Rowen’s Living Lab Projects: A New Model for Education, Industry, and Community Growth

At Rowen, our mission has always been about more than building a place; it’s about an invitation to create our shared future, together. Through our new “Living Lab” projects, we’re advancing that mission by launching an ambitious, hands-on innovation ecosystem in the Southeast. Anchored by our 2,000-acre campus in Gwinnett County, Rowen is convening partners across academia, industry, and community to co-create real-world solutions that address today’s most pressing challenges, from climate change to transportation to the responsible use of AI. 

The Living Lab projects are a commitment to the next generation. With $360,000 in seed funding, we support multi-institutional partnerships that bring experiential learning programs to real-life environments, even before the first building rises. These labs are already giving students, researchers, and community members the opportunity to collaborate on the ground and shape innovative solutions with lasting impact. 

 The project launched with three distinct Living Lab projects focused on sustainable transportation, responsible AI, and climate resiliency—each one rooted in Rowen’s programmatic drivers: medicine, agriculture and the environment. 

 “Rowen’s Living Labs represent a transformative opportunity to connect students and researchers directly to the world they’re working to improve,” said Mason Ailstock, President and CEO of the Rowen Foundation. “These aren’t simulations—they’re real partnerships tackling real problems.” 

Advancing Sustainable Transportation in Georgia

In partnership with the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Georgia e-Mobility Network, Rowen is helping catalyze the next generation of clean energy and electric transportation solutions. This Living Lab serves as a testbed for technology innovation and experimentation, curriculum development, and workforce readiness. 

Georgia has become a national leader in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, with over $27.3 billion in private investments and 26,400 new jobs created since 2018. Aligned with Rowen’s participation in the National Science Foundation’s MAGNET Innovation Engine grant, a competitive federal program designed to strengthen regional innovation ecosystems, this program brings together university researchers, local educators, and private-sector partners to prototype sustainable mobility systems and develop training programs for Georgia’s expanding EV workforce. The innovation process includes fields in autonomous vehicles, in-road charging, and smart city technologies. 

By providing a collaborative space to design, test, and refine solutions, this lab accelerates the pathway from classroom to career and helps position Georgia as a leader in the global clean transportation movement. 

Positioning Georgia as a Leader in Responsible AI Innovation

Artificial intelligence is reshaping industries at breakneck speed, and Georgia took on a leadership role thanks to a collaboration between Rowen and the Emory University Center for AI Learning, with support from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. 

Through 2024’s “AI + You” initiative, Rowen supported a statewide tour that brought together policymakers, stakeholders, students, educators, and entrepreneurs to explore the ethical use of AI and its impact on everyday life. 

This tour was timely, as a recent Georgia Chamber of Commerce report predicts that over 60% of Georgia executives will increase their investment in AI technologies over the next three years. “We want to encourage workforce development in the communities in which people live, so it’s important for them to have access to training opportunities within a few miles of their homes,” says Chris Clark, CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. 

The collaboration between Rowen and Emory took a different turn in the Summer of 2025, as students from four colleges and universities engaged with leading AI experts for the AI.Xperience program to review case studies, and received practical tips and tools on integrating AI to improve tasks, creativity, profitability, workforce retention and more. The result: detailed projects and solutions tackling challengers from data center locations to affordable housing in Metro Atlanta to political division.  

Anchored in user-driven innovation and applied research in fields like healthcare, education, and logistics, this initiative brought the AI conversation out of closed rooms with Rowen as a key convenor in Georgia’s responsible AI ecosystem. 

Building Climate Resiliency Through Data-Driven Research

Areas across Georgia—and around the world—are feeling the impact of climate change in the form of extreme heat, flooding, and shifting air and water quality. In response, Rowen is sharing its 2,000-acre site with researchers at the University of Georgia and Weatherstem to launch a Living Lab focused on climate resilience and urban planning. 

Led by Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, MA, of UGA’s Atmospheric Sciences and Geography department, alongside three other colleges focused on ecology, agriculture, and engineering, this initiative uses Rowen’s campus as a living laboratory to study the effects of urban heat islands and surface water runoff, and to discover new solutions.  

This work is critical for regions like Georgia, where urban areas have been shown to experience higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas. The project is fully embedded into UGA coursework, providing an immersive experiential learning program that allows students to co-design potential solutions with researchers and local decision-makers. 

This interdisciplinary research will guide smart development on Rowen’s campus while generating insights that can inform climate-conscious planning in regions across the Southeast.

Living Labs: Bringing Hands-On Opportunity to the Rowen Region

The ongoing expansion of Rowen’s Living Lab projects marks a new chapter, not only for its campus but for how communities, students, and innovators collaborate to solve complex problems and enhance society’s wellbeing. These initiatives are rooted in co-creation, open innovation, and the belief that the best ideas emerge when real-world users from a variety of institutions are part of the process from the start. 

With the support of the University System of Georgia, the Technical College System of Georgia, Gwinnett County, and partners like Emory, UGA, Georgia Gwinnett College and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Rowen is redefining what experiential learning looks like.  

These programs connect talent—from entry to senior level—to cutting-edge research and workforce development opportunities while shaping solutions for issues that affect their lives and communities. 

While still emerging in the U.S., the Living Lab model is well-established globally, especially in Europe, where over 170 labs operate across 40+ countries through the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL). Rowen’s initiative brings this global approach stateside, offering a rare, forward-thinking example at an early stage. 

As these Labs take shape, Rowen stands out as a forward-looking model in the United States and the perfect launch pad for startups, established businesses, research institutions and public-private collaborations. The future is being prototyped at Rowen—be part of the nexus for boundary breakers.