From Labs to Jobs: How Southern Arizona’s education system fuels both startup and workforce’s pipeline | News

A new Tucson startup is developing technology that could store solar power during the day and release it to the electric grid at night.

The company, CarbeniumTec, is among the ventures emerging from the University of Arizona’s commercialization pipeline through Tech Launch Arizona, which helps researchers turn discoveries made in university labs into startups, licensed technologies and market-ready products.

“From cradle to grave, we’re working with researchers to identify inventions and figure out the best way to bring them to market,” said Doug Hockstad, associate vice president for tech transfer and head of Tech Launch Arizona.

The company’s technology — an all-organic battery designed to store renewable energy for long periods without relying on rare earth metals — illustrates how university research can evolve into commercial ventures with global implications. But it also illustrates a broader dynamic shaping Southern Arizona’s economy: Educational institutions are increasingly serving as both innovation engines and workforce pipelines.

Southern Arizona’s education institutions play a dual role in the regional economy. Universities generate new technologies that can become companies and industries, while community colleges train the workers those industries need. Together, they form what business leaders increasingly view as a critical competitive advantage.

“The region’s education ecosystem is absolutely critical to Tucson’s economic competitiveness,” said Laura Shaw, chief communications officer for The Chamber of Southern Arizona. “Talent drives all market decisions, and talent is always at the top of the list of site selection criteria.”

On the workforce side of that equation, Pima Community College has positioned itself as a central hub connecting students with the jobs emerging across the region’s economy.

“We are an indispensable institution with respect to connecting students with the jobs of today and the jobs of tomorrow,” said Ian Roark, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and workforce development at PCC.

Roark said the college increasingly works with business leaders, economic development officials and labor market data to forecast workforce needs and design programs that match those demands.

That approach has led PCC to expand training in fields closely aligned with regional economic priorities, including advanced manufacturing, aviation technology, cybersecurity and health professions.

“We’ve seen strong growth across those areas,” Roark said, noting that enrollment in many technical programs has climbed steadily as employers seek workers with specialized skills. Tuning into hot career trends helps. “Sometimes it’s true — if you build it, they will come,” he added with a laugh.

Cybersecurity has become one of the fastest-growing technical programs at the college as businesses, utilities and health care providers work to strengthen digital infrastructure.

Manufacturing programs have also expanded significantly in recent years. PCC’s advanced manufacturing building includes welding, machining and automated industrial technology programs designed to train students on equipment used in modern production environments.

To keep pace with changing industry demands, PCC works closely with business leaders when designing programs and updating curriculum. Industry representatives serve on advisory committees, provide feedback on coursework and often partner with the college to create internships, apprenticeships and other work-based learning opportunities.

“Pretty much every curriculum decision that we make in our industry-aligned programs has an industry touchpoint somewhere through the process,” Roark said.

The college has also built flexibility into its workforce training infrastructure. At PCC’s advanced manufacturing facility, a 10,000-square-foot Flexible Industry Training Lab — known as the FIT Lab — can be reconfigured to support customized training programs for local employers.

The space allows the college to bring in specialized equipment or adjust training modules to meet the needs of specific companies entering the region.

For example, PCC plans to partner with American Battery Factory to develop customized workforce training once the company completes construction of its manufacturing facility in Tucson.

Programs in healthcare remain another major focus. Hospitals, clinics and health care providers across Southern Arizona continue to face staffing shortages that worsened during the pandemic. PCC is working to expand its health professions programs in response, with plans to significantly increase the number of nursing and allied health graduates entering the workforce each year.

While community colleges focus on preparing workers for existing industries, research universities often serve as the starting point for entirely new ones.

At the University of Arizona, that process largely runs through Tech Launch Arizona, the office responsible for translating academic research into commercial ventures.

The work begins when researchers disclose a potential invention emerging from their labs. From there, Tech Launch Arizona evaluates the technology’s market potential, examines the patent landscape and determines whether the discovery is best suited for licensing to an existing company or launching as a startup.

“Most of the technologies we see are barely more than an idea when they first come to us,” Hockstad said.

From that early stage, the office works to connect research teams with investors, entrepreneurs and industry partners who can help move the technology toward commercialization. In some cases, that means building an entirely new company around the technology.

One example is Lifespan Digital Health, a startup built around research led by University of Arizona emergency medicine physician Sam Keim. The company has developed software designed to identify and prevent physician burnout — a growing problem in hospitals and residency programs nationwide.

The venture launched less than a year ago and is already conducting pilot programs with several large medical institutions. “It’s moving like a rocket right now,” Hockstad said.

While not every university invention becomes a rocket-paced startup, the overall impact can be significant. According to a recent economic impact analysis, companies and technologies emerging from the university’s commercialization efforts have generated roughly $3.3 billion in economic impact across Arizona over the past nine years, Hockstad said.

Local investors, entrepreneurs and industry mentors also play an important role in helping these technologies reach the market.

“I don’t think I could overstate the role of the ecosystem,” Hockstad said.

As Southern Arizona’s economy evolves, education leaders say the relationship between learning and work is becoming increasingly intertwined.

At PCC, Roark expects future workforce programs to become more flexible, allowing students to gain new skills more quickly while balancing jobs, family responsibilities and other demands.

“We’re looking at ways to offer education that maintains the same rigor but is more flexible and perhaps even shorter,” Roark said.

That includes expanding work-based learning opportunities that allow students to earn academic credit while gaining experience in the workplace.

Meanwhile, universities continue to focus on moving discoveries out of the lab and into the marketplace.

Emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, advanced energy systems and biomedical innovation are expected to generate new waves of research and commercialization.

Artificial intelligence in particular is already reshaping how educational institutions think about workforce preparation. Rather than treating AI as a separate field, educators increasingly see it as a tool that will affect nearly every profession.

“Artificial intelligence isn’t really its own industry vertical — it’s going to impact every program of study we offer,” Roark said, noting that PCC is working to integrate AI concepts into programs ranging from business and cybersecurity to health professions.

Together, those efforts reinforce a broader reality for Southern Arizona: education is no longer just a pathway to employment — it has become one of the region’s most powerful drivers of economic development.

“We think there’s going to be more of a continuum between working and learning,” Roark said. “Helping people balance those two things is going to be central to how community colleges operate going forward.”