Innovation in the Garden State: A Deep Dive into the New Jersey Innovation Institute

This week's episode with Michael Johnson, the President of the New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), was conducted at the groundbreaking Comet Advanced Manufacturing Facility. Together, we explore NJII's distinctive position as a standalone corporation owned by NJIT, meticulously designed to address global challenges by seamlessly connecting academia with the external world.

The narrative gracefully unfolds to trace NJII's roots, originating a decade ago to confront the challenge of making academic resources more accessible to governmental organizations and private industry. Serving as a vital link between NJIT and the world beyond, NJII epitomizes a nimble and efficient operation, ensuring a swift translation of academic expertise into tangible solutions.

The episode takes a deep dive into NJII's ongoing initiatives and strategic partnerships. Michael sheds light on their collaboration with the Department of Defense, focusing on the rigorous testing of advanced manufacturing equipment for military applications and comprehensive workforce training programs. Intriguing projects involving body cam footage analysis for law enforcement and pioneering drone technology for predicting power line failures come to the forefront.

Michael Johnson, in a candid exchange, shares personal insights into his journey, from an early passion for science and engineering to co-founding a company dedicated to 3D tissue imaging. The conversation pivots to NJII's ambitious growth mindset, substantial investments in new initiatives, and visionary plans to double both personnel and revenue over the next six to seven years. Their ultimate goal is to achieve financial independence while actively contributing to the success of NJIT.

The episode, thus, serves as a comprehensive exploration of NJII's mission, showcasing its pivotal role in connecting academia with industry. The narrative unfolds seamlessly, offering a detailed account of NJII's plans for future growth, technological impact, and its commitment to shaping the innovation landscape in New Jersey.

njii.com

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Music: "Ride" by Jackson Pines
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Thank you to our sponsors:
Helix NJ: helixnj.com

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New Jersey Innovation Institute: njii.com

Make Cool Sh*t: makecoolshit.co

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Contact the show: mike@greetingsfromthegardenstate.com

Transcript

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this episode is proudly brought to you by Helix NJ which recently made some big news some very big news in case you

0:06

missed noia Bell Labs announced their plans to invest in a new state-of-the-art research and development facility located at Helix NJ

0:12

Nokia considered approximately 25 different locations across the country for their new home but ultimately they chose the Helix because of its proximity

0:19

to major cities its access to Talent its community of industry-leading companies and universities and because of its

0:24

cuttingedge facilities and environments for those not yet familiar Helix NJ is a new 5 acre state-of-the-art innovation

0:30

District located in the heart of New Brunswick New Jersey that will house some of the world's most Brilliant Minds projects and organizations pursuing

0:36

critical life improving Innovations to learn more visit www.h Helix

0:43

nj.com the New Jersey Innovation Institute is the conduit that connects one of the nation's leading poly Technic

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institutions New Jersey Institute of Technology to the outside world created Del leverage the vast resources of NGIT

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the New Jersey Innovation Institute is focused on fostering Innovation building companies and upskilling New Jersey's

0:59

Workforce nji employs over 100 people and generates over $35 million in

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Revenue per year in Industries such as defense and Healthcare to learn more about the Innovative strides being taken

1:09

at the New Jersey Innovation Institute head to nj.com entrepreneurs and small business

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owners are you feeling overwhelmed by lack of Capital Growth challenges or personal branding You Are Not Alone UCS

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and remember always be willing to achieve your [Music]

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greatness [Music]

2:05

all right what's up everybody welcome back to another episode of greetings with the Gard State powered by the New Jersey Lottery I'm your host Mike cam we

2:10

are here in Landing New Jersey right that's where we are uh at the nji comet

2:16

Advanced manufacturing facility with Michael Johnson president of the New Jersey Innovation Institute I got all

2:21

that right that was a lot of intro words that was fantastic yeah thank you thank you um so also this is a momentous

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episode because not only we're going to talk about a lot of really cool things that we're sitting here in this basically like a laboratory essentially

2:35

like a robotics lab uh but you're our first sibling ever on the show which is really cool so we had Dan your brother

2:41

Dan who was a friend of mine on the Halloween special episode uh so there's no pressure but that was like one of our

2:47

most listened to episodes of all time so I'll try and live up to that yeah I mean like there's a lot of cool stuff here

2:54

maybe not skin wallet level uh just that was different technology of the time yes Cutting Edge back in

3:00

it was kind of uh you know doing like they were doing experiments you know Frankenstein level experiments I think

3:05

that was Princeton actually was involved in that so yeah yeah yeah um all right so it's really exciting to be here this

3:12

is a really cool place it's a little off the beaten path so to speak but um we us

3:17

we just did a quick tour with there's 3D printers behind us on this side there's a tank like a literal like a mini tank

3:24

but a tank nonetheless uh behind us like a whole bunch of stuff we'll kind of get into what all that is but uh um if

3:31

people have been listening to this show and they haven't checked out ngji because nji is one of our sponsors uh so

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shout out again to them and you but uh let's do 30,000 foot view what ngji is

3:44

uh like what you guys do and how it works and all that kind of stuff and then we'll kind of get into some more details after that excellent first off

3:50

thanks for for having me on um ngi is an organization that is wholly owned by NGIT so we have about 120 employees we

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do roughly $40 million a year in revenue and what we are is an organization that's focused on solving big problems

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the world faces but it's more I would say interesting to describe the problem that we actually were started to address

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so about 10 years ago ngi was formed at NGIT and the reason it was formed was because Academia is tough to work with

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in the US we have these great bastions of research that are academic universities you have lots of smart

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people you have lots of great resources but it's tough for the outside world governmental organizations or Private Industry to actually tap into those

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resources so what ngi is it's a stand alone Corporation that's owned by NGIT

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that's Nimble it's quick it has its own accounting team its own Finance team its own marketing team but it's able to leverage all the resources of NGIT as a

4:40

sole owner of our organization so we can tap into faculty we can tap into research projects so we're able to be

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the conduit between um NGIT and the outside world and leverage all that great expertise so we're able to go

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after things like the facility we're in here which is an advanced manufacturing space for uh testing Innovative

4:56

Manufacturing Technologies for the military but also training the work Force that's going to run all these machines and actually build um all the

5:02

new tools in the future so for us um we're go between the outside world and NGIT yeah that's really cool and your

5:10

background let's talk about that real quick so you're president of nji you have been for how long four months

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so you know been here for forever uh talk to me about like you know kind of like where you came from and then maybe

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the path that led you to this as a kid I was always very interested in robotics

5:29

in science I was blowing up Rockets I was flying RC airplanes always super interested in stem and I think for me as

5:36

a kid my dream was always to do science as a living do engineering as a living build stuff blow stuff up that was

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always really exciting to me um I was Captain the robotics team in high school really nerdy sure um also middle school

5:49

so I was always very involved with that also played football as a kid so very athletic as well um but I did an undergrad degree in biology um did that

5:56

and I went on to um actually intern at NES and through that experience I was um

6:02

you I was surrounded by all these great scientists from all over the world and I realized that the career I wanted was to

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be a scientist my dad was a science teacher but it never occurred to me that science and being a scientist was actually profession until I worked in

6:13

NASA and through that experience I realized oh yeah I got to go get a PhD I got to go be a real scientist and do real work yeah so I went to uh Ruckers I

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did PhD program actually environmental Sciences focused on trying to create biofuels from algae like the pond scum

6:27

you see in ponds with spring and fall and um through that program I met another PhD student Tom volani and he

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had invented a really cool technology for Imaging tissues so if you have like um a mouse brain or biopsy he had

6:39

developed a way to image tissues in 3D he was another PhD student and um essentially instead of taking like a

6:45

mouse brand or biopsy and cutting in slices and put them on those like little Clash microscope slides he created a way

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to actually image tissues in 3D so we're both PhD students I thought it was wicked cool I said let me get involved

6:55

with this let's start working together we built the company visicol around that technology and we took it from just the

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two of us um to a company with about 35 40 people that we sold to a swedish-based life sciences company so

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we licens the IP out of Ruckers we built the company we raised money and we picked up all 20 the top 20 Pharma

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companies as clients and essentially what we were doing was trying to answer research questions for them using this

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technology that we had developed um I stayed on there after we got bought for about two years um originally as a CEO

7:23

of my own company and then we merged my company with one of our parent companies daughter companies and I was a chief

7:29

commercial officer for both of them overseeing um a portfolio of life science tools reagents and kits um and

7:36

people all over the world um and then after that I knew when I sold the company that I want to do something else

7:41

I'd want to move on to the next challenge I wanted to do something outside of just life sciences where my background was defense I thought was

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really cool um so I really wanted to expand out there and I also loved commercialization and I also loved

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actually Academia and doing science so when um ngi reached out to me I you I just jumped at the offer and I had

8:01

actually met with the um the former team about six months prior to them reaching out and on the way home I actually told

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my wife I would love that job one that place sounds awesome and then just kind of serendipitously they reached out and

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um yeah I loved it I me it's a great opportunity and for our organization we're able to touch all these disperate

8:18

fields of research that NGIT faculty are focused on and we're trying to get those to the outside world we're trying to partner with industry we're trying to

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bring cuttingedge Technologies to the market so like an example is we're trying to um do work with nework um and

8:31

Bergen County prosecutor office to actually uh look at body cam footage and try and predict bad things that are

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going to happen before they actually happen to using Ai and machine learning to analyze images uh we're looking at a

8:42

you know a drone opportunity to actually analyze power lines and predict when things are going to fail ahead of time so we're doing a lot of cuttingedge

8:48

projects with outside industry and connecting them to uh to faculty and projects that we have yeah that's really

8:54

interesting because you know uh when I first knew like a little bit about your background like we talked and know I did

9:01

my research and whatever uh but then kind of like knowing what visicol was and then you know what you're doing here and I was like I wonder especially like

9:08

because of the stuff that we talked about kind of walking through with the printers and all that like to me uh you

9:13

know granted this is like my expertise so there's like this is low level you

9:18

know um but I do think like the you know the stuff that you're doing I think it's really interesting and like a good way to kind of marry your previous role into

9:28

doing this kind of stuff and then when you did get here were you like uh kind

9:33

of dealing with the Academia side was that something that was now like a new thing that you kind of had to tackle

9:38

like a new uh hurdle for you I think for most people it would be a hurdle and

9:43

something they wouldn't like dealing with with my prior company most of our employees were phds okay phds are

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brilliant extremely high IQ but they tend to not want to work with other people they're pretty siloed so corralling them together for a common

9:55

goal that is challenging but it's very different from industry where you just tell tell somebody what to do and they do it um especially in Academia phds are

10:02

their own Kings of their own kingdoms and you have to work with them you have to understand what their interest are and what their needs are so it's it's I

10:09

wouldn't say it's difficult it's just very different different way of working but for me you know whatever you're getting cynical about the world or

10:15

anything I could talk to a faculty um a researcher that just focused on One Singular thing whether it's fuel cells

10:20

for example or micropolitics devices they just want to solve a problem because they love science they don't

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care about money they don't care about business or Fame I they want a publication they want dollars but for

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them it's just like the P purs of science to me that's just the coolest thing in the world yeah so I I love

10:38

meeting with them it's tough to Corral them towards something hit timelines and deadlines but like basic research and

10:44

creating knowledge doesn't have timelines so it's like this walking two worlds where we have a business this is

10:50

ngji and we have to work with faculty and try and get them to a deliverable and an outcome but we have to let them

10:55

do what they do in Academia so it's cool I like both worlds sure and I think yeah I like the way that you kind of talk

11:02

about you know bridging that Gap almost um and I think it was the we were talking about West Matthews from choose

11:08

New Jersey before and I think it was his episode we were talking and I learned something in that where it was I think

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New Jersey has more phds and Engineers per capita than any state in the country which is another crazy stat but just

11:20

shows how smart we are but then I think you take that and you drill it down even further to NJIT which is one of the top

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you know uh polytechnical institutes in the country also and being able to like have that connection so could you speak

11:31

on a little bit on when NJIT decided to kind of make that move and be like we need to have our own place where we can

11:38

you know uh do what you were doing like said before about uh connecting to the outside world and not just being like

11:44

kind of in that Silo but doing stuff with other local organizations and all that kind of stuff sure so ngi was

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formed just about 10 years ago so over the last 10 years ngi's organization has done roughly $330 million in Revenue

11:56

over 10 years and it was originally started by the former president of ngrt Dr Joel Bloom with uh Dr Don Sebastian

12:03

drew a faculty there and um for them I think they they were able to put their egos aside as an academic institution

12:09

and say we have this problem which is it's tough to work with us which every university has but they distinctly went out and said we're going to do something

12:15

about it we're going to create this separate entity that doesn't have to deal with the bureaucracy of the academic institution we're going to hire

12:21

quick we're going to go after things we're going to kill things fast and they don't work so I think for them that was really incredible for them to do that

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there's other that have a similar model but it's definitely not the norm but it allows us to do things other folks just

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simply can't do so I give them a tremendous amount of credit it allows us to do some really unique things too so

12:39

we can actually start for-profit C corporations as a 501c3 so most recently we sold the company for $73 million

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which was um biocentric a sell and gene therapy manufacturing company we incubated it we built all the staff the

12:52

whole team within NJIT and ngji and then we sold it and that was a unique opportunity where we recognized there

12:58

was a gap in the marketplace we had clean rooms we had staff why don't we just go build it universities can't do

13:04

that so Us in this unique position and business model we have allows us to go after things like that so I give them a

13:09

lot of credit for that yeah really Forward Thinking for them absolutely and then when when you are bridging that Gap

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and kind of like over time and I do want to get into a little bit about like how you guys pick what you're working on um

13:20

but like the types of organizations that you're working with now like we were talking off mic before about some uh but so just to kind of put in perspective

13:27

for people listening who are you working with to you know bridging that Gap from NGIT and those phds that you're working

13:33

with to who oh it's a good question so the facility we're sitting in now um big partnership with Department of Defense

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so here we're trying to test equipment before it goes into the military so we're looking at 3D printers we're looking at all different types of

13:44

equipment for doing analysis of printed parts for verification validation so we're a test bed for them so that's our

13:51

partnership obviously with the dod but something more specific like working with body cameras the End customer there

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is you know New York Police Department we tryner that make body

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csw have a partner on those projects where we're the ability we have the ability to work with faculty to build

14:08

software to pull all that together we're trying to help those commercial Partners so we have a a lot of those relationships where a commercial partner

14:15

has a very specific problem or paino and we're trying to work with them to address it to pull in faculty to pull in

14:20

what their needs are to actually address it right so in that in that 10e span that we're talking about as different

14:26

projects kind of present themselves that's kind of where the focus and the push and the you know uh the research

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and all that kind of stuff starts going so it's not so like Hey we're going to work on tanks today I would love that

14:38

you guys do tank stuff um because I would just I would watch the first half of Fury last night that movie Fury it's

14:43

on Netflix now yeah that's why I was like find something before bed and I was like oh my God I love this movie but um

14:49

but you know talking about that kind of stuff so that's kind of the focus is like finding people that have those pain

14:54

points or organizations that have pain points and then being able to Leverage the knowledge and experience and

15:00

research capacity and all that kind of stuff of you know PhD students and brds and all that it it depends so some of it

15:06

is driven by us some of us driven externally so for being here and having this conversation part of this is saying

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hey we're we're open for business if you have a specific paino you think NGIT could help we'll be the conduit to make

15:17

that happen so we have some companies that come to us and say we're interested in drones who do you have working on drones we'll try and pull in faculty

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we'll C and create some kind of sponsored research project and work together on that in other cases we as ngi we're having conversations with

15:29

Partners all the time and we might say it's a really good idea to build a company that does X and with that we can

15:34

pull in this partner we can pull in this faculty and we can pull it all together and piece it together um or a big piece

15:40

of we do is also professional development so we might say we have five faculty really good at training in these areas we have this specific need for

15:46

this company whether it's um NJ Department of Transportation or whomever and let's make that program for them so

15:52

kind of depends it's outside in and also Inside Out sure and so when you take over you said four months ago um and you

15:58

know knowing uh what the positives that have come out of this place have been and and all that and the great uh you

16:05

know foresight like we talked about from the people at NJIT but when we're uh when you come in here and obviously like

16:11

knowing all those things do you kind of have like a a perspective shift a little

16:17

bit to kind like first you have to kind of I would guess gather all the stuff that you've done already understand it

16:23

know what you need to do like with any job uh but then at the exact same time too like it's yours now like you're kind

16:29

of driving the ship so to speak um so was there like a you know almost like a mindset shift at all with you know how

16:36

this place was running and all that kind of stuff like talk to me a little bit about that I would say there has been and for us we have this great

16:42

opportunity that when we sold biocentric this company for 70 plus million dollars we're able to take that funding and

16:47

actually put it into NGIT and ngi for new initiatives so part of me coming on board was investing significantly into

16:54

ngji and for us our goals organization over the next six seven years is a double sides the organization by both

16:59

people but also Revenue coming in the door that allows us to go after much bigger opportunities much bigger

17:05

projects much bigger uh contracts and grants so we have um I would say more of a growth mindset now sure and while

17:10

we're a 501c3 and we are you know a nonprofit it's really we're tax exempt is the way we're looking at it so the

17:16

strategy of before let's lose money it's like no no let's not lose money let's let's make money and let's also grow but

17:21

we're tax exemp so we're running it more I would say as a business philosophically that we have in the past we don't want to be financially

17:27

dependent upon ngi we actually want to send NGIT money and give them um the Goodwill of the work that we're doing

17:32

which is our intense and our purpose so for us um that philosophy I would say is changing we have a couple pretty key

17:39

growth initiatives we trying to go after one of which is actually standing up a venture studio so building companies

17:45

intentionally as nji historically we've built some for-profit C corporations but going forward we really want to get

17:52

intentional about pulling in a corporate sponsor pulling in research from um from the University actually building companies putting a CTO and a CEO in

17:59

place putting money into and actually building corporations so that's something we're getting more intentional about um we're expanding marketing a lot

18:05

so we're trying to get our message out there and then also going after just much bigger grants historically we've uh

18:10

worked with NGIT on some we've gone after some state level contracts some federal funding we're starting to try

18:16

and Claw at much bigger grants opportunities to help us expand our organization yeah that's really cool and

18:21

I'm J that down make money not lose money there you go good not walk away with anything from this episode that's

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business um so before we take our break uh I do want to ask one question that I

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just kind of thought of while you were telling giving this answer when you said so you started four months ago uh you've

18:40

had your first conversations with the people that were run the place six months about prior to that and said that would be a really cool place to work or

18:46

whatever like was there something in particular that you were like that's dope I need to like get my hands on that

18:54

in some capacity like was there a certain specific thing that really lit the bulb for you for me and this is not

19:00

me just saying this as the president of n I've always felt that universities were this gold mine of ideas there's all

19:06

these patents that are stuck and there's also not even just patents there's way more just ideas that faculty have

19:11

because faculty are on The Cutting Edge but the professor doesn't want to leave their 10e track position the grad

19:17

student wants to have a six-figure job because New Jersey is really expensive so you have all these ideas that just

19:22

stuck so for me I've always been really passionate about how do you get ideas out of Academia and I'm not I'm

19:27

literally not saying that always had this conversation with other people and when this role came out like oh we're designed to get ideas out of Academia I

19:33

was like that's exactly what I'm passionate about like that I didn't know that existed so I was very excited when that um that popped up but I think um

19:39

moreover my my path with Visa call was taking IP out of a university standing it up getting into the outside world and

19:46

if we hadn't done that it would have languished and never been there we turned it into a company which was helping Pharma companies get drugs to

19:51

Market testing drugs to see if they were safe so we had a really meaningful impact on the world just because we were

19:56

willing to do that and if the right Frameworks in place we can get more of that out of NGIT and into the outside

20:02

world and I think if all universities took more um you know kind of unique approaches and adopted different um

20:08

paths to Market with that we could have a much more Innovative world and Country and a lot more cool Technologies like

20:13

well stuff you see here yeah so I'm just very passionate about that yeah I love that uh and that was a great first

20:18

segment uh we're going to talk a little more specifically about some of the stuff that we kind of have in the background of the shot and like some of

20:24

that kind of stuff uh when we come back for the second uh segment but so this is the green for the gar podcast I'm Mike

20:30

ham oh green for gar podcast powered by the New Jersey Lottery I always mess that up on the outro uh I'm Mike ham

20:36

we're here at with Michael Johnson president of the New Jersey Innovation Institute at nj's Comet Advance

20:42

manufacturing facility we'll be right back the male Performing Art Center is

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22:09

state.com all right we're back for Segment two of this episode agre with the Garden State power by the New Jersey Lottery I'm your host Mike cam we're

22:16

here with Michael Johnson president of the New Jersey Innovation Institute at ngi's common Advanced manufacturing

22:22

facility that's the second to last time I have to go through that whole title but it's important to make sure that everyone knows where we are but we

22:28

talked a little bit off mic about uh you know kind of or on mic really about all

22:34

the stuff that you guys are doing here there's huge 3D printers you were showing me like metal 3D printers which

22:39

I didn't even know existed up until today um all sorts of stuff you're doing work with tanks and like again tanks but

22:46

Al so so many different cool things um I told you just before that like this is a

22:51

little bit different than what a normal episode for this show is just in the sense that we do like places that people

22:58

can interact with in somehow in some way whether it's like a hospitality industry type place a musician they can go here

23:03

play like stuff like that why should an average new jerseyan care about what

23:08

we're talking about today and what you guys are doing here as you try to grow the awareness around what ngji does

23:16

that's a good question so NGIT is a a State University so our tax dollars are going towards NGIT and a big piece of

23:22

that is we want it to be more than just educational um organization we also want the anal property ideas that are

23:28

generated there to actually leave and turn into products and services that impact the world so part of it's that altruistic goal the other piece of it is

23:35

as the Jersey we want to have good jobs we don't want our kids to go to a state school and just leave the state we don't

23:41

want our kids coming to other schools out of state we want them to state in New Jersey build up the Innovation economy in New Jersey so I think for us

23:47

a big piece of that is trying to help build companies to build ideas that have all those phds you mentioned the highest

23:53

phds um per capita in the country we want them to stay in the state and go into companies that actually change the world world so having high-paying jobs

23:59

having really impactful businesses that's part of the outcome of what we're trying to do here we'd like to build companies with the IP that we have that

24:06

can change the world but also employ new jerseyans yeah absolutely I love the way they that that's framed too because I

24:12

think you know especially the relationship with NJIT is important because there there are other obviously

24:18

great technical institutions that exist in the country but if you have really smart people here you want them to stay

24:24

here and that is certainly like uh for New Jersey as a whole a pain point right

24:29

now more people are leaving the state than stay and coming in um at this point and obviously like that's not a

24:35

sustainable way to keep a population high and smart um so as we're talking

24:41

about this stuff I do want to learn a little bit more through the relationship with NJIT when you're we're talking about how the what students and stuff

24:48

like that interact with uh nji talk to me about that uh because like you said there's like student projects around

24:55

here there's maybe even some behind us um so it talk to me a little bit about kind of how that relationship works so

25:00

if somebody does go to NJIT and they do somehow get connected here right like what what are they going to be working

25:06

on so specific to this facility at Comet um every summer we're trying to expand this beyond the Summers we have an

25:11

internship program where students are learning uh Cutting Edge Advanced manufacturing techniques they're learning software they give example some

25:18

of the stuff sitting behind us here we have a couple drones a couple tanks um we work with the dod to get real world

25:24

problems that students are working on in teams so they're coming they're getting problem they're working through that problem of the course of Summer they're

25:30

building a drone that operates in the Arctic they're building a tank that can go over certain surfaces um so they're

25:35

getting a real world problem and not only are they working on it they're doing engineering they're learning 3D printing and coding they're also working

25:41

as a team so for engineers and sem folks they don't always work on a team they work in silos so to get three or four

25:46

really diverse candidates together and have them work together on a common goal that teaches them teamwork that's really tough to do in uh STEM related fields so

25:54

that's something we're focused here on a comet but with nji our mission is to leverage resources from NGIT not just

26:00

faculty also students as we try and launch companies as we try and get IP out of University as we try and get

26:05

industry Partners there's always a focus on trying to involve students so if we go to an industry partner and they're interested in investing in sponsored

26:11

research we're going to push them to hire co-ops interns from NGIT we're going to try and bring them students that meet their needs um and get those

26:17

students in front of those folks so that's always an emphasis of all the work that we're trying to do is leverage those students and faculty as much as

26:23

possible and we're trying to expand these programs because the uh the cohort that we had come out of here um this

26:29

past summer they're doing a real world research today when they come out of University they're going to companies they're really having an impact and

26:35

those employers want those Hands-On skills they want students that worked on projects that problem solved that have

26:40

come in and kind of matched adversity because these students don't always get along and having them work through that conflict work through projects and have

26:47

that deliverable at the end it's super impressive and it gives them experience that just other students who are just in

26:52

the classroom are not getting so experiential learning is a big piece that we're trying to do yeah for sure

26:57

and you know I think another big part of that too is it's like a like a maximization of your education like

27:03

another thing another piece that Ajit can offer that most other universities

27:09

and stuff even in the state can't really which I think is really important and a good way to kind of you know like hey

27:16

come to NJIT we are trying to always push students um at the University with undergrad or grad level to work with

27:21

corporations to get real world experience and not just be in that classroom so that experiential learning is part of everything that we're doing

27:27

trying to build students to be more well-rounded so it's definitely a huge part of the curriculum yeah for sure um

27:33

so can we talk a little bit about some of the stuff that we have a little bit more specifically so um like behind us

27:39

here is a big like 3D printer and there's 3D printers like literally all over the place right um that do plastics

27:46

Metals other uh materials that we saw in the back um talk to me about like the

27:51

stuff that you're doing with those and like a little bit more uh specifically like the types of projects that you're working on now there 's this huge

27:58

foundational problem In America which is that over the last 40 or 50 years we've closed tens of thousands of factories we

28:04

don't make stuff um NGIT are our mots NGIT makes so we're trying to make things and as we look towards the future

28:11

as we look towards future conflicts relative to um the dod we don't have the capacity we need we further don't have

28:17

the ability to work make a lot of the things that we need for for uh planes for for tanks and back the tanks um and

28:23

all the things that we need to actually have a military so for us a big Focus here is how do we employ new

28:28

technologies for advanced manufacturing that use less people that print at a higher skill that use unique materials

28:34

that we can't otherwise um work with and a lot of the work that we're doing here is testing really new equipment to see

28:39

how it performs how it operates we're working closely with a DOD to test equipment before it goes on base and

28:45

before it's actually put through its Paces whether it's um you know rapid 3D printing with plastic or or metal 3D

28:50

printing or fabrication we're trying to test that here in the process we're training students to actually work with

28:56

that equipment who hopefully will help lead that revolution in manufacturing but we're trying here to identify how do

29:01

we build that Workforce and how do we evaluate Technologies which can help us build some of that manufacturing base

29:06

back yeah um so we look at all sorts of equipment here whether it's printers or verification equipment so if we print

29:12

something how do we prove that's it's actually the right size how do we prove that every single time we print it it comes out the same way the materials the

29:18

quality the same so a lot of that basic work we're doing here at this uh Comon facility and that's going to be integral

29:24

for us to actually building that capability in the US yeah uh uh we talked about this kind of peripherally

29:29

and in that answer it did make me think about it and the stuff that we were talking about when we were going through the tour like the United States overall

29:38

has like a big problem just in terms of like we don't really make anything anymore and obviously like this is a

29:43

place where you make stuff right right um so like I know we've talked about it

29:49

but it may be like a little bit more specific because we talked about like the clean room back there and that kind of stuff talk to me about how you kind

29:54

of balance that with you know obviously trying trying to generate not just like an interest but an opportunity for good

30:02

jobs manufacturing opportunities like all that kind of stuff with almost like a societal problem where there isn't

30:07

necessarily like that much manufacturing out there right now so kind of how do you like marry that and kind of fix that

30:15

problem I guess the sweet spot with that is doing both at the same time so we're trying to have that bigger societal impact and improve those big

30:21

shortcomings at the same time we're training Workforce we're building Advanced capabilities trying to get people trained on the most upto

30:27

Technologies but we're also going to Industry asking what problems you have do you need people that use this piece of equipment do you need people that are

30:33

trained in printing Electronics what do you actually need trying to build a Workforce but also trying to test those

30:39

Technologies here so we're constantly trying to um work with industry and find out just what their needs are so we're

30:44

actively engaging with our board of directors our Board of Trustees to understand what it is that your companies actually need and they might

30:50

tell us we have no interest in this specific thing but we're really interested over here we want to 3D print tungsten but we have no interest in this

30:56

other thing okay well that's a new thing that we should go into and a new thing that we should help out with so we're looking outside to try and get some insight on that but The Sweet Spot is

31:03

having that impact having the cool Technologies meeting with the sponsors actually want at the same time building

31:08

that Workforce yeah and I imagine also too it's must be a lot of staying up to

31:14

date on like legislation and things that are coming out and different you know lack of a better term like agendas that

31:20

are being pushed um to try to make sure that like you know if someone does come to you with a project obviously like you

31:26

want to work on it because you want to give opportunities to your students and all the people that are working here and everything but then at the exact same

31:31

time if that's like so far off like you know the reservation on where the focus should be going I think I would imagine

31:38

that kind of comes into play quite a bit as well we're we're constantly looking at that so there's the chip sacks so

31:43

we're not manufacturing chips in the US there's a huge amount of money we're trying to help support that whether it's training or having a test beted here for

31:49

different types of equipment um we're doing that there's also the replicator initiative so battle um this Warfare is

31:55

changing a lot in the last decade so now we're looking at the conflict in the Ukraine and we're going through a million plus drones a year on both sides

32:02

um we don't have the manufacturing capability to do that whether it's chips whether it's Motors or parts or propellers or what have you so as we

32:08

look at those problems and those initiatives we say how can we help with that can we do a challenge where we

32:13

promote technologies that are manufactur in the US only and push people into teams to go after that can we take a

32:18

piece of equipment from a partner and put it through its Paces here partner with pitini so we're always looking for ways to you take a look at that agenda

32:25

and say how do we fit into that how can we actually help with that so we always constantly have an eye we're looking five 10 years out in the future

32:31

especially the pace things are changing last 10 years things in especially in defense and warfare have changed

32:37

dramatically you have a you a single drone can knock out a $25 million tank now it's unreal yeah so a huge change

32:43

yeah for sure I I do also want to touch on the fact that like I know we're talking a lot about defense and wartime

32:50

stuff and all that but I do know that you guys do a lot in the healthcare space correct as well um so you talk

32:55

about maybe some of the stuff that you're working on on whether it's now or you know significant projects maybe that you've worked on um in that space as

33:03

well because I think that's important to note that this is not just like correct we make tanks you know like we do like a lot of stuff to help a lot of people

33:10

yeah yeah so ngji is organized in four divisions we're Focus here today on on defense of facility but other divisions

33:16

Healthcare is our biggest we have about 80 people on Healthcare and in there we're doing a lot of is trying to tie these disparate Data Systems together

33:22

you have that experience of going to the doctor and you felt the form you different doctor you felt the sing back form those doctors probably out looking

33:29

at the same databases so we actually run for the Department of Health New Jersey um the systems and processes for tying

33:35

all those disate sources together so there's a single place that a a physician can actually look and get all that data we've been doing that for a

33:41

number of years that's probably our largest program um as ngji and we also have entrepreneurship which is a

33:47

division we're trying to Spur Innovation at the University so we're looking at IP we're trying to commercialize it we're

33:52

looking at building companies we're doing programming so events trying to build an ecosystem system because um New

33:58

Jersey as Wes has pointed out so other folks it doesn't have a great uh Innovation entrepreneurship ecosystem

34:04

like Boston or like um South San Francisco for biotech for example so we're trying to build that ecosystem

34:10

bring people together bring VCS with folks we're doing a lot of events in that area and then the fourth division is professional and corporate education

34:16

so actually training workforces and actually building content where we're directly leveraging faculty from NGIT to

34:22

teach those classes um whether it's uh program management whether it's cyber security we're trying to build those

34:27

programs and leverage being an academic institution to uh to help out with that um but yeah healthcare for us is the

34:33

biggest Focus area we're trying to build all the other ones and then also in the process build out new divisions as well

34:38

because we want to be mirror to NGIT where we do things that they also do so Healthcare while it's our biggest

34:44

division it's not very well mirrored to NGIT so we're looking at more engineering oriented divisions to stand

34:50

up in addition to the four we already have sure yeah and I I I think that's

34:55

important to note just because like you said when we're here at the comet facility we're talking a lot about

35:00

defense all that kind of stuff uh we're right down the street essentially from patini correct um but there's so much

35:06

more and I think that does go back to kind of like what we're talking about at the beginning of the segment with the average New Jersey and like one of the

35:12

things we were talking about the Helix project and all that was like stuff that's going to like change people's lives in some way right um especially on

35:19

the healthcare side that's a big thing you know right and and that that change

35:24

so it's helix or hacks or um sitech City it's been huge in the last 10 years I think New Jersey has taken big strides

35:31

in The Innovation economy as cheesy as it sounds when I um when I first started visit call little little thereafter

35:37

Governor Murphy had to become and speak at a a conference and behind us was this big batter red batter building The Innovation economy I thought that's

35:43

silly we're not going to actually do that but we've done that last 10 years the programs that the Eda is doing um

35:48

you look at Helix where Ruckers where I came from there was nothing that so for innovation in New Jersey it's come such

35:55

a far way and for the average New Jersey and that's going to mean jobs even with Helix just getting Amtrak to stop there

36:02

often means that people can now work in New Jersey that live elsewhere they can come they can commute they can build companies more easily they can access

36:08

Capital so all those little things go a long way it's tough to put your finger on an Roi or specific for a specific

36:14

person but there is a lot going on very short period of time yeah and I think like it's some of the what like you know

36:19

we we talk about what you guys are doing here specifically and I think it's one of those things where people like you

36:26

said years people may not were probably not aware that this unless you have like

36:32

some maybe connection to NGIT or to you or to something right um but I do think

36:37

that like the average new jerseyan probably doesn't know that this exists correct but but should know that

36:44

there's a lot of stuff happening in New Jersey especially here that is super important for a lot of people and it's

36:51

going to impact a lot of people and who would even think that it comes from right the Garden State you know I think

36:57

that's really cool and the trajectory I think is if we keep this up we keep putting money towards programs that actually allow Innovation to happen you

37:04

put all the pieces together where it's facilities or people or funding we will eventually get to a point perhaps not

37:09

like San Francisco or Boston but we're going to get close and that will allow us to look back and say wow New Jersey is a place to actually start companies

37:15

and keep companies and do Innovative stuff and keep all those phds in the state so that's the long-term goal and

37:21

that will affect regular people in the state in a very positive way yeah um so before we get because we're believe it

37:26

or not we're almost done uh this has been great and I'm sure we could talk for Forever After but um you know when

37:33

we're talking about like you mentioned before staying 5 to 10 years ahead of kind of what is needed um and all that

37:40

kind of stuff so talk to me a little bit about like the five 10 year plan like you start here like you're doing your

37:45

thing what are kind of like the big focuses and the big pushes obviously growing some of the other uh platforms

37:51

and you know different uh arms you guys have but are there like specific things that you're trying to make happen top

37:57

like you said is grow Revenue we let to close to $80 million in six seven eight years down the road um that will allow

38:03

us to have double team double the impact but to actually get there we have to invest in our growth so we're looking at I mentioned the Venture Studio concept

38:09

of building companies by 2030 we'd like to sell another for-profit companies so we have to start a whole bunch of them

38:15

so we're trying to start at least one or two companies per year that leverage NGIT at NG that we can actually turn

38:21

into real companies with folks working on really cutting edge projects and that um allow us to really generate Revenue

38:27

to go after all sorts of different New Opportunities and I would be remiss if I didn't mention AI it's like the sexy

38:32

thing everyone mentions we do have a number of the companies that we're looking at and programs we're looking at that do leverage AI to address all sorts

38:39

of different questions like you know looking at power lines in New Jersey are they fraed we have to send a crew to fix them there are all sorts of questions

38:45

where we can use AI to address new problems and I think for us it's leveraging those really cutting edge Technologies whether it's a company or

38:52

partnership or sponsored research to go after really cool cuttingedge work um so it's a lot of different things

38:59

it's trying to build up all our different divisions today and then also pursue new opportunities as they pop up awesome awesome uh well this has been

39:06

great uh so before we let people go I do want to give them links places they

39:11

should be going to learn more uh you know I'm like get involved is not the right word but you know like different

39:17

ways that they can learn more about what's going on here and and if they're interested in all that kind of stuff so

39:23

uh let's hit in with some links yeah Best Link for ngi and particular is nj.com um for us too though I I run the

39:30

office of corporate engagement for NGIT and ngji so as far as um you know Partners wanted to work with University

39:35

whether it's students or co-ops or internships or sponsored research we are that conduit between the outside world

39:41

and NGIT so really anyone who wants to leverage a leading R1 research institution reach out to us be more than

39:47

happy to help out with that awes whatever the mechanism is yeah for sure uh so make sure we put those that stuff

39:53

in the show notes as well so people just go click um also greetings fromard state.com which will be in there too uh

39:59

which you can get to all other great episodes that we've had up to this point this is episode 119 wow it's a lot of

40:05

episodes sometimes I forget that I've been doing the show that long um but uh Michael thank you so much for jumping on

40:11

with us today this was amazing like I appreciate you having me down the tour I'm going to take some like pictures and stuff before we before we roll out of

40:17

here but I appreciate it well thank you for having that absolutely uh and then we'll just have to see how many listens

40:24

and Views this one gets and not start a sibling War but whatever that's that's

40:29

not my problem uh but uh so thank you everybody for listening uh this has been the green gar podcast powered by the New

40:35

Jersey Lottery we were here with Michael Johnson president of the New Jersey Innovation Institute at ngi's comma

40:41

Advanced manufacturing facility thank you for listening and we will catch you next [Music]

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time oh my my God bab do you are

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right oh tell me before you go all way

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do you want to [Music]

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ride [Music]