The Coastal Bend Business Innovation Center will provide participants of the "La Idea: Supporting High Impact Entrepreneurs" a two week workshop on advanced manufacturing technologies, including 3D printing, nanotechnology, advanced materials, robotics etc. Our strategic partner, the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, will provide training on technical topics related to advanced manufacturing, while the Coastal Bend Business Innovation Center will provide training on business topics. Our goal is to prepare participants to engage in international trade by teaching them the requirements for doing business in the United States, how to expand their business operations in a sustainable way, and giving them a thorough understanding of the US market and opportunities within.

The INNOVATION CENTER serves as a catalyst for innovative ideas by providing business advice for the entrepreneurial process and supporting the creation of sustainable, successful Coastal Bend businesses at every level of development. The INNOVATION CENTER plays a major role in promoting cross-disciplinary academic and entrepreneurial programs within the university of Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi.

Business Incubation is a supporting process that accelerates the successful development of innovative start-up businesses and growing companies by providing entrepreneurs with an array of crucial resources. The program consists of four levels:

1. Pre-Incubation
2. Incubation
3. Acceleration
4. Post Graduate

These mentoring services will be orchestrated by our business incubator staff and offered both in the business incubator and through its network of contacts. The main goal of our incubation program is to produce successful firms that will leave your program financially viable and freestanding. When you graduate from the Coastal Bend Incubation program, you will have the potential to create jobs, revitalize neighborhoods, commercialize new technologies, and strengthen both local and statewide economies.

As a stakeholder in the INNOVATION CENTER, we give you access to appropriate rental space and flexible leases, shared basic business networks, services and equipment, along with technology support services. In addition, we provide professional PhD level business mentoring, student internship programs, coursework modeling and interaction, educational classes and assistance in obtaining the financial stability necessary for company growth.

The Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC) is an affiliate of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program of the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST). MEP's role is to provide manufacturers with innovation services as well as access to public and private resources that enhance growth, improve productivity, and expand capacity. There are 60 MEP Centers with 373 field locations nationwide including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC) exists to enhance the competitive position of the Texas' manufacturing sector. TMAC's manufacturing specialists work with a wide range of manufacturing firms, delivering training, technical support, and implementation of best business practices. Typical areas covered include innovation engineering management system, quality management, productivity improvement, environmental assistance, software systems selection and application, and E-business issues. Workforce development is integral to all of TMAC's services, because we recognize that technological change and process improvement cannot be isolated from human resources and company culture as organizations seek to grow and change.

TMAC consists of seven partner institutions delivering services statewide. The Texas partners are: The University of Texas at Arlington; The Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), part of The Texas A&M University System; The University of Texas at El Paso; The University of Texas - Pan American; The University of Houston; Southwest Research Institute; and Texas Tech University.

The University of Texas - Pan American's Rapid Response Manufacturing Center (RRMC) has been focusing on providing local manufacturing companies advance manufacturing technologies, processes and tools and a skilled labor force to rapidly commercialize new products/processes and drive world class operational excellence and sustained growth.
The goal of RRMC is to continuously improving the manufacturing performance through the innovative and rapid integration of new disruptive science, technologies, processes and methods into product design, development and production. The components of the RRMC are shown in figure below. RRMC's research, development and demonstration component is focusing on applied research and developing custom programs to provide needed education for today's and tomorrow's engineering and business leaders. It also provides a custom education program of innovation and entrepreneurship to grow new enterprises. A team of researchers is developing strong research, educational, and implementation programs related to energy storage, coating technology, sensor technology and advanced manufacturing with the aim of supporting the industry in the region, and commercializing the technologies in near future.

The training and technical services component is performed in conjunction with the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC). TMAC's mission is to increase the global competitiveness of the Texas economy by working to grow the extended manufacturing enterprise.

Operational Excellence component focuses on (i) product quality improvement, (ii) productivity improvement, (iii) lowering the production cost, and (iv) improving reliability. This component will also play a major role in student internships program. RRMC is also developing centers of excellence. Center for additive manufacturing and another center for nano-fibers have already been established. A 20,000 square-foot facility is being acquired in McAllen Industrial park to develop a new 'Tooling Center'. This facility will provide hands on experience to students, support to industries in the region by providing solutions to their production issues, developing training and certification programs, and ultimately job creation and economic growth in advanced manufacturing.