How FSU InSPIRE is Driving Regional Talent, Economic Prosperity, and Future Tech

Florida State University’s Institute for Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Research, & Education (InSPIRE) was brought to life by a $98.4 million grant from Triumph Gulf Coast to establish a thriving center of innovation in Bay County rooted in education. Triumph is a nonprofit that oversees funds recovered for economic damages from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill for the eight counties of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Franklin, and Wakulla. In November 2023, a delegation from FSU that included President Richard McCullough and Vice President of Research Stacey Patterson presented their proposal to Triumph, which voted unanimously to forward the InSPIRE initiative. Florida State University committed an additional $65 million. 

InSPIRE is spearheading long-term educational initiatives for regional K-12 teachers across northwest Florida to help them build STEM expertise and prepare the local talent needed to support a thriving advanced manufacturing and aerospace ecosystem. Led by InSPIRE and staffed with experts from FSU’s Learning Systems Institute, a continuous learning community is developing in which participants support each other, rapidly responds to industry trends, and builds workforce capability throughout the region. Teachers along the Gulf Coast are being certified in the use of robotics, artificial intelligence in engineering, computational thinking, and 3D printing fundamentals, to better prepare current and future students for local careers. 

In June 2025, FSU InSPIRE welcomed aerospace leader and decorated test pilot Drew Allen to head this high-impact initiative to turn northwest Florida into a hub for aerospace and defense innovation. Allen brings more than two decades of military aviation experience and a strong track record in defense research and partnerships. A former U.S. AirForce Colonel and Wing Commander and the only pilot ever qualified in every modern USAF fighter jet, he has led teams of thousands and managed budgets topping $1 billion.

With current operations established at FSU Panama City, InSPIRE is finalizing all design and licensing requirements to construct an advanced manufacturing facility near the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. Within this facility, researchers, engineers, technicians, faculty, industry partners, and students will collaborate to invent, test, iterate and develop an entire product lifecycle under one roof for the aerospace, defense, marine, and energy sectors. On-the-floor training and mentoring will ensure the workforce remains forward-thinking and empowered. Scientific breakthroughs from applied research at FSU will be translated into real-world solutions through on-site prototyping, testing and demonstrations. Sustainable production through this accelerated, in-house deployment will encompass technological advancements in next-generation machining, additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence design, robotics, simulation, and prototyping.

While our nation’s advanced manufacturing boom is underway, a lack of some standards and substantiated processes has challenged the industry’s efforts to confidently implement complex, large parts printed using additive manufacturing. Vetted methods to validate the quality and feasibility of components throughout the printing process are crucial to both commercial and defense industries accelerating the uptake of 3D-printed parts, particularly large and complex components. 

ASTRO America is a key strategic partner helping to establish this region as a hub for advanced manufacturing and industrial collaboration. Last year, it led the launch of an inaugural 3D printing Tech Challenge with ASTM International’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence. Companies across the United States were invited to submit their solutions for in-process sensors that monitor component quality during production to avoid the more costly post-production identification of potential defects in 3D printed parts. Solutions were implemented, evaluated, and monitored at Maritech Machine in Panama City, InSPIRE and ASTRO’s first advanced manufacturing node in the region. 

From those evaluations, five finalists were selected to present and demonstrate their solutions before a panel of industry and academic experts at FSU Panama City. Jentek Sensors, Additive Assurance, Phase3D, Applied Optimization, and Addiguru presented their solutions before representatives from the Air Force Research Laboratory, ASTRO America, Boeing, GE Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Kratos, Stifel North Atlantic Capital, ASTM International, and Florida State University.

Two of those companies emerged as top performers: Additive Assurance and Addiguru. Both illustrated viable ways to bridge this gap in metal additive manufacturing, where quality control can shift to in situ production to allow for quicker reiterations and avoid costly rebuilds after components have been printed. Addiguru and Additive Assurance excelled in demonstrating their value to end-users within aerospace and defense and were invited to meet with Stifel’s investment team along with decision makers at leading aerospace organizations to discuss future opportunities. 

Leveraging the insights gained from this inaugural Tech Challenge, ASTRO, together with FSU InSPIRE, Applied Optimization, Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory, Colorado School of Mines, Honeywell Aerospace, and Lockheed Martin, pursued and won a highly competitive QTIME (Quality Test and Inspection Methods Expediency) grant. The QTIME project is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Manufacturing Technology Office, through America Makes. Anticipated outcomes include significantly reducing costs during the inspection and qualification of complex 3D printed parts with an LPBF lattice structure as inspection challenges have slowed their adoption. Real-time, layer-by-layer monitoring will provide a framework that gives AM players the confidence to vastly upscale their solutions.

“Our QTIME developments will ultimately alleviate the inspection bottleneck we face and lead to a significant reduction in inspection cost and time, while boosting overall confidence in additive manufactured parts performance,” said Abdalla Nassar, PhD., vice President of ASTRO South at ASTRO America, “This team effort also leverages Additive Assurance’s Tech Challenge winning solution and brings Tech Challenge finalists, Applied Optimization, into the mix. Bringing together manufacturers, academia, industry, and governments to align efforts is leading to real innovations across advanced manufacturing. Our end goal is to enable suppliers and manufacturers to deliver proven, high-performance components so end users can more rapidly implement solutions that ultimately strengthen the defense industrial base.”

The team’s flaw detection and prediction capabilities during production aim to reduce inspection times from many hours to under one hour, while cutting costs by up to 90%. Upon successful completion, this project will better enable the use of advanced manufacturing, particularly in defense and aerospace applications. Another exciting part of this project will be commercializing the results and mentoring small to midsize businesses throughout northwest Florida in adapting the technology in their own operations to further advanced manufacturing capabilities in the region. 

Building on all this momentum, this year’s Tech Challenge was on Distortion Prediction & Compensation in Inconel 718, which is a big challenge in precision parts manufacturing for aerospace and defense. Participating companies were invited to present their solutions for predicting printed component distortion that results in build failures, rework, nonconformance, and post-processing. This challenge specifically dealt with Inconel 718 metal, a nickel-based alloy considered superior to many other metals due to its strength and resistance to corrosion. Even with these attributes, however, Inconel 718 can be costly when incorrectly distorted during the 3D printing process. 

“You could say that distortion is the way we actually print Inconel 718,” said ASTRO’s Advanced Research Scientist Alex Riensche, PhD., who performed in-depth evaluations at Maritech Machine. “What we want is for the metal to distort and build the component exactly as simulated in the design phase. To date, there hasn’t been a real ‘apples to apples’ methodology to compare exactly how the part was engineered with how it's printed, and this has affected aerospace and defense applications, which require impeccable and robust performance in challenging environments.”

Solutions from industry players 3DXpert, Siemens, PanOptimization, Oqton, Autodesk Netfabb, and Cadence were evaluated on industrial-scale systems and presented to a panel of leading experts from the defense, aerospace, and investment communities in August. Experts voted on criteria including accuracy and repeatability, calibration methods, value versus cost, functionality, market potential and overall technical prowess.

“The goal is to accelerate the adoption of modeling tools that make metal additive manufacturing more predictable, cost-effective, and production-ready,” added Nassar. “This competition directly supports the national imperative to upscale additive manufacturing capabilities, and we're excited to provide participants the opportunity to benchmark their solutions in a real-world setting right here in Bay County using parts of interest to the aerospace and defense community.”

After an afternoon of finalist presentations from Autodesk, Cadence, Dassault Systems, and Oqton, feedback was tallied from representatives including the Air Force Research Laboratory, Northrup Grumman, and Lockheed Martin and a leading solution from Oqton was selected. 

“Bringing together major players in defense and aerospace to identify the tools and technical prowess needed to scale additive manufacturing for mass production is a vital step in establishing northwest Florida as a serious advanced manufacturing hub,” said InSPIRE Executive Director Drew Allen. “We were honored to have Rep. Jimmy Patronis join us to recognize each competitor’s contribution with crucial support from ASTRO America, Triumph Gulf Coast, and Florida’s Great Northwest.”

During the showcase, participating companies discussed their approaches to predict and compensate for distortion in LPBF. Technical evaluators reviewed the solutions against challenge criteria to benchmark performance and inform future approaches to more predictable additive manufacturing.

“This challenge separated research-stage tools from production-ready ones, using real parts of interest rather than simple test articles,” said Sridharan Hariharan, Global Vice President of Sales and Customer Success at Oqton. “That’s exactly the bar our customers hold us to every day. We’re proud that Oqton’s approach to distortion prediction and compensation in LPBF Inconel 718 came out on top. We’re grateful to ASTRO America and FSU InSPIRE for building the kind of rigorous, independent benchmark this industry needs, and for the opportunity to be part of it.”

By uniting academia with industry, InSPIRE continues to initiate on its auspicious idea to transform Bay County and northwest Florida into an educated industrial hub of the future. It will edify the local talent industry needs, advance future technology breakthroughs, deliver scalable aerodynamic testing, innovate with military and industry partners, and offer hands-on training. This future is fully supported by FSU, an eminent institution deeply immersed in meaningful collaboration with its students, faculty, community, business leaders, and partners to spark regional prosperity, boost national ingenuity and strengthen global competitiveness.