What Does UWM Want to Become?
Sunday, April 13th, 2008Maybe the better question would be: What Does the Milwaukee Region Want to Become and How Can UWM Help Make that a Reality?
In the increasingly global economy, former economic powerhouses such as Milwaukee are still trying to find their new niche in the world.
Pick up the paper and you see national water shortages, an energy crisis and increasing global climate concerns. It is clear that freshwater, energy and environmental research and technologies will be extremely important in the coming years. Recent studies by the M7 initiative indicate that Milwaukee has a strength in advanced manufacturing, green technology, energy efficiency and to a lesser extent, biomedical.
So why does the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (“UWM”) want to expand its engineering and research at the County Grounds near the Medical College of Wisconsin (“MCW”) and other biomedical institutions? While the research being done at MCW is tremendous and a great benefit to our economy, its work doesn’t align with UWM’s strengths. Further, it is clear that UW-Madison is a global leader in biomedical research and will continue its dominance in gaining biomedical research dollars.
So shouldn’t UWM try to carve out its own niche in the regional and global economy by focusing on advanced manufacturing, green engineering and energy research. Milwaukee already has several major global companies that work in these fields, such as Johnson Controls, Rockwell Automation, WE Energies and Eaton.
Not only could UWM be teaming up with these corporations, but they could also team up with Marquette University and the Milwaukee School of Engineering, to create a cluster of engineering research that would make Milwaukee a global leader in advanced manufacturing, green engineering and energy research. A central location to all of these institutions is downtown Milwaukee . This cluster would enable Milwaukee to attract researchers from around the world, as well as make Milwaukee a great place to start a company related to any of those fields.
So again: What Does the Milwaukee Region Want to Become and How can UWM help make that a reality?
