Innovation flourishes in Austin
Austin continues to grow as a place where research and creativity flourish. On a recent trip to the Texas capital, Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan visited with students building robots that can navigate complex environments and help with critical medical procedures. She toured a nonprofit devoted to the innovative mission of training public-school leaders. And she heard from bankers and financiers about their concerns and, ultimately, their optimism about Austin’s innovation economy.
The visit was part of President Logan’s 360 Listening Tour, a series of trips to engage business and community leaders across the Eleventh Federal Reserve District to gain real-time insight into the state of the regional economy. She takes information about local economic conditions back to Washington as she participates in Federal Open Market Committee monetary policy discussions.
UT incubators hatch commercial applications from research innovations
Research universities foster technology development that drives productivity gains for the economy. The Texas Innovation Center at the University of Texas supports that process by providing workspaces, services and access to a funding network to help researchers move their ideas from the lab to the market.
Next door, researchers at Texas Robotics are shaping the future. President Logan and other Dallas Fed leaders tried out robotics controls, watched a robot navigate a crowd, held a robotic prosthetic limb and heard from students about inspirations for their research.
Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan meets a dancing, dog-like robot during a visit to the Texas Robotics lab at UT Austin.
Houston Regional Executive Daron Peschel tours the Texas Robotics facility with fellow UT alum and Dallas Fed Board Member James Hill.
A student demonstrates an AI-equipped robotic prosthetic leg that he and his team made.
Left to right: Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan meets a dancing, dog-like robot during a visit to the Texas Robotics lab at UT Austin. Houston Regional Executive Daron Peschel tours the Texas Robotics facility with fellow UT alum and Dallas Fed Board Member James Hill. President Logan manipulates robotic controls during a demonstration of technology developed to assist in surgeries.
‘Once-in-a-generation opportunity’ for Texas to become nation's AI epicenter
Guhan Venkatu (left), the Dallas Fed regional executive for Austin and Central Texas, listens during a roundtable discussion with financial industry leaders.
Austin has built the infrastructure and culture to support innovation. But threats to academic funding and Texas’ slowing economic growth have some civic leaders worried about sustaining that environment. At the same time, financial leaders at a roundtable meeting with President Logan expressed optimism about long-term, sustained technology gains, particularly in artificial intelligence.
One participant in the roundtable said: “Texas has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to differentiate itself as the AI state.”
Innovative support for education
Dallas Fed regional executives Armida Riojas (right) and Guhan Venkatu tour the Holdsworth Center campus with President Logan and other Dallas Fed staff members
An innovation-driven economy needs a skilled workforce. Building that workforce requires educational systems that, in turn, support innovation. Austin’s Holdsworth Center takes an unusual approach to supporting public education by providing leadership training for principals and superintendents. While educational professional development typically focuses on classroom dynamics, Holdsworth focuses on improving overall outcomes for schools and districts.
Public school administrators gather at the nonprofit’s campus on Lake Austin to learn skills to manage themselves, coach others and lead systemic change. The center also works to supply a pipeline of qualified candidates for superintendent positions with leadership skills, and it monitors its effectiveness by tracking student outcomes in schools and districts it supports.
Tech industry remains key driver in historically strong Austin employment
While employment in Austin usually leads the state and the U.S., high tech is historically its strongest sector. The Dallas Fed’s Austin Economic Indicators recently reported that the city’s high-tech employment growth outpaced high-tech employment growth nationwide (Chart 1).
Total Austin employment increased an annualized 1.4 percent in March, faster than the prior month. But while education and health services added jobs in March, the information and manufacturing sectors lost jobs. Recent Dallas Fed research suggests that pattern might signal the direction of the economy as a whole.
