Texas State hosts first Innovation Series session

Texas State University launched the first session of its Innovation Series on Thursday evening at STAR Park with guest speakers and presentations revolving around the theme of Entrepreneurial Communities and Economic Development.

Entrepreneur-in-residence at Texas State, Sean Bauld welcomed and addressed the attendees and introduced the speakers of the evening.

“I love bringing together diverse perspectives and that’s what I see in this room tonight, right. The ability to bring people together and talk about interesting things and to share different perspectives because we can all make each other stronger as we go through those journeys,” Bauld said.

The first speaker to be present and be spotlighted was Andres Carvallo, Co-Director for Connected, Infrastructure for Education, Demonstration, and Applied Research (CIEDAR).

During his presen-tation, Carvallo spoke about smart development and information regarding a solar-powered street lights project at STAR Park.

“STAR Park will become Texas State’s showcase in a smart city,” Carvallo said.

During the next presentation, Dr. Melinda Villagran, Professor of Health Communication at Texas State University, spoke about community health and economic resilience research.

“A big scientist does not have the bandwidth to bring an innovation to market, but we need good partners,” Villagran said “So where Andres has a consortium that is bringing companies together to do RND, I bring together the best researchers to help plug into projects that need that evidence to either start or to assess what they do.”

Villagran further explained the importance of knowing the link between health and economic research and building evidence towards how related the two are.

The final presentation came from the keynote speaker, Paul O’Brien, CEO of MediTech ventures.

O’Brien focused on various points such as how jobs and money in the United States and Texas have developed and evolved over time, the cultural evolution of Texas and compared and contrasted entrepreneurship and economic development.

“If we are creating jobs and we are fostering education and we are moving companies, what we’re also doing in economic development is improving the overall health and well-being and academic level of the ecosystem of the community,” O’Brien said.

Following the session, networking was encouraged amongst those in attendance and an opportunity to connect and ask the speakers of the evening questions. The next session in the Innovation Series will be held on Thursday, March 10.

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