- THE BIG PICTURE: OUR PATH FORWARD
- COMMUNITY: ALL ROADS LEAD TO GROWTH
- COLLABORATIONS: NEW TECH AND NEW MATERIALS SPARK FUTURE BREAKTHROUGHS
- PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: ELLIOTT BARNETT, STRATA-G
- MILESTONES: MULTIPLE IMPACTS. ONE SHARED GOAL.
THE BIG PICTURE: OUR PATH FORWARD
Adapt. Overcome. Accelerate.
The vision has always been that the principal InSPIRE facilities will be near Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport and/or Venture Crossing Industrial Park, with satellite nodes active at partner locations across the eight affected counties we serve. I’m happy to report that we are making strides so that vision becomes reality. Robust, long-term self-sustainability will be achieved through a combination of private/public funding and partnerships with industry and government stakeholders. Initially our focus is on serving the aerospace, high-speed aerodynamic, military, defense, maritime, and energy industries. By attracting and growing well-resourced, technology-leading partners, we’ll aim to be a model for other upcoming centers of workforce training and industry innovation across our nation. Through targeted investments, InSPIRE is creating new programs complementary to existing FSU capabilities, and we are proactively working to attract business and industry to our region. STEM outreach and educator empowerment efforts throughout the Gulf Coast are now entering the third year of implementation. Advanced manufacturing has already begun at Maritech Machine. As our primary facility enters its design and build phase, we are anticipating a temporary Bay County facility to be up and running within the next few months. A lot of work is still needed but there is great potential, and we are already lining up equipment, operational methodologies, processes, etc. The journey from zero to fully operational isn’t always easy, but we are adapting to partner needs, overcoming challenges, and accelerating facility development in 2026. Drew Allen Executive Director
COMMUNITY: ALL ROADS LEAD TO GROWTH
Creating a Generational Impact for Years to Come
A monumental confluence is happening in Northwest Florida, and FSU InSPIRE is doing its part to streamline the development of a thriving, economically sound, and resilient home for community and industry alike.
The overarching focus is to fuel transformative economic impact along the Gulf Coast counties through three initiatives: novel research and development projects based on advanced manufacturing for aerospace and energy; state-of-the-art demonstration, testing, and evaluation capabilities for cutting-edge aerodynamic and hypersonics; and workforce training and education to develop the talent that will attract industry. None of this can be accomplished without the dedication, expertise, and passion of InSPIRE’s partners.
“One way in which we’ve already made strides is through teacher certificates and trainings,” said InSPIRE’s Director of Community Relations & Partnership Engagement, Grey Dodge. “Schools, especially early education, don’t have an abundance of STEM materials, so our workforce development team is partnering with regional school districts and training teachers to use artificial intelligence to create engaging STEM curriculum for their students. This entire process is a long-term investment that will pay off in attracting more opportunities for local, high-paying industry jobs."
While regional schools are actively collaborating, ASTRO America, experts in accelerating advanced manufacturing, have elevated InSPIRE’s manufacturing footprint in Panama City. ASTRO secured state-of-the-art equipment and is initiating industry and government embeds, while offering hands-on learning to students and aspiring engineers.
“This is all part of a bigger effort to bring manufacturing back to the United States. Our first ASTRO | InSPIRE partner, Maritech Machine, represents a very symbiotic relationship as smaller manufacturers often can’t make investments in cutting-edge equipment to modernize their facility,” explained Dodge. “InSPIRE is creating a model for partnerships in which up and coming or even seasoned innovators can gain access to test, iterate, and manufacture breakthrough components on an industrial scale.”
Florida wants to be a top five advanced manufacturing state by 2030 according to the Florida Chamber of Commerce. It is forecasting the addition of 160,000 new manufacturing jobs by 2030, and it has already witnessed a GDP growth rate of 67.8% over the last several years.
Local Economic Development Alliances such as Bay EDA and Florida’s Great Northwest are tirelessly recruiting manufacturers, expending massive effort to solidify relationships with industry titans and strategically build out local capacity for development.
“The Gulf Coast counties we serve are poised to attract jobs and build facilities that will enable families to live, work and grow into the future,” added Dodge. “We work closely with our EDAs to build trust and upscale industry, military, and academic relationships. Northwest Florida is perfectly primed for intentional growth that supports a high quality of life. Young people have often left this area to pursue high paying jobs in other regions, but this can quickly change as great job opportunities will keep families here.”
The timing of InSPIRE is auspicious as the nation is facing supply chain challenges particularly in aerospace innovations which require beyond the box thinking and cost-effective, rapid deployment. FSU has long been playing in this state-of-the-art space and has the pedigree to lead this type of effort as it has historically with FCCAP, HPMI, CAPS and the MagLab.
“Northwest Florida has a lot to offer to academic and industry alliances particularly with the military. We have a thriving military community that wants to stay here after their service and InSPIRE can provide a pipeline from military to civilian life,” added Dodge.
Dodge is currently gathering potential collaborators as InSPIRE prepares to open its temporary manufacturing facility and build out its test and development facility near the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.
By bridging the gap between great ideas and viable solutions hitting the market, InSPIRE will operate as a one-stop-shop for product development, testing, and delivery. Military and business partners, students, professors, and entrepreneurs will work side by side to accelerate solutions while de-risking innovation.
“We’re filling in the gaps to get solutions to the finish line with experts in commercialization and businesses that support industry needs. Northwest Florida has an alignment that is unique; the region feels close knit and there are accessible ways to get involved. While we are still early in development, we think the impact will be enormous.”
“This is a full spectrum initiative that will transform our region and our nation as a whole.”
COLLABORATIONS: NEW TECH AND NEW MATERIALS SPARK FUTURE BREAKTHROUGHS
FSU Panama City Engineering Students Leverage FSU InSPIRE-ASTRO-Maritech Partnership for Cutting-Edge Additive Manufacturing Research
When you’re launching a rocket into space, components are a crucial part of its success. High-cost materials can impede availability, while untested materials risk operational failure. Advances in additive manufacturing or 3D printing offer new designs that can reduce production costs while boasting a reliability factor above traditional castings and weldments. So, when students from FSU Panama City’s Rocketry and Mechatronics team, including Kreig Conrad, Case Dyer, and Jonathan Serbest, proposed the Inconel 718 Tension and Torsion Testing project for Dr. Yvonne Traynham’s Material Selection in Design course, they had a specific goal in mind. They wanted to test 3D printed Inconel 718 alloy to determine how it performed in high heat, extreme environments for a rocket launch to be submitted to FSU’s Undergraduate Research Symposium and NASA’s Student Launch Challenge. “Our torsion testing included valuable resources from InSPIRE’s node at the ASTRO-Maritech facility and FSU's Materials Lab in Panama City. We had really impressive results,” said Dyer. “We provided designs that were manufactured on ASTRO's multi-laser metal powder bed additive manufacturing system then heat treated and finished by Maritech. The driver was to determine the effects of using a laser powder bed fusion 3D metal printing process on the material properties of Inconel 718 alloy and methods to improve its performance on bulkheads in our rocket launch.”
The two students worked closely with Advanced Manufacturing Engineer Christopher Apple, who advised them on design, heat treatment, and sample production. They completed their torsional testing under the supervision of Dr. Yvonne Traynham to determine torsional yield, shear modulus, and maximum shear stress. The students also characterized the fractures surfaces using microscopy methods. “This was an exploratory learning journey for Kreig, Jonathan, and Case,” said Apple. “Knowing the properties of as-built versus heat-treated Inconel is very useful because there can be slight differences. Materials data specification sheets often omit torsion specifications because they’re providing broad data on many material properties, not a deep dive into specific mechanical properties.”
For background, nickel alloys such as Inconel 718 are industry workhorses and often used in applications with heat because they maintain their strength at high temperatures, superseding even stainless steel. This makes them ideal for use in engines and other components for aerospace. When heat-treated, the torsion properties improved significantly. “While 3D printed Inconel has been consistent in tension testing, there are not a lot of applications that require torsion testing. Our torsion testing resulted in unexpectedly stronger results,” explained Serbest. “We explored a two-step heat treatment: solution anneal followed by aging, with significant increases in the alloy’s properties. We do expect when we test our remaining samples that they will have much superior tensile properties than when tested in torsion. This is what surprised us; when we tested our samples in torsion, they required the same stress as we had expected necessary to fail the samples in tension.” “The team at ASTRO was incredibly helpful in understanding the process,” added Dyer. “Our torsion test results indicated that our particular samples performed stronger in torsion than we had originally predicted them to perform in tension based on the mechanical properties for our initial analysis of available data. Dr Traynham suggested we continue upping the testing levels of the material properties and compare our results. We had lots of conversations about building components, heat treatments and what was the determining factor." As stated in their proposal, there are many factors that affect the mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of a material, including chemistry, microstructure, bonding, temperature, and even manufacturing processes. While 3D printed metals are becoming more ubiquitous, there is relatively little known about the effects of heat-treated Inconel 718 in torsion. By combining torsion and tension testing, Dyer and Serbest can combine the results of both to estimate Poisson's ratio. Tension testing is currently underway at FSU’s High Performance Materials Institute to determine the mechanical properties of elasticity, ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, resilience, ductility, and percent reduction in area. “Case and Jonathan are both outstanding students, and are doing some exciting work with this project,” said Dr. Traynham. “This project is currently being refined so they can submit their results to the Undergraduate Research Symposium in April. They’re also using this project in support of their student competition for NASA. We truly appreciate HPMI and InSPIRE’s support of our mechanical engineering undergraduates as they seek novel solutions for industry.”
The entire testing process for 3D printed Inconel 718 will ultimately ensure the student’s bulkheads are strong enough to withstand rocket launch and landing. At the heart of the project is also the intent to publicize meaningful, open-source data so future innovators can understand what parameters make Inconel deviate in testing to further standardize its use. “Often, materials characterization testing isn’t shared because it’s on proprietary or classified printing parameters or powders,” added Apple. “InSPIRE and ASTRO are driving advanced manufacturing capabilities into Northwest Florida to build national supply chain resilience, fuel regional economic development and create local career pathways,” explained Dr. Abdalla Nassar, Vice President, AM Forward Technologies at ASTRO America. “Enabling Maritech and these students to operate state-of-the-art equipment in Panama City is a multimillion-dollar investment in people. Our efforts are also improving the ability of small to medium size manufacturers and entrepreneurs to supply components to prime contractors and ultimately, the U.S. Department of War.” For their Tension and Torsion Testing project, Dyer and Serbest are securing the best material to build and launch a rocket that will reach apogee at 4000 to 6000 feet, crest, then come down exactly where intended. “InSPIRE gave us the ability to explore cost implications while testing and learning in real-world environments to see what’s going to work viably and cost effectively. Materials can be very expensive and 3D printing is not always cheap, but you can build things you couldn’t any other way especially when components need to be lightweight and high performing,” added Serbest. Results from Dyer, and Serbest’s project were submitted to FSU's Undergraduate Research Symposium and the NASA Student Launch, both taking place in April. The Undergraduate Research Symposium is an all-campus interdisciplinary showcase, providing students the opportunity to present their work to the wider community. NASA’s Student Launch is a 9-month long challenge that tasks student teams from across the U.S. to design, build, test, and launch a high-powered rocket carrying a scientific or engineering payload. The team recently submitted their Critical Design Review and presented their designs to NASA, and are now moving forward with the Final Readiness Report which is the last deliverable before they launch their full-scale rocket with scientific payload at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: ELLIOTT BARNETT, STRATA-G
Howdy, Partner
Elliott Barnett of Strata-G is working with the InSPIRE team and serving as liaison among key stakeholders for the InSPIRE buildup. He is a valued partner who is actively managing some of the processes required for the design, construction, and soft handover of a dynamic facility that will also offer hands-on training in our region: a place that will be a regional and national resource. For over 35 years, Barnett has managed teams that execute complex projects across the U.S. Department of Energy complex. As an engineering and project management expert, he’s handled a variety of energy, facility, and environmental projects. Growing up as a Seminole fan, his father earned his PhD from FSU.
How do you define success? Exceeding your customers’ expectations, while building meaningful and significant friendships with your co-workers and customers.
What would your "unofficial" job title be? The “Old-School Man.” My InSPIRE teammates routinely give me heck for my old-school ways. What does a perfect day off look like for you? Inshore fishing for Redfish, Speckled Trout, Flounder, Tripletail, and Tarpon in the panhandle of Florida with family and/or friends. What’s your favorite place to visit in the region in which you live and work? The St. Joe Bay in Port St. Joe, FL. It is an amazingly vibrant eco-system teaming with snakes, reptiles, birds and aquatic wildlife. No matter what time of year I visit, I always get to see many of the wonders of God’s creation, and sometimes even kill and eat a few. If you could live in any imaginary movie world, what would it be and why? My InSPIRE teammates will laugh at me when they contemplate this question. The title of the movie would be “I Didn’t See That One.” They all know that I’m not much of a movie buff, primarily because I just can’t sit still for hours and watch a show. I’d rather be out doing something! What would be the name of your autobiography? “It’ll Be Alright.” I have several “life rules” that I have developed for myself over the years and reminding myself that no matter what happens, it’ll be alright, keeps me laid-back and levelheaded no matter the circumstance. How do you celebrate small wins at work? By getting together for good food with my good friends that I am so very blessed to get to work with. Time travel or invisibility? Invisibility, so I could sneak up on gators, snakes, and other wild game. What is a random talent that you have? I wouldn’t say I am overly talented at it, but I sure love to catch critters (e.g. gators, snakes, fish, birds, etc.). Sometimes just to take a close look at them and share them with my friends, sometimes to make a tasty dinner.
MILESTONES: MULTIPLE IMPACTS. ONE SHARED GOAL.
CEFA Establishes Unique Parameters to Measure Regional Economic Impact
InSPIRE is nearly two years into its 10+ year journey of building a culture of innovation across Northwest Florida. Its leadership team and advisory council include experts from the community, academia, and the private and public sectors—all committed to serving the specific needs of the Triumph Gulf Coast community, industry, military and defense bases, and educators. With an overarching goal to become the nation’s aerospace and advanced manufacturing leader, multiple pathways to success have been established. One key pillar of InSPIRE is workforce development. Data from Florida’s Great Northwest revealed a need for labor in the eight affected counties InSPIRE serves. Engineering positions were identified as a high priority need, which will increase as industry continues to settle in the region. InSPIRE will contribute to regional business growth by building capacity in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, and aviation with the region’s military bases and the ecosystem of prime contractors that support them. Efforts will expand to attract national industry, military, and government partners. High wage jobs will be generated through InSPIRE’s own manufacturing, testing and development operations, headquartered in Bay County and strategically deployed in nodes throughout the Gulf Coast. The longer-term goal is to serve as a national resource for R&D-enabled technology development, testing and prototyping, and training.
With so many goals in constant motion, how does InSPIRE measure its economic impact? That’s where CEFA, the Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis, steps into the equation. Their economic projections are based on construction/capital, ongoing operations, spinoffs/startups, and visitor data in the Gulf Coast counties. The Impact Analysis for Planning or IMPLAN model was used to estimate the different types of macroeconomic effects expected. Full-time employment, business revenues, facility construction, and ongoing revenues are all generating economic impacts:
- Direct: short-term activity associated with project construction and long-term operational growth.
- Indirect: businesses directly impacted by InSPIRE; materials, supplies, and services from other businesses.
- Induced: spending of employees directly or indirectly (i.e., housing, retail, services, etc.).
The long-term economic impacts of InSPIRE are estimated to total nearly 7,000 jobs, almost $400 million in income or wages and about $1 billion in total economic output. Facility construction is estimated to generate 1,000+ jobs, about $84 million in income or wages and nearly $284 million in total economic output. Spin-off/start-up companies are vital to the innovation culture needed to bring entrepreneurs and investors into play and are expected to generate high-wage jobs. Total visitor spending in the region is also being tracked. In addition to IMPLAN (for a point in time perspective), CEFA also uses REMI, a dynamic (to year 2060) integrated input output (I/O) and econometric model. “The REMI model is based on neoclassical theory and was founded in 1980. It has been used extensively to measure proposed legislative and other program and policy economic impacts across private and public sectors of the state by the Florida Joint Legislative Management Committee, Division of Economic and Demographic Research, the Florida Department of Employment Opportunity and other state and local government agencies,” said Director of FSU CEFA, Julie Harrington. “It’s also the chosen tool for many universities and private research groups that evaluate economic impacts across the state and nation. Its principal advantage is that it is a dynamic I/O econometric model and can be used to forecast both direct and indirect economic effects over multiple-year time frames.”
Workforce development growth is being tracked by FSU’s Learning Systems Institute. They estimate at least 1,000 K-12 teachers will earn industry certifications and receive professional development in STEM education over the next several years. An estimated 200 university students will pursue STEM programs with both undergraduate and graduate degrees expected to significantly increase. “There is a quantifiable difference in salaries between those in the STEM field, and an even larger salary differential in the Science and Engineering field, when compared with non-Science and Engineering occupations,” said InSPIRE Director of Workforce Development, Carrie Meyers. “Our research shows that individuals in a STEM field make approximately $22,000 more than individuals in a non-STEM field, while science and engineering occupations make approximately $51,970 more than non-science and engineering occupations.” All this leads to the kind of economic impact envisioned when FSU’s stand-up team proposed InSPIRE as its applied research and workforce development center. Its aim: to profoundly shape the economic trajectory of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Franklin, and Wakulla counties, ensuring resiliency and prosperity for generations to come.
Florida State University's InSPIRE, the Institute for Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Research, and Education, is funded by Triumph Gulf Coast and Florida State University. It serves Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Franklin, and Wakulla counties with the goal of generating long-term prosperity for generations.