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It's simply known as the accelerator and it's the newest tool provided by the university
of Southern Mississippi to provide an enormous boost to start up businesses in the gulf south
region, officially named the national material science innovation and commercialization accelerator,
the 60,000 square foot state of the art facility is located on land which was once the Southern
Miss golf course. According to President Martha Saunders, the accelerator demonstrates the
university's willingness to think creatively while acting boldly. She says this business
incubator began as a simple idea more than ten years ago and is now an environment where
business owners have an opportunity to see their ideas grow and thrive. Sentiments shared
by U.S. senator, Thad Cochran. When you bring the best minds you have in science to develop
new things it's encouraging and we still have imagination and we can bring that to bear
on solving problems that benefit average Americans. The accelerator is presently operating its'
60 percent capacity providing offices, labs, the latest technologies, as well as expert
guidance aimed at growing businesses from the ground up. Right now there are six anchor
tenants including Abletech, which is a company working on a cancer cure. KDL solutions, a
forensic science company providing information to clients. Insight genesis which provides
which develops stimuli responsive coatings and film adhesives. According to a study conducted
by the national business incubator association, 87 percent of companies which work through
an incubator remain within their founding communities. A statistic which bode well for
the accelerator at Southern Miss and for bringing new jobs to south Mississippi. On the campus
of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, I'm Stephen Rouse.