![\"Four](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2018\/10\/research-panel300x200-20181015_IMC_EH_0017-300x200.jpg\")
Other panelists \u2013 Deyang Qu, professor of mechanical engineering and Johnson Controls Chair at UWM; Laura Strong, founder and CEO of Madison-based Propagate Health; and Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council \u2013 generally agreed with Darling\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n
Wisconsin leads the country in per capita innovation through patents for products, Darling said. An average of $1.7 billion is spent on public research in the state each year, according to Still. UWM spent about $55 million on research in 2017-18.<\/p>\n
Translating those patents to the commercial marketplace for public use and consumption is something that this state could be improved upon, panelists said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as a state we have to consider it\u2019s not just entrepreneurship, it\u2019s innovation,\u201d Strong said. \u201cIt\u2019s about getting these discoveries into products to make this research worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make research financially viable, some portion of that research needs to go into creating commercially appealing products for consumer use, panelists said.<\/p>\n
Most funding for research comes from federal and state sources, while private funding is becoming more common. Federal and state funding of research has been declining, which led the panelists to favor commercially sustainable research innovations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to think about how we can tailor our curriculums and our state investments to turn our students into a skilled pipeline to the workforce,\u201d Qu said.<\/p>\n
Qu said his students and other UWM graduates have a great impact on Wisconsin\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the students in mechanical engineering are from Wisconsin, and most after graduating will stay in Wisconsin,\u201d Qu said. \u201cThat is the workforce that we train locally, and then stay locally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Wisconsin state Sen. Alberta Darling, the future of research in Wisconsin is not tied to one place. \u201cI see a triangle of Milwaukee, Eau Claire and Madison,\u201d said Darling, \u201cWe could have I-94 as the research innovation highway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40008,"featured_media":63691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174,200],"tags":[249],"section":[246],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[149],"class_list":["post-63689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-in-brief","tag-community-engagement","section-business-world-affairs","uwmnews-feed-engineering-applied-science"],"yoast_head":"\n