Lance Collins is the is the inaugural vice president and executive director of the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus. Set to open in Spring 2025, the new state-of-the-art campus was announced by the university as part of the state’s successful effort to attract Amazon’s HQ2 to Northern Virginia, and aims to produce talented computer scientists and software engineers who will drive growth in the region's tech industry. On today's episode, Lance argues that investing in innovation is key to achieving the economic growth observed in other regions, and describes how this issue only gains importance as much of the current workforce nears retirement.

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