News Service

11-5-07

Iowa State's new CyberInnovation Institute to strengthen research, state economy

AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University's new CyberInnovation Institute is pledging to turn a $1 million state investment into six new companies, three new industrial collaborations and a 40 percent jump in research funding.

James Oliver, the institute's director and an Iowa State professor of mechanical engineering, said the new institute will build on a research program that's already attracted millions in government and industry support and created the technology foundation for 11 new companies.

The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, approved the institute in May. The institute was launched with money from a state effort to boost economic development in information technology, the biosciences and advanced manufacturing. A study by the Battelle Memorial Institute recommended the state develop those industries with the help of university research.

"The new CyberInnovation Institute is very important to the university and the state," said Iowa State President Gregory Geoffroy. "The institute will build on the university's strengths in information technology. It will develop the expertise and technology that can help Iowa companies compete in a global economy. And it will help the state create opportunities that can keep talented and educated young people in Iowa."

The institute includes five campus research centers: the Center for Computational Intelligence, Learning and Discovery; the Information Assurance Center; the Information Infrastructure Institute; the Institute for Combinatorial Discovery; and the Virtual Reality Applications Center.

The institute will also work closely with Iowa State's Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship to encourage development of companies based on technologies invented at Iowa State.

Oliver said the institute is pulling the various centers and researchers together to do three things:

• Strengthen basic science and engineering research capability through linkages with information technology.
• Help Iowa State grow more competitive for larger and broader research projects that cut across information technology specialties.
• And help Iowa State do a better job leveraging its research strengths to advance the state's economic development efforts.

The institute's proposal says reaching those goals could make a big difference on campus and across the state. The institute, for example, could attract research projects from national and international corporations. The institute could help Iowa companies be more competitive for federal information technology contracts. The institute could help Iowa State recruit and retain outstanding faculty. And the institute could increase the breadth and depth of information technology expertise at Iowa State.

The institute will maintain offices in Howe Hall on the Iowa State campus. The institute will also use one-third of the former Engineering Animation Inc. building adjacent to the Iowa State University Research Park as the CyberInnovation Institute's Technical Collaboration Facility. Oliver said several companies have already set up operations in the building.

"All of us agree," Oliver said, "that we're stronger working together than apart."

For more information about the institute, see www.cyberi.iastate.edu.

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Quick look

Iowa State University has created a CyberInnovation Institute to advance the university's science and engineering research through linkages with information technology. The institute is designed to help Iowa State compete for larger and broader research projects. And it's designed to help Iowa State do a better job leveraging its research strengths to benefit the state's economic development.

Iowa State President Gregory Geoffroy