lake View lawsuit as they were getting rid or the lake view adequacy funding report and after 20 years we haven't changed the results and we have got to figure out how to change that results so that the your university in engineering surrounding engineering institutions are getting the type marbles we need when they come to on subchapter well of course a I do agree with that and being a first generation. Child in my family to go to go to college and I can tell you that it was my math teacher that made the difference my math teachers that made the difference quite frankly it was it was you know Mr Taylor in the seventh and eighth grade into someone else in the ninth grade to ms bit or if she she taught me the ninth grade and then Mister hall tenth eleventh and twelfth I remember those names because those names changed my life. Now you know from from sun of plumber to to to you know engineer and. You know I think I think there's there's something we have to identify those points and and and in our case it was seventh eighth and ninth of where that algebra and geometry and trig stuff was started. But. 4 of us that left that program with the top graduates of my graduating class in 1985 at the University of Arkansas at that high school. Notice the difference that that teacher made so get it it's it's like a snowball you get it going at the right time it just it just takes a moment and I'm I'm living proof of it. Okay quick real quick follow up use the word injured life I gave the graduation speech at their most recent graduation at UA Fort Smith and I talked about my ninth grade algebra teacher and how he changed my life not a single engineer in my family so he said I think you can be an engineer that interaction has to be a forced interaction not by a parent the by somebody else and that's how we're going to be able to keep up with the technology is zooming through the the work speed of time so right. Senator Johnson you're recognized for a question. Thank you Mr chairman of Randy in documentary thank you for coming today and good to see you again. Actually the question everybody else is saying that a boy and I want to say that a boy too but. The facility that you're describing I can see how you prototype things for toroto caterpillar John Deere bowling center. But we have some smaller companies that might not need to wrap up and have a production facility for this is this something that could. Created niche where a small to moderate production need. Could be met within the state of Arkansas and and you you mentioned some some industries a state I got another one back of my mind I want to visit with you about but but that they don't they don't need. 200000 of these boards right but they might need 2000 or 20000 and is this something this facility could. Could produce in fable or wherever and and meet that immediate need as opposed to I wish I know the macro stuff in work I get that button could this be done I'm sort of a small to medium scale. So the answer is yes and that's what's the difference between this and most university laboratories that you hear about you'll you'll hear about it a fan facility at Berkeley and Michigan and UCLA you'll you'll hear about those. For university research only. Okay I can't access them as a as you know I even as a university professor Arkansas I can access them they don't produce prototypes. This is almost like a committee. Industrially run facility it's just low volume okay and it's just it's meant to be low volume that's what's missing is a low volume manufacturing capability in this country so it's feeling a manufacturing whole. But it has to have the same process control is the big boys. And that's what makes it so expensive okay I have to buy the instrumentation to go with the equipment that does the manufacturing so that I can measure and check things and have process control throughout. So the answer is yes it is specifically able to do that and uniquely able to do that and do it in a cost effective way so from that perspective that's why we are being called by a number of small companies around the country saying when will you be open. Okay because they don't need to hundreds of thousands of units as you point out yeah that's exactly right okay thank you very much good luck on this I do want to touch base with you and get you in touch with the people I think may be able to take advantage of the of the possibility of of the of being a customer and and and maybe being involved in helping move the whole crop process down the road great thank you for coming thank you Mr. Senator Chesterfield recognized for a question thank you so much I'm I'm sitting here thinking about this being the home state of at least 2 of the individuals mentioned in the book hidden figures are black females you have shared with us the magic the numbers of women who are in the program how many minorities are in the program at this time can if there are not many what can we do to facilitate that. So there's not enough. I think I would say that's probably on the order of 15 percent. Okay and. With the metrics that I would use that I still don't call that enough it needs to be much higher than that I told you to to women percentage was 30 percent. And so the minority persons is not high enough and most of that is Hispanic. So it's it's a matter of preparedness I think he hit the nail on the head we are not seeing them ready to come into the to the program in the large numbers and so I think you know from that perspective we need to continue and double down on our efforts to make sure that we are reaching out to the the parts of the state that can provide that talent. And do our best to to attract it into the program that's what we need to do but it's a competitive situation the best students have a lot of opportunities thank you and so I guess that's why I ask you about the the university of university of Arkansas community college at hope and Texarkana comes immediately to mind mmhm because it's my hometown and I do know that their efforts being made to the academy to do more. But we're tracking that in jim crow where over 60 percent of the students deal with college and it will as African Americans with 5 names in their books when they got there how do we. I'm trying to figure out still how we turn this around so the people of my generation who did not have nearly the free public education at these gates to how do we get that done and I guess that's going to have to be something we continue to wrestle with as we go for well what an ionizer like I said I think we're all very open minded to any program that we can we can sink our teeth into to have many numbers we want something that because we're offering the education okay and it's just a matter of having students at the various levels are ready to receive that education so that's why the messaging is so important because this is a new a new wave a new opportunity. And and as a result of that who's going to who wants to take advantage of this who wants to wants to play in this game and help build electric cars engineer them. You know and and and and and build electric planes in the sort of thing and who wants to help modernize electric power grid of the sorts of applications spaces that's what we can do I think to help attract them and and you know of course I recently wrote an article about these electrons going to Venus will okay not everybody's gonna get somebody should go to Venus right but but bringing this back down to earth that a lot of us might get a chance to play in that game. One thank you so much Senator on top of that I think you and I think we all know that I'm. Ma'am how are you 5. One the biggest barriers we know is access in financial access and you brought up hope Texarkana which is interesting because that time president Thomason worked with the doctor Robinson who is now our interim of chancellor to work on college high school program and at that time or chance or head we have made a program that if you start your first 2 years at a you a community college you can finish your last to the University of Arkansas fable at the same tuition rate that you started at the community college and we would love to or look and if we can afford Branstad out another schools because we have a lot of the 2 years because that that's helping or with their it would this is kind of like the first interesting quorum second class going through that but those are all things that we need to do is a central ministration I would say to hell documentaries and help these programs so you know we're we're staff making a document that scholarship she was one of the individuals in hidden figures okay do all this stuff and he and and help us get what we need to be in the space program so I'm hopeful that that will be of some assistance because if people see success that looks like them. Many times they will believe that they too can do it so thank you very much and again this is a very exciting conversation. Well saying no one else in the queue on thank you both for making the time to come here and for bringing this incredible news to us I'm I understand that you need to travel so I'm gonna let you go please feel free to communicate back through the subcommittee anytime you have anything you'd like us to know so that looks like a man credible opportunity for futures thank you. Thank you. Okay. I just did want to let you know that. On our next agenda item our first Speaker is going to be appearing the as soon. Because of. Contact the they're gonna need to be in quarantine. So I'm that's a doctor Brian berry if I'm correct you. So when you get that set up to make sure that he's with us before we proceed aha I see someone. I'm here. All right not branching too far from our previous panel of. Because we're looking again at nanotechnology but a really really interesting twist from our. Folks at the University of Arkansas at little rock. If the panel could come ahead and. Have a seat up front. And once everybody has a scene if you could identify yourself for the record. I'm Johnny Lee from the university affairs a little odd. Hello my name is Nikki malen and my mechanical and systems engineer at the university of Arkansas at little rock. Christopher Griffin a PhD candidate in chemistry and you in the rock. Hello I'm Alex berries I'm professor with the university of Arkansas at little rock. Dark read you brief the microbit closer. And I'm primary and vice provost for research and in the graduate school at Yale have. Wondered about his phone number. Dr Mary can you increase your volume on your end. See if I can. It looks like my mind is as high as it can go. The. Doppler. Mr chairman of just from experience of set up their good bit was Ms that computer on the table if you turn the volume up on it it will increase the volume in the room less. If you try again. Okay is that any better. Can. Shop. Well this is this is often the chance we take when we try to pull zoom in here. Brian just talk as loud as you can go for it yeah caller. My teacher way. I'm used to doing that it's a great pleasure for me to be able to talk day sorry for the technical difficulties I'm sorry that I had is the man I'm on my next to last and isolation as a result of go of it so I am well all the giants for having the zoo man I just wanted to to start this off talking about how important the the research university is to the state of Arkansas so I'm passionate about research and the mission of the research university because it changed my life I know you heard that from documents to as well but it changed my life I was a first generation college student born and raised in Arkansas in fact I graduated from Jody Robinson where's Senator Elliott was a distinguished faculty member at the time and that you know I tell people all the time when I entered the university I couldn't spell PhD I didn't know what a PhD dead I didn't know about research and I got hooked by the research so strongly that it propelled me beyond what I ever thought I could do no one has ever told me I could be a professor no one had ever told me I could be assigned to and the research university told me that the research told me that and so I'm super excited to be the vice provost for research and and dean of the graduate school because I get to talk about the impact of that research all the time I don't want to take up any doctor of yours is fine but I just want to know you a little rock is a doctoral on university with high research activity as classified by the Carnegie Foundation so what's important about research and the mission of research at the university well 90 first off it creates new knowledge you just saw a doctor and 2 then you're going to see from doctor bears that there's this new knowledge being created that in itself is laudable but most importantly is it that generation of new research and we utilize students to participate. 8 in the creation of that new research and by involving students and as we get to train them not on yesterday's jobs not on today's jobs but we get to train them for the next generation of jobs and that something really unique that research brings to the table thirdly the research university develops technology that can be transferred into the marketplace so that the short way to say that is economic development generating spin off companies or recruiting companies to license technology created in our universities is is a big piece of what we do is a research university so you're going on right next is doctor bears he's a fantastic sciences I won't even have to tell you that you're on top you'll know that but he's the director of the center for integrative. Logical sciences he's an amazing scientists who involves students in really applied projects in this project that he's gonna talk about it he's developed and led is the perfect example that Sir Belizeans those 3 components that the research university should be doing generating new knowledge training students for the next generation of jobs and transferring technology marketplace he's gonna tell you about all 3 of those things that he's done so without further ado I'll be here for questions later if you have additional questions but I'm just gonna toss it over to Dr bears that to talk about the the the real thing that you want to hear. Thank you go ahead jump in anytime you're ready. Well hello everybody my name is Alex berries I'm a professor with the university of Arkansas at little rock and I'm a fellow of the Arkansas research alliance and I also served as the director of the center for integrated nanotechnologies sciences first of all I'd like to thank you for inviting me it's it's a it's a great honor and I'm so excited about some of the work that we're doing that I'm so excited and I'm excited for having to put you need to share that with you so what are we focused on we are focused on 3 major directions one is education and for that I have brought some of my amazing graduate students with me. We are focusing on research because we have to develop knowledge we have to find new cures for disease we have to fight new new processes that would make our lives better and then thirdly what really motivates me is to be able to transfer these particular knowledge into companies because ultimately we need to hire these kids we have to figure out how to create the wealthy jobs so people come to Arkansas and not go away from Arkansas. So our mission SO saying before you start vantage not to affect the vast knowledge but how do we do that we do a thorough basically indirectly students we have to learn and we have to teach the students the most amazing new scientific developments I want them to actually know what this possible and to prove and to find solutions what to what we believe it's impossible and that's what I believe that the students can do if we actually what I say if we hook them early enough they are amazing just out of their ways because they are so used to solve problems they're so used to think outside of the box that I'm always amazed of how amazing a job they do but ultimately what do we work on we work on solving problems for the society and I'm going to exemplify some of these problems S. we'll go forward so I just want to remind you all the fact that our center was founded in 2006 with 5.$9000000 investment from the state so we thank you and I want to show you some of the accomplishments that we have had with these early investment so that our amazing facility our building has been built in 2012 when we moved in and ever since he's been absolutely an amazing journey. I doubt if I could ask you to try to bring them back a little bit further thank you so much some of the older folks don't hear as well as we used to. Thank you. Well I appreciate that so I want to talk about what have we done with the 5.$9000000 that you have so kindly trusted us wait first of all we have been able to attract federal money close to 25.$7000000 from a number of agencies not just one we actually work with the department of energy we work with the National Science Foundation we work with the US food and drug administration but mostly what I want to focus on is the word that we are doing with the department of defense. I just highlighted here some of the grand sum all the federal money that we have received from different. Branches of the department of defense and why is that because we care right now you have probably heard about explosive devices that can explode and completely smashed the liens of these these amazing heroes. Most of the cases the outcome is amputation what if I ask you what if we can actually find the solution to regrow the bone regrow that the issues in such a way that those kids will have normal lives I ask you we have I have seen some of those heroes in airplanes I've seen them in different other different are the events so this is what the department of defense has funded us to do. And currently what's highlighted in red Oct 2 of the existing funding grants that we are still working weight of the 5.$8000000 and the $750000 but I want you also to realize something is not to just regenerate bone. But also to find solutions where this technology something like these not the fund something very. Something like this. Can you Sir can be certified and over time goes away integrates living besides leaving behind nothing but new. Bone. But what if we can do more than that what if we can load it up with drugs so we can fight bone infection in case of the stub of these wounds generally there's direct dismantled there's all kind of Slavic in the fact that the issue so we have actually proved again we funding for the department of defense that we can actually address infections as well. So. Who do we in fact first of all these is what we're trying to do but over the years we have impacted we have worked with students from pretty much most of the major parts of the state of Arkansas we have actually worked with different states right now we have collaborations with the leaders in the sale signs we work with Colorado state that is pretty much the the university that is the most of the studies for the big pharmaceutical companies and they want to partner with us that tells us that we're doing something right of right here in Little Rock. Right here in Arkansas so we have worked with a number universities and colleges everybody that knows me will know that I don't know how to say no so if somebody is coming Hey can I do something absolutely. I don't really know how to say no we have developed a number of inventions and patents because that's the foundation. Of starting companies of course we are focused on publications and we have somewhere close to 200 plus publications but this is fantastic for my my amazing young colleagues but if we want to take these knowledge we have to protect it so we do believe intellectual and intellectual property and this university has been obsolete kind to us and they supported us in our efforts to to to secure it so it doesn't go away it's so easy these days to develop a phenomenal technology that just walks away. So yes we have started to companies I want to focus on the first one you sure spouse sciences this is a company that was actually required to start this company by the department of defense and why is that because they want the fruit of their investment the money they have spent in our research to be reflected in the product. That can actually be eventually approved by the food and drug administration and be used for not just military heroes but also civilians and here the applications on obsolete phenomenal think about the example dousing before our heroes they get you know wounded but also thing that 18 year old kid that has a crash on on a on a highway. Think of all the person that has bone cancer and we have to rebuild of the the the teacher so these is what drives us these the company's form because of the the the requirement from the department of defense and right now we have 12 employees. So with your amazing support we have built an infrastructure of equipment that helps us in our research we cannot see nanoparticles that the tiny for us right so we have to build the infrastructure of equipment we have to build a micro schools the spectrometers that are helping us to analyze what we synthesize and right now the sick we meant has been used not just to actually advance basic knowledge by the way 216 students had actually use the sick women and not just from the University of Arkansas little rock from pretty much most of the universities in the state but also we have supported over 20 private companies they have to have. Products. Volleyed so basically we give them access to our equipment so they can become more competitive so they can actually improve their products they can actually sell more of what they were doing so based on that they can hire more people so I can talk more about that I'm passionate about sharing and the as I was saying before over 20 companies have used our facilities I could talk to you about already search for hours I'm passionate. I believe the knowledge I believe in developing your knowledge and you know we have actually been funded by department of defense to develop technologies that stop icing on the airplanes on the blades of the helicopters that currently cannot be cleaned but what again I want to talk about is what excites us the most is this technology industry generation. As I was saying I worked on the since 2004 is not something that happens overnight. We actually I was very fortunate to work for any verse that believed in me and supported me and then basically slowly but surely we have tried to address a problem that currently has almost no solution except occupation which is not. Something that we want the other the other solution is to cut the piece of the review. Got the piece of the read from the from the patient himself or a piece of the heap that's actually implies a second surgery so what if we can have a material that the surgeon can place seen. And then in a matter of 6 to 18 months completely vanishes by the grades and then leaves behind nothing but but new bone that's what we have actually developed in partnership with my young colleagues my students that I so cherish. So it is a material that off absolutely is unique as porosity and behave just like bone and even more than that the doctor can cut the decision can copied however he or she desires to any shape any size. Any any dimensions right there in the O. R. so that's what actually makes is so appealing because most of the. Searches that we work with. They are excited about the fact that they can cut the why because not to bone defects on the scene especially in trauma especially in the military induced won't they're all different so that's what we have been able to accomplish and just to give you an idea currently we have. Monthly. Meetings with the department of defense where we discuss where we are we ought to with all the search they want to know what progress we have made because they want these product. And what better outcome for a research project than knowing that we are going to touch in a positive way our. Human compatriots. Here it's a cute one that's in outbox. The South Park I had an accident had the major fracture with very bad infection so I got the phone call from a surgeon my collaborative from UT Knoxville Dr David Anderson said Alex can you send me some of them with the because otherwise these poor alcohol not make it Aidid you see the fracture and you see 6 to 6 weeks after look what an amazing chance to live the south Baca has had the same thing we have tried with many many other type of animals that had the misfortune to have different types of accident accidents and so on we can deliver antibiotics to sell us talking to you we had a long meeting with with the doctor's notes of from the from the MS on Friday we have been able to show that we some of our multi year within Q. R. bony faction I don't have to tell you what bone infection knees it's terrible. Because and currently I'm not the and the and I shouldn't speak about that but the solutions are pretty painful so what if we have this type of material just place it in a solution of antibiotic Les sitting side of the ball and the fact and then the infection goes away and then the board will stock the form does the solution that currently we are working on I think we have it and that's why the department of defense funded us to do so just to give you another example one of the models that we have done what's in these one inch bone defect in TBI which would be normally associate with an explosive event. I want you to see how beautiful though born has reformed just 3 months late that 90 days later. It's amazing at this point normally the animals have enough resistance in the bill to walk. A similar kind of X. ray where we show exactly how amazing these technologies working and we also working on war record type of the facts this is about 70 percent of the whole to be online I want you to think about. 70 percent ATVI. Currently the stop of solutions don't exist is simple predation so because of the work again funded by the department of defense because of what we have these develop at UA little rock we actually have solution they can address these kind of issues. Another case imagine a 1.5 centimeter skull defect could be because of an explosive event the bullet could be because of trauma or it could be because of a brain cancer surgery what if in a 2 in. I'm trying to give you a 60 days post surgery the whole the fact is basically feel with your bone. 8 weeks 60 days. We have worked with a number of collaborators from EMS to to to show that we can do spine regeneration you have all heard about the kind of debilitating conditions that the spine that is broken can induce we have a solution for that I believe. Well why are we so excited well we're very excited because this is not. A $5000000 market this is a market that gross. More and more and the gross. Right fast we're talking about many many billions of dollars and the number one is your to Pedic's in bone but we are not going to focus just on bone we are looking right now it's keen we are looking at Mossel we are looking and nerve we are looking at are the types of issues I want the whole because in case of an accident we don't lose just want issue we lose a combination of that so therefore I want the whole enchilada and these kids know it very very well because they have to work together so I feel that what we have done so far could be the foundation for a completely new development industrial development in the state of Arkansas. So. With that being said I'm very honored to actually have worked with a phenomenal leave their sharing ballot she's the CEO I don't know business so I don't know what I'm talking about but I'm the CTO I'm the CEO and what we have said is that we're gonna make Arkansas these companies home you all were born in Arkansas I chose Arkansas. So for me is very special because I don't live Arkansas not to be considered as very advanced technologically because we are but we just don't know how to put the message out there so we have made it a point that we are going to have this company in the state of Arkansas so D. R. the department of the defense has awarded twice 2018 2019 the defense innovation awards to Las our technology and the company has received close to 8.$9000000 in competitive federal funding non not the investment just competitive we went to compete for this money at that age and other agents department of defense recently the department of defense has funded up this company has funded us to actually create a note the monetization process so we can create these particular technology right in Little Rock so I'm very happy to say that the company has a manufacturing processes that meets most of the FDA recall requirements and. We are very thankful we have received SBIR matching funds from the state of Arkansas ADC so we are very very thankful for that because that allowed us to buy equipment but what we have also done because of my absolute desire. And thinking that we cannot be successful without the next generation we cannot do it so we have developed with the University of Arkansas mentorship program where 20 my. Students but more like young colleagues they actually have experience in your shorts and their work will actually impact the development of these products Creasey says work as you'll see very soon very soon is going to go to the food and drug administration they have required us to do certain experiments well as part of his PhD so all the work that these incredible young scientists to. Has relevance. And they could go anywhere I can tell you that but I want them to stay here and work with us to develop the next generation of technologies so imagine what eve I'm asking you all what if we can become the leader senate regeneration in the country why not I don't know why not we have started this project from 0 and we got to the point where now we have monthly discussions with the department of defense to take this technology to apply to the people to the heroes actually need so with that. I would like to introduce Nikki. Now she is high energy and I have to slow her down she's smart and she's extremely driven so Nikki. Thank you Dr. Hello again everybody my name's Nikki malen and once again I am the mechanical materials engineer research student at the University of Arkansas at little rock. And so I do get to spend a lot of wonderful time with doctor various and our team and just to give. And so just thank. And so just to give you guys a little bit of background on what I do as a mechanical materials engineer. I actually get to characterize and identify how these materials react so like Dr beer said we have a need for bone regeneration so how does bone Act how do we want these materials to behave is it going to be in compression are we going to compress this material is it going to withstand these forces that are going to be applied in the different applications and so part of the work that I get to do is characterize and make sure these materials are up to par with what we want them to be and so another aspect that I get to play with is to actually establishment these different methods so for example on the right we have the swelling Force meter and so we look through all the American standards and there's nothing really out there to identify of this force that is being produced so for example in a mental defect they drill hole into the the socket where you're going to put the scaffold right well when you close that pocket it's covered with your gums and its future together well doctors said the scaffold expands so what happens if it expands and pushes apart those sutures and causes these basically infections and cause it to fail so this is just one of the different designs that we had come up with for different applications this only being open to the service like in the gum another one being restricted only in the X. and Y. direction so it can expand in the lateral kind of like that large segmental defect in the leg so we get to play with these different things just to prove what is actually happening with our materials. And so some of the specific projects that I get to work on I am focusing primarily on this bone regeneration project I one of the first projects we are working with is the phone decelerate lease the cellular isolation project and what we do with that is basically we are making our own medical grade bone so medical grade phone is only available from Australia and because it's so difficult to get essentially it's pretty expensive it's $50 a gram and so you know we we do get funding however to be able to do a lot of research we don't want to spend $2500 on one sample we will be able to make a lot of this bone and do our own research and so that's just one of the first US studies we do when you can see in this top picture or we started with different kinds of bone we have read knuckle and we wanted to see what kind of made the best out and at the bottom image you can see the different stages where we are removing each stage of organic so we're really thorough trying to understand fully what's happening with our phones another one of the projects I get to work on his or synthetic bone project so I. doctors of your sad bone to grace us at a set rate we want our phone to heal and replace as those words are being filled so we wanted this bone to degrade at a set period in time. That's what we're making we're making a custom bone to the grave perfectly depending on the type of application being yes now this is a really in its infancy but this is just one of the other projects for getting to work on and then the last project which is the one doctor purists has spoken to as the actual bone regeneration project you know we've saved many animals we've gotten to start this wonderful company needs or so I was one of the first students the start the internship oh my goodness everybody it was the most amazing experience I kind of imagine basically I get to start with this entrepreneurial. You know Braj type idea and we've developed it all the way to this their own building our own processes the device master record for how this project going to be and we're we're going for you know FDA. Quality product exactly so. Is truly phenomenal I've never thought I would have the opportunity to be able to see on a big picture a big scale on you know your original infant idea bring it all the way up to a finalize project that can be sent anywhere and doctors had mentioned the the $3000000 a study for M. tech that we're automating this idea technically you go to any engineer and they're saying this is impossible you cannot do it as a table size factory in a box is not realistic. Well nothing's impossible to us so you know we're we're working on it and work we're gonna make some amazing things happen and that that's just I can not. Explained it well enough it's just so phenomenal that we've been given this opportunity to see and a bigger spent most doctoral students were focused on one project with Dr beer as he's given us this ability to see the big picture like how are my ideas going to apply in different fields what do I have to contribute to this project and like Dr is that he has a hard time saying no so we have a good idea he's you know really you know supportive and really helpful with us so it. I've never had an experience part like this so I actually want to be speak to a center Chesterfield Elliott you guys to mention you know women's. Women in engineering and the minorities so I won't mention the University but when I first started back in 2010 I was a mechanical engineering major in my very first class the professor said look to the left you look to the right. They won't be there by the end of the semester have the will be gone it was a sink or swim education and they basically pushed me out I do not think I was good enough. So I switched my degree and I switched to instrumental music education because like you guys said in high school those professor those teachers that spoke to me and told me my passion told me I could do it I truly believe music was my passion and I loved it however in 2015 I got a tumor and the my mouth that calls means not being able to play my trombone and so I switched back I wanted to take a look at my life and this bone regeneration that's exactly what people like me not just the military people all over the world me to help you know save them essentially and so it. This work it's it's truly phenomenal and if you guys could see the the kind of results that we get. Seriously truly phenomenal your you all be amazed when this file has the market so so you know I love my job now right. And the this is Chris Christopher Griffin. And he's a. Chemist polymer chemist but these more like one materials scientist biomedical engineer so crease. Hello everyone my name is Christopher Griffin as I said I was a research student at the UA little rock and I'm focusing on a during my PhD in chemistry. So I'm gonna go a little bit different than what Nikki did I want to describe my car process of going to where I am today I'm 1 of the few Arkansas born and raised people sitting here today and I want to sales born Little Rock Arkansas I went to Catholic high school for high school education I graduated from Hendrix college in 2017 and I'm currently working on a PhD. At. Currently working on a PhD in chemistry at your Little Rock and I have to say that I've been at the center for integrated nanotechnologies sciences now for 5 years and has been one of the most rewarding experiences that I've had. Now upon graduation in 2017 like many of my other peers we were looking out of state for continuing her education 1 of the larger school names and procedures labs come to mind when thinking of going into the by medical research and I was led to believe that we didn't have this type of opportunities in the state. In the spring of 2017 I happened to run into a doctor beers and I was able to toward the nano technologies center at UA little rock and I was shocked by what type of equipment and what type of opportunities that were present there he took me on a tour throughout the entire center and like a almost like a opening day for Christmas is make that similar every single door all the presence of the different types of instruments to be used for announces this type of material Massey said you have to have Mavin a massive investment to be able to look at some of these technologies I have listed just a handful on here to some of the ones that I use for my analysis. And the we have the XPS the top left hand corner that used for service area houses for chemical the position on to the surface of different types of composites. And the top right we have the gel permeation chromatography which I use for almost the entirety of my research and to polymer chemistry. As you can see actually in the middle of the screen is actually the morphology of the polymer that was that I've been saying for the last 5 years and has taken with our scanning electron microscope that's at the university so on the bottom left hand corner. Now several my peers actually did leave the state to go on to their education they did not get to see that what I saw the opportunities and when they came back to hear the difference between their experience of mine was quite shocking they had a picking order of what to do they have pleaded to reduced determined to projects that they'd be working on that weren't allowed to go outside their allowed hours for the University once you've reached your maximum hours you need to go home and you wait until next week. And on top that they've had to stick the project they were able to venture out they needed to their tree like technicians honestly. And so the center for integrated nanotechnologies is such a beautiful place I have an access card to get in there for 2004 hours 7 days a week and a lot of the research that I do actually has to be conducted in time sensitive arrangements so I've had weekends where I worked there are late into the night if I have an idea and it's it's what. Where these ideas and innovations coming from persons projects. On top of my thesis work whenever I come to a Alex and we can't say no I start to pitch ideas to him of things I've been working on. So on top of my thesis work than Alex's briefly mentions about Pollard Palmer degradation and by medical devices work and watch how they break down in vitro and simulate those friendly bill like conditions that's such a broad topic that I'm able to extrapolate that to multiple other types of uses. So some of my colleagues and I and ideas are thrown around and we say why not let's try it so we have worked on different things such as vascular grafts trauma sponges graphene composites bones Catholic Church mentioned already heavily. Printed nerve conduits artificial skin grafts and intestinal surgical stents all these involve different various types of Palmer in my research can be used for each one of them. In the top left hand corner that glove is mine and I'm holding onto an idea I had for a vascular graft using polyurethane type material that is shown to be blood compatible and to prevent thrombosis or clotting factors inside the skin we model this off of the staff is vain that could be used so you don't have to harvested from patients leg and it is going to be one of the first patent so I'm hoping to complete writing this year. This was a summer project I got to high school students who are interested in research I told them I have an idea you want to run with it and so we started making these devices and that is just an example of the freedom and the innovation that's occurring over the name of center. In the top right also we have trump sponges and their 2 fold idea for this one to be able to deliver drugs over time and select area by having a drug delivery type system or to have a highly absorbent type material for surgical procedures that if left inside the surgical site would degrade safely over time instead of being the normal cellulose derived type of sponges that can eventually lead to a or if the complications and ultimately death. I also want to emphasize the this resource is the amount of support I received from the university I've now completed over 7 publications and as I mentioned in the process of trying to right one patent and hopefully a couple more can come down the line. But. I want to thank you all for your time and I also want to say is a product of 22 years of Arkansas education I want to thank you for your support and for everything are doing for the University of Arkansas at little rock and also for the nana center and it's through your continued support I was able to do this academic or research in my home state Arkansas thank you. Well. It thank. Thank you so much and I just want to mention one thing that crease was too humble the nomination he's data will go to the FDA so imagine how many graduate students collect data that will go to the FDA. He's one of them and so will be need and they'll both it finished not just with publications but those with patents because imagine Division where these kids will develop their own companies they'll learn how to delete once they get the bhog is gonna be amazing so what if we could create the foundation for a new industry in Arkansas me why now. With that thank you so much if you have any questions would be delighted to answer will love to invite you to come in see more what we are doing. And again thank you so much for all your support to everything we're doing thank you Dr and yes there there are questions we'll start off with representative Eubanks recognized. Thank you Mr this really got my attention because I have a lot of elements that I'm not sure that what you're doing. Could help with that but it sounded like it would have had one knee replaced and the other one and is. I should have done several years ago and besides other joint and bone problems spine and such some of its due to aging some of its do is self inflicted but anyway. I'm just volunteering that if you want to work on somebody I'm here so no I'm serious I really am. Thank you for I mean at this point why not really. I'll like to thank you so much but you see these is why we do this work because ultimately is not just yourself Sir but it's our moms it's our dads it's everybody I'm not as old as them and yet. But I'll be patient number one the. Yes I believe you might be sets but I want to thank you for the research you're doing because there is a you know a big need for all the things that I've seen that you've presented today so thank you very much thank you Sir. Senate Johnson you're recognized for a question. Thank you thank you Mr chairman of Johnny thank you for bringing these people and for giving me a heads up about what this is really about. Doctor first I want to thank you for. Not just being good scientists and working on this project but sort of opening up the entrepreneurial juices of these young people in our thank a miss Melinda Mr Griffin for pointing out that you know your it's kind of like a basketball player that you can't lock him out of the gym they're going to go in at midnight and shoot the free throws and that's how they get good and you folks you got good at this because you can go in and work when you want to and and get this so I'm I'm excited about that systemic thing I had a question about a few years ago and I may be dating myself and thinking this is somewhat timely it's may be very old technology but there were some doctors at either children's are you A. M. S. or both that were involved with the system where I think this actually came from a doctor in Siberia where they had tens or that went through the legs of people that have been in an accident and they literally stretched the bone by. The head of a frame around the leg your familiar with what I'm speaking up is this replacement for or complementary to that kind of technology have between the 2 houses that type of thing work and it obviously this was a pretty in these people are walking around with these splint type things on and I mean it it's a wonderful thing that were being helped but it was pretty invasive and and it did look like much fun to have to deal with that is this an extension of that or something it would totally replace that. Yes so I want to specify I'm not the doctor I'm not a medical doctor I might my focus is on the TV I understand most of materials so I cannot comment on particular medical procedures however what we believe and I'm familiar with the technology that you are referring to actually talk to one of the surgeons there was the pioneers and this particular approach was used mostly when a child was born with legs of different sizes so then they'll create small fractures and then eventually there will length and the the bone but the as you so correctly pointed out pointed out that the the the pain and the discomfort these drastic what we want to do Sir is to create the solution where in case of a phone piece that is missing such as due to trauma and disease we can regenerate Act one I see where the 2 technologies could be somehow going in parallel but. Maybe the focus is a little bit different we are trying to offer solutions to what currently is not possible. Great thank you for all you're doing and their this is exciting it's exciting period but the fact that it's it to you a little rock makes it even that much worse I thank you office thank you Mr. Representative make sure recognized for a question thank you all right here in front of you 5 for against the I'll echo my colleagues on thank you for what you're doing and as a someone who's interested in science your enthusiasm is varying can't contagious and so that's definitely appreciate it also I've got to question my first one is do you have any kind of timeline idea of when these products might come to market this is like a 3 year 5 year 10 years and what we're what you kind of thinking on that. So yes we are preparing us to speak if everything works all right and we hope that that'll be the case. We probably believe that sometimes by the end of the year we might actually have some good news so I'm not official. But that's kind of what we're focused on right now also as you mean that everything goes well for her that's incredible so my my second one this one may be directed more towards Christian this is just a a science curiosity since you mention graphene graphene has been you know people talk about all the great benefits of graphene for quite awhile now well we've not really seen a whole lot of commercial application just because of the difficulties in making followed by I'm just wanted to kind of expand on that what what kind of work you're doing with that what you see coming from that the future. Yes of course that's a great question I think 1 of the reasons why we also see a little bit of resistance with the graphene is because these carbon nanoparticles the pathway of how the breakdown is not well certain and because it is a carbon carbon bond it's a very strong bond and it's not gonna break down normally by any type of incident in somatic or type of the chemical then such evidence of body but some of the work I'm doing with graphene is actually some of it is a as an alternative for an I still up on osteogenic kind of scaffold and substitute conduct towards a more of a synthetic approach with Nikki's talking about it the more of a substitute in the nanoparticle with a graphene nanoparticle some other things that don't work with the graphene is just to control degradation types of K. events that can happen within different types of scaffolds using them almost as a radical scavenger instead of a peroxide to sensitive types of materials so for example if you have any type of graph that's inside of a cardio vascular applications you have a lot of products I had some kind of reactive oxygen groups can be inside there and having certain types of stabilizers and they're in the since graphene you can prevent them from breaking down over time so those are kind of some of the things we've done a graphene but because it is so New and and goofy actually out of all the nanoparticles we still play around that every so often awesome thank you so want to add 11 extra thing under the leadership of Arkansas research alliance a partnership of universities in in Arkansas we have received funding from the US the food and drug administration to study graphene so we have established including the most of the rest is not conside loss and CTR so we have actually developed the program when we looked at syntheses characterization and then basically different type of biological property so we should be proud because. That's what to the best of my knowledge there was one of the first such grants awarded by the FDA to Arkansas for the study graphene Lawson thank you. Representative god for you're recognized for a question thank you Mr chair thank you all so much I can tell that you are extremely passionate and knowledgeable about your topic and I am a few months away from my doctoral defense and so I understand and just how all encompassing it can be and how nice it is and to have the opportunity to share what you're learning and then what questions you still have and so I'm wondering especially for those of you who are students PhD students and if you can speak to us about just kind of more broadly the importance of scholarly research I'm especially to those of us who are in policy making decisions why is it important that we can seek out the and the literature and that that current and you know best lessons and practices we can learn from research in policy making but then also in the financial investments we met you talked specifically about and the state investment in your particular project why and why is that something that we should can continue across disciplines and and other and types of of projects of scholarly research that aren't necessarily what you're focused on but that could have and significant benefits and opportunities for the status what would like to hear especially from the students just what in general scholarly research means to you and and why it's such an asset. Another great question so 4 research I think especially when it comes to higher education that's pretty much how the world operates how to think we see that research is where innovation is coming from the next entrepreneurs all new types of developments are coming from literature coming from research anything that you've seen in the last 20 years being discovered and I found the these advancements have all been started somewhere with funding with with either private or with the types of of funding from the government to be able to help stimulate this and we've seen and it's actually been proven that these these types of funding and opportunities to stimulate the economy and to help fund develop new jobs especially jobs that originally were never conceived up because they weren't part of the morning there is a need for them so as for I think I address the they can economic but for against more learning I think that this is more of a dynamic approach for learning in general that you don't have a text book in front of you when you're trying to figure out the things that being able to look from somebody else's previous results and seeing how they were able to solve the problem at hand neither extend what they did or prove again that they were correct or even disprove them is the correct way to move forward kind of been this kind of of academic kind of the atmosphere so. And so I really like what you're saying specifically for the findings so for example we just submitted a proposal and a part of that proposal is to get us a new US scanning electron microscope and so doctor bears to mention you know it's not just us the center that's using these instruments you guys gave us this is $5000000000 to build this facility but everyone at the university is benefiting from it all different majors all different you know research backgrounds as well as industry like doctors it's that so by providing this this funding for research for actually being able to give back in every which direction essentially and so. The other aspects so for student involvement and just being outside I really do like how the center does that because we we don't charge each the person for what they're wanting to use it's truly your part of the University log it for your funding but you know you have access to these insurance so a. In that aspect we're we're pretty universal. Yeah well of course you know if we get funding and we're able to produce this and send it to market then we've got 11 device that's already helping with own regeneration Dr Mary said mention the old whole enchilada which is something I'm also extremely interested in your 1 of the gentleman in mission mention you know a joint joint issues so being able to send the center I I love his idea where we can turn Little Rock into basically Silicon Valley was in Silicon Valley in the beginning they they turned it into the hot spot we have UAMS we have UALR we can develop these technologies and really you know expand and make the whole enchilada nerve skin and bone and we are working on all those different things up and in a center so. Could I add something to that I represent governor I ever got my slides today so I'm sorry I can't go into my research but and the the aspect of a research on the applied level because I mean we do basic research yes but and and I think doctor bare spot to Ark are classification as a Carnegie research university is very focused on applied research as so many of the opportunities that we seek out as a university are in that area Dr Barres probably jump up and down on the same call as I'm saying this hope I don't tread on his tires but I want to make sure that that you understand that most the time we're going into the lab we have goals for what we want to get to we don't know how we're going to get there is Chris and you know and Nick you have pointed out its ideas every day that you know get pursued that we didn't come up with on the front end of the most of our projects have those goals and I think Alex pointed out that the at the very beginning of our discussion with their army medical folks on bone regeneration and we started with very little funding and with them to begin with because they didn't believe that we can do what we thought we could do but they said at the end of this we want there to be a commercialized product period and so we were we were given the parameters of what that they wanted that to look like as of the whole time we been developing that we've been looking at the FDA you know trials have been looking at the commercialization plan for it and and that was what we were expected to do and that's the type of research that a lot of the times your alarms going to be doing because that's our that is our classification and that's our lane. And there's one more thing that I want to add just it takes a community to build a community there are certain things that we can do a very good but not everything so we just need to work together and that's what I'm I've I've been saying all along I don't see barriers only see opportunities because ultimately if we actually look at your wonderful amazing a gift of 5.$9000000 with anything close to $26000000 from the federal so it was almost like an amplification but without that initial seed we just could have not done with that not being credible Joe you heard documented with so that gave us the opportunity and the ability to collect the information the data that we knew we needed S. U. S. you're all set now so it is just a it's a multi dimensional and it takes a community to build a community so we're very very much. Dedicated to the success so we'll do anything and just let us know and again please please come and visit us. Very patient Senator Elliot is recognized thank you so much and thanks for being in my district I'm right up the street from you so I'm volunteering myself along with Britain representative of I just lost his name because I was so excited Eubanks reserve Eubanks because between the 2 of us we can take off a lot of boxes with both the used our bodies or death by now and I just remember when this process started I've been here long enough to know what it means when somebody is not sure if I believe in you and what you gonna do but you stayed with it this is this is so many years of having a north star and not geared from it and look at this brightness we have before us here today because we didn't stay with it I want to tell us adopted very also to that come next Monday I'm going to do speak to a group of freshmen ads at Robinson high school his alma mater but they have whenever ceremony that the backup let's call pledge to graduate and this is a graduating class of 2025 and I cannot wait to tell them about you guys too we hear this is 1 more reason to pledge to graduate so you actually have changed my speech so thank you for that you just re generated ideas. I had adult to beer is without having to repeat all I think you heard by questions about the pipeline earlier if you would just address how you're seeing that I would appreciate that and thank you Mr chair that that's all for me I just wanna hear that. Senator thank you for the question because this is very important to me is very personal to me my mom was a physics teacher high school teacher and I remembered when she will take packages of full to some of the keys that could not eat so is very much ingrained in my brain the role of education and for me this is the future. And how do we build the future has to be bill together so I make no secret by the fact that I'm very proud of the fact that ball half of the. People in the center are female and half are males now the number varies because some students graduate some other students come but overall I'm aiming right there 5050 I want you to to the No we created a program. Mentorship program which we funded with donations from the community leaders that I talked to and they believed in me believed in us and then we were able to attract high school students we were able to attract students of different levels at different levels from different universities we had students from EMS from other are there any questions that came to work with the with us over the summer because I don't see borders that's the problem and and the thing ease most of those high school students they ended up being students in the state some of them land I lost one that still hurts me but you see you really has to be a very multi disciplinary approach the reason for that is because you see these kids coming from different backgrounds some of them they have amazing support some of them they don't actually. I remember a student to the hat really and no full and so how do we address these huge variations so we try to take a look at every single one of these of these kids and try to understand what stops him or her from becoming successful we have had we so we had a student I still keep in contact with you he came from Washington DC are for American and right now all they're getting to the to the program he's having the security of the major company makes probably more than I do which makes me very happy because it success that's what we want have another young lady that just got the postdoc at Columbia in New York. I mean Columbia higher here out the few in Little Rock well I have to make sure the issue will be to derive because she still had to develop and you know so I see these just the support unities and we have created these programs where we looked at all kind of different levels it doesn't matter who the kids are which is one that being because ultimately this is what's going to make a successful I strongly believe that. I remember that young man from these purposes ocean Schering motion. I'm in contact with you. And he's he's just waiting for his second child. He's married. And the year he was amazing we brought them here from some of their offer park Washington DC and so. Is this the power of education he got an engineering degree from the a little rock and then he he went where his family wants and he's married has a second child on on I think he's probably has a child in a couple of months and he's right now the head of security for a major major conflict. Thank you is amazing. We change lives that's what I think is so possible and it doesn't matter because ultimately it's a community that builds a community I strongly believe that. Representative Gazaway. You're recognized. Thank you Mr chairman a person we begin by saying that this is really great to hear this presentation you guys. I wonderful job with the presentation and hear about these innovations that are happening right here in Arkansas. My question is if you look at some of the existing resources that we have and and what you mention your name as for instance I think about we have the Arkansas neuroscience institute here we have doctor Ali Christian you guys may be familiar with him but he's one of the preeminent neurosurgeons not only in the country but probably the world anti operates right here in Little Rock on microsurgery vascular micro surgeries and so when I hear about the technologies that you guys are are talking about that you worked on think about the the various applications that there are whether that's to neurosurgery FOR instance or representive Eubanks said you have you know bone and and orthopedic type applications is there any kind of collaboration that's going on between I kind of the existing. Expertise that we have here in central Arkansas or or around the state it with the technologies that you guys are developing and how those can be applied within the other frameworks. Well thank you so much for this question because this is very very important to me again so yes we do I'm a John faculty in the orthopedics department at UMass I work under the leadership of Dr Lowery Barnes who's an amazing surgeon he's phenomenal so we have a spot to for grants the deal the grants a collaborate this from your messages Dr mark Smeltzer who's and were very well known scientist amazingly well recognized in the airborne infection so he's doing some of the analysis for us so as I was saying before we come from them with the US perspective and some of our collaborators they go from the perspective of testing in the once on yes we have so many collaborations with with the medical school it's it's amazing I don't I just don't want to leave somebody aside because we has quite a few and the as a matter of fact. Even from discrimination perspective we actually send with the sometimes to fade bill because there's an estimate that we do not have I don't see borders I just you for 20 days. Represented as I can I add to that too because I think we should point out the work that the Arkansas research alliance does in connecting all of the universities and collaborators of the different institutions and in fact Amy's here and now they're working on a project where their shared facilities where they have the the listing in the directory of all the instrumentation across the state in the different universities that's been purchased with you know federal dollars of one sort or another or corporate dollars and and the ways that the universities can share those facilities and the areas kind of taken that on as a project to to let that that be known so researchers can seek out those potential collaborations and I think that that's a really important point because we all know that you know the Arkansas as a state you know we don't have some of the the levels of other states so that sharing aspect is critical and and it is a really how we get the job done so many times we're like Alex just said if we don't have an instrument we may have to go find that another campus in the state and I'll just say the collaboration amongst the faculty in the state is phenomenal and and I just want to say that as a state Arkansas I don't think we have really still realize the impact in that the the work that can be done when you can harness their the the work of the research universities for economic development and you seen here today and for the pipeline standpoint I mean we see what we want to get to when the pipeline works and students are given those opportunities to find this in in our state but the problem with that and I see doctor beers you know frustrated so many times with not being able to turn around and find the other Nikki increase that are going to come along and do the work and so we have a and I'm going to anticipate your questions on what you know what you all can do and helping all of the universities and research and network in the state and we we've for instance may find out in our work our research that we need to teach students a specific skill. All and we don't have a course to do that we haven't built that course yet we don't have the curriculum for that course so we sort of have to stop what we're doing and figure out how to teach that and what we really have to be focused on is building that infrastructure at the same time we're doing the work so you know what we need to look at for the next next round of a particular bio engineering degrees or other things that need to be put in place in the state that we don't have yet they're going to give more students the opportunity that you see with Nikki and Chris today and we really haven't figured that out yet as a state we've got to figure out how how we're going to be able to provide that infrastructure for all of the research universities I think states around us have different fines and I. R. A. you know supports this and and pushes I emphasizes other work that can be done for state to have pots of committee your pulls of money that the research universities can use to to be competitive in different areas and it takes getting to that next level to be able to reach those new you know those areas of funding all the time so there's a lot I think to ensure question at the bottom line is that just being able to connect the dots more and I think a lot of more discussion about what we're talking about today can get us there. That's all the questions we have in the queue I want to thank you again this is been one of the most informative sessions I I've had in. A long time almost a we're a little worried that we may have gotten a. Little little deep there without some of a back and forth between representative Meeks and Chris but I will I was hanging on for dear life trying to grasp graphene but thank you so much your your blessing of the State and continue with doing what you're doing and never ever hesitate to contact us if we can help. Thank you. Thank you. We have no other items on the agenda I do want to give you a note that next meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 14 there won't be a February because will has you know will be and fiscal session what you calendars what your emails for specifics thank you all we are adjourned.