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SALT LAKE CITY — In recent weeks, Utahns have celebrated the new Adobe campus with its promise of as many as 3,300 high-paying jobs over the next two decades. That the powerhouse software company centralized in the entrepreneurial capitals of San Francisco, New York City, Stockholm and Tokyo would opt to build a key location in Lehi is a testament to Utah's economic prowess even during a recession.
As I clicked through photos of the framework for the 280,000 square-foot steel and glass structure, I considered how Salt Lake County's current emergence as "Silicon Slopes"—which has now extended into Utah Valley— was, in fact, catalyzed five decades earlier by some remarkably strategic support and vision from Washington.
In 1958 President Eisenhower instituted the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in reaction to Russia's Sputnik launch. The program is generally lauded for facilitating the moon landing, but that was just a fraction of its success. Indeed, it can be argued that the research sparked by ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) is largely responsible for not only creating the field of computer science but also for establishing the U.S. as the unrivaled global leader in computer innovation.
The IPTO determined that the surest way to accelerate research was to invest in superlative institutions across the nation. Accordingly, it selected 12 Centers of Excellence to receive substantial government funding, including Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, M.I.T.—and yes, the University of Utah.
Each Center of Excellence operated under a specific charter. Stanford was charged with developing artificial intelligence, Carnegie Mellon with generating programming languages and the University of Utah with exploring man- machine interaction, specifically how to utilize graphics to solve problems. The resulting 25 years of discovery were unprecedented.
Indeed, many of the most esteemed pioneers in computer science graduated from the University of Utah during the 1970s. The list includes Nolan Bushnell, who founded Atari (and my youth- stealing game of Pong); Alan Kay, who developed the graphical user interface behind Macintosh computers; Alan Ashton, the co-founder of Word Perfect; Jim Clark, the founder of Netscape; Jim Blinn, the graphics expert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab; Patrick Baudelaire, the creator of the first Draw program; Ed Catmull, the principal and co-founder of Pixar; and John Warnock, the co-founder of Adobe.
All across the country, IPTO fellows developed products literally decades ahead of their time. Many of the Centers of Excellence's prototypes in the 70s—including vector graphics software, laser printers, and word processors—are strikingly similar to what we still use today. More remarkable still, in 1968 ARPA held a conference at Alta's Rustler Lodge that resulted in the genesis of the ARPANET; an online communication network between Centers of Excellence. As John Warnock has emphasized, "Thank ARPA for the Internet."
ARPA's singular success is evidence that while reigning in government allocations and reducing the deficit are critical, we shouldn't lose sight of the government's ability to invest in both global competition and job growth if funding is intelligently apportioned.
Likewise, the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED), ably led by Spencer Eccles, has done a remarkable job of luring great companies and high- paying jobs to Utah. Utah's resulting accolades are too many to list, but include Forbes Magazine's #1 "Best State for Business and Careers," Business Facilities Magazine's #1 "Best Business Climate," and Kauffman 2010 State New Economy Index's #1 "Economic Dynamism."
How has Utah thrived during such a severe economic recession compared to most states?
Adobe gives us a glimpse of how GOED's successful outreach to even one company can yield far-reaching results that exceed the eye-popping Adobe job numbers highlighted above.
Adobe's construction alone is reportedly contributing more than $5 million per month into the local economy and two new Adobe buildings are already in the forecast. Additionally, the company's widely circulated interest in Utah since 2010 has created a climate that has attracted hundreds of new tech companies including IM Flash, AtTask and Fusion-IO. In fact, Utah tech sector jobs increased from 65,000 to 75,000 in 2011 alone, making Utah the fastest job-generating state in the nation.
Adobe's presence is also boosting the University of Utah's ability to recruit top computer science students and faculty. The result has helped accelerate the U's trend over the past decade of being a leader in creating companies and jobs. In 2011 the U's number of tech startups outranked even MIT and, according to an annual survey by the Association of University Technology Managers, made the University of Utah #1 in the nation at starting companies based on university research for the second year in a row.
Ultimately, if we want Utah and the U.S. to remain standards in innovation and job creation, we must encourage strategic, efficient and prescient governmental initiatives at both the federal and state level.
Ellesse Sorbonne contributed to this editorial.
