Florida
‘A buzzing hive’: Florida Tech relaunching underused CAMID space as Vertex, a high-tech hub
During Florida Institute of Technology President John Nicklow’s interview activities leading up to his April 2023 hiring, he toured CAMID, the university’s sprawling 100,494-square-foot manufacturing-design complex on Palm Bay Road.
“Initially, I was so excited. ‘We have this facility out here, and it’s fantastic.’ And then I went inside — and I thought, ‘It’s half empty,’ ” Nicklow recalled.
“And it could be so much more,” he said.
To that end, Florida Tech has relaunched the underutilized Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovative Design as Vertex, a new “applied innovation hub.” Rather than function as a traditional academic building, Vertex’s office space, manufacturing and clean rooms will host business tenants, contracted research and development work, facility rentals, workforce training and more.
“If we do our jobs right, and you come back a year from now, this place is going to be a buzzing hive,” Vertex Executive Director Samantha Miles said, seated in a second-floor conference room inside the complex.
Born in Melbourne Beach and hired in November, Miles previously held leadership positions with a research company and a business school in Dubai in the United Emirates; served as student experience coordinator at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia; and held student-centric posts at Florida Atlantic University.
“Right now, we’re in a big transition period. Because not only are we improving the space and making it more industry-facing, we’re redesigning our labs. We’re redesigning our communal spaces. We’re upgrading our equipment A-to-Z,” Miles said.
As of today, Vertex houses CAMID, the Florida Tech Research Institute and four businesses: the Larsen Motorsports jet dragster racing team; SafeSky Systems USA and Zeal OTM (drone and surveillance companies); and Solar Transport Systems (a solar-powered electric car company).
Miles said unused second-story space above the Larsen Motorsports shop is under construction for future drone testing and for a composites laboratory. This area will also house ASCEND, an acronym for AeroSpace Cybersecurity ENgineering Development. In June, Florida Tech announced it will receive $5 million in state funding for ASCEND.
“A pet peeve of mine is when we’ve not capitalized properly or fully on an asset — in this case, space. And so, that was the idea: How could this best be used to serve our community, to serve the institution?” Nicklow asked.
Intersil donated building, land in 2013
Vertex is located off the intersection of Palm Bay Road and Robert J. Conlan Boulevard, about a 3½-mile drive from the Melbourne-based STEM university campus.
Harris Semiconductor constructed the building in 1977. It later housed Intersil Corp. integrated-circuit and telecommunications facilities for government, defense, aerospace and commercial programs until 2009 — the building was known as Fab 54.
In September 2013, Intersil donated the complex and five acres of land with nearly 300 parking spaces to Florida Tech — a gift valued at $13.1 million. This large-scale donation occurred during a Florida Tech expansion era when the university added facilities and programs on- and off-campus.
Florida Tech’s nearby Panther Bay apartment complex had just opened that year on Palm Bay Road, a little more than a mile to the west. And the new Panthers football team also debuted in September 2013 with a 20-13 win over Stetson at Palm Bay High’s Pirate Stadium. The football program got dropped for fiscal reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Florida Tech announced a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration in October 2015 to open the former Intersil complex as CAMID. Installed equipment includes computer-driven manufacturing equipment like a prototype fabrication bay, microelectronics tools, water-jet and plasma metal-cutting bays, and 3D printers.
Jason Jones operates SafeSky Systems USA and Zeal OTM, and he builds drones inside Vertex. He displayed a black quadcopter drone that recently flew over flame-blackened wildfire areas near Pasadena, California.
“With what we’re doing and the way the center’s growing, it gives us capabilities that we never thought we’d have,” Jones said.
Vertex to open for tours on March 28
Florida Tech officials will offer free tours of Vertex during an Innovation Ecosystem Expo from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 28.
The address is 2495 Palm Bay Road N.E., and the public is invited. The expo includes an indoor-outdoor showcase featuring booths from Vertex partners, along with 30-minute workshops.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
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Florida
US appeals court strikes down key part of Florida law restricting campus race and gender discussions
A federal appeals panel struck down a significant chunk of Ron DeSantis’s so-called Stop Woke Act on Tuesday, delivering another rebuff to the Republican Florida governor’s efforts to stifle free speech in higher education.
In a scathing order, judges of the 11th circuit court of appeal said by a 2-1 majority that the higher education component of the law – which prevented college and university professors teaching or sharing thoughts on concepts of race and gender – breached the free expression rights guaranteed under the US constitution’s first amendment.
It accused the state of “puppeteering”: making the educators their mouthpieces by controlling what they can say or teach.
“Because the government pays the professors’ salaries, Florida says, their speech is the state’s speech,” Britt Grant, a Donald Trump-appointed judge who wrote the majority opinion, said. “Emphatically no.
“Florida’s salary-for-speech rule is a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the state’s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry – classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth.”
It added: “The ideas Florida targets may well be noxious. Or maybe not. Either way, in this context the first amendment trusts students to figure it out for themselves.”
The ruling removes a flagship element of DeSantis’s second-term agenda aimed at perceived leftwing ideology on Florida’s state-run higher education campuses. Passed in 2022, the Stop Woke Act, formally branded the Individual Freedom Act, restricted how race and gender could be taught in schools and colleges, and discussed in the workplace.
Tuesday’s decision mirrors the same appeals court’s 2024 ruling blocking the workplace provision of the law on the grounds that the state was attempting, unconstitutionally, to recharacterize protected free speech as conduct it could ban.
It reinforces a district court’s November 2022 injunction against implementation of the law at Florida’s colleges and universities – and represents a considerable victory for civil rights and free speech advocacy groups that launched the legal action.
The lawsuit’s named plaintfill – LeRoy Pernell, a professor at Florida A&M University’s college of law – welcomed the ruling.
“We are thrilled the court has stopped the erasure of topics that have real implications for our students, allowing them to learn, discuss, and develop tools for combatting the complex issue of racism in our country without being gagged by those who would dictate that only state-approved thought may be promoted,” he said in a statement.
Jin Hee Lee, director of strategic initiatives at the Legal Defense Fund, said the Stop Woke Act was an “egregious” effort by the DeSantis administration to try to force the public higher education system in Florida to adopt the viewpoints of those in power.
“It is no coincidence that this state law aimed to censor the perspectives of Black people and LGBTQ+ people, the very same people who are currently under attack,” Lee said.
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“With this decision, the federal appeals court has made clear that Florida cannot actively erase their history of discrimination or their lived experiences without running afoul of our constitution.”
Carrie McNamara, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, also hailed the ruling as a victory for free speech.
“By upholding the district court’s ruling, the 11th circuit ensured that our system of higher education is guided by the principle of free speech, not government censorship,” she said.
“Our classrooms are meant to be rooms of curiosity, creativity, and learning. When we stifle this kind of critical thinking, we risk losing our education system as we know it.”
There was no immediate reaction to the ruling from the DeSantis administration or Florida’s unelected attorney general, James Uthmeier, the governor’s former chief of staff elevated by DeSantis in February 2025.
Florida
Miami ranks among top U.S. cities for debt collection calls as Florida places near top, study finds
Miami residents are among the Americans most likely to receive debt collection calls, according to a new study examining Federal Trade Commission complaint data.
The NumberBarn analysis ranked Miami fourth among the nation’s largest metro areas for debt collection complaints after adjusting for population. Florida also ranked fourth among all states for debt collection complaints per capita.
Nationwide, consumers filed more than 471,000 debt collection complaints with the FTC in 2025, more than twice the total reported a year earlier. Nearly 47% of those complaints described collectors as abusive, threatening or harassing.
Researchers caution that not every complaint involves a legitimate debt collector. Many consumers reported they believed the debt was inaccurate or that the calls were part of a scam.
Florida ranked behind Georgia, Texas and Louisiana for debt collection complaints per capita, underscoring the growing number of Floridians reporting issues with collection calls.
Among major metropolitan areas, Atlanta ranked first, followed by Dallas and Houston, with Miami placing fourth nationally. Miami also ranked among the five metro areas with the highest overall volume of complaints filed during 2025.
Researchers say the sharp increase in complaints may reflect rising household debt, more aggressive collection activity and greater public awareness of the FTC’s complaint system.
The study found Americans between ages 30 and 39 filed the largest number of complaints last year, followed by those ages 40 to 49 and 20 to 29, groups often managing mortgages, credit card balances, student loans and other major financial obligations.
Tips for consumers
Experts recommend taking several steps if you receive repeated debt collection calls:
- Ask the collector to provide written verification of the debt.
- Never give out sensitive financial information until you’ve confirmed the caller is legitimate.
- Learn your protections under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
- Report abusive or suspicious calls to the FTC.
- Consider using call-blocking features available through your phone carrier or a trusted app.
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