Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/297333
The technology of the future is beyond your wildest imagination – or more accurately EH\RQG\RXUÀYHVHQVHV²WKDQNVWRVPDUW sensor technology. Smart sensors can identify and interpret data beyond human capacity, such as a wireless monitor that detects abrupt changes in heart rate using radio waves or an underwater buoy that measures pH levels in environmentally sensitive aquatic ecosystems. These technologies will offer instant access to information about everything enabling an interconnected web of devices, or what is being called the "Internet of Things." With a market that is expected to grow to more than $10 billion by 2020, the smart sensor industry has the potential to change the way we see and understand everything on earth. And following an announcement in June 2014, the international hub of this game- changing technology will be located in The Corridor. Osceola County, the University of Central Florida and the Florida High Tech Corridor ÀQDOL]HGDPLOOLRQSDUWQHUVKLSWRFUHDWH a research center and incubation hub for smart sensor technologies. This new center, known as the Florida Advanced ManufacturLQJ Research Center, will turn research and discoveries from the three Corridor universities – the University of Central Florida, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida – into high tech products in partnership with industry. 7KHJRDORIWKH&HQWHULVWREHFRPHKRPHWRWKHZRUOG·VÀUVWLQGXVWU\ led smart sensor consortium, the International Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research, positioning the region as an international leader and bringing with it a revitalization of Florida's manufacturing industry and DQLQÁX[RIKLJKWHFKMREV7KHFHQWHUDQGFRQVRUWLXPDUHEDVHGRQWKH model of the semiconductor hub created in Austin, Texas. If the economic LPSDFWLVWKHVDPHLQ)ORULGDLQLWVÀUVW\HDUVWKHFHQWHUZLOOEULQJLQDOPRVW 20,000 more high tech jobs and push total earnings nearly $5 billion higher throughout the region. "This center holds great potential for becoming another economic game changer for our entire region and our state – and the timing for such an endeavor could hardly be better," said Dr. John C. Hitt, president of the University of Central Florida. Already, smart sensors are changing the way we see and understand the world. Developing a hub for the industry in Florida will also change the way our state is seen on a national stage as it becomes a leader in creating the technologies of the future. s p e c i a l s e c t i o n GAME