HOUSTON (May 8, 2018) – Lone Star College and the Energy Conference Network hosted the second annual Texas Open Innovation Conference (TOIC) earlier this spring at LSC-University Park. The forum-style conference welcomed participants from business, government and academia to share best practices on promoting innovation and creative thinking.
Founded on an Invitation to Innovate (i2i), LSC-University Park continuously looks for opportunities to attract and pursue partnerships that model to students how technology and innovation solve complex problems in real-life industry settings.
“Our college was created with a focus on innovation to ensure we are preparing our students to enter today’s workforce and help shape tomorrow’s,” said Dr. Shah Ardalan, LSC-University Park president. “. Commitment to serve this community is one of the reasons we are hosting TOIC. The prosperity of our students, and our community, is critical to our partnerships.”
Dave Stover, chairman, president and CEO of Noble Energy was among the conference’s esteemed speakers who highlighted how advances in separate industries work together to bring about the ultimate goal of innovation.
“The real value of innovation is the application of the ideas, technologies, and everything that creates an opportunity to find and redefine solutions,” said Stover. “Additionally, I want to make the connection between energy, education and health care, because there is a tremendous interdependence around all those areas.”
The speakers represented a range of industries, including energy, education, technology and health care. Keith Barber, Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital CEO, talked about how Houston Methodist is leading medicine and driving innovation. Dr. Bret Champion, Klein Independent School District superintendent, presented on how they are reimagining learning through pathways and partnerships. Mark Linesch, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) CTO office and labs vice president of strategy, shared how HPE explores, develops, incubates and enables fast, fluid transfer of advanced technologies into next generation products.
In the session “Global Innovation Networks- Building Bridges across Border/Continents/Oceans,” presenters David Camerlengo, Queensland Government trade and investment commissioner, and Brett Cornwell, Texas A&M University executive director of technology commercialization, presented on the success of the Open Worldwide Innovation Network, an association of governments, universities and trade agencies that support innovation and entrepreneurship on an international level.
“To innovate, we have to work with partners across industries, across the world,” said Cornwell. “We have to have partners we know and trust. A conference like this is great to make connections with potential partners and exchange ideas.”
TOIC sponsors were Cisco, Planbox, Wellspring and Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital.
For more information:
UPCollegeRelations@LoneStar.edu