Viewpoint: Maryland’s economy needs help. AI, quantum and data are the answer
Published in Washington Business Journal | February 21, 2025
By Brian Darmody – Association of University Research Parks
While the Maryland economy is facing budget uncertainties, the state can help surmount these challenges by growing private growth industries, converting research into jobs, connecting the region and attracting federal funding from the few federal budgets (defense and economic competitiveness) that are likely to grow.
Here’s how: Winning the technology race with China will be a bipartisan effort in Congress and with the White House — and state of Maryland has a role to play. The Department of Defense R&D budget is expected to grow, including its university-affiliated research centers (UARCs) that ensure essential engineering and technology capability are maintained.
Maryland and California are the only two states with two UARCs, but Maryland’s are proximate to each other. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab UARC, located in southern Howard County, is closer to the University of Maryland, College Park than to JHU’s Baltimore campus. And the nation’s newest UARC and only one at an HBCU is located at Howard University in D.C. The JHU APL has a budget of over $2 billion a year, and the University of Maryland UARC received a $500 million grant, the largest ever received by UM.
This largest cluster of DOD research needs to be exploited to develop new private companies in AI, quantum and data-related technologies. The state is generating the workforce to accommodate these new industries. Both JHU and UMCP. already rank in the top 10 nationally of universities winning computer and information technology funding. UMCP. has the country’s largest campus-based computer science department. Both schools were listed in the Forbes 2024 list of 20 “New Ivies” — national colleges producing the achievers that employers are looking for. And nearly 50% of graduates from Maryland institutions have degrees related to STEM.
Converting research into jobs is another vital strategy. That’s why Gov. Wes Moore’s proposal for a $1 billion quantum initiative is important. IonQ Inc. is an offshoot of 25 years of research at UMCP. and the National Institute of Standards & Technology in quantum science. This spinout is the nation’s first publicly traded quantum company, and as a first mover in this rapidly changing technology, its future is bright.
Nations globally are investing billions of dollars in quantum research. Quantum computing has been identified by the new federal administration as a national budget priority. The NIST and the National Security Agency in Maryland are developing techniques and algorithms to protect against data decryption that will be possible as quantum computing matures. The NIH and the Food and Drug Administration will be at the forefront of new drugs and devices that a quantum future will develop. All four agencies are based in Maryland. And the new Maryland Secretary of Commerce with his cyber background with the NSA and others is a superb catch to provide tech leadership in Maryland.
Finally, we need to connect the tech hubs in Maryland as our peers are doing in other states. For example, in Michigan, Detroit and Ann Arbor are working on an innovation corridor between the cities, linking the University of Michigan with other research universities in Detroit. Research Triangle Park in North Carolina is world renowned as a single research cluster, but Duke University is located approximately the same distance from North Carolina State University as UMCP. is from JHU’s Homewood campus. But we don’t market the Baltimore-Washington corridor as a single tech hub even though the percentage of Maryland’s economy supported by private and federal research and development spending is over twice that of North Carolina’s.
However, some new initiatives connecting the region are underway. The new University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing in Montgomery County with AI faculty from College Park linked with medical researchers from the University of Maryland-Baltimore and University of Maryland Medical System across the state will support the existing bio cluster in the Bethesda-I-270 corridor. This in turn will complement the new JHU AI facility planned for Remington in Baltimore. The new $10 medical device center at the 4MLK facility in UM.-Baltimore’s Bio Park funded philanthropically by the St. John Foundation will link UM. bio engineers with Baltimore medical researchers. More of these types of efforts should be supported. Developing strategies for a likely revamped federal opportunity zone program to develop real estate infrastructure around transit hubs is another.
Maryland is already the No. 1 state in the nation in the percentage of its GDP derived from university research funding. Converting that research to jobs, building stronger regional partnerships and encouraging private sector entrepreneurship is the path Maryland needs to take.
Brian Darmody is chief strategy officer for the Association of University Research Parks, a nonprofit international membership organization with offices in College Park and Tempe, Arizona. Darmody previously served in various executive outreach roles at the University of Maryland and University System of Maryland.
