19 MODELING, SIMULATION & TRAINING

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M E D I C A L T E C H N O L O G I E S Florida High Tech Corridor Council

Member Economic Development Organizations

13

T H E F L O R I D A H I G H T E C H C O R R I D O R

9 Making It Look and Feel Real

Simulation business is a bristling reality along the High Tech Corridor.

19

M O D E L I N G , S I M U L AT I O N & T R A I N I N G

O P T I C S & P H O T O N I C S

25 Lighting the Way to Growth

Optic and photonic firms yield more than $9.7 billion annually here. I N F O R M AT I O N T E C H N O L O G Y

31 Info-Tech Highway

Central Florida is rich haven for information technology companies. M I C R O E L E C T R O N I C S

35 Chips, diodes, circuit boards

The diverse, miniature electronics-manufacturing sector creates new jobs almost daily.

Published by

Maddux Report

P.O. Box 202 • St. Petersburg, FL 33731-0202

Phone: 800/226-4394 or 727/823-4394 • E-mail: [email protected] • Web site: www.maddux.com

The Maddux Report is a monthly business magazine that covers the general corporate, technology, finance and development scene in the Tampa Bay area and other sections of Central Florida.

Contributors to florida.high.tech include Frank Ruiz and Bridget McCrea.

44 The Corridor’s Fastest Growing Technology Firms

47 Where’s the Money?

Intellectual and venture capital take root along the Corridor.

53 Cultivating the Talent Pool

Education and industry home in on developing talented workers for growing demand.

57 The Year of the Incubator

High tech incubators nurture young and growing companies.

61 Raising Research

Matching grants, federal dollars, industry contributions, all help raise the research bar in the High Tech Corridor.

65 Directory of Florida High Tech Corridor Companies

An Introduction to Growth

A V I AT I O N & A E R O S P A C E

41 Flying High

Aerospace industry packs a big economic punch in Central Florida.

Please visit the Florida High Tech Corridor's Web site at www.floridahightech.comand sign up to receive a monthly eNewsletter about news and initiatives happening along the Corridor.

Citrus County Economic Development Council

352.795.2000

www.citrusedc.com

DeSoto County Economic Development Council

863.993.4824

www.desoto.net

Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast 800.535.0203 www.spacecoastedc.org Enterprise Flagler 800.899.7962 www.flaglercounty.org/100/comm1.htm Hardee County Economic Development Council

863.773.3030

www.hardycounty.net

Hernando County Office of Economic Development

352.799.7275

Highlands County Economic Development Commission

863.385.1025

www.highlandsedc.com

Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Department

813.228.7777

www.tampachamber.com

Manatee Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Council

941.748.3411

www.manateeedc.com

Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission Lake County Office

352.728.0899

www.orlandoedc.com

Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission Orange County Office

407.422.7159

Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission Osceola County Office

407.518.7676

Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission Seminole County Office

407.665.2903

Nature Coast Business Development Council

352.486.5470

www.naturecoast.org

Ocala/Marion County Economic Development Council

352.629.2757

www.ocalaedc.org

Pasco Economic Development Council

888.607.2726

www.pascoedc.com

Pinellas County Department of Economic Development

888.759.5627

www.siliconbay.org

Polk County Office of Economic Development

863.534.4370

www.cfdc.org

Sarasota County Committee for Economic Development

941.955.2508

www.sarasotachamber.org

Sumter County Economic Development Council

352.793.3003

Volusia County Department of Economic Development

386.248.8048

www.floridabusiness.org

A Med-Tech Wonder

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Florida’s High Tech Corridor, which spans from the Tampa Bay region to the Space Coast, includes 6 primary clusters - information technology, medical technology, microelectronics, optics/photonics, modeling simulation and training, and aerospace.

A word on how this directory was built: The “core” of Florida High Tech Corridor technology companies was identified based upon the American Electronics Association definition of standard industry codes (SICs). However, this directory has been structured to exclude most retailers and leasing/rental companies, and to add spe-cial additions for Photonics, Medical, Aerospace and Information Technology. Inclusion in industry clusters was not sole-ly defined by industry codes, but also by membership in industry associations and self-identification. Sources for company information, including employment and financial data for the 2000 tax year, include private providers such as Dun and Bradstreet and Harris InfoSource.

Visit www.usf.edu/oed/data.htm for this and all current information this cluster. Total Tech

Employment: Over 158,500

Total Employment: 2.6 million

Total Number of

Tech Companies: More than 6,800

Combined Annual

Revenue: $50 billion

0

C O M P A N I E S B Y P R I M A R Y P R O D U C T

Sources:USF Office of Economic Development Guy Hagen, Assistant Director

Thomas King, Data Coordinator

O V E R V I E W S TAT I S T I C S

600 1,200

T E C H N O L O G Y C O M P A N I E S B Y C O U N T Y

Information technology companies comprise a full 75% of all technology companies in the Florida High Tech Corridor. Of the remaining companies, the largest sectors are Medical (17%), Microelectronics (13%), Other tech-nologies (17%), and companies that produce products in more than one technology cluster (Multiple – 17%).

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W

ho doesn’t love Florida oranges? And how about that Mickey Mouse, isn’t he a doll? And, oh yes, how about all those high tech companies in central Florida? Huh? Well, maybe Florida’s high tech conglomeration doesn’t have quite the sex appeal of the state’s other big industries – citrus and tourism – but economically, high tech packs a similar punch. Central Florida is home to one of the fastest-growing high tech-nology regions in the nation: the Florida High Tech Corridor, which stretches from the Tampa Bay region on the west to the Space Coast on the east.

More than 6,800 new and emerging high tech companies call the Corridor home. Together they employ more than 161,000 people. Thanks in large part to the Corridor’s wealth of high tech companies, Florida is among the top five states in high tech employment. Florida also ranks fourth in communications services, fifth in electro-medical equipment manufacturing and is among the top eight states in semi-conductor manufacturing employment. It is also the fourth-leading state in high tech exports.

Tampa Bay, Orlando and Melbourne all boast strong high tech bases and are adding new jobs faster than the national rate. One of the key reasons for all of this can be attributed to the pivotal role played by the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, a consortium that consists of two anchor metropolitan research universities – the University of Central Florida in Orlando and the University of South Florida in Tampa – as well as community colleges, businesses and economic development partners. University and industry research shows that about 2,700 of the companies in this bustling region began here after the Corridor Council’s inception in 1996. Early on, the Council played an important role in keeping large companies like Agere Systems and Uniroyal Optoelectronics committed to the area. Randy Berridge, a former AT&T executive in Florida and now the Corridor Council president, helps lead the organization as it focuses on six target industries: aviation and aerospace; information technol-ogy; medical technologies; microelectronics; modeling, simulation and training; and optics and photonics. Together, those sectors now produce more than $50 billion in annual revenue. “The Florida High Tech Corridor Council provides the muscle that our local economic development organizations need to attract, retain and grow high tech industry,” Berridge says. “Our goal is to work with those groups to build the most secure economic future possible for our area.” No one denies that Florida’s tourist industry is one of the state’s largest and most economically favorable assets. But today, Florida’s economic base is being diversified with a burgeoning high tech industry, Berridge says.

Industry and government leaders point to a list of benefits that

contribute to the growth on Florida’s High Tech Corridor. Among them are a pro-business environment; expedited permitting; compet-itive construction and operating costs; a large, available workforce, quick-response training programs; favorable taxation on manufactur-ing equipment; strong university support; comprehensive utility serv-ices; and outstanding quality of life.

Florida’s labor force of 7.3 million ranks as the nation’s fourth largest, another attraction for any high tech company considering the Sunshine State as home. Florida attracts nearly 5,000 new residents each week. Nearly half of the state’s 15-million residents live along the Corridor. High tech jobs are now found across the Corridor’s 21 central and west central Florida counties: Levy, Marion, Flagler, Citrus, Sumter, Lake, Volusia, Seminole, Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, DeSoto, Hardee and Highlands.

In the five years since the Florida Legislature formalized the Corridor Council with state funding, the region has seen many mile-stones. One of the latest will have lasting impact … Lockheed Martin’s success in winning the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft contract from the Department of Defense will put renewed emphasis on the Corridor’s aviation and aerospace sector. When added to major industrial successes like the expansion of Agere Systems in Orlando and Uniroyal Optoelectronics in Tampa, the density of the Corridor’s high technology activity becomes increasingly apparent. Says Berridge: “This is about clustering. Economic developers know that once you attract several companies in any one industry that it is like-ly to evolve, just as Silicon Valley evolved in the San Jose area.”

The Council, in partnership with Enterprise Florida, the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, the Tampa Bay Partnership, UCF and USF, has successfully lobbied for new state and local incentives that are attractive to high tech businesses. Money for research is always an attraction for businesses. Since 1996, the Council has supported 290 research projects, for a total of $25.2 mil-lion provided to UCF, USF and more than 145 corporate and insti-tutional partners. Corporate and federal matches amounting to $55 million bring the program’s total to more than $80 million.

How does Florida’s High Tech Corridor compare with the nation? Studies and surveys have shown that a couple of the top concerns for high tech executives are the development of a qualified workforce and the support of research universities. The Corridor is a strong source of both because of the partnerships that have been formed between local high tech companies, economic development organizations, community colleges and UCF and USF, the two founding universi-ties. “This is helping to develop the Corridor into one of the coun-try’s top high tech regions,” Berridge says.

Universities, businesses and the Corridor Council keep high tech growing in

Central Florida.

T E C H N O L O G Y O V E R V I E W

High Tech and Mickey

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M E D I C A L T E C H N O L O G I E S S TAT I S T I C S

Medical Technologies is an encompassing definition for a large group of health and biomedical related companies, including biotech (products based on organic tissues), pharmaceuticals, and especially electromedical and device manufacturers. This cluster also includes specialized medical information technology companies (informatics, genomics, and services) and research and development companies. Although they share certain characteristics (such as FDA regulation and global healthcare markets), medical technology companies tend to fall into one of two effective categories – device/manufacturing, and pharma/biotech.

Central Florida’s largest medical tech-nology companies include Linvatec ($200 million revenue) and Baxter Healthcare, both located in Pinellas county (local revenue not disclosed). The majority of these companies reside in Pinellas (29.9%), Hillsborough (17%), and Orange (10.8%) counties.

Companies within this cluster are diverse, and provide a wide range of professional services, research, and manufacturing.

Visit www.usf.edu/oed/data.htm for this and all current information this cluster.

Number of Companies: 371

Number of Employees: approximately 11,600

Combined Annual Sales: $3.2 billion

Largest Employers: Baxter Healthcare (over 1,000 employees) Linvatec Corporation (over 900 employees) Tyko Kendall Company (over 850 employees)

Most “Typical” Company: $540,000 revenue, 7 employees

C O M P A N Y E M P L O Y M E N T B Y C O U N T Y C O M P A N I E S B Y P R I M A R Y P R O D U C T

Source: USF Office of Economic Development Guy Hagen, Assistant Director

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hen Brunilda Delgado comes to work each day in St. Petersburg, she dons an outfit that makes her look like an astronaut walking on the moon. She dresses in white, from head to toe, including her shoes, which are larger than her own. The white head-piece she wears covers everything but her face as she hunches over a large machine called an extruder in an environmentally controlled “clean room.” There, workers make plastic tub-ing and other components that fit into medical devices such as catheters. These lifesaving devices that Delgado helps make are used across the globe for medical applications such as the injection of cancer-fighting drugs, or the extru-sion of bodily fluids during critical patient treat-ment.

Though she works in a small company in St. Petersburg, Delgado is representative of a large group of workers. She is one of more than 11,000 people in Central Florida employed by one of more than 370 companies that comprise the medical technology industry in this fast-growing High Tech Corridor. These companies produce combined annual revenue number-ing in the billions of dollars, greatly bolster-ing the state’s economy.

Delgado works at St. Petersburg-based NDH Medical Inc., a manufacturer of

med-ical plastic components. The firm is typmed-ical: The majority of medmed-ical technology companies in Florida’s High Tech Corridor are small, employing fewer than 20 people. While most medical technology companies in this sector are concentrated in Pinellas County, the med-ical technology industry in this region has spread through the middle of the state from Tampa Bay eastward to Orlando, Melbourne and Daytona Beach. They produce products as diverse as antibiotics to prosthetic devices, says Randy Berridge, president of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, which leads high tech economic development for the region. “While the western end of the Corridor is generally considered the leader in this sector, Orange and Brevard counties on the eastern end also have growing medical technology industries,” Berridge says.

The most typical company in the region has annual revenue of over $500,000 and 17 employees, Berridge says. But, there are some large players. Baxter Healthcare Corp. in Largo is perhaps the largest, with

1,000 workers and more than $660 million in yearly revenue. Tampa’s Bausch & Lomb Pharmaceuticals has hired more than 650 (though it has recently has had cutbacks); R.P. Scherer North America of St. Petersburg has more than 750 employees; and Critikon Co. LLC, which produces electronic medical equipment, has more than 700 workers.

If it is a job in a medical-tech firm you’re after, Hillsborough and Pinellas are the places to be. Therein lies the heaviest concentration of med-tech firms in Central Florida. About over-half of all med-tech firms make Pinellas and Hillsborough counties home. A recent study done by the University of South Florida ranked Tampa Bay first in the state in production and acquisition of medical patents. Whether large or small, together, these companies comprise one of the largest con-centrations of medical technology firms in the United States, accord-ing to research conducted by the University of South Florida. The region’s medical technology cluster ranks among the nation’s top five.

Medical technology clusters in the Central Florida Corridor are among the

nation’s largest.

M E D I C A L T E C H N O L O G I E S

A U.S. Wonder

The Central Florida medical technology cluster ranks among the nation’s top five and it continues to grow rapidly.

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And, it is growing. The number of workers at medical technology firms more than doubled in the last decade and grew by 10 percent in 2001 vs. 2000.

What is particularly intriguing about this large and growing gathering of medical firms is its depth and breadth. The companies in the cluster range from health and biomedical manufacturing enterprises to biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and device makers such as NDH. Also included are specialized medical information technology companies, as well as research and development firms, such as Layton BioScience Inc., a California-based company that created a research and develop-ment facility in Tampa. The cluster produces a combined $3.2 billion in yearly revenue yielding thousands of jobs that involve pro-fessional services, research, manufacturing, distribution, surgical instruments and other supplies and medicines.

No one seems to know exactly why there is such a large and growing contingent of med-ical companies here. The cluster put down

roots in the 1960s, when many medical tech-nology firms were focused on electronics and were attracted to the area by a workforce and supplier base refined by the defense industry. But regardless of why medical firms call Central Florida home, they seem to feed off one another. Some make things; others sup-ply components. Some make medicine; oth-ers distribute it and medical supplies interna-tionally. “There is a large benefit to being located near other medical companies,” says Geary Havran, president of NDH Medical and chairman of the newly formed Medical Manufacturers Consortium in St. Petersburg. “For one thing, being close together helps to attract other firms,” Havran says. “Also, many of the medical companies become sup-pliers or buyers of the others. Most of our customers, for example, are other medical companies that use the components that we manufacture.”

Coupled with the efforts of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, the University system, which includes the University of

Central Florida and the University of South Florida, has a special role in this type of eco-nomic development, says Guy Hagen, assis-tant director of the Office of Economic Development at USF. “Industries in all sec-tors, including medical, are requiring increas-ing levels of sophistication in their workforce and products,” Hagen says. “The leading U.S. technology regions have one thing in common and that is a strong research univer-sity. Leading companies – new economy and old – have a vested interest in building rela-tionships with researchers to improve their products and processes.”

Some difficulties that companies every-where, including those in Central Florida, face lie in developing relationships with exec-utive alumni, vying for industrial research grants between faculty and companies, and developing peer relationships between researchers and private sector technology leaders. That’s why both USF and the University of Central Florida in Orlando have structured themselves to bridge that gap M E D I C A L T E C H N O L O G I E S

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by offering up the broad connections they have nationally.

“Our industry base represents diversity in technology,” says Hagen. “Central Florida has weathered the recent economic downturn relatively well because we have a history of manufacturing in several sectors. It also demonstrates that the timing and potential are present for great benefits to result from collaborative partnerships” as are evident in the medical technology sector.

As growth continues, consortiums have developed within the various high tech clus-ters, such as the Medical Manufacturers Consortium that Havran heads. This relative-ly new consortium has begun to aggregate the scattered medical technology cluster, by pro-viding a forum for senior-level industry exec-utives to share information about best prac-tices, industry trends, regulations and other important factors affecting this industry. Among the medical consortium’s goals are to develop closer ties and more extensive dia-logue with Tallahassee lawmakers to insure

that laws and regulations passed by the state’s legislature will not be harmful to the indus-try. “This will help us compete favorably with firms located in other parts of the country or the world,” he says.

Efforts are under way to make medical equipment for the biomedical industry exempt from use tax, for example. Other objectives include working closely with economic devel-opment organizations to jointly market the area, to help strengthen the existing industry and to attract other medical technology firms or organizations to Central Florida.

The collaborative effort of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, the university system and the medical companies appears to be working. One has only to look at the recent story of how Co.Don AG, a German tissue-engineering firm, decided to build a U.S. branch near USF. Co.Don specializes in autologous tissue therapies. It’s a process that includes removal of tissue from a patient’s own body that is then cultured and replaced in the patient, hopefully negating the need

for artificial or non-donor implants. A year ago, a top USF researcher, Joachim Sasse, developed connections with Co.Don at a series of academic conferences. He met Tim Ganey, president of Co.Don’s U.S subsidiary, at a Houston conference in March 1999. Sasse’s interest in Co.Don was piqued by the company’s focus on joint cartilage repair, Sasse’s specialty. The researcher later contact-ed Dr. Richard Streeter, director of USF’s Office of Economic Development. Streeter, in turn, helped to establish seed funding for Co.Don to build a research partnership facil-ity. Eventually Co.Don landed a matching grant through the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. Primarily through Streeter, USF then worked with local eco-nomic development organizations and Co.Don to encourage and assist them in investing $3.5 million to $4 million in a local research and development production house. This allows Co.Don to better capitalize on the partnership with Sasse, and to penetrate new and untapped U.S. markets.

M E D I C A L T E C H N O L O G I E S

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In general, “modeling, simulation and training” refers to specialized digital media, interface technologies and virtual reality tools, and integrated device systems for the purpose of training and human performance. Products range from interactive training devices to integrated, simulated environments and even physics-based simulations of real structures and events. Most products in this clus-ter comprise a mix of specialized software and computing elements.

Central Florida has perhaps the largest presence of simulation companies in the entire U.S. The largest of these include CAE Systems Flight Simulation (over $80 million in revenue) and Coleman Research (over $76 million in revenue). The presence of the NCS and the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation and Training best explains why the overwhelming majority of these companies are locat-ed in Orange County (56.9%). The significant increase in revenue report-ed over last year stems from a number of exceptionally large companies that disclosed revenue to research sources this year.

Number of Employees: Over 3,800

Combined Annual Sales: Over $3.5 Billion

Largest Employers: Coleman Research (over 1,200 employees) Boeing (over 1,000 employees)

Jardon & Howard Technologies (over 600 employees) CAE Systems (over 500 employees)

Most “Typical” Company: $2.5M revenue, 17 employees

M O D E L I N G , S I M U L AT I O N & T R A I N I N G S TAT I S T I C S

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F

light simulators made at CAE in Tampa seem akin to some-thing out of the movie “Star Wars.” A large hulk of metal is perched atop gangly hydraulic legs that move up, down, forward, and back. Inside, one enters what appears to be an exact replica of a C-130 aircraft. The gadgets, dials and lights display everything a pilot needs to lift the plane from a pseudo Miami International Airport runway into the air and en route to Canada or elsewhere.

These simulators, which are designed to replicate a particular flight exactly and react to pilot error in a real sense, sell for mil-lions of dollars and are used to train pilots to fly. Better to crash in one of these, than to take a multimillion aircraft up and make mistakes in the air. The U.S government as well as airlines and for-eign governments regularly purchase simulators like these. More than 475 workers have jobs at CAE because these simulators are in demand. The workers are just one pool in a high tech corridor where more than 20,000 people work at 120 simulation and mod-eling companies within Florida’s High Tech Corridor, according to the National Center for Simulation, a 180-member industry association based in Orlando.

The number of workers employed by simulation companies might actually be greater than the current estimate of 20,000, says Russel E. Hauck, mayor of Altamonte Springs and executive director of the National Center for Simulation. An independent study by Dr. Bradley Braun in 1999 states that 1998 employment in this industry in the Florida High Tech Corridor totaled 25,000 direct jobs and about 25,000 indirect jobs. “Part of the problem in estimating the number of workers lies in the diversity of activ-ities, products, technologies, and applications in simulation,” Hauck says.

In Orlando, students conduct research at the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation and Training, an inter-nationally recognized research institute. There scientists and a staff of 125 researchers and students work to harness the capa-bilities offered by simulation, virtual reality, high-density data-bases and the latest computer science. “The modeling simula-tion industry is in a state of transisimula-tion,” says Brian Goldiez, the institute’s interim director. “As computer technology grows, simulation is evolving from a customized product to a commercial product, more of a commodity. That shift offers a world of opportu-nity.”

Based in the University of Central Florida Research Park, the Institute is helping to capture the powerful potential of advanced sim-ulation technologies. Scientists predict that worldwide communica-tions, medicine and education will be transformed by the modeling, simulation, training, and virtual reality research and development

done there. Because of the Institute, UCF offers the nation’s first mas-ter’s degree in simulation.

A simulator uses sounds and sights to make someone feel that they are experiencing an actual situation. Because they can recreate experi-ences, simulators hold great potential for training people for almost any situation. As pilots attest, flight simulators are as real as flying an airplane. Also, entertainment simulators, such as the Atlantis ride at Sea World, provide theme park goers with thrills and spills, typically,

Making It Look And Feel Real

Simulation business is a bristling reality along the High Tech Corridor.

M O D E L I N G , S I M U L AT I O N & T R A I N I N G

More than 7,000 workers are employed by the modeling and simulation industry in Florida’s High Tech Corridor. They make a range of state-of-the-art products includ-ing a simulator that mimics the human body and the CAE flight simulator above, which teaches pilots to fly.

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without actual harm to the people enjoying the rides. That ride was built by AAI, anoth-er Florida simulator firm.

Lockheed Martin Information Systems, which also has headquarters in Orlando, is designated the Training and Simulation Center of Excellence for the Lockheed Martin Corp. It provides customers with training solutions that range from stand-alone simulators to war-gaming centers to complete schoolhouses. “Ongoing internal research and development, as well as cus-tomer-sponsored research, keeps us in the forefront of such areas as software, synthetic environments, architecture and systems inte-gration,” says Nicholas J. Ali Jr., Lockheed vice president.

Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), the well-known maker of Cray supercomputers, used simulators to produce such films as “Titanic,” “Antz” and “Men In Black.” Others are used to recreate medical situations, offering doc-tors new methods for treatment. Again, using a Cray supercomputer, SGI techniques assist

researchers in simulating U.S. Army airdrop systems. With the Cray computer serving as the “brains” of the simulator, methods are being developed to model the interaction between paratroopers, the aircraft and the air-flow around the aircraft. This will help designers better understand those conditions leading to improved design and more effec-tive deployment of airdrop systems.

“Florida has perhaps the largest presence of simulation companies in the entire United States,” says Guy Hagen, assistant director of the University of South Florida’s Office of Economic Development, who has studied the industry. While most simulation and training employees are in Orange and Brevard coun-ties, companies are spread across the Corridor, from Tampa Bay in the west to Melbourne and the Space Coast.

Most typically, the companies are relative-ly small, employing 10 or fewer workers and yielding yearly revenue of about $1 million. However, there are several large players, such as Lockheed Martin, a defense contractor;

ECC International; and Jardon & Howard Technologies. CAE (formerly Reflectone) in Tampa is also among the larger firms.

The military provides the biggest market for simulators. Hauck says military activities in Central Florida contract for about $1 bil-lion a year for simulators of many types. In Daytona Beach, for example, the Raydon Corp. recently won a $2.3-million contract to build 15 Army air defense training simula-tors that will train gunners and commanders to detect and shoot down enemy aircraft. Raydon’s gunnery trainers will simulate the firing of the Linebacker’s 25-mm chain gun, 7.62-mm machine gun and Stinger anti-air-craft missiles.

“Raydon’s training simulators will allow thousands of simulated missiles to be fired at the cost of firing only a few live missiles at live targets,” says Mike Riley, Raydon’s direc-tor of new products and business. Raydon also has developed a driver simulator that is currently in use in Volusia and Orange coun-ty high schools for teaching driver training.

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“It is my understanding that Orange County may opt for doing all of its driver training on these simulators,” says Hauck. With 21 years of experience in the simulation industry, Hauck adds that these types of simulators exemplify the great diversity of devices com-panies are creating.

In another sign that the Corridor is laden with a thriving simulator industry, Orange County landed $418,000 worth of state mil-itary-infrastructure grants – the most of any region in Florida – to help the Army agency responsible for the area’s nationally known simulation-technology industry. The money will be used to support projects at the Army Simulation, Training & Instrumentation Command in the Central Florida Research Park.

About $345,000 is pegged for building an advanced, computerized training facility for research and development. Some of the money will go the National Center for Simulation, the industry trade group that is also located in the business park next to UCF.

In Brevard County, the Space Coast Economic Development Council in Melbourne received a $10,000 grant for its simulator work with the U.S. space program. Overall, the state awarded more than $2.6 million to help counties improve and pro-mote military installations. “This program is basically meant to help a locality make its case why bases are important,” says David Bishop, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush.

The range of simulation, modeling and training in Central Florida is wide. The devices are used in medical, law enforcement, public safety, entertainment, industrial processes, architecture, transportation and simulation-based acquisitions.

One company, Orlando-based Veridian Corp., has produced a virtual reality-based system for training deaf and hearing-impaired people. The prototype device is actually in use and undergoing evaluation at Lake Sybellia Elementary School in Orange County. The same company has developed a 3D computer graphics simulation of several

proposed Olympic venues for the Florida 2012 Olympic Committee in support of its bid for the 2012 Olympics. These are venues, or stadiums, that have not yet been built.

Lockheed Martin has produced a high-fidelity truck driver simulator that is a real truck cab mounted on a motion platform, very similar to a flight simulator. And Sarasota-based Medical Education Technologies Inc. (METI) has developed a human patient simulator that replicates the human body and faithfully models and repre-sents body physiology. The device was initial-ly developed for training anesthesiologists but has been expanded to include simulation for other medical problems and traumas (www.meti.com).

What’s in store for the future? Steady growth, says Hauck. “Modeling, simulation and training sales in this region are expected to grow to about $1.8 billion by 2003,” he says. And, following the national trend, most of the new growth here is expected to be in commer-cial products rather than military.

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Optics and photonics refer to technologies based upon the manipulation of light. These include sensors, lasers, displays, precision optics (mirrors and lenses), fiberoptics and telecommunication optics (routers, multiplexers, etc.), and many other complex devices.

The largest photonics companies in central Florida are primarily oriented toward aerospace and defense, such as Honeywell and Lockheed Martin (local revenue not disclosed but probably well over 1 billion each). The largest of the most “typical” photonics compa-nies include Sensidyne (over $40 mil-lion revenue) and Schwartz Electro-Optics (over $25 million revenue). The majority of central Florida’s photonics companies are located in Orange (20.7%), Pinellas (18.7%), Brevard (17.3%), and Seminole (14.7%) Counties.

Combined Annual Sales: Over $9.7 Billion

Largest Employers: Honeywell (over 2,000 employees) Lockheed Martin (over 1,000 employees)

O P T I C S & P H O T O N I C S S TAT I S T I C S

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I

t happened one sunny Florida day during spring, 2000. Two professors at the University of Central Florida’s Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) got together with one of the many venture capitalists that stroll through the center each week and developed what potentially will become Florida’s next $1-billion-a-year compa-ny – Optium Corp.

The tiny Orlando-based company is developing new optic technology products that can transmit and receive fiber-optic signals at speeds up to 40 gigabits per second. That’s about 16 times faster than today’s fiber optic networking standard. The data is transmitted through light.

The firm, backed by more than $40 million in venture cap-ital, plans to develop products for a market that promises to yield $10 billion in sales by 2004, according to its chief execu-tive officer, Paul Suchoski. Optium’s projected share of that market? About $1 billion, according to the company’s projec-tions. Only time will tell. Of the many high tech companies in Central Florida, only Melbourne-based Harris Corp. tops that mark ($1.8 billion in 2000).

Just how Optium got its start was “a combination of things, including serendipity,” says Dr. Eric Van Stryland, CREOL director, speaking about the glowing promise at Optium.

“The idea behind what they are developing is smaller, faster, cheaper,” Van Stryland says. “It’s the only way to go. Technologies that exist today are too big and too expensive, making it prohibitive for people like us to use.”

It was suggested to professors Guifang Li and Patrick Li Kam Wa that they get together with yet another professor, the third co-founder, Paul Yu, to ensure that their way of doing things would work, Van Stryland says. The three realized that the technology, which had been researched at CREOL, could radically alter the economics of high-speed data transmission.

Thanks in a large part to the economic development efforts of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, CREOL and industry leaders, Optium was able to raise more than $35.5 million in venture funding. That was on top of $8 million it received in 2000.

Optium’s investors include Corning Co. and a firm headed by the former chief executive officer of JDS Uniphase, a top fiber optic equipment manufacturer. Other backers include Battery Ventures of Boston and Boca Raton-based Qtera Corp., which Nortel Networks bought in 1999 for $3 billion. Optium brought in Suchoski to head the company in February 2001.

Optium is only the latest story in an area of Florida where

photon-ic and optphoton-ic firms have grown like weeds across Central Florida from the Gulf shores of Pinellas County in the west to the Atlantic Ocean in the east. Having gotten its beginnings during the ‘70s and ‘80s from aerospace firms such as Lockheed-Martin Marietta, Harris Corp. and others, today’s optics and photonics cluster of high tech firms now numbers more than 150 in Central Florida. Together, they employ more than 7,000 people and yield more than $9.7 billion in sales annually, adding greatly to the state’s economy, according to a 2000 study conducted by the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Central Florida’s optics and photonics cluster ranks among the nation’s top four such regions, behind California and the Northeast

Lighting the Way to Growth

Optic and photonics firms yield more than $9.7 billion annually in

Central Florida.

O P T I C S & P H O T O N I C S

The optics and photonics cluster in the High Tech Corridor numbers more than 154 companies employing more than 7,000 workers and yields annual revenues of nearly $10 billion.

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Corridor. The cluster supports more than 41,000 direct and indirect jobs, according to a 1999 University of South Florida research report.

The state itself is a market for optics and photonics. Many large, medium and small companies – many of them aerospace compa-nies – either integrate or buy products from the optics companies in the cluster.

“This serves to attract and build optics activity, especially in the aerospace, micro-electronics, biomedical, entertainment and display markets,” says Guy Hagen, assistant director of the Office of Economic Development at USF.

Optium set up shop in the Central Florida Research Park near UCF, where many other optic firms are located. It has a 30,000-square-foot facility where it is developing var-ious new technologies in controlled environ-ments called “clean rooms.”

It also has branched out with a 10,000-square-foot facility in Chalfont, Pa., that employs 10 people. The branch is expected to

balloon to 60 people and 71,000 square feet in a planned Lehigh Valley facility in the near future, says Suchoski.

“Our goal is to be there by the first quar-ter of 2002,” he says. “The primary reason for the expansion is the talent pool is much stronger in Lehigh Valley than it is in Bucks County. The general feeling is that Lehigh Valley is one of the five or six strongest talent pools in the country for this kind of work.”

Optics and photonics are technologies that use or manipulate light. The technologies are used in devices for telecommunications, medical, military manufacturing and other industries.

Physicians use light to trim cataracts from an eye, or for surgery of other types. The mil-itary has various uses for light devices, includ-ing as potential weapons. And, the telecom-munications industry now uses light of vary-ing colors to transmit data at very high speeds, making it possible for companies to deliver important materials across continents in just seconds.

Most of the optics and photonics compa-nies in this region are relatively small, employing seven people or fewer with yearly revenue of $900,000, the USF study shows. But there are some big firms such as Honeywell, primarily a St. Petersburg aero-space company that makes use of optics. (Honeywell Corp. reports annual revenue of more than $8 billion.) Lockheed Martin is another big player with more than $500 mil-lion a year in revenue. It makes military elec-tronics and missiles and has offices in Orlando, Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. Others include Clearwater’s Sensidyne Inc., which makes toxic and combustible gas detection systems, among other products; Litton Laser Systems Inc. of Apopka, which makes search and navigation equipment; and Schwartz Electro Optics Inc., an Orlando company making laser-based sensors.

About one third of the companies in this cluster specialize in fiber optics and lasers. But the cluster is diverse in its market scope. Companies oriented to manufacturing, com-O P T I C S & P H com-O T com-O N I C S

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munication and electronic optics equipment are also well represented in this cluster.

Among those is Digital Lightwave Inc., a Largo company that produces optical test and diagnostic equipment for the gigantic interna-tional telecommunications industry. This rel-atively young company was founded in 1991 on the premise that high-speed optics would come to play an increasingly important role in network development, due largely to light’s superior capacity and speed as a communica-tions medium. Digital Lightwave’s CEO, Gerry Chastelet, says this is only the begin-ning for optics and photonics. The growth of the information technology field is based in large part on the optics and photonics indus-try. Due to this close relationship, it is fitting that the Corridor, which is currently home to more than 5,200 information technology companies, is also home to a growing optics and photonics sector.

One of the chief reasons for this growth can be attributed to the presence of one of the country’s recognized state-of-the-art optics

and photonics research facilities, UCF’s CREOL facility. Established in 1985, CREOL has assisted the region in its efforts to attract, retain and grow high technology companies by offering companies access to world-class faculty and research and a highly trained workforce. Subsequently, Central Florida has become a major player in the optics and photonics industry. “If you talk to companies in the area, you will find that we have worked with a large number of existing companies on different projects,” says Van Stryland, CREOL’s director. “We have made a larger impact here than with startups.”

The photonics cluster, largely the result of the state’s strong relationship with the defense and aerospace industries, shows promising signs of rapid growth.

“Another development that shows the industry’s growth along the Corridor is the resurgence of an industry association called the Florida Photonics Cluster (FPC),” says Randy Berridge, president of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council in Orlando.

The FPC will be replacing the current Florida Electro Optics Industry Association, which, along with the Corridor, has recently spon-sored a study of the industry and its work-force. The ERISS Corp., a world-leader in workforce technology and database manage-ment, completed this study, Berridge says.

The Corridor is a shining example of how industry, the Council and the university sys-tem all come together to help the state’s economy grow, while producing high-paying jobs and a growing list of high tech compa-nies, Berridge says.

“We are not a business,” says Van Stryland of CREOL. “But we can have tremendous impact on a region. We can help in many ways besides workforce development. We can serve as the corporate research lab for those small companies without major laboratory resources. And we can provide a knowledge base, seed technologies and ideas, and work with local economic development agencies to help attract, retain and grow new high tech

industries.” fht

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I N F O R M AT I O N T E C H N O L O G Y S TAT I S T I C S

“Information Technology” refers to companies or divisions whose primary function is the development and delivery of digital data and communications, including software, databases, Internet/networking, and computer systems design and integration. Though generally classified as a service industry, information technology companies can be considered as manufacturing value-added knowl-edge (electronic) products.

Approximately 3 out of 4 high tech companies in Central Florida are based on information technology. Tech Data Corp. (headquartered in Pinellas County) reports the largest total rev-enue at more than $20 billion (includ-ing branch divisions), and Sykes Enterprises reports at over $600 mil-lion. The greatest percentage of infor-mation technology companies are located in Orange (16.8%), Hillsborough (16.2%), and Pinellas (15.6%) counties.

Number of Companies: 5,202

Number of Employees: over 64,500

Combined Annual Sales: $25.8 billion

Largest Employers: Sykes Enterprises, Inc. (over 17,000) GTE Information Services (over 3,800)

C O M P A N I E S B Y P R I M A R Y P R O D U C T

1,000 500 0

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T

he Holy Grail of selling to local governments has always been market aggregation. Local governments in the United States spend more than $20 billion on information technology annually – about the same amount spent by state governments.

Yet few information technology companies have been able to capture a significant part of the market, because unlike the state governments, local government units such as police, libraries and cities are widely scattered.

GovStreetUSA, a tiny company nestled in the back offices of its parent, Interlink Communications Systems in Clearwater, is attempting to reach the fragmented local gov-ernment market for IT equipment by putting up a store-front online (www.govstreetusa.com).

There, the company offers governments a chance to view IT equipment, fill out government forms accurately and make purchases at competitive discounts that they might not find elsewhere. The merchandise is delivered overnight, much the same way IT distribution giant Tech Data Corp. in Clearwater does business.

“This is not your typical Harvard School of Business business model,” says GovStreetUSA President Tom Straub. “It’s unique.”

GovStreetUSA’s business model is considered among the first of its kind to solve the dilemma of local market aggre-gation. And, GovStreetUSA serves as a good example of the more than 5,000 information technology companies doing business along Florida’s High Tech Corridor, which stretch-es across the center of the state from Tampa Bay through Orlando and on to the shores of the Atlantic and the Space Coast.

While some, like Verizon Data Services in Tampa, are large (Verizon Data employs 3,800), most are relatively small with average yearly sales of $140,000 and two employees. But IT companies abound along the Corridor.

Information technology companies along the Corridor are growing in numbers at remarkable rates,

according to a study conducted by the University of South Florida’s Office of Economic Development.

The study indicates a staggering 60 percent growth in the region’s information technology sector between 1997 and 1998. The compa-nies employ more than 67,000 workers and yield combined annual revenues of more than $26 billion. Three-fourths of all high tech com-panies in the region fall into the information technology sector.

There are some impressive results from that study that indicate that

information technology might be the fastest growing high tech sector in the region. The results include the following: Internet Service Providers were the fastest-growing segment in 1998, increasing nearly 20 percent from 1997 to 1998. But this is changing. More than one half of Florida’s information retrieval companies reside in the Corridor as well as about one third of the state’s computer services and design and software companies. Information technology firms in the Corridor yielded combined revenue of more than $1.7 billion in 1998.

Info-Tech Highway

Central Florida is a rich haven for information technology companies.

I N F O R M AT I O N T E C H N O L O G Y

Information technology companies within the High Tech Corridor produce more than $24 billion in revenue and employ more than 40,000 workers.

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Today, that figure surpasses $24 billion. Small companies like GovStreetUSA signify an important area for entrepreneurial growth and targeted economic development.

Guy Hagen, assistant director at USF’s Office of Economic Development, believes that a lot of the rapid growth in IT firms in recent years has come among small, entrepre-neurial enterprises. He attributes this to rela-tively low capital investment requirements coupled with high demand for IT services. The report shows that while Orange, Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties have the largest concentrations of IT firms, overall, IT companies are somewhat equally distributed throughout the 21-county region that com-prises the Corridor.

What these companies do and what they produce varies widely. Hagen defines the sec-tor as “companies or divisions whose primary function is the development and delivery of digital data and communications, including software, databases, Internet and networking, and computer systems design and

integra-tion.”

In other words, a company that provides customer-relationship management such as an outsourced help desk is IT.

So, too, is Highlander Engineering Inc., a Lakeland firm that provides software and services for use in other industries. This high-ly specialized company provides software that often is embedded, or placed, inside the com-puterized workings of, say, telephone switch-ing equipment or an X-ray machine.

While the IT industry in Central Florida promises to become one of the fastest grow-ing of the high tech sectors, this potential for growth will depend in a large part on the nation’s workforce shortage in IT, Hagen says.

“University support in the form of increased capacity to provide IT training, both on the degree and non-degree levels, has been identified as critical for addressing this problem for Florida and its High Tech Corridor,” Hagen says. “The number of new, trained IT employees is only a fraction of the

need.”

Randy Berridge, president of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, recognizes that supplying a trained workforce is one of the biggest challenges facing the continued growth of the Corridor. The Council, which was founded in 1996, plays a key role in help-ing to keep and attract high tech companies to the region.

The Council has strong ties with econom-ic development organizations and its two founding anchor universities – the University of Central Florida and University of South Florida. It has served as the cohesive element that has brought many of the new IT compa-nies to Florida’s widely recognized technology region.

“Just 24,200 degrees were awarded nation-ally in computer science in 1994, despite the fact that some 130,000 new IT jobs were cre-ated then and each year thereafter,” Berridge says. “Across technology sectors, attracting and retaining skilled labor is the No. 1 con-cern of high tech employers nationwide, and I N F O R M AT I O N T E C H N O L O G Y

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Florida is no different.”

Richard Streeter, executive director of USF’s Office of Economic Development, points out that regions that provide a long-term solution for educating and training workers will win the high tech business. That’s one big reason why Streeter, Berridge and others, are pooling resources and devel-oping methods for getting community col-leges and high schools involved in training future workers for IT jobs.

Not every company will find qualified workers here. Consider Highlander Engineering, which because of its specialized work must seek engineers from a global mar-ketplace.

“We have very few employees who were living in Central Florida before we recruited them,” says David Barnett, marketing vice president for Highlander. “Most have relocat-ed here from somewhere else – including three from Europe … We will probably always have a harder time recruiting than most other software or IT firms” because of

the company’s specialized products.

Today, Florida is ranked among the nation’s top eight regions in computer-related services. Berridge says being ranked that high is “one more indication that the high tech community sees this as a vibrant and growing high tech community.

One specific area that has seen tremendous growth in this sector is Lake Mary. Currently, that area is home to a host of IT companies that are world leaders in their sector.

There are many reasons why the Corridor’s IT sector is burgeoning. One is that compa-nies tend to “cluster” around each other. Also, the IT sector is closely related to other high tech sectors, such as the Corridor’s large optics and photonics cluster.

“Due to this close relationship, it is fitting that the Corridor, which is currently home to more than 5,200 information technology companies, is also home to a growing optics and photonics sector,” Berridge says.

This growth has also been encouraged by the presence of one of the country’s most

rec-ognized state-of-the-art optics and photonics research facilities, the University of Central Florida’s Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL), he adds.

Some areas of information technology are growing at breakneck speeds. One subsector in particular that is pegged for astounding growth is customer relationship manage-ment, or CRM.

A report from Frost & Sullivan, a New York market research firm, shows that nation-ally, the CRM industry generated $25 billion in 2000 and is projected to reach $60 billion by 2007. This is due mainly because more companies are outsourcing their customer care, help desk and telemarketing calls to firms like Sykes Enterprises Inc., a Tampa company that provides various customer rela-tions services.

A quick look at Sykes’ growth indicates exactly what the Frost & Sullivan report shows. Sykes, which has more than 17,000 employees globally, has a strong history in

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“Microelectronics and semiconductors” essentially signifies companies that manufacture computer components and subsystems, including printed circuit boards, integrated circuits and processors, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and microsystems, and of course silicon wafers. This cluster also includes support companies such as contract manufacturers/assembly shops, as well as circuit design and research and engineering companies.

Jabil Circuit is headquartered in the Pinellas County, and reports over $4 billion in annual revenue alone. Other large local companies include Cirent Semiconductor (now Agere) and Intersil, as well as Group Technologies Corporation. The majority of these companies, by count, are located in Pinellas (22%), Brevard (19.7%), Seminole (12.5%) and Orange (11%) Counties.

Number of Employees: approximately 18,000

Combined Annual Sales: over $6.2 billion

Largest Employers: Intersil Corporation (1,932 employees) Cirent Semiconductor (over 1,600 employees) Jabil Circuit (over 1,000 employees)

Most “Typical” Company: $530,000 revenue, 7.5 employees

M I C R O E L E C T R O N I C S S TAT I S T I C S

120 60 0

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I

magine a soldier going on patrol behind enemy lines with a computer strapped to his body and a small display tucked away in his pocket. A miniature camera is mounted on his headset. It beams pictures of what he sees back to home base. He receives instructions through the headset and knows that his mission is successful.

While this scenario is, for the time being, futuristic, Palm Bay-based Paravant Computer Systems Inc. is helping to make it possible. It and its 150 employees are working on a $3.8-million contract to help develop the Pentagon’s Land Warrior experiment, which promises to outfit soldiers of the future just as described above, to make them more efficient and lethal.

Paravant is one of more than 264 microelec-tronics companies doing business within Florida’s High Tech Corridor.

The sector lies along a stretch of the state that is called home by more than 6,800 high tech companies. Paravant’s sector includes companies such as Agere Systems, which makes computer chips, and others like Reptron Electronics Inc., a Tampa firm that produces computer compo-nents, circuit boards and computer subsystems. Paravant exemplifies the diversity of products, services, and components being created in the Corridor. The microelectronics sector in which it operates creates new jobs almost daily.

These are distributed through 21 central and west central Florida counties, with nearly 18,000 microelectronics workers employed in such diverse labor as manufac-turing Paravant’s computer components, to manufacturing electron tubes, printed circuit

boards, capacitors, resistors, semiconductors and more.

Included in this sector are some mighty giants. Agere Systems (for-merly known as Cirent Semiconductor) in Orlando, Intersil Corp. in Palm Bay and Uniroyal Optoelectronics in Tampa are three manufac-turers with combined employment of more than 3,500 workers. These companies produce microelectronics that fit in almost anything elec-tronic, including automobiles.

Were it not for the founders of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, Agere and Uniroyal Optoelectronics might be elsewhere. The Agere story is particularly intriguing, and dates back to 1995, prior to

the founding of the Corridor Council. But it is one worth retelling, for it has led to hundreds of jobs, the continued well being of the high tech sector, and it has helped to attract more high tech companies to Central Florida – many of them microelectronics firms.

In 1995 Agere Systems, then known as AT&T Microelectronics and most recently as Cirent Semiconductor, part of Lucent Technologies Inc., was considering making a multimillion dollar expansion investment in Madrid, Spain, rather than in Orlando. The company was being lured to Europe by a promise of more than $90 million in economic benefits.

Chips, diodes, circuit boards

The diverse, miniature electronics-manufacturing sector creates new jobs almost daily here.

M I C R O E L E C T R O N I C S

The High Tech Corridor’s microelectronics sector employs more than 24,000 workers in such diverse jobs as computer components, manufacturing electron tubes, printed circuit boards, resistors and semicon-ductors.

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That’s when University of Central Florida President John Hitt and others stepped in to do all they could to retain the investment here.

Keeping the expansion meant $600 million to the local economy and more importantly 600 new jobs. Hitt and University of South Florida’s then President Betty Castor, plus a number of state and local economic develop-ment organizations, mounted an effort to pro-vide enough economic incentives to make staying in Orlando worthwhile to Lucent.

With innovative thinking, the team kept Orange County in the win column. After all was said and done, Lucent decided to stay in Central Florida rather than make the move to Spain.

According to Mike Watson, CMOS oper-ations vice president for Agere Systems, “The Agere Orlando semiconductor manufactur-ing facility is strong today for many reasons, but especially because of the partnership we enjoy with the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida.” The

effort was the beginning of what is today the Corridor Council. The following year, Hitt and Castor discussed continuing what they had done for Lucent by creating an environ-ment conducive to attracting, retaining and growing high tech industry. The payoff for Central Florida would be continued econom-ic growth and many more jobs.

The Florida High Tech Corridor Council was born soon after, with UCF and USF becoming the anchor research universities. The Council united economic development officials and the heads of 15 high tech com-panies. Soon after, the Council convinced Lucent to locate its $300 million Bell Laboratories Advanced Development and Research Facility to the Orlando plant. Another coup.

To make the dream of the Council a reali-ty, supported by representatives of high tech companies, Hitt and Castor convinced legis-lators to appropriate $925,000 for the cre-ation and implementcre-ation of their model for attracting, retaining and growing high tech

industry.

The model would cover a region between Florida’s Space Coast on the east, through Orlando and to the Tampa Bay area in the west. The Council’s first meeting was held in July 1996.

“To my knowledge there isn’t another area in the country that boasts an organizational infrastructure and history like the Council,” says current Council President, Randy Berridge.

“Conceived by the presidents of the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida – the area’s two state universities, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council has pushed the envelope of what can be accomplished through relation-ships built between educational, economic development, governmental and business leaders,” Berridge adds.

The Florida High Tech Corridor is an example of what can be accomplished when a region works together on its growth as an industry leader, he says.

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“Where else will you find a dozen local economic development organizations leaving their logos and egos at the door to pursue the good of the region as a whole?” he adds.

Most recently, Uniroyal Optoelectronics established its large facility in the Sabal Park area of Tampa and a state task force has esti-mated that these investments will result in a $1.3-billion impact on Florida’s economy over five years. That, too, was a microelec-tronics feather in the cap of the Corridor Council, the university system and Central Florida economic development booster organizations.

But the microelectronics sector dates back to the 1950s, when another big player, Harris Corp. established its presence in Melbourne. Harris is a Goliath, employing more than 25,000 people. And there have been many others since, including such heavyweights as Jabil Circuit in Tampa, which employs more than 1,300 people and reports over $4 billion in annual revenue.

The big companies like Intersil

Corporation in Palm Bay, with its more than 1,000 workers, are helping pave the way for smaller and newer microelectronic firms. For instance, Agere Systems and Intersil have hosted high tech “chip camps” for math and science teachers.

These Camps have provided teachers a chance to learn more about the semiconduc-tor industry, part of an overall plan to get more students in high school interested in microelectronics work. It is interesting that, with proper training, a high school student could make as much as $25,000 a year after graduation – an attractive figure to any high school student.

“It is crucial that students get excited about science and math careers at a young age,” says Steve Titus, vice president of Intersil. “The continued growth of the region into a high tech center can only be accom-plished with the development of a high-qual-ity workforce.”

But, whether the companies are informa-tion technology, medical technology,

simula-tion – what matters most is that together they are forming a high tech region, says Chris Stellwag, director of communications for CAE/USA’s Military Operations and Training. His company makes simulators. But CAE also uses products and services from many other firms, including information technology companies in the Corridor. For many reasons, including the sharing of skills, expertise and knowledge, “it’s a great benefit to be surrounded by other companies in an environment that is high tech,” Stellwag says. Also, it is easier for all high tech firms to attract and retain a solid workforce when people know they are coming to an area that is a known high tech region, he adds. “If we can create the perception and the reality of a high tech region, then we’ll win in the end because we have advantages here that other regions or cities in the country don’t have,” says Stellwag, an Orlando resident. “In addi-tion to high tech, we have a high quality of life and a lower cost of living than other

areas.” fht

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Florida’s aerospace cluster includes a variety of high-technology industries that manufacture products for aerospace, avion-ics, and space applications in both the private and government sectors. With the presence of NASA, Cape Canaveral, and several federal defense administration centers, central Florida has attracted top technology companies for nearly 50 years.

The largest central Florida aerospace companies include Harris Corporation (which reports over $1.8 billion in sales) and Rockwell Collins (with over $330 million in sales and over 1,400 employees). Honeywell and Northrup Grumman are also exceptionally large employers, although their local rev-enue was not reported. The majority of aerospace companies are located in Brevard (32.4%), Orange (20.3%) and Pinellas (12.6%) Counties.

Combined Annual Sales: Over $3.6 billion

Largest Employers: Harris Corporation (over 29,000 employees) Northrop Grumman (over 1,600 employees)

A V I AT I O N & A E R O S P A C E

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S

omeone trying to figure out the state’s aerospace industry might sim-ply point to Lockheed Martin and say, “That’s the aerospace industry right there.”

In a sense, he might not be far from the truth. In aerospace, Lockheed Martin is Florida’s giant, employing 9,000 workers in Orlando alone. It has more than 100 Lockheed Martin locations in 47 Florida cities. Its Ocala production facility, for example, hires 590 people. In all, the com-pany employs more than 11,000 people and spends about $1.9 billion a year with Florida-based subcontractors, many of which are in the Florida High Tech Corridor.

But, while Lockheed Martin is certainly large and successful, it isn’t the only aero-space company here. When Lockheed Martin is successful, so too are some of the more than 1,500 companies that comprise the state’s aerospace sector, according to Jim Bodine, chairman of the Florida Aviation Aerospace Alliance and member of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council.

Consider St. Petersburg-based Custom Manufacturing & Engineering Inc. (CME), a woman-owned small business that produces various highly

specialized components for larger defense and aerospace companies. Behind the walls of its 30,000-square-foot facility, 50 workers ham-mer out monitoring and control gadgetry, electronics, communica-tions electronics and electromechanical assemblies that fit into the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor jet fighter.

Though the F-22 program is generally considered a Georgia-based project – the prime contractor is Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Marietta, Ga. – CME is one of 265 Florida firms producing products or services for it under subcontracts from Lockheed.

In another similar example of how one thing leads to another in aerospace, more than 100 Florida companies are producing subcon-tracted products or services for another aircraft project known as the C-130J program. Again, while the prime contractor is Lockheed Martin in Georgia, aerospace companies such as Auto-Trol Technology of Longwood and Zeus Components of Lake Mary are intimately involved in building the plane.

Many aerospace companies make their home along the 21 counties of the High Tech Corridor that stretches from the Tampa Bay area in the west to the Space Coast in the east. Though generally considered a tourist and agriculture state, Florida is also home to a large contin-gent of aerospace companies lumped under the defense moniker.

But, because of the diversity of the products and services of these companies, often they are cast by economists and analysts as micro-electronics, simulation, information technology, or some other desig-nation.

Lockheed Martin isn’t the only giant in the land of sunshine, oranges and Mickey. Boeing has facilities along the Space Coast and in the Orlando area, Raytheon has defense and aeronautics facilities in St. Petersburg and Largo, and Northrop Grumman, the missile maker, has a facility in St. Augustine.

Those are some of the largest companies. The majority of other aerospace companies are smaller, less well-known perhaps, but no less

Flying High

Aerospace industry makes up a substantial part of Central Florida’s economy.

A V I AT I O N & A E R O S P A C E

With more than $6 billion in contracted U.S. Department of Defense projects, Florida’s aerospace industry makes up a healthy part of the economy. The bulk of those contracts are in the High Tech Corridor.