Kristi: I now have the honor of interviewing Roger Smith, a 35 year tech veteran and former Owens-Illinois director of technology development.

His expertise in the technical direction organization implementation in manufacturing systems, specifically in glass bottle manufacturing, brought him to his latest role of President of the Northwest Ohio Innovation Consortium.

Roger, welcome to Businesslive 360.

It's great to have you here.

Roger Smith: Thanks.

And it's great to be here.

Kristi: Well, listen we're interested in hearing more about the consortium, and you're an expert when it comes to the manufacturing process, specifically as it ties to glass.

So give us a little bit more explanation on how the consortium got started and kind of what the goals were down.

Roger Smith: No, that' that's a great question.

Right.

So some local economic development folks, knew that there were some, public grants available both at the federal level and the state level.

And, they wanted to put, innovation Consortium togethe to really go after those grants.

So we needed to put a strategy together.

I, was nearing the end of my career at a white glass, and they asked me to take a look at it.

So we ended up putting a consortium together of, four glass companies and a solar company, a couple of universities.

Went to community college and a number of economic development organizations to try to apply for those grants.

Kristi: Tell us more about the goal of the consortium.

Roger Smith: Yeah, that cam out of the strategy work.

Right.

And especially with some guidance from from the state, since we're such a hub for glass we're known as the Glass City.

We decided to focus on the common problems of the glass industry.

Right.

So, we have four glass companies in the city.

They all, serve different end markets, right?

So they don't necessarily compete.

Seems like a great opportunity to solve the the industry's common problems.

Kristi: Tell u what those companies are though.

Roger Smith: So the companies are one glass obviously.

Owens Corning Libbey glass and Pilkingto North America division of NSG.

Kristi: Tell us more abou the R&D goals of the consortium.

Roger Smith: Yeah, the R&D goals are are very specific at this point.

It's, it's about, sustainability, energy reduction.

So we're we're trying to work on alternative fuels for glass furnaces that will lower the carbon footprint.

Electrification.

We're working on recycling.

So how to get more through the recycling system?

Because recycle glass, lowers energy and and extends furnace life.

And, but the probably the biggest pillar, the one thing I'm reminded of constantly i that we all compete for people.

So the biggest pillar is, talent development.

And that really extends from from secondary school all the way up to PhDs.

So this area use a, a substantial amount of PhD, candidates for research in glass science, in physics and photovoltaics.

So we're intending to try to try to help, beef those candidates up as well.

But for the majority, we just need to keep kids interested in Stem so that they can enter internships and become engineers and scientists for the region, because we're short of those folks now.

Kristi: Well, and what I really like about the consortium, as well as you're working with academia and really hoping, I am sure to bring some of those students, whether it's through th engineering departments, etc., into the field of glass and the glass industry.

Roger Smith: So we're known as the Glass City, but we don't have a great glass science program.

So we actually are supporting the University of Toledo in recruiting a glass science research professor.

Now.

So we're we're depending on the universities.

Yeah, the University of Toledo Bowling Green State University to help us with research in the critical areas.

Things like glass science, energy, artificial intelligence, coatings, but we're also depending on them for Stem interns to populate the internship program, to provide more Ste candidates to in local industry.

Kristi: So really building in a nice pipeline hopefully.

Theoretically.

Roger Smith: Theoretically.

Yeah.

Yeah.

In the, in the kids, the you know, the interesting thing when I started working because I know nothing about education from K through 12, I started working with local education folks, folks like the Toledo Public Schools who helped us out as well.

And I learned quickly learne that you can't engage students when they're juniors i high school and hope that they want to be Stem candidates, right.

You have to actually get tools in the hands of elementary student to keep them interested in Stem.

So we're still developing that K through 12 program.

But we have to we have t keep students interested in Stem because manufacturing which we are in northwest Ohio, takes strong Stem candidates.

Kristi: So how many jobs do you anticipate you may be able to bring in?

And even the numbers of people that may move into the region based on kind of big picture goals for the consortium?

Roger Smith: Yeah, I was you know, I was shocked by this number, when we did th analysis and the companies did their analysis, we've promised the state will will provide 1600 new jobs and, everything that we've seen since then backs that up.

There are we have so many good Stem jobs available in this area and it's actually a shortage of candidates that that we have to fix.

Kristi: Really.

Interesting.

Why is glass so important?

Roger Smith: You know, glass has been around 3000 years and it is it will be around for at least another 3000 years.

It is the building.

It is a building block, fo almost everything we do, right.

It provides, food and beverages, without any contamination.

And it's endlessly recyclabl without losing any properties.

There's almost no other material like it.

It provides building material and and windows and windshields, and all those things both protect us and keep us comfortable.

Right.

So when you invest in new windows, that investment both in carbon and cost, pays for itself in a matter of months, but continues for 50 years.

When you invest in insulating, a building or a home, it pays for itself in a matte of about a month or two months.

And but it continues, to lower the carbon footprint and cost of operating that building, you know, for a long as that building's around.

And so glass is is an important building block.

It's often overlooked, especially by, you know, the folks in the government, because it's been aroun for so long, it's so successful.

What possible what possible problems are needed to be solved in class.

But we we have to continue to lower the carbon footprint, the energy usage, and make production more efficient.

Kristi: Well I can't think of anyone better to run the consortium.

So we are grateful that you are here today.

Thanks for joining us, and we're really looking forward to hearing more about the successes of the consortium as you move forward.

Roger Smith: Yeah, I appreciate you inviting me.

Thank you very.

Kristi: Much.

Thanks, Roger.