To kick off the Texas edition of the “Competitiveness Conversations Across America” series — taking place under the auspices of the “National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers” — the Cohosts framed the grand challenges and opportunities facing Texas and the United States, with a specific focus on the imperative of critical infrastructure security (CIS) for U.S. competitiveness.
Dr. Taylor Eighmy, President of University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and Acting President of UT Health San Antonio, opened by outlining UTSA’s role in fostering innovation through initiatives such as San Pedro 1, which includes the university’s Data Science Center — a school that hosts 16 UTSA research centers, institutes and college-level labs, including the MATRIX AI Consortium for Human Well-being and the Open Cloud Institute—as well as the university’s expanding presence in downtown San Antonio.
“The world is going to need San Antonio in an incredible way with the rise of great power conflicts”
Dr. Taylor Eighmy
President
University of Texas at San Antonio;
Acting President
UT Health San Antonio
Beyond UTSA’s local initiatives, he discussed the necessity of maintaining competitiveness at the university, the city, and the state of Texas, making building an innovation-driven economy a coordinated strategic priority. President Eighmy complimented the Council’s flagship National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers’ Competitiveness Conversations Across America series for supporting this larger vision, not only in Texas but around the country, by working to redefine how every region in the United States innovates and increases productivity. This focus on innovation is particularly relevant in an era of rapid digital transformation, where the explosion of global data and the increasing connectivity of billions of devices were reshaping how we live and every industry.
According to Dr. Eighmy, a critical aspect of this transformation is the rise of the “5th Industrial Revolution,” characterized by human-digital connections, digital twins, and AI integration. He explained that the digital world is becoming the most important frontier, and securing it had to be a top priority. UTSA played a key role in the expansion of the digital ecosystem through projects such as CyManII, which focused on securing digital twins in manufacturing. The university’s new College of AI, Cyber, and Computing further built on this foundation by combining foundational disciplines with applied research in IT, logistics, and AI-driven applications.
Looking beyond Texas, he turned to the crucial economic ties between the United States and Mexico. Strengthening this relationship was essential for U.S. competitiveness, particularly considering increasing tensions with China. Deepening connections with Mexico and Canada would help the United States navigate these global power struggles while ensuring continued economic growth. Ultimately, he argued places like San Antonio were essential to securing the United States’ innovative and competitive future, making investments in regional innovation a national imperative.
“San Antonio has to accept the responsibility of its geography as a regional anchor of America.”
The Hon. Deborah Wince-Smith
President and Chief Executive Officer
Council on Competitiveness and National Commission Co-Chair
Following Dr. Eighmy’s remarks, the Hon. Deborah Wince-Smith opened the discussion by outlining San Antonio’s critical role in the national security enterprise, particularly given the resurgence of great power rivalries. San Antonio’s geography, she noted, makes it particularly important to the security of the United States. San Antonio sits at the geographic center of North America, and is a crucial accessway to Mexico and South America, as well as Atlantic and Pacific ports. By virtue of being this geographic center, San Antonio must accept its responsibility of being a regional innovation anchor for the nation.
Turning to the broader landscape of innovation in the United States, Ms. Wince-Smith revealed a pressing concern: although regional innovation ecosystems were emerging, the expansion of the U.S. innovation economy was not occurring fast enough to maintain competitiveness in an increasingly fierce global environment. Texas plays an important role America’s innovation capacity and capability, and in the Texas edition of the Competitiveness Conversation Across America series, the Council is focused on exploring how Texas has succeeded in becoming a hub of critical infrastructure and cybersecurity.
Resilience, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure security, she explained, had long been central to the Council’s mission. She recalled that in 2004, the Council had declared, “To out compute is to out compete,” and protecting our digital resources is essential to U.S. competitiveness. In this sense, investing in digital security is a productivity enhancer, not a cost burden. During and following the COVID-19 pandemic, cyberattacks had escalated dramatically, particularly against American pharmaceutical companies. These attacks are a massive threat to the U.S. innovation enterprise because they expose our innovator’s intellectual property. One striking example she cited was China’s theft of sensitive data from a major company, which remained hidden for two years on a Dunkin’ Donuts server. Given the dramatic consequences of cyberattacks, investing in infrastructure security yielded significant economic returns, with every dollar invested in cybersecurity resulting in a sevenfold return. Cybersecurity is not a technical necessity, “it is an economic and security imperative for our way of life.”
In her closing, Ms. Wince-Smith urged a deeper appreciation for San Antonio’s potential as a nexus of security, innovation, and economic growth. The city is a confluence of critical assets, with its unique ability to contribute to national security and technological advancement.
