What happens when visual effects, video games, performing arts, immersive technology, and higher education come together in the heart of downtown Fort Worth?

On this episode of Fort Worth Innovates, Cameron Cushman talks with Tim McLaughlin, Dean of Texas A&M University’s College of Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts (PVFA) and Director of the Virtual Production Institute, and David Parrish, Director of PVFA in Fort Worth.

The conversation explores how Texas A&M is expanding its presence in Fort Worth and building new connections between students, researchers, creative industries, technology companies, and the broader innovation ecosystem.

The College of Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts was formally established in 2022, bringing together programs in visualization, performance studies, dance science, music, theater, and emerging fields such as interactive media, computer graphics, and music technology. The college is now expanding that work into Fort Worth through its study-away program, industry partnerships, research, and new facilities planned for the Switchyard Innovation District.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The evolution of Texas A&M’s College of Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts and how programs that have existed for decades came together as a new college in 2022.
• Why Texas A&M brought visualization students to Fort Worth and how the city provides opportunities for internships, research, performances, and industry partnerships.
• The PVFA study-away program, which allows students to spend a semester outside College Station gaining experience through internships, other universities, international programs, or the Fort Worth campus.
• Career opportunities beyond Hollywood, including gaming, animation, visual effects, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, simulation, training, and other industries using immersive and interactive technologies. - Texas A&M’s relationship with Probably Monsters, the video game development company that helped provide an early industry connection for the Fort Worth program.
• The unique downtown Fort Worth facility where Texas A&M students share a building with a game development studio, including a digital studio classroom and teaching virtual production stage.
• The planned PVFA facility in the Switchyard Innovation District, which is expected to include a large virtual production stage, classroom and studio space, and a performance-capable black-box environment.
• And, in a bonus conversation, what it was really like working at Industrial Light & Magic, including Tim and David's experiences working on films such as Star Wars Episode I, The Lost World, The Perfect Storm, Galaxy Quest, and Jumanji.

As Texas A&M continues developing its Fort Worth campus and the Switchyard Innovation District takes shape, PVFA represents one piece of a much larger experiment: bringing academia, technology, research, creative industries, and entrepreneurship into close proximity.

And for Fort Worth, that could mean a growing role in the future of virtual production, immersive technology, gaming, animation, visual effects, performing arts, and creative technology.

What does innovation look like when you're transforming an entire downtown?

On this episode of Fort Worth Innovates, Cameron Cushman sits down with Andy Taft, President of Downtown Fort Worth, Inc., to explore how collaboration, research, experimentation, and long-term vision are shaping the future of downtown Fort Worth.

Andy shares the story of how Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. has helped transform the city's urban core over the past two decades and why innovation will be critical to Fort Worth's continued growth.

The conversation covers Downtown Fort Worth's role in helping bring Texas A&M's expanded presence to downtown and laying the groundwork for the Switchyard Innovation District, as well as the importance of research and data in making better decisions about the city's future.

Andy also shares one of Fort Worth's most unexpected innovation stories: how a persistent grackle problem downtown ultimately led to a data-driven series of experiments, a partnership with local falconers, and even a change to federal falconry regulations. The result became a natural solution that has since been adopted by other cities along the grackles' migratory corridor.

The conversation also looks ahead at some of downtown's most ambitious projects, including the transformation of Burnett Park, General Worth Square, Paddock Park and Heritage Plaza, the proposed Canopy Walk connecting downtown to the Trinity River, the future of the former Central Library site, expanded transit capacity around the Switchyard Innovation District, and the continued development of Panther Island.

Andy offers a compelling vision for Fort Worth's future: a city that builds on its history of entrepreneurship and innovation while creating a more connected, walkable, vibrant, and waterfront-oriented downtown.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• How Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. has helped transform the city's urban core
• Why Andy considers Fort Worth a city built on generations of innovation and entrepreneurship
• Downtown Fort Worth's early role in advancing Texas A&M's expanded downtown presence
• The development of the Switchyard Innovation District
• How research and data are being used to guide downtown development
• The surprisingly innovative solution to Fort Worth's historic grackle problem
• Why experimentation, measurement, and iteration are essential to solving complex problems
• The transformation of downtown parks and public spaces
• The vision for Heritage Plaza, Paddock Park, and the Canopy Walk
• What's next for the former Central Library site and downtown's future community arts center
• Planning for expanded transit capacity as downtown and the Switchyard Innovation District grow
• The future of Panther Island and Fort Worth's potential as a waterfront city
• Why public-private partnerships and civic collaboration are among Fort Worth's greatest innovations

To learn more, visit www.dfwi.org

Fort Worth Innovates is produced by Kendel Rogers and hosted by Cameron Cushman, with support from the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership and the Switchyard Innovation District.

What if the future of healthcare isn't just about treating disease—but preventing it before it starts?

On this episode of Fort Worth Innovates, Cameron Cushman sits down with Erica Bender, Program Director for the Health Evaluation Research Services Unit at Texas A&M AgriLife's Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA).

Erica brings a unique perspective to the conversation. Before moving into clinical research, she spent more than a decade as a nurse practitioner and certified nurse-midwife. Now, she works at the intersection of clinical research, nutrition, agriculture, health, and innovation—helping researchers turn scientific questions into real-world health outcomes.

The IHA brings together experts in precision nutrition, responsive agriculture, healthy living, data science, engineering, economics, behavioral science, and public health to tackle complex health challenges.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• What the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture does and why Texas A&M created an institute connecting agriculture, food systems and human health.
• Why our food system could play a much larger role in addressing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
• Precision nutrition and why the same food can affect two people very differently.
• How researchers are working toward more personalized dietary recommendations based on a person's biology, lifestyle and stage of life.
• The IHA's mobile health assessment centers, which allow researchers to bring clinical research directly into communities—including rural areas that might otherwise be underrepresented in research.

The goal is to create an environment where ideas can move more quickly from research → collaboration → discovery → application, while creating new opportunities for researchers, businesses and the broader community.

If you're interested in Fort Worth innovation, Texas A&M Fort Worth, health research, precision nutrition, clinical research, entrepreneurship, or the future of healthcare, this is an episode worth listening to.

Fort Worth Innovates is supported by the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership, which is helping build an innovation district where technology and research come together to build the future of Fort Worth.

How can medicine move beyond treating diseases the same way for every patient?

In this episode of Fort Worth Innovates, Cameron Cushman sits down with Dr. Anke Hilse Maitland-van der Zee, Professor of Personalized Medicine and Head of the Department of Genetics at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands. Visiting Fort Worth through Texas A&M Fort Worth's speaker series, Dr. Maitland-van der Zee shares how precision medicine, biomarkers, artificial intelligence, and global research partnerships are reshaping the future of healthcare.

The conversation explores how advances in genetics, microbiome research, and AI are helping physicians move from one-size-fits-all treatments toward personalized care tailored to each patient's unique biology and environment. Dr. Maitland-van der Zee also discusses why collaboration between universities, healthcare systems, industry, and researchers across the globe is essential to bringing new diagnostics and therapies from the lab to patients.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What precision medicine really means—and why it's changing healthcare
• How biomarkers help physicians diagnose and treat disease more effectively
• The growing role of genetics, microbiome research, and environmental factors in personalized medicine
• How AI is accelerating medical research and clinical decision-making
• Why early disease detection could dramatically improve patient outcomes
• The importance of international collaboration between researchers, universities, and industry
• How Texas A&M Fort Worth is helping connect global experts to North Texas' growing innovation ecosystem
• What the future of healthcare could look like as precision medicine becomes part of everyday clinical practice

Whether you're interested in healthcare innovation, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, medical research, or the future of personalized care, this episode offers an inside look at one of the fastest-growing frontiers in medicine.

Listen now to discover how precision medicine is transforming healthcare—and why Fort Worth is becoming part of that global conversation.

How Texas A&M Fort Worth Plans to Transform the City's Innovation Economy

What does it take to build an innovation economy that benefits an entire region?

In this episode of Fort Worth Innovates, host Cameron Cushman sits down with Bobby Ahdieh, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Chief Operating Officer for Texas A&M University–Fort Worth and former Dean of Texas A&M School of Law, to discuss how higher education can serve as a catalyst for innovation, entrepreneurship, research commercialization, and long-term economic growth.

Bobby shares the vision behind the emerging Texas A&M Fort Worth campus and explains why innovation districts are about much more than new buildings—they're about creating environments where universities, industry, entrepreneurs, investors, and community leaders work together to solve real-world challenges.

The conversation explores why there isn't a single place you can point to and call "innovation," using Silicon Valley as an example of how thriving ecosystems emerge through collaboration across an entire region. Bobby also discusses how Texas A&M Fort Worth aims to become a hub that accelerates research, attracts investment, creates high-paying jobs, and expands economic opportunity throughout Fort Worth and North Texas.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, civic leader, student, researcher, or simply interested in the future of Fort Worth, this episode offers an inside look at one of the city's most ambitious economic development initiatives.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Texas A&M is investing in Fort Worth's innovation ecosystem
• The vision behind the Texas A&M Fort Worth campus
• How innovation districts fuel entrepreneurship and economic development
• Why collaboration between universities, industry, and government matters
• Lessons from Silicon Valley that can be applied to North Texas
• How research commercialization creates jobs and attracts investment
• What the future of innovation looks like in Fort Worth

If you enjoy conversations about innovation, entrepreneurship, research, and the future of Fort Worth, be sure to follow Fort Worth Innovates and share this episode with someone who's passionate about building the next generation of North Texas innovation.

What does it take to build an innovation economy that attracts talent, creates jobs, and transforms a city for generations to come?

In this episode of Fort Worth Innovates, host Cameron Cushman sits down with Dean Bobby Ahdieh to discuss the bold vision behind Texas A&M Fort Worth and its role in shaping the future of innovation, research, and economic development in Panther City.

As Texas A&M expands its presence in downtown Fort Worth and the Switchyard Innovation District begins to take shape, the city has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a world-class ecosystem where higher education, industry, startups, and entrepreneurs converge.

This conversation explores why innovation districts matter, how universities serve as economic engines, and what it will take for Fort Worth to compete with leading innovation hubs across the country.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Texas A&M Fort Worth is investing in an innovation district
• How universities drive entrepreneurship, research commercialization, and economic growth
• The role of innovation districts in attracting talent and creating high-paying jobs
• Why collaboration between industry, academia, and government is essential to regional success
• What the future could look like for Fort Worth's innovation ecosystem

Whether you're an entrepreneur, business leader, student, policymaker, or simply passionate about the future of Fort Worth, this episode offers an inside look at the opportunities ahead and the vision that could reshape the city's economy for decades to come.

Learn more about Texas A&M Fort Worth here: https://fort-worth.tamus.edu/

Learn more about the Fort Worth - Tarrant County Innovation Partnership here: https://fwtc-innovate.com/

What does it take to build an innovation district that transforms a city?

In this episode of Fort Worth Innovates, Cameron Cushman sits down with Michael Bennett and Alex Feldman to explore the vision behind the Switchyard Innovation District and what it could mean for Fort Worth's future. Drawing from decades of experience developing innovation districts across the country, they discuss how research institutions, startups, entrepreneurs, investors, and community partners can come together to create places that drive economic growth, attract talent, and accelerate innovation.

The conversation explores the essential ingredients of successful innovation districts, including walkability, density, mixed-use development, talent pipelines, and strong connections between universities and industry. Michael and Alex share lessons learned from innovation ecosystems around the world and explain how Fort Worth is uniquely positioned to build an innovation district that reflects the city's culture, strengths, and long-term economic goals.

They also discuss the transformative role of the new Texas A&M Fort Worth campus, the importance of place-based innovation, and why creating opportunities for collaboration can lead to new businesses, groundbreaking research, and high-quality jobs.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, researcher, investor, student, policymaker, or simply curious about the future of Fort Worth, this episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at how innovation districts are reshaping cities and why Switchyard could become a catalyst for the next generation of growth in North Texas.

How is one of the world’s busiest airports using AI, automation, and advanced mobility to shape the future of travel?

In this episode of Fort Worth Innovates, host Cameron Cushman sits down with Paul Puopolo, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, to explore how innovation is transforming the passenger experience at one of the largest and busiest airports on the planet.

From AI-powered congestion prediction and autonomous vehicles to biometric screening, smart parking systems, and the future of flying taxis, Paul shares how DFW Airport is leveraging emerging technologies to improve efficiency, reduce friction, and prepare for the next generation of mobility.

The conversation also dives into how airports collaborate with startups, why innovation requires dedicated leadership, and how North Texas is positioning itself as a global leader in aviation, aerospace, and advanced air mobility.

Whether you're interested in technology, entrepreneurship, smart cities, transportation, aviation, or the future of innovation in Texas, this episode offers an inside look at how one of the world's most complex transportation hubs is reinventing travel.

Learn more about DFW Airport: https://www.dfwairport.com/

Learn more about Fort Worth-Tarrant County Partnership: https://fwtc-innovate.com/

What does it actually take to build an innovation district that transforms a city?

In our newest episode of Fort Worth Innovates, Cameron Cushman sits down with Dr. David Snow, Executive Director of Pegasus Park, to explore how innovation hubs drive entrepreneurship, attract talent, create jobs, and generate billions in economic impact.

From biotech startups and research commercialization to workforce development and place-based innovation, this conversation dives deep into how ecosystems like Pegasus Park are reshaping the future of North Texas — and what Fort Worth can learn as it builds its own innovation economy.

Some of the topics covered: ✈️ Why innovation districts matter for long-term economic growth 🧬 How biotech startups scale inside collaborative ecosystems 🏙️ The role of universities, investors, and entrepreneurs in creating “sticky” innovation communities 📈 Why science parks outperform traditional commercial development 🤝 How Fort Worth’s emerging innovation districts could shape the city’s future for decades

If you care about the future of Fort Worth, entrepreneurship, research, startups, biotech, aerospace, or economic development — this is an episode you don’t want to miss.

🎧 Listen now, follow our page for more conversations on innovation in Fort Worth, and share this episode with someone building the future in North Texas.

Learn more about Pegasus Park here: https://pegasuspark.com/

Learn more about the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership here: https://fwtc-innovate.com/

In this episode of Fort Worth Innovates, host Cameron Cushman sits down with Raanan Horowitz, former President and CEO of Elbit America, to explore how a small startup evolved into a $1.6 billion leader in aerospace and defense technology. With decades of experience in innovation, national security, and advanced engineering, Raanan shares how Elbit built cutting-edge solutions—from enhanced flight vision systems to mission-critical defense technologies—by focusing on the needs of the end user and embracing an iterative approach to innovation.

The conversation dives into what truly drives innovation inside high-stakes industries like aerospace and defense, including the shift from traditional “waterfall” development to faster, feedback-driven iteration. Raanan also highlights the importance of workforce development, emphasizing the need to not only train skilled engineers but to connect them directly to real-world problems and mission-driven work. His perspective sheds light on how companies can attract talent that is both technically capable and deeply motivated to make an impact.

Looking ahead, the episode explores the future of aviation and defense, including advancements in AI, digital twin technology, human-machine integration, and even urban air mobility. From autonomous systems to innovations happening at DFW Airport, Raanan offers a compelling vision of what’s next—and why the timing is right for Fort Worth to lead. Whether you’re interested in entrepreneurship, emerging technology, or the future of aerospace, this episode offers valuable insights into how innovation is built, scaled, and sustained.

Learn more about Elbit America here: https://www.elbitamerica.com/

Learn more about the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership here: https://fwtc-innovate.com/