Dayton/West Central Ohio : Innovation + Job News

Millennium Reign Energy's vision is a world in which individuals have the opportunity to own their own hydrogen energy generation and storage systems.

The Englewood-based company came one step closer in early October, when it set up a fully-functioning hydrogen fueling station on the Dull Homestead, an alternative-energy-embracing farm near Brookville.

It's the first private station in Ohio that is designed in a way that would allow for public use anywhere, says Chris McWhinney, Millennium's senior manager and CEO.

While other individuals may choose to follow the Dull farm's lead, McWhinney recognizes that most of us don't have the resources needed to set up fueling stations in our back yards anytime soon. That's why McWhinney and partner Dave Erbaugh are currently focusing on large companies like automobile and lift truck manufacturers. 

One large automaker has shown continued interest in Millennium's patent-pending technology, McWhinney says, as has a major lift truck manufacturer that makes hydrogen fuel cell lift trucks.

"We hope to have two different types (of lift truck)," McWinney says. "One fuel cell, the other internal combustion running on hydrogen and filling up with a fueling station."

In fact, the Dull farm will soon begin using its fueling station to power a hydrogen fuel cell forklift provided by one lift truck maker, McWhinney says. The farm is also using hydrogen as a gasoline blend in a pickup truck.

The company currently derives most of its revenue from a see-through educational unit which is sold to high schools and colleges, along with materials that educate young people about the advantages of clean-burning hydrogen power.

"We're ramping up that end of our business right now to where we'd like to get to the point where we're selling 200 to 500 of those a year," McWhinney says. "If we do that, it will provide us with enough revenue to stay alive until the world catches up to us."

Source: Chris McWhinney, Mellinnium Reign Energy
Writer: Gene Monteith

The University of Dayton is getting a new tenant.

GE Aviation announced Nov. 22 that it had chosen a site on River Park Drive for its new Electrical Power Integrated Systems Research and Development Center (EPISCENTER). The $51-million, 115,000-sq.-ft facility is expected to be operational by late 2012 and attract an initial 10-15 jobs.

The facility will make GE Aviation an initial launch partner of the Ohio Hub of Innovation and Opportunity for Aerospace, assigned to the Dayton region in September 2009 by Gov. Ted Strickland.

Jennifer Villarreal, a company spokeswoman, says proximity to the University of Dayton Research Institute and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base -- as well as the Dayton region's designation an aerospace hub -- all contributed to GE Aviation's decision to locate the center on the UD campus. She says that in addition to benefiting the region's and state's economy, EPICSENTER will help GE Aviation attract new talent.

"It's an excellent catalyst for growth with new program and contracts," says Villarreal. "It's a great pipeline for talent from the University of Dayton as far as researchers, technologists, engineers and others, so that's really key to us as far as development and advancing electric power for all kinds of vehicles."

The facility will sit on eight acres and will focus on a number of markets, including electrical power starter/generation, conversion, distribution and load technologies for commercial and military aerospace applications. UD will partner with the CityWide Development Corp. to build the facility, whose construction should be completed by the third quarter of 2012. The Ohio Third Frontier has chipped in with a capital grant of up to $7.6 million.

Villarreal says it's difficult to predict job growth over time, but that some have estimated 100 to 200 "depending on future contracts and programs."

Source: Jennifer Villarreal, GE Aviation
Writer: Gene Monteith

Explosive sales growth in its high temperature composites for the aircraft industry could fuel hundreds of new jobs at Renegade Materials Corp. in Springboro near Dayton.

Laura Gray, Renegade's director of sales and marketing, says improvements in manufacturing have reduced the cost of making the high-tech, lightweight composites Renegade produces that replace heavier metal parts on both military and commercial aircraft.

Renegade will begin filling multi-million dollar orders for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in the next several months.

"As the materials become more broadly used by the military, the commercial companies become more confident in the product," says Gray.

An expected ramp-up in sales to commercial aviation customers could add as many as 160 new jobs over the next five years at Renegade. The company currently employs 15 at its $5-million dollar manufacturing facility.

The company has hired four new employees, all former auto workers, this year through the Dayton Development Coalition and the Montgomery County Job Center. Many of its future employees could also be hired through a similar process, says Gray.

"We are working with the Montgomery County Job Center to find and re-train displaced auto workers," she says.

Opened in 2008, Renegade specializes in a unique manufacturing process for high temperature composite materials that reduces many of the toxic chemicals and volatile organic compounds that made it so expensive in the past. Owners Robert Gray and Eric Collins have spent 30 years in the aerospace industry.

Source: Laura Gray, Renegade Materials
Writer: Val Prevish

Al Wofford founded CDO Technologies 15 years ago based on a simple "can do" philosophy of business. In fact, if you look closely, Can DO is right there in the name.

Today, Wofford's own name is mentioned among the heavy hitters around west central Ohio. Recently listed among the Dayton Business Journal's regional 10 Most Influential People of the year, Wofford has built a company with 330 employees in Ohio, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.

CDO is one of Dayton's largest minority-owned firms and an IT integrator with numerous clients in defense, government and private industry.

One of CDO Technologies' core competencies is in asset visibility and management -- think bar codes and radio frequency identification (RFID) systems -- that track inventory accurately and precisely real time.

"We don't build any technology and hardware, but we build software to tie different systems together," explains Bryce Stuckenschneider, marketing coordinator. "Sometimes we're getting calls from the CFOs and CIOs saying we need more accountability (for assets), and we're losing things at a rapid rate, and other times we get calls from the engineer on the line saying I'm being held accountable for this.

"One of the big commercial areas we're diving into are hospitals," he says. "They lose an alarming amount of inventory, and every year they will order four times more than they need because they have no idea what they have."

While asset identification and tracking comprises much of CDO's business, Stuckenschneider says the company can't be pigeonholed.

"Everything we do is focused on creatively applying technology, and sometimes that's auto identification -- RFID or bar coding -- and sometimes the market asks us 'how do you redesign air space over major cities?' which is a huge problem that America has. So we have a couple of industry experts who have recently come on board trying to come up with great ways to retrain air traffic controllers."

About a third of CDO's employees are in Ohio, with about 65 at company headquarters in Dayton.

Source: Bryce Stuckenschneider, CDO Technologies
Writer: Gene Monteith

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is not a new idea; but a Dayton company, Acclimate Supply Chain Solutions, is staying ahead of the curve by creating new software that gives its customers more bang for their buck with this time tested process.

Rob Young, president of Acclimate, says the company is preparing to roll out several new software products that take data collection and transmission further and allow its customers to glean valuable information to help them do business.

"The thing that sets us apart is we want to do more with EDI," says Young. "We think there is a lot of harvestable data in these transactions."

The three new software products target specific business processes: supply chain analytics, manufacturing work flow and shipping details. Each of these new programs is expected to be released widely in the first quarter of next year, says Young.

These are in addition to the company's existing EDI software suite, SimplicIT.

"The power of this new technology is it allows people to stumble across things (data) they never would have thought to ask for," says Young.

In addition, the software is much more user friendly for non-techies than previous software of its type, he says.

Founded in 2004 by Christian Prince, Acclimate has seen year over year growth of 50 percent, says Young. He predicts this trend will continue and even accelerate as the company rolls out these new products to its national customer base that includes industries such as automotive, heavy equipment manufacturing, retail and steel.

Young says he expects to add as many as eight new employees to the company's existing 10 employees next year. The new jobs will be mainly in the areas of tech support and product implementation.

Source: Rob Young, Acclimate Supply Chain Solutions
Writer: Val Prevish

It started in the late 1940s when two entrepreneurial-minded engineers joined a chemist and formed Yellow Springs Instruments. The startup's first success was an innovative crystal clock, sold to the Air Force.

Today, the company is known simply as YSI, Inc. and is a global player, with 380 employees around the world and revenues of about $100 million. And while it has demonstrated expertise in a number of sensor applications over the years, it now focuses on the natural resource water market. In other words data collection for ponds, oceans, rivers and streams.

Gayle Rominger, YSI's executive VP, says that focus has been a successful strategy built on a solid foundation.

"(The founders) were tremendously successful, but we ended up being in several different markets," Rominger explains. "The temperature market, the biomedical market and the water market. And those were big markets. So it came to the point where if we were going to get to the next level we really needed to pick a market and develop a strategy to go after that market."

Toxic algae in your pond? YSI makes sensors that can measure oxygen and particles leading to algae blooms. Runoff from the Maumee River into Lake Erie? YSI can detect and measure the problem.

President and CEO Rick Omlor says demand for YSI products differ around the world. China has emerged as a prime source for YSI products, he says.

"While we care a lot about water quality, some areas of the world care about water velocity and water quantity," he explains. For example, some global customers are concerned about flooding, or water needed for hydro power or transportation.

Over the years, YSI has benefited from Ohio Third Frontier funds, including a $1.1 million award in April to YSI, Riehl Engineering and the University of Cincinnati to develop a new kind of sensor for measuring nitrates in water.

The company employs 130 at its Yellow Springs headquarters.

Sources: Rick Omlor and Gayle Rominger, YSI
Writer: Gene Monteith

Even in the high tech world of aerospace manufacturing, you still need to kick the tires occasionally.

Quickstep Composites, based in Australia, is expanding its North American headquarters in Dayton to provide a space for potential aviation and, eventually, auto industry customers to observe their unique process of curing composite materials without using an autoclave.

"It's our test drive facility," says Dale Brosius, North American chief operating officer of Quickstep Technologies.

Quickstep has signed a partnership and license agreement with Vector Composites Inc. of Dayton for the use of its Quickstep Process for development and manufacturing of advanced composite components. The products are aimed primarily at the aviation industry.

The process uses a manufacturing method that does not require the extreme conditions necessary in the traditional autoclave process, which has been the industry standard for manufacturing composites for many years. Eliminating an autoclave can save as much as 50 percent on the cost of the process, says Brosius, while still producing reliable mission-critical parts for high tech users such as the military.

Vector and Quickstep were recently awarded a major United States Air Force Small Business Innovation Research Phase II program grant, expected to total about $4 million over a 27-month period.

Vector is the lead contractor and Quickstep is the principal subcontractor to conduct the joint research program, which will focus on process qualification of bismaleimide and epoxy resin carbon fiber reinforced composite materials using the Quickstep Process for application to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

Over the next three to four years, Quickstep expects to hire 20 to 25 new employees in areas such as engineering, technical support, supervision and sales, says Brosius, adding that the company sees its presence in Dayton as a long-term partnership.

"It makes sense for us to be here because there is a fair number of composites companies right here," he says.

Source: Dale Brosius, Quickstep Technologies
Writer: Val Prevish

3-D imaging has come a long way since the days of those funky paper eyeglasses in the movies. Today it's being used to design sophisticated software with applications for everything from mapping to gaming.

Dayton-based Woolpert has been developing new 3-D technology through its venture, i23D, and expects demand for 3-D modeling to increase significantly in the coming years.

Woolpert, a design, engineering and geospatial firm, started i23D last year in connection with the University of Dayton-led Institute for Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology (IDCAST) and Tidex Systems Ltd., a Tel Aviv company that specializes in interactive video technology.

Tidex originally developed the software that allows a two dimensional video to be made into a 3-D video model using only a conventional video camera.

Although there are other methods that allow similar modeling, i23D's technology makes it much less expensive because you only need an ordinary video camera to complete the mapping, says Phipps. In much of the current technology lasers are used to create the map, a much more expensive method.

"Everything's going 3-D today," says Steve Phipps, president of i23D and a senior vice president at Woolpert in Dayton. "There are many different ways you can use it."

Phipps says that i23D is looking for additional funding to complete its research to fully develop the software. Once complete, he says the applications for its use will include markets in asset management, security and national defense where detailed 3-D mapping of building interiors or outdoor locations could be used to keep the public safe or just keep track of how space is used.

Another potential market is real time 3-D technology for use in autonomous navigation for vehicles, such as drone flight craft, says Phipps.

i23D has just two employees, but in the next year could hire as many as five new workers .

Source: Steve Phipps, i23D
Writer: Val Prevish

Infusing new life into an obsolete auto factory campus, Dayton's 40-acre Tech Town technology park has become a hub for young start-up companies and big names in the aerospace industry who cluster in the region because of Wright Patterson Air Force Base and the research it attracts.

"It's quickly becoming a national center for sensing technology," says Larrell Walters, director of IDCAST (Institute for the Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology), one of the first tenants in Tech Town.

IDCAST has created 280 jobs in its 42 months of operations, says Walters, and it has attracted many young companies to the area who are active in advanced sensing technology.

Another job and research magnet for Tech Town is the Dayton RFID Convergence Center, a radio-frequency identification incubator that has helped generate more than 50 new jobs since it opened a year ago, says Steve Nutt, vice president of CityWide Development Corp., which manages Dayton's development strategy.

"When they started they had applications from as far away as Australia and New Zealand," says Nutt of the RFID incubator. "Just one year after opening they have 12 new businesses located here."

Besides IDCAST and RFID, Tech Town is home to 29 companies, from two-person start-ups to big names like Boeing and General Dynamics. Eight universities are also among the tenants.

Tech Town gives them the ability to collaborate and provides ready access to the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and the University of Dayton Research Institute, with roughly 700 full-time researchers.

Source: Larrell Walters, IDCAST, and Steve Nutt, CityWide Development Corp.
Writer: Val Prevish

The Southern Ohio Agricultural & Community Development Foundation in Hillsboro is considering a venture to help entrepreneurs.

Dubbed "Next Step," the tentative program would give four awards of $25,000 each to applicants with innovative, value-added, technological or agriculture/bioresource projects. Applicants would be people who have operated a farm less than five years and who are based within the Foundation's 22-county area. They will be asked to prove their project would replace tobacco income and that there is a market for their products/services.

The Foundation's board of directors will vote on the Next Step idea in October, said Don Branson, executive director. "It's still in the review process," he said. "No final decision has been made yet."

The Foundation was created with money from Ohio's share of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement Fund, established after a 1998 agreement between numerous states and the tobacco industry. Its purpose is to support replacement of tobacco crops with others, and to assist former tobacco growers.

The Foundation's service area is Adams, Athens, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Gallia, Greene, Highland, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Noble, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton, Warren and Washington counties.

Source: Don Branson
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Pyrograf Products is already the world's third-largest producer of carbon fibers, with a wide range of applications for its products.

If fate smiles on the Dayton company, Pyrograf could soon pick up another key application: material for the lithium ion battery that powers the all-electric Chevy Volt.

Pyrograf was spun off as subsidiary to Applied Sciences Inc. in 1999, and became an independent company in 2002. Since then, with research and development support by ASI, the company has produced carbon nanotubes for growing military and commercial products.

"We have striven throughout the course of our company to develop a low-cost manufacturing technology for this material," says president Max Lake. "The larger the tube the more efficient it is, and we've settled on these larger tubes."

Carbon nanotubes can improve the properties of polymers and act as either an insulator or a conductor -- for both heat and electricity.

The company's 25-year relationship with General Motors resulted in GM's licensing of its carbon fiber patents for use in automotive components. But will Pyrograf's materials ultimately make it into the Volt?

"That's our dream," says Lake. "And another part of the dream is that the Chevy Volt will be accepted in the market."

In the meantime, the company continues to sell its materials for products such as tennis rackets, golf clubs and stereo speakers -- as well as defense applications.

The company has benefited from crucial state funding over the years, including commercialization and research funds through the Ohio Third Frontier.

Together, Pyrograf and ASI -- located across the street from each other -- employ 17.

Source: Max Lake, Pyrograf Products and Applied Sciences Inc.
Writer: Gene Monteith

A $5-million federal grant is aimed at revving up the skills of Ohio's displaced auto and other workers, training them for jobs in the growing bioscience world.

The grant was awarded to BioOhio, a nonprofit, Columbus-based bioscience accelerator, for its Ohio Bioscience Industry Workforce Preparedness Project. BioOhio doled grants to Cincinnati State Technical and Community College,  Columbus State Community College,  Cuyahoga Community College, Lakeland Community College,  Owens Community College and Sinclair Community College.

The initiative will take place over three years, and more than $2.8 million of grant has been set aside for tuition reimbursement and trainee scholarships

The dollars will be used to create new programs or build on new ones at the colleges, which are partnering with employers and labor, workforce development and non-profit organizations to develop programs to retrain and identify workers in Ohio's auto and other declining industries.

The program is focused not just on education and training but moving people into jobs through the public and private partnerships says Dr. Bill Tacon, Senior Director, Workforce & Education at BioOhio.

"We will help them find a job. We're not simply training and just letting them go. Each has an industry advisory board, and when we got the grant the industry advisory board signed a letter of commitment saying they are looking at new potential hires," Tacon says.

The program has a goal of retraining 660 displaced or underemployed workers in declining industries

Northeast Ohio is leading the charge, because the region's colleges have several programs in place that likely will spread to other campuses, Tacon says. For example, Cuyahoga Community College and partners have a medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing program that could be implemented across the state.

Source: Bill Tacon, BioOhio
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

There's no doubt today's economy is challenging, and there's no guarantee that a plum job (or any job for that matter) will be awaiting college grads.

A trio of University of Dayton students knows just how hard it can be to find a great job opportunity. So they've launched a new company, Brain Rack, that matches creative students with companies through the emerging crowd sourcing problem solving model.

Two UD grads and a one senior launched BrainRack this spring. Here's how it works: A company or organization poses a challenge, basically a question seeking an innovative answer, to college students. Students submit answers to the question for company review. The company awards a cash prize to the best, and then has the opportunity to interview these students for a job. The challenges also are open to recent college grads.

"It's a way to link interesting companies with creative students," said Brain Rack co-founder Senay Semere. "What we are doing is giving a voice to students who may not be able to be heard by companies. This is also a great way for companies to market themselves and get prospective employees at an early age."

This year BrainRack won second place in the University of Dayton's Business Plan Competition and $10,000. It also took second place honors in the Midwest pool at the winner-takes all Harvard Business School Alumni New Venture Competition.

BrainRack also has a big social media component. Students can easily share the sites, and challenges by Facebook and Twitter. BrainRack is advertising on Facebook and spreading the word about the site via several social media sites.

"In addition to that we are working on a grass roots campaign with student reps on 18 campuses (across the U.S. and Europe) who are physically promoting us," said Matthew Veryser, who directors BrainRack's social media campaigns.

Sources: Senay Semere and Matthew Veryser, BrainRack
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Ohio soybeans instead of fishmeal in fish foods? It's a good idea whose time has come, says Dave Smith, and later this year his Freshwater Farms will start a pilot project to prove it.

Smith, who has a doctorate in fish nutrition, tried the idea a few years ago, even launching the company Freedom Feeds. He says his product was good, but its price was not as competitive as the traditional kind.

Now, largely because of damage to the fish population since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, fish meal prices are expected to double � opening the door to a good market for a grain and insect protein feed. Smith says the U.S. Soybean Council and Ohio Department of Agriculture support aquaculture, and he plans to take up his feed project again within the next year.

Freshwater Farms is a busy place already. Three generations of Smiths work at the Champaign County site, where they raise a variety of fish. They sell pond equipment, also. The Smiths' fish are sold to stock ponds and lakes � but also, to go straight to the dinner table. By operating their own FDA-inspected processing plant and 40-by-40 retail shop, they offer smoked trout, trout dips and other goodies.

Because of his expertise, Smith has consulted with people who want to convert their hog and cattle barns to fish farms. Fish are cleaner and better for the environment, he says.

Sidenote: The 9th annual Ohio Fish and Shrimp Festival will be held at Freshwater Farms Sept. 17-19.

Source: Dave Smith, Freshwater Farms
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

At Techmetals in Dayton, investment in human resources is as important as investment in capital resources.

The 41-year-old industrial and commercial metal finishing company emphasizes employee learning for everyone, from new hires to veterans, says Phillip Brockman, director of business development and engineering.

Within the first two weeks, newcomers are required to perform some physical labor and read technical data. The tasks help Techmetals determine important characteristics about the person, such as whether they can read and follow directions, and if they're a "self-starter." The tasks also help the company evaluate the person's communication skills.

Everyone gets training in Steven Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," which emphasizes things like being proactive, planning, and understanding; and the FranklinCovey planner system, which assists time management and organization.

But that's not all. Other company-sponsored courses cover things like chemistry, math, blueprint reading, project management, supervision, safety, and the importance of a drug-free workplace.

Each employee gets $2,000 a year for outside learning, too, typically used at places such as Sinclair Community College and the University of Dayton. Brockman says the company spent $24,000 last year for sales training. One employee underwent $7,000 of computer training. Many employees also earn the credential Certified Electro Finisher � "it's like a degree in plating," he says.

And when a company class is held on a Saturday, off-duty employees get paid to be there.

A former COO is the continuous improvement director; he teaches many of the classes. And there are two on-site training facilities. The 2009 total for all this learning was over $125,000, excluding the continuous improvement director's salary.

Why, in an era of economic upheaval, does Techmetals still budget for these things?

"It helps establish our culture," Brockman says. "�And it helps us all use the same nomenclature and procedures."

It doesn't hurt retention, either, he says. Current employment is about 125. Average tenure is 18 years.

Source: Phillip Brockman, Techmetals
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs