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US Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke about investing in science and technology in Massachusetts during her visit to the university’s Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center April 14, 2023. Warren, accompanied by US Rep. Lori Trahan, UML Chancellor Julie Chen and biotech leaders, toured the facility and spoke with researchers and students about their work. (Cameron Morsberger / Lowell Sun)
LOWELL — US Sen. Elizabeth Warren visited UMass Lowell’s Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center to meet with local technology leaders to promote scientific investment in the state on Friday.
Joined by US Rep. Lori Trahan and UML Chancellor Julie Chen, Warren met with graduate students, toured the Nanofabrication Lab and sat down for a roundtable discussion with representatives from the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition, who recently submitted a funding proposal to of the US Department of Defense’s Microelectronics program in the Commons.
That program, which plans to allocate about $1.6 billion to several regional hubs, is funded by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, the path that Warren previously advocated. The act strengthens the country’s production of semiconductors and other micro-technologies with nearly $50 million in additional money – doubling existing funding.
The legislation is a source of pride for Warren, as is Massachusetts’ leadership “in cutting-edge research and innovation,” he said during the roundtable.
“The advances we are seeing in microelectronics research will strengthen our national security, as will onshore manufacturing, and it will create many good jobs here in Massachusetts, which is always important to remind everyone why we care about this, ” Warren said. “I am proud to lead the entire Massachusetts delegation in explaining our views on this to the Department of Defense.”
Before the discussion, Warren, Trahan and Chen walked through the Nanofabrication Lab, where local agencies conduct research on the nano and micro scale. There, Warren said he spoke with scientists developing ways to grow organs and develop capacity for infrared technology.
What’s most impressive, perhaps, is that these companies are relatively new, Warren said, but are able to work in a multimillion-dollar lab. That’s the real-world impact and a glimpse into the future of Massachusetts that Warren says “gives me goosebumps.”
“There are young people now deciding where to go to college, people from here in Massachusetts and people from out of state, who decide to go to UMass Lowell,” Warren said, “and start getting involved in some aspect of one of these programs and ultimately change the world.”
Trahan already knows the “amazing talent and the amazing work” that comes out of the UML system, he said, so stepping on campus to talk to students about the complex products they’re designing is “amazing.”
But that innovation is the result of collaboration between Massachusetts’ many biotechnology leaders — Raytheon, MITER and other organizations working together, not competing, Trahan added.
“We’ve always had world-class research institutions. We have a public research institution right here in our backyard,” Trahan said. “And the fact that they’re able to work so closely with so many different- other aspects of the industry are, one, to create the pipeline, but two, it’s really to make the ecosystem more stable.”
Massachusetts is home to a strong contingent of startups, many of which were “born at the university,” said Vladimir Bulović, director of MIT.nano and professor of new technologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. .
Bulović mentioned a state voucher program, where startups can receive funding to use lab-type facilities at discounted costs, thus increasing access to those areas. Through that investment, he said the state will be able to develop strong startups faster.
“It takes a decade to nurture a good hard-tech startup,” Bulović said, “and to find ways to actually support those hard-tech startups through ecosystems that like this makes it cheaper, a little simpler, a little. easier… You’ve made it so easy for us to turn this 10-year journey into a five-year journey.”
It was the first time graduate student Basil Vanderbie said he had created a poster featuring his work, but now seemed like the perfect occasion. With Sam Fedorka, the two collaborators explained their research on nanoantenna detectors and how their own detector is able to operate at room temperature, instead of the typical minus 400 degree cooling temperature. That has huge implications in the field of medicine and long-distance communication, Vanderbie explained to Warren.
Vanderbie and Fedorka later expressed their excitement at meeting the senator.
“It’s amazing,” Fedorka said. “Sen. Warren is an inspiration…I’m over the moon.
Chen acknowledged Warren’s promotion of CHIPS and the Science Act, adding that “Massachusetts is really leading the way” when it comes to science innovation.
The pioneering work at UMass Lowell is part of that charge, Warren said in an interview.
“I think one of the most unique areas of work at UMass Lowell is that small businesses and training researchers can contribute and benefit from federal science investment in the future,” Warren said.