FALL RIVER – State leaders are hopeful a new prototyping lab at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth could help the South Coast be ground zero for advancing global marine-based technology.
Entrepreneurs joined state and local leaders on Friday to celebrate the new lab, dubbed RapidLab, at the university’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Fall River.
The new lab was paid for by a $250,000 grant from the state’s Seaport Economic Council, which is chaired by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. The first-term Republican, who helped celebrate the lab opening, is optimistic about the economic potential along the South Coast.
“These facilities and investments … really show that this part of our commonwealth, the Southeast Region, will play the major role in making sure that [we] will be the global epicenter for innovation in marine robotics,” she said.
The lab has 3-D printers and scanners and is designed to give entrepreneurs the ability to quickly create prototypes and models.
“We have not wasted any time in that important work of economic development in creating that infrastructure here,” said Tobias Stapleton, assistant vice chancellor and CIE director.
Stapleton highlighted one of CIE’s tech ventures, PowerDocks LLC, which is an offshoot of the Providence-based solar company E2SOL LLC. The startup two weeks ago demonstrated its technology, which gives the defense industry the capability to charge underwater drones remotely, at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport.
The prototype for the technology was created with a short turnaround by a 3-D printer at CIE.
“We had a very, very tight schedule to take our innovation and wireless recharging from the lab to the showcasing, and it was through the efforts of the Umass RapidLab prototyping that they were able to build the model in a two-week timeframe,” said Anthony Baro, managing principal and founder of PowerDocks.
Without the lab, he added, it would have cost four times more to build and taken between four and six weeks to complete.
In addition to PowerDocks, there are nearly 20 other startup ventures working out of CEI. The activity, Stapleton said, is helping to connect an arc of innovation in marine-based technology that spans from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Mass., to NUWC in Newport.
Polito agrees.
“I’m excited to feel like we’re at the beginning of something that’s really going to grow and bring a lot of good paying
Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Sherman@PBN.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.
