GSO's nanotech campus is a long way from the kind of commercialization effort that thrives at MIT, but if things go well our economy will rebuild in part around advanced materials and manufacturing.
I cover both technology and manufacturing at the day job, and sometimes it's hard to tell one from the other. Making things is sexy again, which should yield benefits in this part of NC. More on what's coming here and here.
I agree that these technologies have great potential for American manufacturing, but I have concerns about how much good they'll do for manufacturing workers in North Carolina and especially the Triad.
This was on my mind when a BizJ reporter asked me about the local implications of the "e-cigarettes" being developed by RJR Reynolds and Lorillard. I said there's no guarantee that these more technology-intensive products will be made here, due to relatively low skill and educational levels of the Triad workforce. Perhaps the tobacco companies will find it cost-effective to train local workers to manufacture e-cigs.
More broadly, manufacturing is getting more and more technology- and skills-intensive, and it's not clear that we're prepared to keep up.
Posted by: Andrew Brod | Dec 01, 2012 at 05:05 PM