UNLV’s innovation hub pushing industry forward

An thought to assistance alteration UNLV into a hotbed for hospitality innovation started cooking implicit a pizza betwixt friends.

Caesars Entertainment was looking for a probe and improvement lab, a spot wherever the iconic gaming institution could trial slot machines and different caller gambling and hospitality technologies earlier rolling them retired successful their resorts. The taxable that came up implicit luncheon betwixt Robert Rippee, who was teaching astatine UNLV’s Hospitality Innovation Lab, and person and then-Caesars Chief Information Officer Les Ottolenghi.

It’s a speech Rippee remembers vividly, down to the pizza toppings: sundried tomatoes, ricotta food and pepperoni connected bladed crust.

“(Caesars) saw excessively often that the manufacture is excessively reliant connected vendors to bring them caller technology, and they weren’t capable to trial it successful existent environments,” Rippee said.

Rippee brought the thought to Zach Miles, who was astatine the clip UNLV’s vice president of economical development. Miles was looking to physique the archetypal gathering astatine 122-acre Harry Reid Research and Technology Park successful the southwest Las Vegas Valley, immoderate 10 miles from UNLV’s main campus.

“I made the introduction, and present we are, sitting successful the building,” said Rippee, who present serves arsenic the enforcement manager of Black Fire Innovation Hub, the effect of the collaboration betwixt UNLV and Caesars.

Black Fire Innovation Hub represents UNLV’s archetypal foray into the satellite of concern accelerators wherever ideas tin instrumentality signifier and startups flourish, said Bo Bernhard, who took implicit arsenic UNLV’s vice president of economical improvement this twelvemonth aft Miles near for a occupation astatine Oklahoma State.

The gathering opened its doors successful January 2020 with a elemental goal: bringing the assemblage and section concern assemblage unneurotic to trial and make ideas and products successful the gaming and hospitality spaces.

The absorption connected innovation is evident astatine each crook wrong the 43,000-square-foot space. There’s the mock resort, implicit with a casino level and sportsbook, edifice rooms wherever the latest successful UV-sanitizing robots and connected technologies are being tested, and a room and eating area. There’s adjacent “Gita,” a tiny cobot — a collaborative robot — connected wheels that tin travel a stadium brew vendor astir portion carrying the beer, redeeming them from having to transportation it connected their backmost oregon shoulder.

The abstraction goes beyond gambling and hospitality, though. It’s a spot wherever each kinds of exertion tin beryllium tested, from augmented world to astute toilets to adjacent the latest trends successful competitory gaming astatine Black Fire’s esports arena.

It’s not hard to spot wherefore 80 companies present person a abstraction oregon program to person a abstraction astatine Black Fire, including tech giants similar Intel, Panasonic and LG. Those 80 companies person a combined worth of much than $1.134 trillion, according to Bernhard, ranging from Fortune 500 companies down to tiny businesses with conscionable 2 employees.

“It’s a cleanable illustration of wherever industry, wherever nationalist and backstage tin travel unneurotic successful a truly large mode to enactment each other,” said Caesars Entertainment Chief Administrative and Accounting Officer Stephanie Lepori, who oversees Black Fire for the company.

Caesars’ main concern successful the abstraction has been financial, Lepori said. But it besides got the probe and improvement laboratory that had initially helped spark the conversation.

Being capable to trial them retired is incredibly important successful the gaming world, Lepori said, fixed however tightly regulated slot machines are successful Nevada.

“It’s truly an accidental to trial each of those features successful non-live environments to marque definite it’s moving arsenic you expected,” Lepori said.

A antithetic benignant of classroom

The innovation hub is doing much than conscionable helping bring ideas to reality. It’s besides helping crook higher acquisition connected its caput astatine UNLV.

At Black Fire, students interruption distant from the accepted assemblage format wherever a prof reads disconnected their yellowed notes that they’ve utilized for a decennary oregon much successful favour of much progressive engagement, Bernhard said.

“Instead of being passively lectured to, what if your duty was to invent an answer?” helium said.

It’s a exemplary that Rippee’s students person rapidly travel to love.

“The feedback from the participants successful my programs, they perfectly emotion it. They can’t judge we person these facilities. The archetypal clip they locomotion successful they person this look of ‘We’re truly going to person this?’” Rippee said. “It’s truthful well-suited for what we’re doing. It’s the cleanable spot for collaborative, progressive learning.”

Expansion coming

Black Fire is the archetypal and the flagship gathering astatine the Harry Reid Technology Park, but it volition soon person company.

A 2nd gathering is presently nether operation astatine the park, 1 that volition intimately reflector the setup of Black Fire, Bernhard said. The assemblage already has commitments from “two large tech companies” who program to unfastened an bureau astatine the building, Bernhard said, though helium can’t accidental who they are conscionable yet.

A 3rd gathering is being built by tech elephantine T-Mobile, and the 4th planned gathering for the tech parkland volition beryllium focused connected aesculapian technologies.

Contact Colton Lochhead astatine clochhead@reviewjournal.com Follow @ColtonLochhead connected Twitter.