The Junction at BSU with Roger Brown

I'm doing well, man. We finally get rolling here. Listen, you're the director of the junction,

which is part of the mechanism within Boise State University to marry inventors, students,

faculty licensing products and whatnot with actual industry. It's all well and fine to come up with

something interesting. I can invent something, right? I just invented something. That's it. It's

useless. You can have those things and it's great, but wouldn't it be so awesome if we were inventing

things in the university setting that could one be designed to be utilized by industry and two,

in fact, be utilized by industry, bring revenue back to students, faculty, the university, the whole

thing. That's where you're you kind of sit in the middle of that. Well, that's that's a big

piece of it. I can tell you talked to Brett Atkins. Yes, I just want to take it back a little bit

and and not gloss over the fact that a lot of this excellent activity has been going on at Boise State

for quite some time. So in terms of creating something new, the novelty of what we're doing is we're

trying to in a resource constrained environment with no significant new investment from the university,

we took a year and we did kind of an audit of what we have in that space that you're describing.

So my office economic development, Office of Tech Transfer, the Venture College,

the Small Business Development Center, which is not of Boise State, but they they happen to

to have an office at Boise State. Our partners in the community like Trailhead, the Office of

Community Engagement at Boise State and look at what they were doing and the growth of our valley,

the growth of the university and the desire to make sure that we're not only hitting our weight,

but doing more to engage those those communities. So Tech Transfer is a big part of it. What you're

talking about kind of catalyzing that activity, the entrepreneurial community is a big part of it,

but it's about filling gaps between where these experts and these excellent people have been doing

great work and trying to make more out of something through connectivity collaboration. We have

17, 18 entities on campus that have entrepreneurship or entrepreneurialism in their tidal or their

mission. Sure. So where on the spectrum from an idea, whether it's a student or a community member

or a business partner or a business leader is not a partner, all the way through to like

series A funding or what series A. Oh just at the end of that entrepreneurial cycle where you go

out on the market and you have people invest in your business. This is not my space. Trailhead

lives at one part of the spectrum. The venture college lives at another part of the spectrum.

We have an entire college of business economics that informs all aspects of the spectrum in the

discipline of business and entrepreneurship. So the idea that we have people doing great work,

people who are established, people who have the trust of the community, how can we do more with,

I don't want to say less, but with what we have. And that includes the big question outside

of the spectrum is what's the thing Boise State does that is kind of unique in the valley and

that's our growing research mission that we're pushing 90 some million dollars in total research.

Is that 90 million annually or is that 90 million allotted to projects that might be like multi-year

issues? Yeah, it's a good question. It is annually and now it does capture multi-year grants. It

captures you know some grants. It's a growing part of what we do and asking the question about

how we do it. Why? Why does university do research? What does it mean to you as a member of the

community that we do research? What does it mean to you that we have equipment that you could use?

Faculty expertise you could tap. Student energy and experience you could tap. So that translational

research piece they keep telling me. I'll go back to the microphone. You keep going like this.

You move around a lot. You stretch around a lot. Yeah, yeah. But translation research to me is

a critical piece of understanding what we're trying to do which is and they tell me you know don't

use that term people don't understand it. I think it's in the name translational research.

Are we doing research that translates out to the ecosystem we're in the state we serve,

the city we serve, the region we serve? Does it matter? Or are you doing research because it's

something that fascinates a faculty member or something? So can I ask a question?

Oh yeah. When you say what does it mean for you in the community that BSU has you know people

with the capacity to engage in scientific method and do research. They have equipment to do that

and and you can use that. If I'm understanding correctly it's not. I don't think you're saying

hey Matt you could roll up to like this lab and start you know messing with stuff. That's not it.

It's more of you can engage this team of people who have very specific expertise and skill sets

that are hard one through years of doing experiments and say this is a problem that I have or this is

like you know obviously with an ag it's very obvious like okay we have this disease

solve it right because the ag people they don't have the labs and the wherewithal and you know

like all the funding and the the people in the university they might not have the problem right so

you marry the problem with that so when you're saying hey the the community can use this

what does it mean for you as a business owner that's like I own a business in town I'm trying to

solve these problems I'm like you know if only there was somebody I could talk to and like engage

that's what your emphasize that's where you guys come in yeah yeah I hope so and I think there

a lot of there's no perfect example but you know one is that we have in HP Marshall this really

amazing depth of knowledge and research and he has this great sophistication about using all

manner of tools from in-person slicing through snowpack and analyzing the layers to using

NASA satellites to analyze data if if in the course of his regular work HP is so focused on his

work he's not asking himself about you know what are the what are the policymakers and the water

users get from my research or how available is it to them or what questions are they asking so

where you have this this really significant expertise and you just have somebody around who can

ask do you know Scott Bedke because if you're talking about water you should know Scott Bedke and

try to facilitate that connectivity to make not only the existing research that somebody is doing

more applicable more relevant more available but to also serve to bring in the curiosity and the

question and the need and help put that in the stew to drive new activity I had a Jeff Rabaldon who's

the president or chairman whichever of the Idaho water resource board that when you're talking

about something like hey cutting through snowpack and using like NASA satellites were I not to know

Jeff and not to know you know Lieutenant Governor Bedke I would not know I'm like who care like

that doesn't matter at all but funny enough the entirety of the Idaho economy rests on our annual

snowpack and like where it is how effectively can we can augment if there's a big conversation

around cloud seating right now yeah and people are like oh my gosh they've been cloud seating

all winter long it's like no they haven't because they need clouds filled with moisture to cloud

seed right so there's a large misunderstanding around that and that leads people to be very

anxious about you know programs that they really don't understand and like so you have all of these

promises like listen this is so fundamental fundamental to the decisions that will be made with

how we manage our reservoirs in the next 12 months like how much snowpack we actually have where

the snowpack is which you know obviously higher elevations actually have it all of these things

are going to determine if we don't have that data then the department of water resource and the

water board don't know how to properly you know essentially ration out this incredibly scarce

resource or figure out are the are the tasks we're engaging in to augment that are they even valuable

right and how much you know like do we need to go back to the tribes to discuss treaties do we

need to go to Idaho power and discuss hydro and like look you're going to have to get powerful more

else we don't have like all of these problems and then of course advocating for legislation that

increases recharge that takes a lot of money to do and it's very times time intensive like

this is fundamental to what Idaho is doing yeah yeah well I think so the the other Idaho resource

I mean we I like to talk a little loosely about the two buckets the entrepreneurship lower case

e entrepreneurship side and the translation research side and everything in between my experience

in the valley here is when I go out and talk with people that they know everybody knows two things

about Boise State one's football and one is that they hire our our graduates that we put 5,000

dish new credentials out in this market every year 70% of our students are still in the valley

five years after they graduate that's an enormous contribution you know somebody who are hired

a Boise State graduate you know somebody who's a Boise State graduate making good on the credential

that they received the university so if you know us from the standpoint of workforce and you know

from standpoint of football those are pretty good things there's a huge middle there too right and

so inviting people in to ask that question about we have experts in water at department of water

resources we have expert policymakers like Scott Bedke what can the university do that not necessarily

could only the university do but how are we catalyzing that enormous middle of expertise that we have

it's in service to the students we're a student-centric institution but are we are we are we

entrepreneurial about what we do my observation would be that higher education is coming to grips

a little bit with the fact that maybe as a as a institution of American society we had a little

lazy we took for granted that people would always support higher ed wouldn't question what higher ed

is for and we have to answer that question in a really cogent way that has value to people

whether and I don't mean to get into the politics if I'm sorry I don't know but may I ask

listen I 100% agree with you but like the value proposition and I've been saying this to everyone

it's like the reason we're having a problem at least in my mind with education and higher education

is the value proposition is no longer self-evident like we're talking 60s and 70s and 80s the value

proposition was very very clear what you were gonna go you were gonna make you know more money or

you're gonna whatever you're gonna pursue whatever you wanted but that made perfect sense then now

people are like the hell are they even doing over what are you doing right so like nobody knows what

has been your experience in like you you're obviously an academia have you seen like was there a

period in time when you when you've personally felt you're like I don't know that this has relevance

or have you felt that it has always had relevance and it's just not being expressed correctly yeah

so I I probably shouldn't advertise this but I'm not an academic I've not always been an academia

I came out of policy I worked for my senator from Colorado when I moved the D.C. for 10 years

I worked for Governor Otter here and I transitioned into to work at Boise State

so it was funny you say you shouldn't advertise that but one of the main criticisms of higher

education from people outside of it is like they're just all insulated and they've never been in

the real world you're like I came from outside I'm now in it and you're like afraid to even say that

I don't know the politics of the real world yeah well that's better but it's uh but the the idea

is the federal farm bill right the feds rewrite the farm bill farm policy that dictates where all

of the federal money appropriated into this broad space uh they reauthorize that bill every five or

six years why do they reauthorize that bill every five or six years things change technology changes

purchasing habits change trade changes so they they made a decision at the beginning not to

edify uh ag policy in something that lives forever but to go back and revisit it

on some sort of regular cadence so that we know that we're doing the thing we should be doing

and I would suggest that we should all reauthorize all of our engagements on a regular cadence

somebody told me when I got married don't do anything the first six months that you want to do for

the rest of your life and and that gets at the heart of that if if I had to reauthorize my marriage

every five years every six years I'd probably be a little bit more attentive right I'd probably be

a little more accountable not just for my partner but for myself right that and um but when you

you don't revisit the foundational questions the mission statement the strategic engagement you have

with the world around you that drives your activity to know with certainty that your tactics are

correct that the value at is correct well what happens maybe you focus on what you like

maybe you get lazy maybe you get bad at communicating what you do that happens in relationships

all the time you and I get to know each other we take each other for granted we're not communicating

where you used to uh so I you know just an observation from coming outside of higher ed uh I would say

that we uh we were um and we being all of you know the four thousand institutions in America that

make up this massive upskilling skilling academic research enterprise uh probably took for granted

what we were here to do I don't think that's a problem at Boise State I don't think it's really a

problem in Idaho excuse me it's a small community we're in service to the community we're in service

to our students we're keenly aware but you also don't have um a large number of people with

access funds and detachment from their kids yeah where they're just like whatever it doesn't matter like

you know firehouse just throwing money I was like the number of people okay I don't want to

like be mean but there's a universe or college called men low college in California that uh it's

on the peninsula and I had a student who went there now the student happened to go through like a

lot of really intense family things um in her like she had also moved countries like her dad's job

drew them to other countries and then there was you know health problems and then you know

relationship problems so there was like this really difficult you know from like third grade to

you know sophomore year and she was trying to pick up the pieces in her junior year and senior year

and like get it together and go off to college so she initially went to manlo college because that's

the best school she gained entrance to she then transferred to Santa Clara did very very well

there like was really on the upswing right but it men low like men low college was something like

70 or 80 thousand dollars a year it was not a cult like and it was worked for this kid as a

springboard right now mind you she could have gone to just a junior college she would have crushed

and then she could have gone anywhere she wanted but you know they wanted to go to a four-year

university right of the blocks but there was that economy where it's okay this in years past this

would have been a junior college student that then would move on to a transfer and go on to a four-year

college totally fine totally affordable no problem but there was a market for my kid is not going to

a junior college they have to go to a four-year college right out of the blocks so you do that you

develop college systems in that area we're like I'll take your 80 thousand dollars and you're like

2.3 GPA student like no problem here would come on in now again she got there got like a 4.0 and

left but you just I don't see that happening here where it's kind of like no like we don't have

that kind of money just you know to throw around and waste and you also don't have that sentiment

of like my kid is going to go blah blah blah yeah well I like the idea that we're asking of our

institutions all of our institutions in Idaho's state government does this really really well like

there's a critical lens on every function of government all the time it may look a little different

today than it did 10 years ago or 20 years ago but this idea that you know prove yourself right

demonstrate value tell tell us what you do and if you're worth the investment there's a at the

heart of that is competition at the heart of that is um justifying your existence right my worth

is men low college worth the tuition you know what would they say expect I know some of the things

would say um but there were at least some private universities like that because we have you

and private colleges you know dropping out you know there are plenty of places across the country

where like we're experiencing a real contract yeah because they either didn't explain their value

proposition or justify their existence efficiently or they did and people were like yeah that's not

worth it we're not playing ball yeah then you get what you get well I so uh and and don't forget uh

19 years ago we started making fewer 18 year olds so uh whether it's whether you look at it from

the budgetary side which in Idaho higher ed is the second largest pot of general fund money

whether you look at it from the value add size an employer employers getting what they need out of

the university uh if you look at it from the research side are we taking the research we're doing

and making it relevant to the world around us take it from the student experience side is it fun

is it meaningful does it set you up does the investment make you a better citizen does it make you

more right you know excellent and viable and successful in life uh that's a that's a lot to

to kind of answer in in one um kind of strata one institution one segment of our society but i

if you're not asking that all the time you can get detached you can get lazy you can be you know

nobody to the point of the farm bill right nobody should be funded in perpetuity for anything

you know make your case right and fewer 18 year olds uh shifting politics shifting technology

shifting worlds um we looked at all of this and we asked the question about um without anticipating

new investment can we do more strategic can we be more acute and intentional about the way we

provide these these support services let's talk as support right support the student who has a

brilliant idea support the people who are really good at uh entrepreneurship support the people who

are uh really good at marrying investment with good ideas support the companies you know we have a

lot of semiconductor activity in Idaho that's not micron microns really sophisticated they're really

big um they have a lot of say in my policy um and that's great for Idaho and it's great for the

the world that micron serves but what about americans and my conductor and what about on some

my conductor and about what about somebody who has a different idea about materials particularly

in um hostile environments right we have faculty that work on sensors in um space and on satellites

and in uh nuclear reactors and if you're not asking those questions all the time it's easy to just

become uh you know one we don't want to be just consumers uh but we don't want to just be producers

either there's that critical creative entrepreneurial spirit that makes those things bigger than what

they would be otherwise when you have when you have a lot of people clamoring for um you know value

propositions we have a lot of people clamoring for funding you know again sitting at the junction

kind of like at the head of all of these different things with I assume a lot of people saying

hey I do what he does like why don't we get credit for that or like you know we do what all three

of these different again people I'm sure the then diagram does crossover but like how do you kind

of quarterback all those people and be like okay like you obviously you can't tell them what they

should or shouldn't be doing but helping people understand like look if you're interested in in

operation a that's going on with this group over here if you're really interested in operating in

this in B that's that group over here now they might each crossover a little bit but the core

value of that group is actually you know ABCD whatever yeah yeah well we're um that's one of the

things we look at that that what is entrepreneurship at Boise State me right that that's why I was

kind of getting at every if everyone's entrepreneurial it's like what does that even mean then if

everybody is nobody is right maybe is one way to look at it but but if it's if it's taking that

step back and from an enterprise level from an institutional level the junction is a a a venture

that started with the division of research and economic development and the college of innovation

and design so the dean of the college of innovation sign my boss the vice president research

Nancy Glenn they started asking this question about how do we foster that type of behavior how do we

make the entrepreneurial spirit available somebody's not entrepreneurial entrepreneurial that's not

a criticism some of us are some of us aren't some of us are more interested in willing and promoting

our work and promoting ourselves and asking questions of our partners to see how we can further

drive the work than others uh it's not a reflection on ability or intelligence it's just a reality

right we all know self-promotors uh and we all know people who have a deep substance who are

uncomfortable self-promoting we have young faculty and old faculty who aren't um steeped in

tech transfer and what that means for them and what it could mean for their work and what it could

mean for industry um and i and i want to back up a little bit further to that we're a we're a

creature of the division of research in the college of innovation and design and to serve in service

to the entire university community and the community beyond um we're also a product of this

accelerating research translation grant uh six million dollars over four years from the NSF

that um catalyzed our office of community engagement dr. Brian Wompler leads that

and that was about um Boise State has long had in our community a decentralized model of community

engagement meaning uh you and i have a relationship you and i do work over the years you have access

to my students my lab my materials whatever uh that's great until one of us dies or moves moves on

moves on moves on in whichever direction whichever i shouldn't leave right that you're going up

going down what we're moving on wait you're going down um but uh but the sustainability of that

there's a beautiful thing about um our our uh professor uh dr. Amanda Ashley who's the chair of

the arts department she's deeply ingrained in the cultural economy in Boise she provides her

expertise and support and her energy and her student activity in support of of tree fort and the

city of Boise and all of this activity that makes Boise a really desirable place

for people to stay and have families and grow and know you know those guys that found a tree fort

they did it because that under uh all ages music venues didn't exist when they were grown up

and they wanted to have access to that as players and as people in the audience so they kind of

put their all their effort into creating that environment so Amanda can inform all of that

that's a beautiful thing well what what would be tragic would be if for whatever reason Amanda

moves on yeah right and that all dies right so one we want to grow more of her

we want to and we want to help support faculty to lean into that kind of connectivity that adds

substantive sustained value and then ask the question the least sexy thing in government

of sustainability right it's really easy to sell a program or an investment or something like that

but uh how do you bake into it from the beginning a strategic element that says this will live

me right live beyond you right live beyond any particular partnership and then uh importantly

it will adapt and add value and change as circumstances dictate so so when Brian did this survey

of our engagement community you found all this Brian Wompler okay um and and with with this

example you're talking about that the upside is of the decentralized is that you get these agents

that are out in the community that are doing this work that and people know them and they love

them and it's this beautiful thing yeah there's less hands on from the university there's

less direction from the university it's like no like this is you know Roger he goes out and he

just knows everyone and it's great and like if you see him at a party dude he like navigates the

and everyone finds value there Roger moves on and then there was no time back to the actual

university now again you have incredible flexibility what's that old um the the saying from Africa if you

want to go if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together right and that's

the problem which is people want to be flexible and and move quickly and have this capacity to

you know do what they do but you're not going together and if you don't go together it's

going to die with that person right yeah are you if you're a music guy right what what's the

difference between a good band and a bad band and and um it's a some greater than this parts to me

right are you better in the context of a nurturing supportive driven creative environment with people

who are like minded and and can do what you do in a different way or on your own right and and

we're independent by nature in Idaho and and there's a lot of opportunity here to go alone but

to your point I think in the world that we're in technology um uh growth growth is hard right I'm

from Colorado originally like growth is hard I watched my 7-11 where he used to go get

slurpees turned into a apartment building like where'd my 7-11 good bro we had the slurpee

straw that had the spoon on the end of the frozen brain yeah yeah we would get those and it was

like that had to be like 500 grams of sugar like I didn't care no no no no no dude like the Coca-Cola

you know it's amazing I never understood the difference between the icy and the slurpee you

understand it when you experience it because you go to a movie theater they're like we have icis

right and it's like the blueberry icy you're like oh this is incredible it's like it's less dense

it's like fluffy but you get the slurpee and it's just this big sloppas just a cherry coke like oh

I could I crush one right now well it'd be incredible stand there and tap it on the counter

yes so that it'll it'll pack in you can get more and you do it dude if you do that with an icy

it blows out the top yeah I did that to this poor dude at the movie theater because I'd been doing

it with my icy my slurpee's all summer long and I go to like go I don't know see Armageddon

or some dumb movie I'm like oh I'll just get this little thing here I'm like boom it's like

it's like this blue volcano it was terrible everything's sticky yeah it's bad I miss the days

when movie theaters were sticky yeah so growth is hard gross is hard RIP 7-11 and it doesn't you

know on balance you know does my life really change when my 7-11 goes away but I understand that

it's not just traffic and housing prices right it's really hard to live in a community where

things change and but that gets back to that resiliency and that sustainability and are you

are you approaching the challenges in your community in a way that allow you to continue to enrich

your experience and add value and so Brian saw this decentralized model and there's a lot in there

to protect and preserve but there's also this question about institutionally are we making the

most out of it right institutionally are we are we taking advantage of all of these opportunities

are we supporting the people at the end of the fence as to the extent that we can can we do more

and so you know we are we're not uh what Reagan say right nothing uh what the life of a government

program nothing's more permanent than a government program and and so we're on a short

least share we've got a couple years um we moved into the old strip mall on the corner uh of

university and and capitol of art across from college of business economics I gotta tell you again

you're moving away oh sorry yeah can I can I turn it up you can yeah yeah um turn it up just make

sure that Mike's facing you like if it's like this that's bad okay there you go it's good uh you

just you're dying to get away well I got to put a lapel mic on you know I talk with my hands on

move a lot and so when I'm I'm trying to sit still oh good I'm I'll tell you what next time you

come in I'll I'll modify it because uh lieutenant governor Becky also talks with his hands so when he

comes in I literally put the arm all the way up so it's essentially hanging down so he's like throwing

his arms all into the place he gets very intense about so back yeah he does yeah he does um let's see

where was I um you were talking about again get came in was like let's preserve this but we need to

work on people the end of the fence yeah yeah thank you yeah and so so that question about without

getting in your way shout out Cindy Miller hey over in the corner she came in she came in to see a

show she's setting it all straight so where's the junction well and I just want to I uh I have

tendonitis because I pet myself on the back so much but oh my god I was on the hiring committee

for Cindy so I want to take credit for the fact that you got this amazing talent that's awesome I

got that problem on my shoulder because because I got a cross oh I see see I'm over the head now see

you know that way yeah no it's like a rotator cuff problems anywhere but I don't play tennis

tennis elbow but don't play tennis uh but well I don't do anything worthy of packing myself in the back

either but that doesn't stop either of us doesn't uh the day's young it's you've got all day to

achieve a lot of coffee and be jerky oh I have seven interviews tonight which I'm excited about

each of the seven you know it's interesting I was talking to somebody about the capacity to keep

with all the seven and my barometer for whether or not I'm doing good job and if I want to keep

doing is if I'm interested if I'm interested I don't even know time time going by but occasionally

I agree to an interview that I'm not actually interested in or interested in enough within

five minutes I'm literally like like I'm dying I'm just counting the seconds so like I don't even

care it was like the coolest people coming in today it's going to be awesome but that's great is this

why is this why Carson had a big man like you have that that partner in crime they can sit there

and add energy I've thought about having a having like a producer like a Jamie you know who's like

I mean someone of the secret yeah it's like the you know like and um what's his name had Robin

right yeah stern yeah sure and Robin you know Rogan has Jamie and you know I don't I don't think

it would be a bad idea I just have to find somebody who'd be willing to put in like a 10-hour day

yeah come with me uh well we wild anyway where's the judgment so I think it's it's about um this

expression of of not only translation research but building sustainability in the way we engage

and making sure that we are continually learning from the ecosystem about where there's need

an opportunity uh and and just having that critical eye on uh on service to the world around us

how do you figure out where there's need an opportunity because like that's that's at the core of

every entrepreneurial exploit in the world like the number one thing they're like find a problem

that's where your opportunity is like that's where the need is so everybody wants to know where

the need an opportunity is like how do you guys one identify that and then parse it down like

could we even address this yeah well um the universe is a big thing and none of us have a monopoly

on that um the engagement right yeah ingress an egress of need or idea or uh interest and so uh to

be strategic about it and try to capture as much of that as possible yeah and not leaving it to the

the one-to-one yeah the one person um uh that's that's really important I think uh in the

world we live in it's kind of a uh a lost art of listening I'm a talker I like to talk I have

strong opinions but uh the most important thing I can do is sit down and listen what capacity do you

have what interest do you have what do you need that you don't have um when we talk to faculty it's

about that pitch we're going to have a facility we're going to have a facility that's going to

lean hard into the relational aspect of working with people off side of the campus would it help you

to have coffee with people from industry or like minded in an unstructured environment so that you

can just get to know each other and build some trust would it help you if we were more intentional

about going out and asking really pointed questions to industry and saying can you use this

can we retail this and just go out with you or on your behalf and do that so I think to ask the

question about what would you do with a little bit of space what would you do with some support to

help drive engagement and events um and that uh just that like we're uh kind of master of none right

we we want to we want to bring those those functions together and so the first thing we could do

we could listen you know read the paper pay attention what's going on around you but there's nothing

better than uh connecting with people in Idaho who understand what they need what's going on in

their community not taking for granted that while we we we have our own ideas but we don't nobody

has a monopoly on the opportunity where there are opportunities what it takes to drive forward uh

and and again it just comes back to that like some of all our our parts greater than the

some is greater than our individual parts and can we can we intentionalize that yeah um you're when

you're talking about giving people space that that to me seems to be the the either unidentified

like secret sauce or the maybe even sitting things that people actually do understand because like

the creative process that I've always experienced is like you can't will yourself to create right

like you can set up a lot of things like if I get a good cup of coffee and good night sleep high

probability the creative tools will work but I can't like will it forward right and very frequently

when I have a problem that I'm trying to work through be it something and you know cognitive or

excuse me like um within uh uh like a policy space or a conversation space or even within like okay

I'm building this thing how do I build this thing differently or like I had this problem I was

building a loft for my uh for my barn recently and I was trying to do an engineered beam that was

going to be 25 feet long and it's like okay so you can either increase width of the beam you can

increase height of the beam the problem is we're dealing with a very small um like the ceiling is

only about 15 feet high so you don't have eight feet on both sides you can do eight feet underneath

right and if you do like a 10 inch beam the ceiling is only going to be seven feet underneath and

then you like but you're gonna have a tiny ceiling up like all these different problems right and

it's having taking the problem but giving it's giving yourself space and time to actually come

up with a better solution which I eventually was able to come up with and now everything works

perfectly in in the space but having that having that um awareness to be like look just get the

people together don't demand that they produce something in this point like help them understand

and hear each other and the more hearing you know maybe the person talking is letting on something

that the person listens like do you realize like this is actually your problem over here they're like

no I hadn't thought about that like I was thinking about this but that space it seems to be something

that's kind of dawning within the the corporate world and um at at the very least in the corporate

world and then other spaces where it's like yeah it's the space where the magic is like stop with

the structure stop with the team meeting stop with the like oh god and stop with like the digital like

the team like Google meets right like yeah that's not going to create creativity creativity is going to

come we'll use it let the person be and then like all the all the machinery were excuse me works yeah

yeah yeah I creativity is a fascinating um it's just a fascinating component of our our lives I

you what you were describing earlier so there's the there's the there's the problem you have to solve

right and you have what you need to have to solve the problem there's the muse right like Dylan

Thomas when the muse struck he had to write and it was hard on the people around him and his liver

and uh but it was in service to the muse well somewhere between I have to solve this problem it's

a question of math and engineering there's a right answer and I have an idea and I'm in service

to the muse and I have to create um that's a lot of space right and are there are ways that we can

help people who have ideas move productively uh in a way through the process of taking an idea

all the way to fruition as far as it will go a lot of failure in that process too right failures

a great teacher but can you uh can you structure the muse the idea the interest the innovation

and a process for it through which you get the maximum amount of learning and experience in service

to ultimately solving the problem or bring the vision to life I would invite you to we have had

since we we have a small part of our facility available now the venture college moved in

they've hosted events with the college of business economics trailhead and and then through their

own programming and you go in and you see these students uh pitch how do you communicate your idea

how do you identify need how do you explain the need uh all in service to to testing the idea and seeing

how far you can take it if there's a there there and it's beautiful you have this group of students

from all over the country all over the world they uh are driven to uh take an idea and see if there's

something there if it's just fostering the process where they go from idea all the way up through

potential investment and it fails it fails but look at what you've what you've learned and you'll be

that much better next time if it's a student who's never going to be an entrepreneur and is never

going to start their own business but they go through that process of listening and communicating

and analyzing need and and and learning to buttress the idea whatever the idea is with something

sustainable that can make it successful right like that's you you just come to one of those vents

and you watch these students pitch and you watch our faculty work with them Chad Kaufman

at the college of business economics runs a program called sandbox with the computer science

it's all about um uh it's a program that brings ideas uh for it's specifically in the app space

like low barrier danger right can you can you bring your idea to fruition in this low cost way and

and have this experience um and it's a it's a cool program Chad brought it to Boise State

it's doing some really cool stuff but you sit and you watch these students like I never would have

thought of that is a great experience to have when you're watching young people work or uh thinking

where does something like that come from or how how tuned into the asphalt business as this young

person like what an amazing thing to see on display and it it really drives home the fact that

an institution of higher learning is not just um it's not lecture it's not repetition it's not

writing essays it's well I don't know that's not just not just that that's right you can do that

but but if we're not like I was like I was a I was a rhetoric major I did a lot of lecturing and writing

you know I had a lot experience in those yeah and I was an English major and and the most

important thing they taught me in my curriculum was how to suggest to people the value of the

English major if I wasn't going to teach English what can you do what can you really do let's find

out right can you what was the value proposition what would you say well one I think uh I said

first thing after I got my diploma and I was talking to somebody you know they they taught me how

to give a skeptical read to the newspaper right it's not just the words on the page there's a lot

of intentionality there's a lot of understanding that you need to have in order to make sure you're

bringing the most out of the information you're exposed to absorbing and digesting information

culture language being able to analyze described report add value right like I'm not a writer

but most writers read other writers right most musicians read writers like there's a you know

that where you get your inspiration from is not necessarily linear right right and so I think

the classics are a great foundation for a lot of stuff not just being able to recite the class

yeah yeah and if we're not adding value if you're not coming out of you know people are often critical

of you know the largest major is it psychology or sociology or whatever it is and you know

do we really need that many sociologists and we kind of know but do we need people who understand

what's going on in the world around them whether it's culture or you know that's nothing is one

thing it's not just culture economics it's not just sure and and so if you have a degree that says

you can synthesize information and you can communicate that information I'm not really sure I

care what the name on the degree is yeah so that's kind of I just had a Gloria there's no way I'll

be on the panel so last name amazing person she's a a world renowned historian award-winning writer

in fact in the bass community from the bass community there it is can't not gonna try it yeah

incredible woman she was in she came in last week her episode actually published this morning and

you know I I bagged on sociology a lot it's just like not not saying it's a good thing that other

people do but I've bagged on sociology a lot and as of late I've really realized like I don't

like in the abstract I don't I'm not offended by sociologist I'm not offended by study

it people who study you know culture or history or any of these things I'm not saying that's

exactly what sociology does my criticism has been consistently sociology at what cost right because

again I have family members who've gone to like University of San Francisco to study sociology to

the tune of like $80,000 a year it's like okay that I think that's wrong now if you want to take

sociology and have it not cost a good million dollars okay that sounds great to me but again all of

the I think all these things have their place the question is at what cost right and there's always

the argument for education for education sake especially the humanities helping you understand

the world a little bit more it's like that's fine at what cost right like what's the ROI because

again like I had the same conversations with people around what what the degree of rhetoric meant

for a lot of people and it's this like people don't understand it until they realize their entire

world is pretty much structured around their understanding of what languages right so it's like okay

if somebody explains something to you then you're like wow that's really crazy that's the world

you existed now you understand the world because of what that person said well if you control

how to convey things and you control how to form people's worldviews then you control what the world

is for people that's very very clear so it's this again but again at what cost and for what purpose

yeah there's a there's a peril there because some of us can afford to waste our time more than

others some of us can afford to sell a luxury product that doesn't necessarily add value right in

your kitchen in your car whatever and and good for those people right if you if you've got

money to burn good for you that's not the question here it's not the question Idaho where government

runs lean we want to like the most out of every dollar we drive accountability we don't have

the men low colleges yeah and then also but you get to a point where there are places in the world

where the government tells you what you're gonna study we want more engineers we're gonna do it

you're gonna be an engineer or you're gonna be whatever so I so there there's there's a vast array

of need social need economic need business need that we want to try to address but to do it by

tapping into the uh native ability and the passion and the interest of people an interested person

who's doing what they want to do is much more valuable to you than someone who has the exact

credential that you want right that's what the interview process is all about you can go higher

somebody based on their credential but we really want to know is are they gonna fit with your team

are they gonna grow the way you want to grow or they can stimulate better and more and become a

real asset to people so you know you get into that space where you're like well we need we need more

engineers we know of course we do but in my experience corporate America is eyes wide open about

in a world where there's more AI there's more going to be more efficiency there's going to be

more technology critical thinking analysis understanding communication rhetoric these are really

important things and uh and the tech companies are famous for you know like you know get a little

bit of education but we'll teach you the rest of what you need to know but they want that base

right skill set right and so uh you know it sounds a little hippie-dippy but you can you can do a lot

with anything if you are uh able to analyze and ask the right questions and communicate

right and if you just get a little something if you have access to that little something yeah you can

do you can do a lot more yeah and that's where the discipline of something the college of something

is uh there's often tension between that and doing it yourself right not all artists go through

arts programs that universities some do some don't um there's a value add we have to be really

clear about how we engage in the value add and how we are justifying when you say like I'm not

sure that degrees worth the money well uh if there's no perfect path to where you're going and the

interest of the individual has to count for something and what I hope we can do at the junction is

that we can show up and say you know where do you want to go how do you get there how can we support

you getting there whether you're a member of the faculty a member of the community or a student

and um and what might you not be thinking about all right what is there a way that the product

of your work is patentable and you want to meet bread addkins uh is there a network of people

in the treasure valley that you don't know who would be really interested in your work um

uh and and again i uh ingress and egress right we want we want not only to look at the university in

terms of like we're pushing people out in terms of uh workforce and they have a credential and hopefully

they have a good time at a football game uh but we want that ingress too right if i if i can foster

more ideas more information more employer engagement more industry engagement more government

engagement at the university uh the the the product that comes out the experience the student

carries with them is going to be better the work the faculty will do is going to be better that's

not me doing it right i'm not i'm not an educator i'm not a teacher i just want to facilitate

that kind of um work and we have people again the venture college a small business development

center uh the office community engagement these are really um savvy potent sophisticated people

who are really good at doing that work so it's about how can we support their work and how can we

grow what they do beyond whatever it is their time their budget god bless them man um listen

i really appreciate this i want to come down to the junction i don't know so that like yeah

because i have a lot of questions and i'm wondering whether or not you you guys can help me with

them yeah yeah well they and again i'm just a part of you one so you know getting outside

perspectives is really really valuable yeah i uh i i hope um we just got our permits approved for

the demolition and construction we're we're taking out a big chunk of uh well we're taking

out a chunk of office space that we have this nice large uh kind of modular bullpen awesome

productive collision space uh our partners will move in in april i suspect uh and take

take take occupancy their offices um industry relations small business development center

tech help and studio blue all the angles on that spectrum from the venture college idea of a uh

leading through a pitch all the way through the you know like how do i how do how do i write a budget

how do i how do i what do i not know about starting a budget i have an idea you know how an idea

becomes a business the small business development center can help you um so uh the idea of

trying to really broker a more seamless experience for a user wherever they drop in

on that spectrum bench college focuses on the the idea all the way up through a certain point

our partners off of campus and we hope to really grow those ranks trailhead's been an amazing

partner for the university boys yandrepreneur week has grown and grown and grown um this would make

a really interesting thing at boys yandrepreneur week to talk about what you've done and how you

built this uh and i never i'd never even thought about that but yeah yeah so um just that that

exposure and understanding what you've done has tremendous value to people it's not just 10,000

subscribers it's not just a platform somebody come in and vent their spleen it's an opportunity

you've built something through the combination of your experience and your gumption and your

interest in um there's a space in our ecosystem you've started to fill right so i i think that's

very entrepreneurial and it would make for a really interesting um uh a seminar or

senators other word but a really interesting event as part of boys yandrepreneur week and you get to

meet these fascinating people who have come and died a hoe or have grown up an Idaho and they're

trying to figure out how to um give back yeah and succeed in business but um when is that wins

boys are it's in they just set the dates i think it's it's usually end of september into the first

week or so of october around that time i'd love to come check well make sure you get that and then

uh and and we will uh have uh have a pretty regular um cadence of events at the junction to start

trying to do this thing where we're pulling faculty industry students together uh and making

available all the talent that we have in these various entrepreneurial and translational research

aspects that's awesome that's awesome stuff listen i have to call it i really appreciate you

coming in please come back i want to hear about more of it and uh again like let me know in

down topreneur a week is let me know when your office is open up and uh we're going to do good stuff

absolutely thank you right thank you