Arizona’s research universities do more than just produce graduates. They’re creating economic engines. Across the state, a growing number of startups are driving commercial innovation in aerospace, semiconductors and other high-tech sectors.

Phoenix-based nanomaterials coatings firm Swift Coat is one of them. Co-founded by Peter Firth in 2016 while studying at Arizona State University (ASU), the company has grown from a lab-based startup to a profitable eight-person operation. Firth credits his alma mater’s investment of time, resources and expertise in helping to scale Swift Coat.

“There’s genuinely this philosophy that their success is based on the success of their startups and the technologies that they’re funding," he says of the institution.

ASU is just one of 30 state institutions fueling this lab-to-market pipeline, which includes the University of Arizona (U of A), Northern Arizona University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Grand Canyon University, as well as the state’s ten community college districts.

According to the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA), the state’s leading economic development organization, Arizona institutions granted 17,673 degrees and certificates in 2023, leading to a pool of technology and innovation workers exceeding 102,000 in 2024.

“Arizona’s academic partners are essential to our state’s success - strengthening our workforce, driving innovation, and enhancing our global competitiveness,” says Sandra Watson, President and CEO of the ACA.

The work doesn’t end at graduation. Arizona’s universities have built an ecosystem designed to keep talent and innovation in-state - while attracting the best from around the world. Firth, for one, carries this ethos into his own operation.

“I think we all take the same philosophy that ASU has — anyone being successful in Arizona is helpful for everyone being successful in Arizona,” he says.

Ahead, discover how Arizona’s universities are helping innovative minds turn lectures and lab work into real-world breakthroughs in the science and tech sectors.

Arizona’s Education: Building The Workforce That Builds The Future

As Arizona cements its reputation as a next-generation tech hub, its universities are delivering a new kind of graduate: one who leaves campus with academic depth, hands-on skills and entrepreneurial instincts.

“This fusion of content knowledge and skills is what really makes people potent,” says Zachary Holman, vice dean for research and innovation at ASU’s Fulton Schools of Engineering and a co-founder of Swift Coat.

A multifaceted skillset is fostered in labs, senior design projects and the classroom itself, says Holman. For example, ASU’s adjunct faculty from leading semiconductor and technology firms teach courses that incorporate industry challenges in the curriculum.

At the U of A, preparation for the outside world goes deep. Through the school’s Tech Launch Arizona , an initiative that commercializes university research for real-world impact, associate vice president Doug Hockstad runs a philanthropist-backed fund that doubles as a teaching tool and puts students in the room where investment decisions get made.

“We decided that a key part of it would be to teach students how to evaluate companies asking for money,” Hockstad explains. “We’re giving students a new skill that they can apply in the world.”

These skills, Holman says, bring value back to the universities themselves.

“Your students graduate, they get jobs at cool companies, and then they come back to you years later and say: ‘My company is having this problem, and I realize that you are the person who can help me solve it,’” Holman says. “It creates this flywheel.”

Arizona’s Academic R&D: From Research Lab To Real World Application

Research is the lifeblood of any great university, and Arizona’s research institutions are working to ensure that the discoveries made on its campuses find their way into the real world.

According to Hockstad, the U of A’s annual investment tops $1 billion across optical sciences, engineering, medicine, mining, space and national defense.

“These technologies are unique … often groundbreaking, paradigm-shifting type of technologies, things that you will not find in other places,” he says.

At ASU, Holman approaches R&D through what he calls the “three Ps”.

“Papers, patents, people [are] standing in for knowledge, tech transfer and human capital enabled by research at the university,” he says.

Every discovery, Hockstad explains, should find its maximum potential value — as a licensed technology, a published breakthrough or knowledge carried by an engineer into a company that can take it to market. This holistic philosophy spurs investment in physical infrastructure, most notably ASU’s MacroTechnology Works facility, a former semiconductor fabrication plant repurposed into one of the country’s most capable university-based research facilities.

“Unique research is often enabled by unique tools,” Holman says. “ASU has done a good job in identifying areas where we can be competitive statewide and investing in research infrastructure and tools that enable innovation.”

Arizona’s Commercialization: Turning Breakthroughs Into Businesses

The true test of any innovation ecosystem isn’t what gets discovered; it’s what gets built. In Arizona, a growing number of university-born companies are making that leap, backed by an infrastructure designed to carry them from idea to execution.

“Your students graduate, they get jobs at cool companies, and then they come back to you years later and say: ‘My company is having this problem, and I realize that you are the person who can help me solve it.’ It creates this flywheel.” Zachary Holman, Vice Dean, Research And Innovation, Arizona State University, Fulton Schools Of Engineering And Co-Founder, Swift Coat

Consider Swift Coat, the nanomaterial coatings company whose technology is now in growing demand across the aerospace, solar and semiconductor industries. Without his experience at ASU, co-founder Firth says Swift Coat might never have launched as a viable business.

“The university put me in this class that was full of students that were developing technologies,” Firth recalls. “The class taught you how to build a business plan around that technology and how to identify commercial opportunities and how to pitch to investors.”

Over that year, Firth says Swift Coat collected roughly $250,000 in prize money at pitch competitions nationwide. When a federal grant was later threatened because the company lacked its own facilities, he says ASU stepped in with lab access, equipment agreements and affordable rates.

“What ASU did for us, and I believe that they do for other companies, [is] providing targeted support [until you] find that first investor or that first customer and start climbing out of that valley,” Firth says.

At the University of Arizona, Hockstad says he’s built a similar ecosystem with a development fund that, for nearly 12 years, has supported startups and invested in early-stage companies.

“We’ve had over 150 startups launched [and] we've had several companies that have been acquired or continue to have revenue,” he says. “That's the whole goal of what we're doing.”

With its proven pipeline from university to commercial markets and a growing, world-class talent pool, Arizona’s innovation story is just getting started.