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“Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win.” — Max McKeown

Today’s itinerary:

• Indiana gains manufacturing skills hub
  
• Podcast: The IoT of barbed wire
  
• Pittsburgh's Digital Foundry
• Touring a home with VR
  
• MN has biggest VC funding quarter ever
  
• Fueling the Future
• Name that Flyover City!

November 19, 2020

FLIGHT PLAN

Indiana to launch smart manufacturing hub for skills training

Photo Credit GE Additive

You might be surprised to learn that Indiana is one of the largest manufacturing states in the nation. With 8,500 facilities, including 500 automotive suppliers, the Hoosier state is the second largest automotive sector by GDP in the US, with the highest concentration of manufacturing jobs in the nation. And manufacturing is changing fast.

To rise to the challenge of training future manufacturing workers, Indiana will launch the Emerging Manufacturing Collaboration Center at the 16 Tech innovation District. The smart hub will help manufacturers use state-of-the-art equipment to train workers and companies in additive manufacturing, factory automation, advanced software development, and manufacturing readiness. A major part of the effort is being led by GE Additive, a GE company, in support of its binder jetting technology. Binder jetting is a family of 3D printing tech using metals, ceramics, and sand.

“Collaboration with industry sits at the very core of our strategy,” GE Additive Innovation Leader Josh Mook told WBIW. “We deliberately set out to identify a select group of strategic partners that could help us develop a real-world solution."

Indiana’s 21st Century Research and Technology Fund is picking up the center’s $3 million dollar tab. A virtual industry day on December 8 will give manufacturers and other stakeholders a first look at plans for the facility and an opportunity to participate in workshops.

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INNOVATORS PODCAST

Digging for data in dirt

The IoT of barbed wire? Data you can dig out of dirt, literally?

Jon Clark and Travis Triplett at ADK Group manage every aspect of a digital journey - from the website all the way to the manufacturing floor. Hear how a love of analog and an appreciation for the value of a digital "waste product" have helped them figure out how to run companies more efficiently and solve problems before they surface. They join hosts Ben Reno-Weber from Louisville's Future of Work Initiative and executive producer Brian Eichenberger for a new episode of Flyover Future's Innovators podcast.

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ON THE RADAR

PA lab space will promote innovation and business growth

New Kensington, PA—a mere 17 miles from downtown Pittsburgh—was a nineteenth century hub for aluminum manufacturing. Now it’s reinventing itself as a hub for tech innovation, as evidenced by the recent groundbreaking for the Digital Foundry, a lab space that will enable makers, entrepreneurs, businesses, and students to learn about advanced manufacturing processes like 3D printing and digital design.

The 15,000-square-foot facility will be located along five blocks of New Kensington’s main street, aka “The Corridor of Innovation.” The Richard King Mellon Foundation has kicked in $5.5 million for construction costs, and Penn State is contributing $1 million for ongoing operating expenses. The Digital Foundry is expected to open in late 2021.

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VR helps keep the Omaha real estate market moving

Buying or selling a home during a pandemic may not sound like a great idea, since it’s hard to remain isolated or distanced when you’re touring houses.

Technology to the rescue! These days, buyers can slap on an Oculus headset and let 6D virtual reality take them through every inch of a house—even opening closets and looking under counters (without inhaling any overlooked cat hair).

Jeff Cohn, owner of Omaha’s kwElite, adopted VR tech to give buyers and sellers that experience. He partnered with VR firm VRLY (“Make every day an open house”) and now customers can take home video tours, view drone flyover footage, and meet virtually or in person with real estate agents, lenders, insurers, and title companies.

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Minnesota finishes biggest VC quarter ever

2020's third quarter was the strongest quarter the city of Minnesota has ever had for venture capital deals, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/CB Insights MoneyTree Report.

Some of the deals VC made in Minneapolis in 2020’s third quarter include:

• $500 million in September from a fundraising round by health insurance startup Bright Health.

• CVRx, which makes a medical device that treats heart failure, raised $50 million to commercialize its product.

• Preventive Solutions, which makes heart-monitoring devices, raised $137 million in July.

• Brain surgery company Monteris Medical raised $9 million in September.

• Manufacturing software company Fulcrum raised $3.1 million in September.

• Digital marketing and media startup Wisdom Gaming Group raised $3 million in September.

• Financial tech startup ClickSWITCH raised $2 million in September.

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FUELING THE FUTURE

What is fueling Flyover Country innovation? In this weekly feature, we share a variety of announcements covering funding, acquisitions, exits, grants, and everything in between. Got something to celebrate? Click here to share your story.

• St. Louis food innovator Benson Hill has closed a $150 million Series D funding round. It was co-led by Wheatsheaf and GV (formerly Google Ventures), along with participation from investors across the “food and agriculture value chain.”

• Icon Marketing Communications, a “strategy, marketing and advertising agency,” has announced the acquisition of Marketplace Clicks, a Seattle-based company that helps brands sell their products on Amazon. Icon recently relocated to Greater Cincinnati from Ft. Mitchell, and its officials say this is the first of many planned acquisitions.

• Iowa City’s National Advanced Driving Simulator, a transportation safety research center in the University of Iowa’s College of Engineering, has received $1.45 million from the National Highway Safety Administration through the US DOT. The grant is aimed at studying transition control in automated vehicles. Last spring, the DOT awarded the center $7 million to research automated driving on rural roads and passengers’ “perceptions and acceptance of the technology.”

• The Indiana Space Grant Consortium, located at Purdue University, has been awarded $2.8 million from NASA to help promote STEM learning. Consortium director Barrett Caldwell said the money will largely support research grants and workforce development for Indiana university students.

• Nashville startup Possip, a platform that facilitates communication between parents and their children’s schools, has been chosen for Google’s Startups for Black Founders Fund. The fund provides cash awards from $50,000 to $100,000 to Black-led startups, as well as helping them grow their business.

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NAME THAT FLYOVER CITY!

It's time for our favorite trivia game!

Are you ready for some football? This week we take a look at some of the greatest plays from NFL teams located in Flyover Country.

1. The play known as the Immaculate Reception is widely regarded among football pundits as the greatest moment in NFL history. What city’s team owns that accolade?
2. Towards the end of the 2006 AFC Championship game, Marlin Jackson intercepted a Tom Brady pass to send this flyover city’s team to Super Bowl XLI. What city and what team?
3. The play was dubbed a “Miracle.” It was the first game in NFL playoff history to end in a touchdown as time expired. What team pulled it off?

Click here for today's answers.

REACH OUT

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