Cox, O’Donnell jointly named “Manufacturing Champions”

• Jeff Eckhoff

CIRAS’ top two administrators have been honored by the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) for their work trumpeting Iowa manufacturing.

CIRAS Director Ron Cox and program director Mike O’Donnell, head of CIRAS’ Manufacturing Extension Partnership, jointly received ABI’s Manufacturing Champion Award at a dinner for Iowa business leaders on Tuesday.

Engineering Capstone Projects Lead to Innovative New Products

• Jeff Eckhoff

Two Iowa companies over the past year have separately discovered a new way to safeguard vibrating truck fenders and a new, more attractive way to lock patio doors—both as a result of work done by graduating students at Iowa State University.

Capstone students in Iowa State’s College of Engineering worked on the truck fender project for Link Manufacturing, a Sioux Center company that manufactures heavy-duty truck suspensions. The company asked students to extend the life of after-market fender brackets that sometimes were breaking because of vibration.

New CIRAS’ Tool Shows Food Makers Where to Start in Controlling Contamination

• Jeff Eckhoff

Angela Shaw stood smiling in a room full of food industry safety experts last month and compared the process they were practicing to visiting a family clinic.

“Just like when you go to the doctor,” said Shaw, an assistant professor of food safety in Iowa State University’s Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. “They ask you a series of questions, and at the end they go, ‘I think I know what’s wrong with you.’ ”

In this case, the questions pertained not (directly) to human health but to the safety of food manufacturing machines.

ISU Job Fairs Start Sept. 19 (but it all Starts with CyHire)

• Jeff Eckhoff

Iowa State University’s digital job board helps companies connect with a pool of potential employees that includes both graduates and current students.

“CyHire is my one-stop shop for finding internships,” said Bradley Hagen, a senior in mechanical engineering. “There are always hundreds of jobs on CyHire. The built-in search filter is helpful when deciding which companies and jobs I’m going to pursue.”

Faces of Iowa Industry: Michele Oswood (Express Employment Professionals)

• Jeff Eckhoff

Every so often (starting now), CIRAS intends to take a moment and tell you a little bit about the people who make Iowa businesses better:

Michele Oswood has owned the Cedar Rapids franchise of Express Employment Professionals since February 2016, but she worked in several industries before she bought the company. She believes in creative thinking and in valuing every person who walks through the door.

 Mariposa Farms Sprouting New Levels of Manufacturing Expertise

• Jeff Eckhoff

Success sort of snuck up on Dave and Denise Conkling. Their business sprouted and grew, until one day it seemed to have grown beyond their control.

“We started really small, and we just managed everything ourselves,” said Dave Conkling, owner of Mariposa Farms. “We were looking at the business one way, because we had this 20-something years of experience. When CIRAS came in, they could look through different eyes, and it became clear to them what we needed to do.”

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