HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – If you’ve driven along Fourth Avenue near Marshall University’s campus, chances are you’ve noticed some big changes.
It’s all part of the Marshall Innovation District — what the university refers to as “a visionary $200+ million initiative at the nexus of Downtown Huntington and Marshall University.”
The Marshall University Innovation District will feature state-of-the-art facilities and resources, including the Institute for Cyber Security that will focus on advanced cybersecurity research and partnerships with private and federal sectors.
The university broke ground on the 73,000-square-foot facility in mid-May.
“The Innovation District is something that I think has embodied Huntington and Marshall and West Virginians,” Marshall University President Brad Smith said. “We’ve always said, if your dreams can be achieved alone, you’re not dreaming big enough.”
The Innovation District also will include the following:
– Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center, a 45,000-square-foot facility that supports product design and scaled production for manufacturing and engineering companies
– Innovation Resource Hub which “drives innovation by connecting entrepreneurs with appropriate resources to transform ideas into impacted ventures empowering entrepreneurs to navigate business complexities”
Smith said entrepreneurship is a visionary undertaking.
“People don’t realize that a 1% increase in entrepreneurship reduces poverty by 2%. And so our ability to inspire the next generation to dream big, whether they work for a company or they invent a new product inside that company or they start their own business, it’s a chance for them to come to the Innovation District to learn design thinking here at the Center of Business and Innovation, to be able to work with these 3D printers at our manufacturing center, and to bring that idea to market and turn it into something that the rest of the world can participate in. It’s basically transforming ideas and impact and getting all these creative minds together.”
As for a timeframe, President Smith said the goal is to have the Institute for Cyber Security up and running by 2026.
“We are moving very quickly, signing contracts and getting people to move in and begin to remodel,” Smith said. “So I would love to see in the next couple of years, much of the Innovation District built out and operating.”
To see the whole story from Sarah Sager, tap on the video link with this story.
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https://www.wsaz.com/2024/08/29/marshall-innovation-district-represents-200m-plus-visionary-venture/
