Expansion At ISU Research Park . - Iowa State University

and Specialty Excavation Solutions atVermeer, said last fall. “While careeropportunities are plentiful for softwareengineers today, Vermeer believes thereis a highly skilled, technical population atIowa State who would also be inspiredby the tangibility of turning the wrenchesand seeing how the software comes tolife. That’s what the Vermeer AppliedTechnology Hub will be all about.”The building will “be a hotspot ofideation for the way we design,manufacture, and support the equipmentand the customers who buy it,” addedMark Core, Vermeer’s vice presidentand chief marketing officer. “Not onlydoes this create opportunities for fulltime students at Iowa State to haveclose-to-campus, real-life experience,including part-time work and internships,but it also creates an offsite, desirablelocation for full-time Vermeer teammembers seeking to live in Ames orpursue additional education throughIowa State University.”The Iowa State University Research Parkwas created with the idea of fosteringties and collaboration between theuniversity and Iowa industries. Theintention now is for those ties to deepen.The new core facility will be the“catalyst for a lot of greater thingsto come,” said Michael Crum, IowaState’s vice president for economicdevelopment and business engagement.Doyle said any time frame for PhaseThree construction beyond the corefacility will be based on job creation.“It’s our hope that we’ll build out severalof the lots right away, and from the jobscreated on those lots, we’d be able to dothe same thing again . . . and construct aPhase Four,” she said. Under the currentmaster plan, completion would take up to10 years.more information, contact Forthe ISU Research Park at515-296-PARK (7275) orwww.isupark.org/contact.ISU Career Fairs Offer Major Forum forMatching Students, BusinessesPhoebe Sexton had obtained a master’s degreein journalism and worked in Boston, New York,and Dallas before deciding that media wasn’t thecareer for her. She returned to Iowa State in 2014as an adult mechanical engineering student, and itwas in the course of researching job prospects inher first semester back that she attended the fallIowa State Engineering Career Fair.Phoebe Sexton“They didn’t really have anything like this for journalism students,” said Sexton, 31,who has since refocused her goal and now is majoring in materials engineering.“In terms of the magnitude . . . it was all new to me.”Career fairs are an important step in the job-hunting process, providing valuable networking opportunities between businesses and students at all levels—from first- andsecond-year students seeking internships to soon-to-be grads entering the work world.Brian Larson, director of Engineering Career Services, said this fall’s career fair willhave close to 350 employers and at least 5,700 students in attendance. The College ofEngineering estimates that employers will hold more than 1,500 interviews leading upto the job fair. Eighty-five percent ofpast participating employers say IowaState’s career fairs play a significantHere are the Iowa State University fallrole in their college recruiting process.career fair dates and locations, alongCareer Fair DatesCareer fairs are open to all Iowa Statestudents and other job seekers, including students from other schools. The2014 Fall Ag Career Day event broughtstudents from 16 educational sites tonetwork with a record 250 employers.Companies seeking to take part inone of the career fairs should contactindividual colleges and registerthrough CyHire.Sexton, who plans to attend thisfall’s career fair in search of aninternship in the materials handlingfield, started early. Over the summershe researched the companies thatoffer the type of career she wants andtheskills those employers are seeking.“This far out, I am confident I have thetime to do the preparation to at leastget the interviews,” she said. “You’vealways got to aim high.”Find more details about campus careerfairs at www.career.iastate.edu.with contact information for employersinterested in participating:Engineering Career Fair: Noon to 6 p.m.Tuesday, September 29, HiltonColiseum and Scheman Building.Contact: ecs@iastate.edu.People to People Career Fair (social/humanservices, education, health/wellness,government and hospitality): 1 to 5 p.m.Wednesday, September 30, SchemanBuilding. Contact: hscareers@iastate.edu or call 515-294-0626 for humansciences and lascs@iastate.edu or 515294-8691 for liberal arts and sciencescareer services.Business, Industry, and Technology CareerFair: Noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday,September 30, Hilton Coliseum.Contact: hscareers@iastate.edu.Ag Career Day: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday,October 20, Lied Recreation AthleticCenter. Many employers will followwith on-campus interviews October 21.Employer registration begins in lateJuly. Contact: mikegaul@iastate.edu.3

Accumold Proves Proficiency, WinsBusiness Thanks to CIRAS-arranged TestsAn Ankeny-based plastics injection molder landed new business andlaunched new growth after the firm was able to prove its capabilities viatesting arranged last year at Iowa State University.Accumold, a company that makes smallplastic parts for a variety of technologyand medical devices, announced plansin February for a 12 million expansionthat will add 200 jobs at its Ankeny plantover the next three years.Company president and CEO RogerHargens recently acknowledged thatat least “a part of” that expansionbecame possible thanks to work thecompany landed as a result of CIRASarranged tests performed by Iowa StateUniversity’s Center for NondestructiveEvaluation (CNDE).“Obviously the partnership was great,and their proximity was fantastic,”Hargens said of CIRAS. “Their willingnessto help us in a very fast fashion was reallybeneficial for us and our customer. Theyreally jumped through hoops for us.”customer and the speed, we took on thatprocess. It had to get done.”The company turned to CIRAS and CNDE,where program manager Dave Utrataused x-rays to examine a samplingof parts. “We had to do geometricmagnification to make an x-ray imageof a small object big enough to say, ‘OK,that’s good and that’s bad,’” Utrata said.“Setting up the test often takes longerthan the test,” he said. “Parts handlingis a big issue. Knowing what to do, beingable to rapidly adjust and fine-tune x-raysystem parameters . . . . It’s learning howto handle these small things withoutgoing, ‘Oops . . . ’”AT A GLANCEAccumold Corp.FOUNDED: 1985LOCATION: Ankeny, IowaEMPLOYEES: 230IMPACT: The company says CIRAS-arranged work had a “significant”impact on Accumold getting newbusiness and was “a part of”Accumold’s subsequent decision tolaunch a 12 million expansion.OVERVIEW: Plastic injection moldersspecializing in micromolding of tinypartsHargens said the tests ultimately had “asignificant impact on our relationshipwith this customer and our ability to getmore business from them.”It was a challenging project” for CIRAS,Hargens said. “It wasn’t a walk in thepark by any means. But they did a verynice job.”Accumold declined to discuss specificsof the project, but company officials saidit boiled down to this:Last spring, Accumold developed a needto verify its work on a prototype “smartdevice.” The project involved assemblingthree microelectronic components intoone plastic part roughly 2.5 mm by 1 mm.Accumold needed to prove that it couldreliably produce parts with everything inthe correct location, that parts would befunctional, and that they would hold up ina harsh environment.“Typically, our customers will dothat testing themselves,” saidAaron Johnson, vice president ofcommunications. “But because of thenature of this particular project and the For more information about product testing, contract Chris Hill at chhill@iastate.edu or 515-294-5416.4

With Help from CIRAS, Dur-A-LiftDesigns a New HomeA George, Iowa, manufacturer of farm equipment, scooters, and hydraulic liftequipment is ramping up production in a new 26,000-square-foot building thatwas designed, with CIRAS’ help, to take the entire operation to a higher level.Diversified Technologies Inc. (DTI)traces its founding back to the 1888blacksmith shop of a German immigrant.The company has evolved over theintervening decades to become adiverse corporate family that includesSudenga Industries Inc. agriculturalequipment, Ranger All-Season ElectricScooters, and the popular Dur-A-Lift lineof mounted aerial lifts.President Larry Kruse said the companyhas long believed that “we have theopportunity to increase sales (of Dur-ALift equipment), but we hadn’t had thecapacity to do that until now.”The new building, which was formallydedicated on April 22 at a ceremonyattended by Iowa Governor TerryBranstad and Lieutenant Governor KimReynolds, is designed to give Dur-A-Liftthe room it needs.“We’d like to believe that in this buildingwe can double our (Dur-A-Lift) output,”Kruse said. “We’re very hopeful that canhappen. We see a bright future for ourlift business.”To capitalize on that future, DTI soughtout CIRAS project manager Jim Poe forhelp in laying out the new productionline in the safest and most efficient waypossible. Poe met with a team of DTIemployees to talk through all the stepsrequired for a new building and to helpthem agree on how it should function.AT A GLANCEDiversified Technologies Inc.FOUNDED: 1888LOCATION: George, IowaEMPLOYEES: 250IMPACT: The company expects todouble Dur-A-Lift sales after CIRAShelped design a new factory.OVERVIEW: DTI is a diverse corporatefamily that includes Sudenga IndustriesInc., Ranger All-Season ElectricScooters, and Dur-A-Lift mountedaerial lifts.Kruse said Poe’s questioning prompteddetailed looks at all aspects of theGeneral manager Ron Stewart and hisbuilding—including geothermal heating.team “had a good idea of what theyneeded,” Poe said. “They“If we hadn’t had Jimjust kind of needed“If we hadn’t had Jimhelping us and wesomebody to help themhadn’t gotten involvedhelping us and wethink things through andin studying the energyhadn’t gotten involved inchallenge them a littleside a little more, webit. In this case, there isstudying the energy side a might have missed a fewa lot of heavy lifting that’slittle more, we might have ways to make it a bettergoing on (on the floor).building,” Kruse said.missed a few ways to makeWe just needed to make“He brought an order tosure they weren’t liftingit a better building.”it,” Stewart said. “Weover the top of people.”— Larry Kruseneeded the structure.”Poe knew “the right“We’re very pleased” with CIRASquestions to ask the group,” Stewartinvolvement, Stewart said. “Assaid. And because of that, “it prettyfar as we’re concerned, it’s a realmuch went right in order. There were nosuccess story.”major obstacles to get around.”5

CIRAS Joining Four Centers in a Bid to Spur Applied ResearchIowa State University conducted more than 226 million worth of research in fiscal 2014—work that expandedknowledge and hopefully will elevate Iowans’ standard of living.Iowa’s Re-Envisioned Economic Development Roadmap, a report prepared last year by the Battelle Technology PartnershipPractice, called for strengthening ties between Iowa’s research entities and entrepreneurs. It argued that targeting resources inareas such as agriculture, industrial machinery, and other places where Iowa has expertise makes it more likely that companieswill innovate and flourish.Toward that end, CIRAS has joined four Iowa research consortia at Iowa State University. Here’s what we’re supporting:THE BIOECONOMY INSTITUTE (BEI)Purpose: To advance the use of biorenewable resourcesfor production of fuels, energy, chemicals, and materialsWeb: www.biorenew.iastate.eduDirector: Robert C. Brown, rcbrown3@iastate.eduMembership: Since 2002, BEI has engaged more than 230faculty and staff involving more than 25 research centers,institutes, and programs.Number of industry partnerships (Iowa and around thenation): 16To learn more about biorenewables programs andresearch, contact: Deputy Director Jill Euken atjeuken@iastate.eduCENTER FOR BIORENEWABLE CHEMICALS (CBIRC)Purpose: To develop the knowledge, technology, andpartnerships necessary to transform industrial chemicalproduction into a renewable resource-based industryWeb: www.cbirc.iastate.eduDirector: Brent Shanks, bshanks@iastate.eduMembership: CBiRC is a partnership between eight U.S.and four foreign research institutions.Number of industry partnerships (Iowa and around thenation): 31NSF Engineering ResearchCenter for Biorenewable Chemicals6CENTER FOR BIOPLASTICS AND BIOCOMPOSITES (CB2)Purpose: To develop the knowledge that will allowproduction of an array of high-value products—includingplastics, coatings, adhesives, and composites—fromagricultural and woody feedstocks that are compatiblewith current industrial manufacturing systemsWeb: www.cb2.iastate.eduDirector: David Grewell, dgrewell@iastate.eduMembership: CB2 is a collaborative effort by the Biopolymers & Biocomposites Research Team at Iowa StateUniversity, the Composite Materials and Engineering Centerat Washington State University, and industry members.Number of industry partnerships (Iowa and around theworld): 28CENTER FOR E-DESIGN (EDESIGN)Purpose: To research and develop digital design andmanufacturing methods and tools that drive collaborative,integrated and immediate applications to deal with industryneedsWeb: centerfordesign.orgCenter Director: Janis Terpenny, terpenny@iastate.eduAssociate Director: Dennis Mowery, dmowery@iastate.eduMembership: The Center for e-Design is a joint researchcoalition of seven universities working closely withbusinesses and government.

CyBIZ Lab HelpsIowa CompaniesBring Student Laborto Bear on BusinessProblemsNeed to do some research butdon’t have the necessary time oremployees? Want help exploringnew markets? Need to investigatenew manufacturing equipment ordetermine the potential ROI of anew product idea?Iowa State University has a way to helpIowa businesses answer those—andother—types of questions.CyBIZ Lab is an Iowa State Collegeof Business program and is locatedalong with the Iowa State UniversityPappajohn Center for Entrepreneurshipand the Iowa State Small BusinessDevelopment Center at the Iowa StateUniversity Research Park. It wasestablished, according to lab directorJudi Eyles, “to help engage companieswith the university and help providestudents with practical learningexperience.”It works like this: Companies identify abusiness opportunity or issue they needto have researched or evaluated andwork with CyBIZ Lab to determine thenecessary length and scope of a project.Then interdisciplinary teams of students,each led by an MBA student, work theissue. Companies typically pay a fee of 5,000 per project.CyBIZ Lab teams have worked withnearly 30 companies over the past twoyears—from small nonprofits to largeCyBIZ students (left to right) Tyler Leo, Paige Yoder, Naveen Dhanpal, Avantika Ram,Mohit Sharma, Alex Andrade, and Elliott Frey visiting Wady Industries in Maquoketa,Iowa, to meet with company representatives about a project.global companies headquartered inIowa—on a variety of projects lastingfrom 6 weeks to 28 weeks. Eyles saidstudents have worked on marketingplans, conducted competitive strategyanalyses, performed market research,and developed branding and marketpenetration strategies, among otherthings.As a resource,CyBIZ complementsthe technical andengineering developmentservices that CIRAS canoffer to Iowa companies.CyBIZ provides give CIRAS clients amuch more complete picture of thebusiness case.”Eyles sees the CyBIZ Lab as a win-win.Students get paid for their work and gainreal-world experience. The companiesinvolved get a team of dedicatedstudents to target a specific problem.And both sides get to“The services CyBIZscope out the other forprovides give CIRASpotential postgraduationemployment.clients a much morecomplete picture of theCyBIZ Lab and CIRASboth refer clients toeach other, depending— Carey Novak“You can look at newon a company’s needs.product offerings, manufacturingIn some cases, a project may start outprocesses, or engineering solutions, butas a CIRAS project or student capstoneyou need to understand the businessengineering design project and thencase for it, too,” said Carey Novak,transition when business problemCIRAS program manager. “The servicessolving is needed.business case.”more information on utilizing CyBIZ Lab services, submit a project request form at www.business.iastate. Foredu/cybizlab or contact your CIRAS account manager.7

New CIRAS AdvisoryCouncil MemberDiana Kautzky has beenappointed to a three-yearposition on the CIRASAdvisory Council. Kautzky,president of Deaf ServicesUnlimited, WoodardHearing Centers, and theLanguage InterpretingGroup, has worked withCIRAS as a businessDiana Kautzkyowner for years andsaid that relationship provided valuableassistance to help her organizationposition itself for government contractsacross the country.Kautzky is a graduate of the JuilliardSchool’s Interpreting for the Theatre inNew York City and provides interpretingservices for the Broadway Series ofthe Des Moines Performing Arts. DeafServices Unlimited, located in Urbandale,was founded in 1996 and acquiredWoodard Hearing Centers, which wasfounded in 2008. Language InterpretingGroup was founded in 2013.Engineering-LAS Online Learning recently launched new onlinemaster’s degree programs in engineering management and businessanalytics. Both are collaborative efforts with the Iowa State UniversityCollege of Business.Deaf Services Unlimited provides signlanguage interpreting and captioningservices for businesses, institutions, andagencies nationwide. It has a nationalnetwork of interpreters and can provideservices in person or remotely via video.Woodard Hearing Centers, which beganin 1946 and has 17 locations, is Iowa’soldest and largest hearing aid center.Language Interpreting Group providesspoken language interpretation andtranslation services for businesses withglobal communication needs.Senior lecturer Dave Sly, coordinator of the new program, said it emphasizes“statistics, process modeling and analysis, quality, information systems, andproject management” and includes traditional business courses in accounting,finance, and management.Kautzky’s focused business areas areentrepreneurship, communication,business development, disabilityservices, and access. Deaf ServicesUnlimited holds U.S. General ServicesAdministration certification and providesservices to multiple governmentagencies nationwide.8ISU Introduces Two New OnlineMaster’s Degree ProgramsThe engineering management degree was created for engineers with three ormore years of experience and an interest in management jobs. The 30-creditprogram, developed in association with the Department of Industrial andManufacturing Systems Engineering, offers an alternative to an MBA and allowsstudents to take courses entirely online.The business analytics master’s degree, which is the first of its kind offeredonline in Iowa, is a cohort-based, 21-month interdisciplinary program blendingmarketing and statistics with technology. It was designed, in partnership with theIowa State College of Business’s Department of Supply Chain and InformationSystems (SCIS), for professionals with at least two years of experience workingin positions that involve data-driven decisions.“Course topics vary from basic foundations of business analytics to the basics ofstatistical modeling and forecasting, as well as data visualization—how to mineboth text-oriented and numbers-oriented data [for] insights into what items needto be tackled,” said Sree Nilakanta, chair of the SCIS department.The business analytics program launches in August. In addition to onlinecourses, it requires students to attend three one-week sessions on the IowaState campus: a beginning orientation, a second summer session in whichstudents select teams for capstone projects, and a final session during the lastweek in which students present projects.more information, visit www.elo.iastate.edu Forand s.

SPECIAL REPORT: WORKING ON WORKFORCEIOWA’S WORKFORCE SHORTAGE(Fifth in a Series of Articles)THE PROBLEM: Iowa has a gap between itsshare of “middle skill” jobs and the numberof people who have those skills.HOW WE GOT HERE: Decades of lowunemployment, plus young people tend toleave rural Iowa. Now, experienced workersare approaching retirement.PREVIOUS ARTICLES: Iowa businesses havebeen reaching out to schools, recruitingfrom other companies or locations, turningto women, and boosting training for allworkers.THIS TIME: Learning to ShareDonna Dau talks to a group of human resources professionals in Chariton.In Times of Shortage, Build Stability and Avoid SeasonalLayoffs by SharingDonna Dau’s goal for each of the last three years has been to replace as few employees as possible.But shrinking that number in the futuremeans a lot of recruitment right now—both of new workers and of the newcompanies that Dau hopes will help herexpand on a potentially groundbreakingway of dealing with Iowa’s loomingshortage of skilled laborers.chief advocates for “business laborpartnerships.” The partnerships arecooperative agreements that essentiallyspell out how employees can be sharedby companies that, on their own, eachhave only a partial year’s need for askilled workforce of seasonal employees.Dau, former leadership coordinatorfor Calumet, Iowa-based MidwestIndependent Soil Samplers (MISS),is now a private consultant. Shealso functions as one of Iowa’sProperly managed, such marriages havethe potential to be winners for everyone,advocates contend. Companies saveon recruitment expenses, trainingcosts, and unemployment claims whileguaranteeing that quality seasonalworkers will stick around. In turn, theemployees get a taste of variety and, inmost cases, better wages and benefitsthan they would have gotten fromseasonal work alone.“This is a far-reaching opportunity,”Dau said. “The partnership idea is veryinteresting to the next generation (ofworkers) because they like variety. Theywant to broaden their skill set.”9

In a time when new workers are hard to find, smart andseasonally cyclical Iowa companies appear to be seriouslystudying the partnership idea—as well as other, different, waysof balancing demand so they can keep valuable employees on thepayroll throughout the year.Right now, the complicated requirements of companymatchmaking make such relationships difficult to pull off. Butdifficulty is in the eye of the beholder.outsiders; so MISS pays the workers, and partners pay MISS.)The shared employees need to understand that disciplinaryproblems on one job could threaten employment at the other.And everyone must agree on what will happen if one companyis still in its busy period wh

Iowa State University.” The Iowa State University Research Park was created with the idea of fostering ties and collaboration between the university and Iowa industries. The intention now is for those ties to deepen. The new core facility will be the “catalyst for a lot of greater