Ames, the northern headwaters of the growing Cultivation Corridor, is looking to bookend the west-side research center — the doubling-in-size Iowa State University Research Park — with the city’s first major industrial park. The man in the middle, Ames Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dan Culhane, said the 1,350-acre industrial park on the east edge of town, near the Barilla pasta plant and U.S. Highway 30, will give prospective businesses a place
February 9, 2018
Ames’ first major industrial park bookends surging development in ISU Research Park
February 9, 2018
Cognizant makes $100M STEM play
Cognizant, a large tech company with a downtown Des Moines office, is making a $100 million play in STEM with the creation of a nonprofit foundation. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, and it’s a big deal in Iowa, where the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, Future Ready Iowa, the Iowa Business Council, and many other programs and organizations are working to offer internships, training and other assistance to
February 9, 2018
FDA speeds review of Iowa City firm’s AI blindness detection system
Iowa City-based IDx, an artificial intelligence diagnostics company working on a system to detect a leading cause of blindness, has won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for expedited review. IDx-DR uses AI to check for diabetic retinopathy. The FDA ruled the system is a “breakthrough device” that qualifies for expedited review. That designation is applied to devices that “provide for more effective treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening or irreversibly
February 9, 2018
Farms look to save labor with technology
Successful Farming reports that farms are turning to technology at a time when laborers can be hard to find. In the Corn Belt, that can mean bigger rigs with more automation — though some startups are working on smaller units that drive themselves. In California, Driscoll’s is developing robotics to pick strawberries — typically the job of laborers. It’s unclear whether the detailed hand labor can be successful when mimicked by
February 9, 2018
ISU professor seeks new ways to use recycled plastic
Iowa State University’s Keith Vorst is working with major corporations to find new uses for recycled plastics to save money, keep the materials out of landfills and reduce pollution. Vorst, an associate professor of food science and human nutrition, leads the Polymer and Food Protection Consortium. “We’re creating technologies that will have companies mining landfills and the oceans for plastic,” Vorst said in a statement. In one example, scientists have found plastics
February 9, 2018
China cops use facial-recognition glasses
Police in Zhengzhou, China, are wearing high-tech sunglasses equipped with facial-recognition technology to check crowds at transit centers and elsewhere for suspects, the Straits Times reported. Human rights groups have questioned the practice, but it has already led to the arrest of seven suspects accused of crimes that ranged from human trafficking to hit and runs, and 26 more using fake IDs, the state-owned People’s Daily reported.
February 1, 2018
Incubator helps nonprofits find their synergies
An innovative co-working/incubator space for Greater Des Moines nonprofits that launched less than a year ago has attracted eight resident organizations and recently gained its first investor — Delta Dental of Iowa. The Telligen Community Initiative Synergy Center, housed at the Iowa Center for Higher Education in Des Moines, is a program led by Telligen Community Initiative, a West Des Moines-based nonprofit foundation. The 5,000-square-foot office space on the University
February 1, 2018
Northeastern, Gallup check U.S. pulse on AI
Gallup and Northeastern University checked U.S. adults’ thoughts on how artificial intelligence (AI) will affect their lives, their work, educational choices and potential interventions from higher education, government and private industry. Among the key findings of the study, conducted via mail survey of 3,297 from Sept. 15 through Oct. 10, 2017: — Seventy-six percent of Americans “agree” or “strongly agree” that AI will fundamentally change the way people work and live in the next
February 1, 2018
Report: Renewable energy now 18.3 percent of U.S. supply
Here in Iowa, where wind energy alone provides more than one-third of the power supply, it may not sound that impressive that 18.3 percent of the nation’s installed capacity is from renewable energy sources. But the federal government’s 2016 Renewable Energy Data Book shows the renewable industry is growing across the country. Among the tidbits: Renewable energy accounted for 67 percent of U.S. electricity capacity additions in 2016, up from 64 percent
February 1, 2018
Case’s D.C. investment arm taps D.M. knowledge
Revolution, the Washington, D.C.-based investment arm of AOL-founder turned venture capitalist Steve Case, debuted a new “Ecosystem Playbook” last week that includes at least two Des Moines sources, Gravitate’s e-newsletter the Pull reported. The document draws ideas and insights from 33 cities visited on the “Rise of the Rest” bus tours, which stopped in Des Moines in 2014. The book includes Geoff Wood’s thoughts on how to get connected in the startup community and
