这次采访是FAS系列的一部分Unleashing Regional Innovation我们与领导者交谈，建立了下一波创新的集群和生态系统在美国各地的社区中。我们的目标是聚焦他们的工作，并以身作则帮助其他社区学习。我们的第一轮采访是与Build Back Better Regional Challenge作为美国救援计划的一部分，由经济发展管理局经营。
布里奇（Bridg）是位于佛罗里达州奥斯科拉县（Osceola County）的非营利性公私合作伙伴关系，可为行业和政府提供半导体研发以及生产能力，由多才多艺的200mm微电子制造设施（或“ Fab”）实现。作为新兴500英亩的技术区的锚定租户，称为Neocity，Bridg运营着Fab，重点是异质整合and高级包装process technologies, and the development of a secure manufacturing methodologyleveraging digital twins和其他行业4.0概念。
由Osceola县的支持Florida High Tech Corridor Council,IMEC,SkyWater Technology（新神经操作员中心）and others, BRIDG connects challenges and opportunities with solutions. They are “Bridging the Innovation Development Gap” (BRIDG) making commercialization possible. Their coalition, led by奥斯科拉县委员作为挑战的一部分，2022年9月赢得了50080万美元。
Jim Vandevere is the President of BRIDG. His career spans over 30 years of C-level experience with telecom companies, medical devices, and startups in photonics and electronics.
瑞安•: I would love to start out and ask if you could tell us about how your coalition came together and a little bit of the history of NeoCity?
Jim Vandevere: Historically, Osceola County has been a region known for its strength in the services and agriculture industry. You either work in theme parks, restaurants, or farming— such as on a cattle ranch or something like that. During 2008, and more recently during COVID, there was a down-tick in the market where things changed, and people didn’t travel much. Osceola County specifically ranked about second in the country in unemployment. They recognized the importance of having a diversified portfolio for people to work in and wanted to add a third leg to the revenue stool, which is basically a technology component that survives downturns in markets.
Osceola County looked at what innovative technologies were being conducted within Florida’s universities (University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of South Florida) that can be leveraged, and along with leadership from the Florida High Tech Corridor Council and Orlando Economic Partnership, felt that the semiconductor industry was an area where Florida, and particularly Osceola County in Central Florida, can truly make an impact on a national scale. After a few years, SkyWater Technologies also became involved in the regional efforts. So, for nearly the past decade, the group has been working closely together and eventually formed a coalition to grow an ecosystem on a 540-acre plot of land owned by Osceola County called NeoCity. Since the start of the economic diversification initiative, the county has invested approximately $270 million dollars to build a 200mm microelectronics fabrication facility (or ‘fab’), built a STEM-based high school, and added a Class A office complex onsite. With local and state funding, along with collaborations from industry partners such as TEL and SUSS Microtec, BRIDG was able to add tools to operate the fab as you see it today. Our cluster has been meeting twice a week since before the Build Back Better Regional Challenge was even a thing. We’ve been interacting for a long time.
There’s a real sense of community here. Not just within Osceola County, but along the entire Florida high tech corridor from the Space Coast to Tampa—everybody’s interested and invested (whether directly or indirectly) in the success of this environment and the NeoCity campus.
How did Osceola County make the decision to pursue semiconductors as a cluster instead of another industry, and who was making that decision? Was the county leading on that, or were there other people at the table?
The idea for NeoCity started in 2012 after a “best practice” regional leadership mission to Texas and discussions around the importance of the semiconductor industry. There were other people at the table. Everybody had an opinion. The difficult question was, “How do you fit $278 million into your budget to make this program work in Central Florida?” Osceola County’s response was, “We can make this happen. We’re the fastest growing county in the state of Florida.” They decided to take a big leap of faith with some sound financial planning, knowing that it could deliver huge dividends and a huge tax base with employees. Most semiconductor fabs average between 300 and 1000 people or 5000 people depending on size. And these people—ranging from PhDs to high school graduates—make a whole different level of income. In fact, the high school graduates are making significantly more than the average salary of someone working in agriculture or hospitality.
从高中毕业的角度和进入大学或高等教育的继续教育中，奥塞拉县在佛罗里达州的67个学区中排名第61。许多学生没有上大学。因此，两年前，该县实施了一项计划，以资助来自Osceola县的高中生，以就读瓦伦西亚学院。他们为学校付费（战略劳动力发展的东西），现在他们在短时间内提升到第17位。那是一个巨大的跳跃！
Could you talk a little bit more about how Osceola came to focus on education and workforce as a key component? How did the high school associated with NeoCity come to be?
一旦我们决定朝着半导体迈进，我们就知道这需要不同的学生。它需要一个STEM学生，对科学，技术，工程和数学感兴趣的人。当时，该县在其现有的高中系统中没有这种利基市场的重点。因此，他们主动建立了一个以STEM为基础的，基于项目的高中隔壁Neocity（Neocity Academy）的办公大楼。那个STEM高中始于四年前去年五月毕业。该毕业班级的学生中，近100％的学生都去了全国各地的大学。这是他们所取得的学术卓越的严重证明。
Osceola县的计划和远见卓识问：“我们如何从一开始我们的学生更多地参与？”这一直延伸到中学的科学博览会，甚至是小学的科学意识宣传。我们积极参与和支持Osceola县的科学博览会，以这些学生的目标吸引孩子和父母了解我们正在开发的技术。Skywater，Bridg，Neocity Academy，Osceola县，佛罗里达州高科技走廊和IMEC都积极参与该社区的教育。
因此，我们讨论了一些不同的小组。我们已经谈论过教育。我们已经谈到了该县的角色。但是，联盟如何与其他利益相关者合作？
As a not-for-profit organization, BRIDG interfaces with a lot of universities. Mostly universities in Florida. However, we work with universities across the United States like UC Davis, Stanford, MIT, Georgia Tech, ASU, and Ohio State. I will tell you that one of the biggest accomplishments from an outside point of view is that imec, a Belgian company, chose Florida to open their U.S. headquarters. They basically solidified the vision of the county because they are a very advanced engineering company based out of Leuven where they have a 300mm fab and a lot of capabilities in design. They work with Fortune 500 companies all over the world. And their U.S. headquarters is right here at NeoCity in Osceola County. That interface and that linkage validates what Osceola County wanted to do and continues to do every day.
From an industry partnership standpoint, we have two equipment suppliers that are ranked in the top five equipment suppliers of all semiconductor fabs—big multi-billion-dollar companies—that use our site as a demo center for their U.S. capabilities.
Locally, we work with regional industry associations such as the Manufacturing Association for Central Florida, FloridaMakes, and the Florida Photonics Cluster. We have a good relationship with Valencia College, and then we have our partner school, the Institute for Simulation and Training at UCF, which is globally renowned for their modeling, simulation, and training program. Then, we also have ongoing project collaborations with the University of Florida, as well. So, we have a really solid record pulling in local as well as international friendlies into the site to make it successful.
基与圣克劳德,NeoCity Academy is one of community’s current tenants. Students engage in inquiry-driven, project-based learning, aiming to enter the workforce with enhanced technical skills.
Of the research institutions you mentioned: I know one of the key projects in your Build Back Better proposal is working with UCF on creating digital twins of the facility. Could you talk about what motivated that and why you thought that that was an important project?
这绝对是一个重要的项目。空军为DOD应用程序提供了资助的Secure Digital Twins，以实际上显示了从设计一直到产品最终的活动的渠道，将采购组件汇总到Fab Processing，所有的Fab机器以及所有类似的决策点以及所有决策点。基本上，它需要快照来了解设计属性，计量测试，检查等。一直到最终测试组件，然后到达最终使用产品。
Now how is UCF involved? They are modeling and simulating how components go through the process. So, as you go through each tool and it performs its function, they’re pulling data from that performance to understand the process. In the end, we will understand the entire flow. Once you understand that flow, you will then know what the variables are. Doing a simulation of ‘what if’ scenarios can help industry understand costs and what kind of tool sets you need to do certain things. Then, you can do a predictive plan model saying ‘hey, it’s going to cost you this much money. You’re going to need this many people, and this is what you need.’ It’s already being done for most industries, for example the automotive industry, but this is the first semiconductor play.
Taking a step back from the projects that you’re working on and going back to how you originally came up with the plan for the Build Back Better grant, I would love to know who actually did the work to write this Build Back Better Regional Challenge application. Who took the lead and how did you decide that they would take the lead? Was it natural or did it come about from a consensus process?
It came about from a consensus process. The detailed technical information came mostly from BRIDG and the overarching documentation came from a grant writing group and Osceola County staff. This direction and the knowledge of how to submit this grant was very important.
The overall vision of how we present ourselves came from our normal meetings with the county manager, the team, and me. The creation of the grant was a complete team effort. Honest, straightforward questions, challenges, and feedback came up amongst the coalition group while we developed this. We learned a lot more about each other and how every individual group does business. We went through six months of hard grinding to get that grant to be representative of the coalition.
听起来不仅要求提供深厚的技术专业知识，而且还要求一个开放且协作的小组从事它。然后是一个清晰的视野，将所有不同部分都绑在一起。这些是主要成分吗？
Yes, and I would add understanding and knowledge of grant writing and what the reviewers are looking for.
Even the best teams have disagreements sometimes. Are there any moments where your coalition had different ideas about what the vision for the future was? And how did you reconcile those situations?
As a kid, my father told me there’s no ‘I’ in team. We win together, we lose together. But there are always ‘me’ people in a group. Getting those dynamics out of the way when you first start is important. The best part about our group is that we have a common vision of making NeoCity work. That was the underlying tone. Their ideas were maybe not like yours or anybody else’s, but everybody’s heart was in the right place. The challenge was how you communicate to get everybody to understand your idea. That is why our coalition is successful. We’re not afraid to have honest conversations and disagreements, but we work through it.
如果您成功并做所有大家建议的事情，Osceola县在10年内看起来会有何不同？在Neocity Academy或可以依靠在Fab或某个地方工作的家庭中，2033年级的班级是什么样的？
十年来……我认为Neocity的机会就像在美国的许多地方一样。今天，您将看到有史以来最多的资金。十年来，您可能不会再看到它了。但是，我想说的是，只要我们执行我们一直执行并忠于我们的愿景的方式，就没有什么可以阻止Neocity的成长了。我要说的是10年后，除了您今天在这里看到的公司外，我们还将成功创建卓越设计中心，以吸引更多公司。您可能会在一个支持Leapfrog高级研究的小组中看到又有七个或八家公司，并作为一项协作工作。
Additionally, we’ve put significant funds toward workforce development including our local community college system. Our goal is to increase STEM capabilities and provide equipment, information, and better tools to support Osceola County. We want to continue the support of the Osceola County gift that has provided a Valencia College education for every high school senior that graduated in the Osceola County system over the last two years. We can supplement that and create a more robust avenue that connects students not only to the existing Valencia College environment, but also to all universities throughout the state of Florida. The goal is to elevate the entire state. Staffing in the semiconductor industry right now is tough— everybody’s complaining about it across the country. They can’t get the workforce. In Florida, we control our own destiny. That’s what I hope to see in 10 years.
圣路易斯技术三角联盟将获得约2500万美元，以支持该地区的先进制造集群 - 这将支持和发展现有的生物科学和地理空间集群。
布里奇（Bridg）是位于佛罗里达州奥斯科拉县（Osceola County）的非营利性公私合作伙伴，为行业和政府提供半导体研发以及生产能力。这是他们的地区创新的方式。
生态系统不只是为生物学家了。她的e is how and why entrepreneurs and policymakers should look at innovation communities as ecosystems.
Interagency Community Investment Committee agencies should partner with the Small Business Administration to use their existing authority and infrastructure to pilot a secondary market for their securitized debt instruments.