EDA visits Tulsa to tour tech hub initiatives underway

Officials from the U.S. Economic Development Administration visited Tulsa for a tour of the city’s emerging tech hub and to hear first-hand from partners about the initiatives underway to put our region at the global forefront of autonomous systems and advanced mobility technologies.  

After investing ~$90M in the Tulsa region since 2022, the EDA joined the Tulsa Innovation Labs team for two days to see the impact of grants awarded through the Build Back Better Regional Challenge and the Tech Hubs programs.

Attendees included Cristina Killingsworth, Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Development, Grace Klein, Program Officer for Tech Hubs, Ryan Zamarripa, Program Officer for Build Back Better Regional Challenge, and Vaishant Sharma, Senior Policy Adviser for the White House National Economic Council.  

‍

“Tulsa’s tech hub in autonomy, and in particular, unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, is at the forefront of our national security requirements as a country. One of the things that Tulsa is doing an amazing job at is making sure that those technologies start, grow and remain in the United States.”
‍
Cristina Killingsworth, Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development

‍

With significant momentum from investment in the region and a consortium of over 100 partners, Tulsa’s tech hub is poised to play a leading role in re-shoring the U.S. supply chain for drone technology.

The work underway as a result of the two large federal grants will help ensure our region is the go-to place in the country to test, manufacture and deploy next-generation autonomous systems technology.

Tulsa Innovation Labs showed the EDA team critical pieces of our tech hub that will make this vision a reality, including tours of LaunchPad, Skyway 36, Greenwood Entrepreneurship at Moton, and a demonstration of the city's Drone as First Responder program.  

‍

"Tulsa Innovation Labs is really at the forefront of what we’re looking for in communities across the country. It’s not only a convener but it’s also driving and propelling this ecosystem forward, challenging the ecosystem to do more, to think creatively, to identify challenges and solve them here in Tulsa."

Cristina Killingsworth, Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development

‍

LaunchPad Tour

The visit started with a tour of the LaunchPad Center for Advanced Air Mobility at the OSU-Tulsa Helmerich Research Center. With the support of an industry consortium that’s comprised of over a dozen partners, LaunchPad serves as a dedicated community resource to promote the development and commercialization of new technologies in advanced aerial mobility, and has been collaborating on demonstration projects over the past year to show the variety of applications and use-cases across industries.  

‍

Skyway 36 Tour

Officials then got to see a visual-line-of-sight drone flight at Skyway 36, a droneport that serves as the primary entry point to the Skyway Range, a testing and flight range for uncrewed aerial vehicles. Located at the intersection of urban and rural areas, it offers a unique location for flight testing all modes of UAS and AAM technologies.  

‍

‍

‍

‍

Drone as First Responder Demonstration

The final demonstration featured a drone as first responder simulation at the Gathering Place boathouse to exemplify how new advanced mobility technology is being developed by Tulsa-based industry partners and deployed by city leaders. Made possible by the Tulsa Fire Department, Airwise, and Skydio, the drone as first responder demonstration involved a river rescue scenario at the Arkansas River. Using drones in emergency response efforts is one of many potential use cases for advanced air mobility technology, helping mitigate risk to first responders and increasing accuracy and efficiency of rescues.

‍