In a world that tends to be fast, companies are seeking what lasts. Fueled by the need to create a resilient and relevant regional workforce, FSU InSPIRE (Institute for Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Research, and Education) was conceptualized.

InSPIRE’s mission is to foster high-skilled, high-wage employment opportunities in the region to accelerate technology innovation, cultivate corporate investment, and nurture the growth of new industries. The footprint spans eight counties: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Franklin, and Wakulla.

In late 2023, a delegation from Florida State University’s Panama City campus, including President Richard McCullough and Vice President for Research Stacey Patterson, presented InSPIRE’s vision and proposal to the Triumph Gulf Coast Inc. Board of Trustees. Triumph Gulf Coast, Inc. is a nonprofit that oversees funds recovered from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

“As a top-tier research university, FSU has the pedigree to be involved in national challenges and help address them,” says Grey Dodge, director of community relations and partnership engagement for FSU InSPIRE. “We sold our vision to Triumph, and we were fortunate to receive the largest grant they’ve ever given out, which speaks to their commitment as a partner.”

InSPIRE’s vision is to be the applied research and innovation neurocenter of the region, providing an environment for secure, end-to-end product and system development while leveraging FSU’s established expertise to form local partnerships that will benefit regional growth.

“We envision an on-the-floor experiential learning environment where students are working side by side with industry, defense, and research experts to drive innovations from the ideation stage into relevant, marketable products,” says Drew Allen, InSPIRE executive director. “At its core, InSPIRE aims to bridge the gap between discovery and the market by shepherding them along the prototyping, testing, and evaluation phases under one roof to deliver timely solutions that best serve our customers, the affected counties, and our nation as a whole.”

InSPIRE aims to open a temporary facility in Panama City in early 2026 and have shovels in the ground for the main facility for manufacturing and testing in the summer of 2026. While a permanent home is in the works, InSPIRE is integrating into businesses and getting to work on their mission by partnering with local companies such as Maritech Machine.

Based in Panama City, Maritech Machine is a family owned and operated business that has provided CNC machining, fabrication, assembly, and engineering support to the defense, aerospace, and industrial sectors since 1991.

“FSU’s InSPIRE program recognized that small, agile manufacturers like Maritech could provide the hands-on production environment and industry experience needed to help bridge the gap between academic research and deployable manufacturing capability,” explains Corbin McCall, vice president of operations for Maritech.

Initial conversations led to pilot projects, facility visits, and eventually a partnership where FSU InSPIRE brought in over $3 million worth of modernized equipment to work alongside the shop’s traditional machinery.

“Maritech provides real-world context, equipment, and production support, while FSU provides research expertise, additive capabilities, and training pathways,” McCall says. “It’s a model that’s proving to be mutually beneficial. Beyond the technical gains, it’s strengthened our role as a regional manufacturing leader and positioned Maritech as a trusted partner in building Florida’s defense and innovation ecosystem.” 

InSPIRE seeks to replicate this model of a symbiotic relationship with other companies throughout the Panhandle.

“A manufacturing war is going on in the world, and America is falling behind,” Dodge says. “We desire to partner with young, hungry, innovative local partners who are willing to learn, grow, and address our national challenges.”

While still in its early days, InSPIRE has plans in the works to conduct partnerships with other local companies and universities alongside research labs and the region’s vast military presence.

“We are helping train the workforce,” Allen says. “We partner with the local military installations and communities. We’re building trust with partners and starting to address the current manufacturing challenges, so we can rapidly design and deploy and go where industry needs us to go to lead the world in next-generation capabilities.”

One of the most effective ways InSPIRE is making an impact is by educating and certifying regional K-12 teachers to help build local STEM expertise. Led by a partnership with FSU’s Learning Systems Institute, InSPIRE is fostering a community of educational experts who can help their students compete and rapidly respond to industry trends.

In the summer of 2024, nearly 200 educators from all eight Northwest Florida counties attended professional learning courses over a four-week span. Course topics included robotics, AI in engineering, computational thinking, 3D printing fundamentals, and more.

“As I have traveled across the region speaking at our teacher training events, I have been impressed by the excitement and commitment from our teachers,” Allen says. “Many educators have been wildly receptive to evolving their skills and curriculum to align with tomorrow’s workforce demands.”

For current FSU students, InSPIRE provides applied research facilities, internships, and funds to grow the number of engineering graduates in Panama City. The program intends to make collaborations between students, educators, industry, and community leaders the expected status quo.

Once the Panama City facility opens, it will support the development of an entire product lifecycle under one roof. This in-house deployment will encompass technological advancements in next-generation machining, additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence design, robotics, simulation, and prototyping as well as complete testing and evaluation.

“What areas are missing, and what holes can we fill to solve national challenges?” Dodge asks. “That’s how we demonstrate our value to produce innovations at scale, improve the national supply chain, and build strategic growth in our local communities.”

Dodge notes that the access to land, close proximity to other large, factory-centric cities, heavy military presence, influence of top universities, job availability, and quality of life all add to the appeal of the Panhandle. “Northwest Florida is falling in line with a broader effort from the state to become a top spot for manufacturing.” 

The genesis of InSPIRE all stems from forward thinking, especially pertaining to keeping students local by presenting an attractive and reliable workforce.

“Students from the affected counties are our most important target audience,” Dodge says. “In the coming years, they will be the skilled talent and modern workforce that will ignite growth in the region. The InSPIRE infrastructure will rapidly and easily adapt to meet industry and defense requirements that are even yet unknown. We aspire to create multiple, seamless career pathways to high-technology, high-wage careers within a thriving ecosystem that is translating science into solutions.” ▪

Since its unassuming beginnings in 2009 as a luncheon for patent-holding faculty at one of Florida State University’s “neighbor” schools, the University of South Florida, the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has settled in the academic scene as the premier organization recognizing academic inventors. Today, the NAI boasts almost 300 chapters at member institutions in 19 countries and two tiers of membership for individuals: Fellows and Senior Members. Senior Members are active faculty whose innovative spirit and inventions are poised to revolutionize their industries. They are the high-impact inventors changing the world—or just about to.

Four faculty members at Florida State University were chosen to join the 2025 cohort of Senior Members (a group of less than 800 members in total): Drs. Hoyong Chung, Prashant Singh, Branko Stefanovic, and Yaacov Petscher. From plant-based plastics to Atlantic shrimp, their research has put the gears in motion for healthier and fairer futures.

Hoyong Chung

In 2025, there’s one thing almost everyone seems to agree on: Plastic is bad. Plastics pollute, shed microplastics, deplete resources, diminish the value of objects, and accumulate inside the human body, causing an untold number of potential health complications.

Hoyong Chung has set out to complicate this idea, explaining, “Many people misunderstand [and believe] that plastic is so bad, so we have to use less. This is kind of true, because of course, we should use less classic plastics,” Chung says, like plastic bags offered by Walmart or Target, but our interactions with plastic shouldn’t end with an outright boycott.

“We should not just kill studies in plastics,” Chung purports but instead increase support for researching to design better plastics. Chung has designed nontoxic, biodegradable plastic that is safe for the environment.

Chung is a polymer scientist who uses organic chemistry to synthesize new polymers, which are large molecules consisting of many smaller molecules in a repeated pattern, resulting in many of the common materials we know and use. All plastics are polymers, but not all polymers are plastics. Some are natural, like lignin—a polymer found in the cell walls of plants (similar to cellulose), helping to make stems and leaves rigid. It’s a plant byproduct commonly seen as waste. This polymer is the basis of Chung’s plastic innovations.

Using lignin, Chung’s group has designed and synthesized a new biomedical adhesive that is not only as strong and flexible as plastic but works wonderfully in the presence of water. Combined with its nontoxic properties, it’s an excellent option for surgical applications and is already in use in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

Chung’s adhesive is being used as a patch placed on the trachea to relieve chronic coughing for elderly patients, as it resolves issues with thinning tissue in the area. “It’s not really a risky surgery,” Chung explains, and “if [surgeons] start to use this adhesive, then [they] can reduce the surgery time substantially,” allowing more patients to be treated. So far, the collaboration has been successful.

The Hoyong Chung Group recently moved into a lab in Florida State University’s brand-new Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building. Judging by the array of samples, impressive, specialized equipment, and tests in progress throughout the group’s gleaming space, Chung’s work in the field has just begun.

Prashant Singh

Bags of steaks, chicken, clams, and shrimp might seem more suited to a top chef’s kitchen than to an inventor’s lab, but in Prashant Singh’s built-from-scratch workspace, the bounty behind the refrigerator and freezer doors isn’t for cooking; it’s for testing. Each sample helps advance the development of his invention, RIGHTTest™, a tool designed to verify species authenticity in seafood.

Singh has eaten a lot of shrimp, he says, smiling. Fishermen tend to give bags, even boxes, as gifts. After all, the work Singh is doing has already made a tangible impact on the seafood industry and fishermen’s livelihoods. His invention, RIGHTTest™, validates the species of a small sample of seafood product, guaranteeing authenticity in market and restaurant settings. Seafood mislabeling and fraud is an increasingly prominent issue in the industry; the market for Atlantic white shrimp is a prime example. This highly desirable species, caught along the Atlantic Coast from New York to Florida, is often substituted with cheaper species (like those farmed in the Pacific) that are virtually identical to the untrained eye. Not only does mislabeled seafood rob the consumer of value but some specimens can be toxic.

RIGHTTest™ can reliably verify the species of raw or cooked shrimp (even seasoned) within two hours. Years of development have resulted in a portable device about the size of a cooler (it can even be placed in a stroller). One of Singh’s graduate students, Hanna Victoria Brown, who stands in the lab defrosting a bag of what looks like Cajun shrimp, explains how handy the device has become. She just returned from a seafood festival in Alabama, where she checked vendors’ products on the spot. If a vendor had mislabeled a fraudulent product (which most often happens on day two), she explains, they are fined and suspended from the festival.

Even outside of the festival scene, “When people see seafood at a restaurant by the water,” Singh says, “people assume the product is authentic and coming from the body of water they are looking at, which is frequently not the case. Our goal is to support and fight for our domestic fishermen who are in need of our help.”

Singh believes consumer demand is paramount in driving academic research. It’s already clear that RIGHTTest™ fills a pressing need in the industry and will keep rolling out all over the South.

Branko Stefanovic

When Branko Stefanovic joined a group of scientists studying the liver at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, he took the first step in life-changing research for treating liver fibrosis. Liver fibrosis, which is most commonly associated with fatty liver disease, affects a significant amount of the general population, particularly those who struggle with obesity, hepatitis, or alcoholism. Liver fibrosis occurs when the long fibers that form liver tissue are damaged repetitively, forming scar tissue that’s less supple and resilient. Often, people “don’t know they have [fibrosis],” Stefanovic says, until a doctor finds it in an advanced stage.

Stefanovic has studied fibrogenesis for over 20 years, as well as research on preventative antifibrotic agents capable of slowing or even reversing liver fibrosis.

Fibrogenesis is the process by which normal tissue is replaced with scar-like fibrotic tissue, often following chronic injury or inflammation. A key hallmark of this process is the excessive deposition of Type I collagen, the primary structural protein produced by activated fibroblasts and myofibroblasts. By inhibiting the production of Type I collagen, researchers aim to interrupt the cycle that drives fibrosis. When Type I collagen synthesis is reduced, the extracellular matrix does not accumulate as rapidly, which limits tissue stiffening and disrupts the feedback signals that further activate fibroblasts. In essence, blocking collagen formation prevents the “scaffold” of scar tissue from developing, allowing normal tissue repair and regeneration to proceed instead of pathological scarring.

Stefanovic has discovered three such inhibitor molecules that could be key for developing new treatment options, with one treatment currently in preclinical trials, the first step toward getting his drug to market.

“Once we discover something that may be useful,” Stefanovic says, “then it has to be [adopted by] big pharma,” but the road is not quite that simple. Toxicology tests, according to Stefanovic, are of particular importance for maintenance therapy for chronic diseases like fibrosis. Typically, preclinical trials assess safety, efficacy, and mechanisms of action, using in vivo murine models before proceeding to phase I human trials. Getting a treatment to market can as much as 15 years.

Though the road is long, Stefanovic urges other academic researchers, “Don’t limit yourself,” and to research for the sake of research. Once intellectual property has been protected, an innovation can be discussed in terms of next-level application. “About half of [academic researchers] have this kind of spirit,” Stefanovic says cheerfully. One can’t help but imagine a world where that figure is closer to 100%.

Yaacov Petscher

When we think of inventions or innovations, physical products most likely come to mind. But patents, particularly utility patents, are much more inclusive than what can be held in hand. Yaacov Petscher is certainly familiar with this fact. Petscher, a professor, associate dean of research at Florida State’s College of Social Work, and associate director for the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR), has an “inventorship portfolio” containing less commonly considered innovations, such as algorithms, assessments, and even a graphic novel. His goal is to improve literacy in all students, with a special focus on those with disabilities or other challenges.

“My training is in developmental quantitative psychology,” Petscher clarifies. “Even going back to grad school, I’ve always been interested in how we can create better measures and better assessments for people.” While not limited to educators, Petscher’s work is highly relevant to teachers, especially those who need to be responsive to changing legislation. His tools broaden the scope for students’ classroom assessment, leading to more precise snapshots of ability.

And these tools have already made a tangible impact. “With my colleagues at FCRR,” Petscher says, “we created the state’s first large-scale computer adaptive assessment in reading for kindergarten through 12th grade.” One purpose of computer-adaptive assessments is to adjust question difficulty in real time, enabling advanced learners to demonstrate their full proficiency while presenting students who struggle with questions aligned to their current skill level, thereby reducing frustration and discouragement. These assessments provide educators with clear insights, making it simpler to target and strengthen students’ areas of need.

Petscher believes, “Kids are more than the sum total of their grades or their performance on exercises in the classroom,” claiming countless and often overlooked personal factors affect their development. “Sometimes the reason that a child is struggling … is because they came to school hungry,” Petscher says, or that neurodiversity and self-regulating behaviors might be in the picture. “Maybe there was a trauma at home that their parents experienced or the child has experienced.”

Petscher’s future innovation goals reflect this holistic thinking. “I would love it if the kinds of tools we are trying to build were inclusive of trauma and behavior, and nutrition, reading, and language,” Petscher explains, which would be possible, “if we had a bigger table that more people were sitting at to talk about the nature of what we do for a child.”

Collaborating with academic publishers, combined with Petscher’s keen eye for innovation, may well be the key to turning these aspirations into reality for schools nationwide. ▪

According to the U.S. Organ Donation & Transplantation System, more than 100,000 patients are awaiting organ transplantation, with roughly 16 people dying per day on the waiting list. Patients with advanced kidney disease make up approximately 87% of these cases.

With 3D Nano Printing, this could all change. In the future, patients could be diagnosed with liver failure and have a new liver printed from their own cells, then transplanted without ever going on a waiting list.

Though the technology capable of this level of precision and scale has not yet been created, researchers like Jamel Ali are working on projects that may pave the way for this sort of medical innovation.

Ali is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering in the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) as part of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. According to Ali, his team is using “3D printing to develop tissue models for studying cancer, working with Mayo Clinic on products related to glioblastoma and other cancers. And we’re also 3D printing tissues to model the human liver, or the hepatic tissue.”

This work will help with preclinical testing. Ali explained that “over 70% of drugs developed fail clinical clearance, not because the drugs don’t do the job, but because it’s toxic to the liver because of their hepatotoxicity. We want to make better in vitro models for screening drugs.”

Rather than using animal models and small-scale human trials to test the viability of drugs at the preclinical stage, organoid models using human derived cells could be more informative and less costly than current methodology.

The truly remarkable feat here is that Ali is producing these small-scale organoids capable of replicating aspects of the liver. Right now, they are laying the groundwork for experimentation in murine models, but eventually, Ali says, “We implant that into a person one day that has a dysfunctional liver.”

Though not currently viable for use in humans, the ultimate goal is to restore functionality in patients with damaged livers.

Another application that Ali’s lab is using 3D nano printing for “is to make micro, nanoscale actuators, or as we like to call it, a lot of micro nanoscale robots—bacterial-like structures with these printers that are then magnetized and able to be actuated using external magnetic fields and field gradients so that we can get them to do things maybe one day in our bodies,” Ali says, such as deliver drugs, act as diffusion barriers, medical imaging, and minimally invasive biopsies.

Outside of biology, Ali says, “Our lab is interested in creating nonmetallic, non-biological applications. Engineered biofilms are applications of interest to the Department of War.”

Ali is also working with Professor Subramanian Ramakrishnan from the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering to design advanced materials for in-space manufacturing by utilizing innovative printing methodologies. With limited resources in space, broken equipment or a cracked shield can be catastrophic. But, Ali says, “If you’re printing with living things that have optical properties, basically now you have systems that are potentially self-healing,” which would prove an invaluable material on space missions.

Erika Bechtold, vice president of U.S. operations for UpNano, who produces one of the world’s leading 3D nano printers, attributes these advances to the ability to upscale 3D printing, which is a core mission of UpNano.

“Let’s try to make it easy. Let’s try to really help individual labs and core facilities get these nanoscale 3D printers and be able to really have them become mainstream,” Bechtold says. “We can also 3D print the optics that are inside the camera lenses.”

The potential to create lenses on the nanoscale would drastically improve our diagnostic capabilities, making procedures less invasive for patients. In general, increasing the number of labs capable of conducting nano research and print on the nanoscale will naturally increase the number of innovations across disciplines.  Scientists around the globe are making strides toward advancing our capabilities with these technologies. Vaccine delivery could take place with microneedles. We could also create smaller cell phones and other imaging technologies.

In time, these tiny building blocks will reshape every aspect of humanity. ▪

Zooming In

A nanometer nm is 1 billionth of a meter, a size far too small for a human to detect. The smallest particle a human can see floating in the air in the best possible light is 10,000 nm across.

For a frame of reference, a human hair is roughly 90,000 nm thick, approximately the same width as a piece of paper, which is 100,000 nm wide. A single human cell can be as wide as 10,000 to 30,000 nm, visible as a particulate to the naked eye.

The minimum resolution for 3D nano printing can go as low as 100 nm, which is far too small to detect with the human eye. The single strand of human DNA is about 2.5 nm wide, so the resolution is not quite small enough to create the interstitial components of a cell but is low enough to print living tissue.

→ How does it work?

Two-photon polymerization (2PP) is a cutting-edge form of 3D nanoprinting that uses extremely short laser pulses to “write” tiny structures directly into a light-sensitive material. Unlike regular 3D printing, which builds layer by layer, 2PP can also sculpt objects freely in three dimensions, focusing light so precisely that only the very center of the beam activates the material. This precision allows scientists to create features smaller than the wavelength of light, as low as 100 nm.

Using computer-controlled laser paths, researchers can form intricate lattices, microlenses, and even scaffolds for living cells. The process works by having the material absorb two photons at once, which only happens at the laser’s focal point, triggering solidification in a tiny voxel (a 3D pixel) and happens only where the light intensity peaks.

The technology is revolutionizing nanofabrication, enabling breakthroughs in micro-optics, photonics, biomedical engineering, and metamaterials. While still slower than large-scale printing, advances in laser scanning and chemistry are speeding it up, bringing us closer to mass production of custom nanoscale devices that blend the worlds of art, biology, and physics.

Setting up a wet lab for biotechnical research can easily cost up to $225,000 for core equipment common in biological research. Some specialized machines can cost up to $500,000 each, adding to the cost for innovative research in fields such as biomedical engineering, pharmacology, and other microbiological applications.

At a sleek building in Innovation Park in Tallahassee, a new deep-tech incubator is helping turn hard science into scalable start-up companies. Its name, IGNITE, is an acronym for Inspiring the Generation of New Ideas and Translational Excellence, which conveys its mission to support researchers in bridging the gap between the lab and the marketplace.

Backed by Florida State University (FSU) and in collaboration with the Leon County Research & Development Authority, IGNITE emerged from FSU’s participation in the National Science Foundation’s Accelerating Research Translation (ART) grant program.

“The idea is to run programs that support tech entrepreneurs who might otherwise struggle to find that kind of infrastructure in Tallahassee,” says Alissa Martinez Costabile, program director of IGNITE. “We’re in year two of the grant, and our goal isn’t to duplicate what already exists; it’s to enhance Tallahassee’s ability to attract companies that might otherwise look elsewhere.”

Spread across 40,000 square feet, IGNITE’s modern facility offers what Costabile calls “world-class amenities.” Inside are 24 offices and more than 30 labs, tailored for bio-life sciences, assembly workflow, or chemical research.

Members pay a modest fee for space and services, gaining access to mentorship, investor-readiness support, and introductions to partners and funders. “We don’t invest directly,” she notes, “but we work one-on-one to help companies with business development fundamentals and get them to investability.”

Members have access to over $1 million worth of shared lab equipment, including high-end microscopes and centrifuges, as well as cold storage rooms with freezers ranging from -20 degrees to -80 degrees Celsius and autoclaves for sterilization, all at no additional cost beyond membership. Further, there is a dedicated lab manager who oversees safety and compliance. Beyond the labs, IGNITE provides front-desk staff, shared conference rooms, event and multipurpose spaces, shipping and receiving facilities, and even compressed-air hookups for research benches.

IGNITE’s goal is to make deep-tech entrepreneurship accessible, according to Costabile. “Commercializing drug therapeutics, supercapacitors, or clean-energy systems takes expensive equipment, specialized compliance, and collaboration. This gives founders a place to do that safely and affordably.”

Costabile emphasizes that IGNITE is a community resource, welcoming innovators from other universities, including their faculty, students, and graduates, as well as local entrepreneurs from the private sector.

Among IGNITE’s first member companies is Vsurgic, a health-technology company founded by CEO Lawrence Binder. Vsurgic’s platform captures and securely streams live surgeries for education and compliance to global audiences. “We make it easy to share surgical video in a HIPAA-compliant way,” Binder explains. “Once our system is installed, a hospital can broadcast surgery any time, 24/7.”

Binder notes that Vsurgic joined IGNITE for its community and credibility. “We wanted to be positioned with a group of other technical companies,” Binder says. “I see IGNITE’s long-term vision the same way they do—that it becomes a true hub for technology development, where more companies come through, grow, and eventually advance into larger spaces.”

Another new member, R3ciprocity, represents the academic side of deep-tech entrepreneurship. CEO David Maslach, an FSU professor of innovation strategy, is building an online platform that gamifies scientific publishing. “There’s a lot of uncertainty and waste in research,” he says.

For Maslach, IGNITE provides the legitimacy and mentorship that solo founders often lack. “It’s been night and day since joining,” he says. “Having the IGNITE stamp and a world-class mentor makes a huge difference when you’re trying to raise funds or just convincing people that your idea isn’t crazy. Before this, I was the guy on the internet talking about reinventing research; now I have institutional support.”

“We’re hoping to attract individuals with novel or emerging technologies, as well as those with unique business models,” says Costabile of those selected into the program. “You can use the common spaces in our building, which are available to FSU, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee State College, and any spin-out of a college or university here in Tallahassee; we would honor that.

“We anticipate that companies will typically stay in the incubator program from three to seven years, building traction before ‘graduating’ to independent facilities,” says Costabile. “Success is when a founder can say, ‘I came in as one person with an idea, and now I’ve got a team, funding, and customers.’ That’s when we know IGNITE worked.” ▪

IGNITE Tallahassee Application Overview

Florida State University’s IGNITE Tallahassee is a 40,000-square-foot business incubator located at 1729 West Paul Dirac Drive in Innovation Park. Operated through FSU’s Office of Research, it provides wet and dry labs, private offices, coworking areas, and access to shared scientific equipment and conference spaces. Tenants also gain business mentorship, SBIR/STTR grant-writing support, networking events, and commercialization guidance.

→ Application Process

Early-stage technology companies with proprietary innovations and high growth potential may apply online through FSU Research’s IGNITE portal at research.fsu.edu/ignite-tallahassee. Applicants must be registered in Florida, pass a background check, and present a defined business model aligned with IGNITE’s innovation mission. Accepted ventures commit to reporting job growth and economic impact and to actively engaging in IGNITE programs.

→ Contact Information

Prospective tenants can reach the program via ignite-tallahassee@fsu.edu or through the FSU Office of Research, 1729 West Paul Dirac Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32310. Additional details and the application form are available on the official site’s “Application” page.

→ Key Benefit

IGNITE links start-ups with university expertise, investors, and local resources, helping transform research and technology concepts into viable commercial enterprises in North Florida’s growing innovation ecosystem.

The IGNITE Tallahassee incubator program is supported by the NSF-funded “IGNITE‑FSU” award through the Accelerating Research Translation initiative (National Science Foundation, Award No. 2331357, 2025), which provides the resources that make the incubator programming possible.

What began with seven founders gathered around a folding table has evolved into one of Northwest Florida’s most dynamic tech success stories. Beast Code, known for its cutting-edge digital twin technology and data aggregation software, has grown from a start-up experiment into a company shaping how the Department of Defense visualizes and manages complex systems.

Now, as the company enters its second decade, Beast Code is preparing for a major leap forward with the construction of a 36,000-square-foot headquarters in Fort Walton Beach’s Freedom Tech Center, a hub of innovation located on U.S. Air Force-owned land. The project, unanimously approved by the Fort Walton Beach City Council, is expected to be completed by September 2026.

Growing Beyond the Table

According to CEO Matthew Zimmermann, the decision to expand was years in the making.

“We’ve run out of space at our current facility, both for our employees and for the ability to host events,” Zimmermann explains. “The new layout allows us to customize the type of space we need to accommodate our growth.”

What began with 70 employees in 2019 has ballooned to a workforce too large for Beast Code’s original headquarters. The new facility is designed not only for capacity but also for collaboration, culture, and connection, the same traits that have driven Beast Code’s rise.

The Right Fit for a Growing Company

Fort Walton Beach is more than Beast Code’s home; it is part of its identity. The new location places the company just 10 minutes from the airport, within walking distance of hundreds of apartments, and surrounded by planned amenities, including restaurants, event spaces, and premium hotels.

“A big function of the new headquarters is hosting our clients. It’s part of the Beast Code Experience,” Zimmermann says. “The developers are working on adding restaurants to the Tech Center, making travel to Beast Code easy.”

The company’s new home will also be immersed in community life, thanks to Freedom Tech Center developer, The Jay Odom Group, which plans to host events like farmers markets, food truck rallies, and football parties. Zimmermann praises the collaboration among the Economic Development Council, local government, and The Jay Odom Group in bringing the project to life.

“We’re very thankful for our partners in the community who have helped us grow,” he adds.

Designed for Collaboration

The new headquarters will center around what Beast Code calls the Experience Center, a reconfigurable space designed to host large-scale demonstrations, user design sessions, and collaborative events.

“It’s all about collaboration for us and building an environment that fosters it,” Zimmermann says.

The facility will include interconnected conference spaces, lounges, and flexible “breakaway” rooms that encourage cross-team creativity. With much of Beast Code’s workforce operating in hybrid or remote roles, the layout also prioritizes adaptability with reservable workspaces, dedicated team areas, and technology-integrated collaboration zones that ensure employees can easily connect in person when needed.

Innovation Without Competition

Beast Code’s expansion aligns with its philosophy of partnership over rivalry.

“Our strategy employs a ‘friendly neighborhood Spider-Man approach,’” Zimmermann explains. “We don’t want to compete with anyone, so instead, our product enables other organizations to integrate with us.”

Rather than replacing existing systems, Beast Code’s software acts as connective tissue, unifying disparate tools and data-sets across the defense industry. It’s an approach that has made Beast Code a trusted collaborator for multiple branches of the U.S. military and international allies under the AUKUS agreement.

Looking Forward

As Beast Code continues to evolve, its mission remains clear: to transform how the Department of Defense uses data to streamline operations and strengthen national security.

“Our five-year vision is to be at the core of bringing together the data and tools needed to increase our nation’s manufacturing capacity, streamline how we operate, and enable collaboration across the Department of Defense and industry,” Zimmermann says.

From folding tables to a flagship campus, Beast Code’s story mirrors the kind of growth it now helps others achieve: to scale complexity through clarity, connection, and a bit of that original entrepreneurial grit. ▪

Inside the New Beast Code Headquarters

→ 36,000 Square Feet of Collaboration

The facility will feature a reconfigurable Experience Center for demonstrations and design sessions, connected to multiple conference rooms and creative collaboration zones.

→ Hybrid-Friendly Design

Recognizing a blended workforce, the new layout includes reservable workstations and flexible team spaces—making in-person collaboration simple for remote and hybrid staff.

→ Location with Purpose

Situated within Fort Walton Beach’s Freedom Tech Center, the headquarters places Beast Code near the airport, hotels, restaurants, and within walking distance of hundreds of new apartments.

→ Community Connection

Through its partnership with The Jay Odom Group and the Economic Development Council, Beast Code’s new home will share space with community events such as food truck rallies, farmers markets, and outdoor gatherings.

→ Completion Target: September 2026

Approved unanimously by the Fort Walton Beach City Council, construction is now underway, marking the next evolution in Beast Code’s journey from start-up to regional powerhouse.

Research and development in the Motor, Drive Systems & Magnetics (MDSM) affects all aspects of technology, from automation, robotics, and manufacturing to renewable energy, medical devices, and aerospace engineering, as well as electric vehicles and industrial equipment. Using statistics from Statista, Thunderbit, and ABI Research, a conservative estimate places the combined worth of these technologies at approximately $2.6 trillion.

In 2025, experts across MDSM fields converged in Tallahassee for the first time for a conference and exhibition. Speakers included researchers and innovators with participants from industry and government.

“The MDSM Conference is the world’s leading forum,” explains Robert Schaudt, program director for TWST Events, the vendor responsible for organizing the conference, “bringing together the full value chain—OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), and suppliers, material developers, engineers, academia, and technology leaders—to address the most pressing issues and advancements in design, efficiency, and applications. Attendees gain direct insight into new motor design innovations, magnet technologies, efficiency improvements, rare earth material strategies, and evolving supply chain realities.”

Bringing the conference to Tallahassee took a coordinated effort from local officials and the OEV (Office of Economic Vitality). In 2024, the conference took place in Orlando, where Keith Bowers, director of the OEV, first attracted the attention of the MDSM organizers.

“We were sponsors,” Bowers recalls, discussing the MagLab (National High Magnetic Field Laboratory) with attendees and vendors at the reception. Bowers was surprised to learn that the organizers did not know the MagLab was located in Tallahassee. To increase awareness, Bowers says, “We had some really cool magnetic toys and SWAG we were giving out.”

In addition to the benefit of connecting the world’s greatest experts on MDSM with industry leaders, the conference presiding in the capital benefits Tallahassee with an increased impact in an essential business sector.

On display at MDSM 2025 were high quality exhibits, where many of the leaders showcased exciting innovative ideas for problems in manufacturing and supply, as well as scientific solutions across industries.

“Events like the Motor, Drive Systems & Magnetics Conference spotlight Leon County’s role as a global innovation hub, bringing industry leaders and decision-makers to our community and supporting local tourism,” says Leon County District 2 Commissioner Christian Caban. “With last year’s event drawing more than 260 industry leaders and over 30 exhibitors, we’re thrilled to welcome the conference back in 2026. It’s a chance to showcase our community as a premier destination, strengthen our standing in advanced manufacturing and applied sciences, and reaffirm Leon County as the ‘Magnetic Capital of the World.’”

After making the connection at the 2024 conference, Bowers and his team pitched Tallahassee as a location for MDSM 2025 an ideal junction for experts to discuss any work related to magnets or advanced materials. The world’s strongest magnet is located at the MagLab, and as Bowers said to the organizers, “They’re engaged with over 1,500 researchers from across the globe on an annual basis.”

MagLab facilities house research across the health sciences, materials research, environmental studies, energy, and other STEM-related projects. The MagLab is also a leading education partner with FSU, training the next generation of innovators in cutting-edge technology. Both MagLab and FSU were gold sponsors of the event, as was Danfoss, which also has a presence in Tallahassee, where their turbo compressor facility is located.

Keynote speaker, Delvis Gonzalez, a senior motor and magnetic specialist at Danfoss, discussed integrating magnetic technology into high-speed centrifugal compressors. The project focuses on leveraging permanent magnet motors and magnetic bearings to allow for optimal efficiency without degradation of the compressor over its lifespan.

Other exhibits at the conference came from international companies with a significant market presence. For example, Ningbo Yunsheng Co., Ltd. from China is a major player with a market capitalization of approximately $1.5 billion. Integrated Engineering Software, a specialized competitor from Canada, operates in the larger engineering software market, which was valued at over $43 billion in 2024. The Rare Earth Industry Association from Belgium also had a presence, representing its members who are significant participants in the global rare earth market, valued at more than $12 billion in 2024.

Another event of note was the unveiling of “Maggie,” the world’s largest levitating sculpture, created in collaboration between FSU, the City of Tallahassee, and the MagLab out of FSU’s Master Craftsman Studio. ▪

Standouts at MDSM 2025

→ Non-heavy/non-rare-earth permanent-magnet motors (ORNL)

Parans Paranthaman and Vandana Rallabandi (Oak Ridge National Lab) presented an approach to electric motors that avoids heavy/rare-earth elements—big implications for cost, resilience, and sustainability. 

→ Circular-economy pathways for permanent-magnet motors

The Panel with Cyclic Materials, Automotive Recyclers Association, LBNL, and U.S. DOE discussed magnet recovery/recycling and closed-loop supply chains—arguably the most system-level innovation theme. 

→ DFARS-compliant permanent magnet supply chain standards

Lockheed Martin, Dexter, Bunting, and Magnetics Corporation tackled standards for defense-compliant magnets—an innovation in policy/standards enabling domestic sourcing. 

→ High-throughput pulsed-field magnetometers

Hirst Magnetic Instruments outlined pulsed-field magnetometry for rapid materials testing, process innovation that can accelerate R&D and QA. 

→ Heavy, rare-earth-free hot-deformed Nd-Fe-B magnets

Daido Steel detailed advances reducing dependence on heavy rare earths while preserving performance—materials innovation with near-term industrial relevance. 

→ Ultrasound-assisted leaching for sustainable rare-earth production

Hydrova presented an ultrasound plus organic-acid route to extract rare earths, potentially lower energy/chemicals vs. conventional hydrometallurgy. 

→ AI/ML for motor load-profile recognition (predictive maintenance)

Microchip showed how ML models infer operating states from signals to improve uptime and maintenance scheduling, software/analytics innovation for drives.

→ “Maggie” magnetic-levitation public sculpture (FSU/MagLab)

The conference’s headline demonstration fused art and magnetics: a levitating TLH/FSU sculpture, a feat of creative, innovative magnetic engineering.