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These statistics becme a reaity during our recnt efforts to equip and renovate our MCEC
office. As a state agency created to promote economic development, we thought it only fitting
to adopt a "Buy America" policy. This was the result: after nine months we were still
replacing faulty new computer equipment; the copier arved with a dead battery; the telephone
system was missing a line; the two-yea-old air conditioners we inherited stoppe functioning in
hot weather. The lighting company, when asked why they delivered only 15 of our 16 lamps,
gave the excuse that "we can't count that high."
What ca be done to restore America's once respeted "know-how?" In Massachusetts, as in
many other states, solutions are being sought through industr/education parerships with state
government serving as a catayst. It is an idea role for the states to play: they understad their
own economic nees; they know the players, the small as well as the large companies and
educational institutions; they ca monitor results closely and above all, they ca experiment.
"The procss has little to do with ideology and everything to do with tral-and-error, set-of-thepants
pragmatism," says David Osborne in his book, Laboratories of Democracy.
The models which states have. adopted to promote technologica innovation var widely,
depending on nee, resources and commitment. They rage from technica assistace with
limited funding to a comprehensive $76 milion dollar program. General appropriations, bond
issues, state lottery funds, par-mutuel gambling receipts, state employee pensions and
unemployment compensation reserves, in addition to tang equity positions and royalties, have
been use to provide funding.
The major components of these state initiatives include: advance technology centers to
strengthen the academic base; resech and development grant programs to spe the trasfer of
technology from the laboratory to the marketplace; and technology reseach parks and incubators
to provide space, equipment and managerial expertse.
As an example of an advance technology center in Massachusetts, a parnership of industry, an
engineering school and state government has established a $52 milion Massachusetts
Microelectronics Center, which provides state-of-the-ar training to students in design, procssing
and fabrication of semiconductors and other microelectronics devices. Students enrolled in
relevant courses ca tap into an advance computer-aided design network and use semiconductor
procssing laboratories. A newly complete integrated circuit fabrication facilty wil produce
student-designed integrated circuits. Many of the state's engineering students wil thus be
graduating with extensive hands-on experience in the full design and production cycle.
In the area of competitive R&D matching grants, the Massachusetts Centers of Excellence
Corpration currently funds more than 50 joint industr-university projects to accelerate
technology transfer with grants raging from $20,00 to $300,00.
To ilustrate, MCEC recntly awarded $80,00 matched by $110,00 from a reseach group and
its industral parner to develop and test a pilot-scae, solar-powered wastewater treatment system
that uses a natural biologica procss to treat septage and sewage. Test results have been
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