Philip Groner, a 20-year employee of the Iowa Communications Network and executive director since 2018, has died after a battle with cancer, ICN announced today. “His passing is a great loss to the State of Iowa and the customers that he loyally served. The Iowa Telecommunications and Technology Commission and the ICN extend our deepest […]
The federal emissions settlement with Volkswagen is providing nearly $5 million that school districts can apply for to replace diesel buses and to cut air emissions, reports Radio Iowa. The Iowa Propane Gas Association is lobbying districts to try propane buses over electric or new diesel engines. In the first round of funding, 19 schools and […]
America’s SBDC Iowa announced Laurie Pieper as the new tech director for the state, who began her new role Feb. 3. As tech director, Pieper will lead the SBDC’s Rural Development Initiative and work with clients and resource partners to develop opportunities for commercialization of Iowa businesses’ technologies, products and services. Previously, Pieper developed the […]
A popular data set used by thousands of students to build an open-source self driving car contains hundreds of instances of critical errors and omissions, wrote Roboflow cofounder Brad Dwyer in a company blog. “We did a hand-check of the 15,000 images in the widely used Udacity Dataset 2 and found problems with 4,986 (33%) […]
Australian entrepreneurs will join the inaugural 2020 cohort of the Cultivo Global Ag Innovation Program hosted by America’s Cultivation Corridor, a partnership program announced in October to host startups from a single targeted country each year. The names of participating companies have not yet been announced. Cohort members will travel to Iowa for a 10-day […]
Dwolla CEO/founder Ben Milne cuts the ribbon as the company unveils new headquarters in February 2019 at 909 Locust. Photo provided Dwolla is searching for a new CEO after founder Ben Milne announced he was going to step away from the role in a blog post published this afternoon. Milne and other company leaders came […]
Jim Towey, president of Onset, will join the board of directors of the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator, the organization announced this week. Towey most recently served as a mentor for the accelerator, helping past participants develop their business ideas and build their storytelling skills to gain support for innovations. Based in Cape Cod, Mass., Onset is […]
An electric scooter rental program that’s popular but also potentially a dangerous nuisance will return to Cedar Rapids and expand, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reports. The scooters and bikes — introduced last year and stationed on public walkways — are slated to return this spring, city officials said Tuesday. Last fall, city officials were weighing whether […]
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate has hired Jeff Franklin as the chief cybersecurity officer, Pate announced on Thursday morning. Franklin has served as the State of Iowa’s Chief Information Security Officer for the past 10 years. In his new role, Franklin will lead efforts to protect Iowa’s elections in 2020 and beyond, the office […]
Screenshot of the IowaReporterApp, developed by Shadow Inc., by Motherboard. To be clear: this briefing, in a state technology and innovation e-newsletter, does not explore whether an app is solely to blame for political chaos immediately after the 2020 Iowa caucus for the Democratic presidential nominee. But the IowaReporterApp, developed by a for-profit company called Shadow, […]