Uncategorized Newswire Stories

Do you have specific, industry-related COVID-19 questions you’d like to have answered? Would you simply like to chat with others who are struggling to adapt to a global pandemic? CIRAS is hosting twice-weekly online roundtables to share the latest coronavirus response information. Our experts will walk you through an overview of what we know about … Continue reading Twice-Weekly Roundtables Help You Talk Through COVID-19

CIRAS exists to improve Iowa businesses by helping them identify research-proven best practices. Following are a collection of tips and links designed to point your company to the best possible information for navigating the current pandemic. For more, visit our site at www.ciras.iastate.edu/covid-19/.

For Steve Cochren, it amounts to sustenance—and it arrives at about the same time.

“I read my BidMatch every day at lunch,” said Cochren, who works in sales at Triplett Office Essentials in Urbandale. “It makes me aware of opportunities that I may not have been aware of before.”

BidMatch, a software service that’s available to all active clients of the CIRAS Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), scours government databases to deliver a list of government procurement opportunities tailored to what an individual client sells.

Michael Nunn hasn’t yet found the product improvement idea he was searching for, but at least he now knows that he’s on the correct path.

Nunn is the owner of Birmingham Manufacturing, a four-person shop in Birmingham, Iowa, that makes condensated evaporating pans for use in commercial coolers. The pans, which contain a heating element and sit below refrigeration units, work to evaporate the water that drips from inside coolers.

[ONE OF CIRAS’ REGULAR LOOKS AT A SECTOR OF THE IOWA ECONOMY. (By Liesl Eathington)]

One of CIRAS’ points of pride is our outstanding network of partners. We believe they are critical to the health of businesses in Iowa, and we just don’t talk about them often enough. So, today we’re launching a new regular feature to help showcase our great partners and the amazing things they do.    

Shelly Vanyo smiled happily as her science and engineering students milled around a Boone High School classroom ogling various tiny machine parts made inside a metal 3D printer at Iowa State University.

Mission accomplished. They students were excited, and their teacher was pleased.

AMES – Iowans once again will have easy access this October to a broad spectrum of educational events aimed at promoting the benefits of a career in manufacturing.
Friday, October 7, has been designated as national Manufacturing Day – a time for U.S. factories to open their doors and show the public that manufacturing has become a clean, high-technology industry packed with fulfilling opportunities.
For Iowans, however, the celebrations, plant tours and seminars will stretch well beyond a single day – into an entire month.

Roughly one-third of Iowa’s counties were under a flood watch or warning on Friday morning after massive rainfalls throughout the state – in some areas, up to 9 inches – send rivers higher. More rain is expected throughout the weekend, posing a significant and imminent flooding threat for many Iowa businesses.

CIRAS believes that any company who does not have a flood plan already in place should immediately begin making preparations for trouble.

Happy Monday. Today’s DIGEST installment includes the full circuit of industry issues – the state of American manufacturing, the state of America’s skilled workforce, and the state of Iowa’s efforts to recruit more businesses to come be a part of it. Also, there’s a bit of talk about 3D-printed robots.

Here’s where you find all the details:

Happy Tuesday. A hodge-podge of not-much for you today.  The items center around Iowa’s efforts to promote development, a whiskey maker’s efforts to promote itself, and some low-level promotion of biofuels.

Here’s where to find the details:

A new series of BizWise regional peer forums is launching this year as part of an ongoing effort by CIRAS and the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) to help Iowa business professionals stay ahead of the curve and perform at their peak.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) agreed this morning to contribute $100,000 toward the purchase of a metal 3-D printer that will be used to help CIRAS educate businesses across Iowa on the latest capabilities of additive manufacturing, to help train the next generation of workers in this poised-to-explode technology and to support new faculty research.
The IEDA contribution joins other federal and Iowa State University funding that will be used to purchase a direct metal sintering system, part of a $900,000 investment in this technology. The machine, which now will be ordered from its manufacturer, is expected to be up and running in an Iowa State University lab within months for the benefit of Iowa businesses.

Happy Tuesday. Today, the Internet offers a slew of manufacturing data and talk of sensors, the Internet of Things and the like. Little of it is worthwhile, however.

Here’s what we culled from the pile:

Happy Tuesday. Lots of big thinking today – about machines, plants and what the heck we need to do to make the millennials happy in Iowa.

DUBUQUE– Northeast Iowa businesses should now find it easier to get what they need to grow.

Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) and Iowa State University’s Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) have announced a partnership to provide a single point of contact for businesses seeking help in that region. As part of this agreement, Seth Gilbert, J.D., has been named the NICC/CIRAS Account Manager for the Dubuque area and will be charged with helping businesses find the programs and support services they need in either or both entities.

Happy rainy Friday.  We have a mostly gloomy report today. In trolling through the accumulated industry news, we find a heaping helping of gloomy pessimism and small sliver of bright sunshiny happytalk.

We save the best for last on this dismal day:

Meet Paul.

Paul’s mission in life (at least partly) is to help you understand the Internet and how it can help your business.

Happy Friday. We’ve got a little bit of everything today – from the unimportant to the stuff that won’t be important for quite a while.

Read this, and you’ll know the difference:

Happy Thursday. Slim pickings today, but we’ve got some ISU news, some legislature news and some iPad news.

Here it is:

Happy Almost-over Wednesday.  Not much out there today except odds and ends – making this the perfect day to test whether late afternoon is actually easier for catch-up reading. Tell us what you prefer.

Now, here’s the stuff for the catching up:

Iowa machinery manufacturers have seen their share of U.S. machinery exports more than double since 2000, according to a CIRAS analysis of U.S. industry statistics. Now, manufacturers need to figure out how to build on that gain.

A CIRAS analysis, completed by Iowa State University economist Liesl Eathington for an April 2 summit on the state of machinery production in Iowa, shows that Iowans have a competi­tive advantage over the rest of the na­tion—especially when it comes to making agricultural and construction equipment.

Happy Tuesday. We’ve got a little new news, a little reflection on the old news, and a little hamburger history.

Here we go:

Welcome.

If you’re reading this, you’ve found CIRAS Newswire, the “publishing” arm of Iowa State University’s Center for Industrial Research and Service.