University of Central Missouri, along with the Greater Kansas City MetroLab Partnership, announced the creation of Gigabit Lab in September.

A gigabit network allows for technology to operate at a greater speed of transmission; the lab serves as a hub to develop gigabit applications in education, cybersecurity, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and health care.

Located at the Missouri Innovation Campus in Lee’s Summit, Gigabit Lab welcomes researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs to research and create these advanced applications. In support of that work, a collection of partnerships for Gigabit Lab include the Cisco Smart & Connected Communities initiative in Kansas City, KC Digital Drive, Velocity Lee’s Summit and BridgeSpace coworking space.

“The UCM Gigabit Lab will add to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Lee’s Summit and Kansas City, bringing together startup and innovative companies working on new gigabit applications and services,” said Chuck Cooper of Velocity.

Currently at Gigabit Lab, the focus is on applications and solutions within education and health care. Grants for curriculum development and for teacher and student training are occurring for the Internet of Things as well as cloud-based applications called The Gigabots, both developed through Mozilla grants.

Additionally, virtual reality and augmented reality applications are being developed for health care training in anatomy of the human body, and projects for disease monitoring and awareness (cloud-based).

Sept. 14 marked the official partnership agreement between UCM and KC Digital Drive.

“The response before and after the launch has been great. We have been answering questions from both companies and faculty related to opportunities they would like to explore further,” said Joe Mullins, consultant with workforce and professional development at UCM-Lee’s Summit.