OF NOTE: Aaron Renn, The Urbanophile, will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Indy Partnership Annual Meeting. The event will be held on March 23 at the Toby Theatre at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and is open to the public. For more information, visit www.indypartnership.com or contact Oren Cooley at ocooley@indypartnership.com.

PHOTO CAPTION: A view from the Washington Street bridge shows the NCAA headquarters, NCAA Hall of Champions, and the nearly complete JW Marriott hotel, which stands 34 stories tall next to the newly expanded Indiana Convention Center. The Indianapolis JW Marriott will boast the largest ballroom in the chain -- fitting for the largest JW Marriott in the world.

In partnership with fellow Central Indiana Corporate Partnership organization Conexus Indiana, I penned the following column -- now appearing on the Inside Indiana Business website -- highlighting some of the monumental clean-tech energy and Indiana advanced manufacturing success stories coming out of the first 45 days of 2010.

 

About Conexus: Conexus Indiana is the state’s advanced manufacturing and logistics initiative, dedicated to making Indiana a global leader in these high‐growth, high‐tech industries. Conexus is focused on strategic priorities like workforce development, creating new industry partnerships and marketing our competitive advantages.

Here is the column as it appears on insideindianabusiness.com:



2010 Off to a Fast Start in Green Manufacturing Success Stories

What do you get when you combine cutting edge technologies, a legacy of engineering expertise, and a rich manufacturing heritage? A flurry of good news that puts central Indiana in the driver's seat of activity to put more electric vehicles on our highways and make renewable energy a practical reality. And if the rest of the year looks anything like the first few weeks, 2010 will be known as the Year of Clean-Tech here at the Crossroads of America.

Let's run down a few of the highlights:

In Anderson, Ind., Remy International announced a new business unit dedicated solely to the development and manufacturing of electric and hybrid motors. Remy is already the largest U.S. producer of hybrid motors, and last year earned a $60 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of an initiative to fuel development of electric vehicle batteries and components.

The move could spur significant investment and create hundreds of new jobs over the next few years, and appears to already be paying dividends – Remy just announced a major contract to supply Mercedes with hybrid motors.

When it comes to electric vehicles, the "green-tech" juggernaut known as EnerDel continues to produce new jobs and investment in the Indianapolis Region, along with cutting-edge batteries. As the only U.S. manufacturer of the lithium ion batteries that power hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles, EnerDel has tapped the rich reservoir of engineering talent that created General Motors' EV1 and other groundbreaking projects here in the region. EnerDel just announced a major new manufacturing facility in Greenfield, Ind., that will ultimately employ 1,100+ -- thus expanding a footprint in greater Indianapolis that includes its northeast Indy headquarters and a battery pack assembly facility in Noblesville, just north of the city.

Throughout the state, tremendous wins are being registered in attracting clean tech manufacturing. Think North America, an electric car manufacturer, has chosen Elkhart as the site of its first U.S. manufacturing plant, joining Electric Motors Corp and NaviStar as the hub of a growing green vehicle cluster along Indiana's northern border.

Brevini Wind (in Muncie, Ind.) has earned $12.8 million in federal tax credits to manufacture gear boxes and other technologies for its massive wind turbines. Just a few weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chu visited Columbus, Ind., to announce $54 million in federal stimulus grants to Cummins to increase engine fuel efficiency.

Like any high-tech, innovation-driven industry, the clean tech sector demands a skilled workforce. Here too, Indiana is making great strides, as the state's Department of Workforce Development recently secured a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to help workers from other manufacturing sectors take advantage of new jobs in the clean tech space.

The Indy Partnership has aggressively pursued companies in the energy innovation and green manufacturing arenas, both here and abroad – including multiple visits to Europe and China. We plan to continue these recruiting efforts in the years to come, and the level of activity so far in January tells us that our hard work is paying off.

Download our Indiana Clean-Tech Energy Industry Report.

Central Indiana has a long-term strategy designed to strengthen our world-class clean tech sector and re-energize our manufacturing base. Our sister initiative, Energy Systems Network, is playing a leading role in making Indiana a center for energy innovation. The success stories that have marked the start of 2010 are early dividends, but we're confident the best is yet to come.

As the economic development arm for the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) and the 10-county Indianapolis Region, Indy Partnership will be doing its part to tell this story and maximize our potential in this booming area of cutting-edge clean technology industries. In Indiana, green tech means green jobs; in other states, they're just green with envy at our success.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels recently made the claim, "Indiana is becoming a location of choice for companies in the renewable energy industry." As a director of research, I reject broad, sweeping claims -- particularly those made by politicians -- unless they are backed up with credible data. It's a "show me the numbers" approach that would make any high school forensics/debate teacher proud.

Governor Daniels, it seems, has the numbers on his side. Hoosiers are already benefiting from an emphasis on alternative fuel vehicles and clean-tech or renewable energy. From 1998 to 2007, the number of sustainable energy jobs in Indiana grew by 17.9 percent, nearly double the growth rate of the rest of the United States, according to The Pew Charitable Trust.

PHOTO CAPTION: Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (left) and Charles Gassenheimer, chairman and CEO of Ener1, the parent company of Indiana company EnerDel, pause for a photo together inside one of EnerDel's manufacturing facilities. Gassenheimer is holding one of the company's lithium-ion battery cells.

Furthermore, consider these recent announcements:

• Lithium-ion battery maker EnerDel will locate its newest manufacturing operation in Hancock County (within the 10-county Indianapolis region) and create hundreds more jobs than originally projected. EnerDel, a developer of batteries and energy storage systems for hybrid, plug-in electric and electric vehicles, will soon have more than 1,400 employees working at three Indianapolis region locations.
   
• THINK, a leading international manufacturer of pure electric vehicles, plans to locate its North American production facility in Elkhart, Ind., creating more than 400 jobs by 2013.
   
• Delphi Corp., a global electronics maker, will establish a new production facility in Kokomo, Ind. (just north of the Indianapolis metro) to manufacture products for the electric drive vehicle market, creating an estimated 190 new jobs by 2014.
   
• White Construction Inc., a contractor for renewable energy projects throughout North America, will expand operations and build its new headquarters in Clinton (between Indianapolis and Chicago), creating up to 70 new jobs by 2012.
   
• According to the American Wind Energy Association, Indiana is a leading state in adding new wind capacity -- ranking second in the nation in 2009 and first in 2008.

Google introduced its Nexus One wireless phone last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and that's good news for Brightpoint North America, a global leader in the distribution of wireless devices. Brightpoint is located in Plainfield, Indiana, near the Indianapolis International Airport.

Through an agreement with Taiwan's HTC Corp. -- the original equipment manufacturer of the Nexus One -- Brightpoint will provide logistics services supporting Google's web store channel, including bundling and shipping the Nexus One to end users.

I personally worked in the consumer electronics industry for close to a decade, attended and exhibited as a manufacturer at CES, and helped to launch hundreds of consumer electronics products. In my experience, nothing kills a product faster than a.) too many bugs or outright product failures, and b.) poor logistics.

Google has a lot riding on its first foray into the wireless hardware marketplace. I would imagine bringing the Nexus One phone itself to market was a monumental challenge for an on-line, software-centric company with little experience in manufacturing (even with the help of an OEM).

With resources focused on launching a product intended to compete with the iPhone, issues with availability, fulfillment or shipping could be disastrous, since Apple has such an exemplary reputation for customer satisfaction and overall product experience.

It's testament to the strength of Indiana transportation logistics and especially to Brightpoint North America that Google and its partner HTC Corp. have chosen a company located in the Indianapolis region to play such a pivotal role in the launch of a make-or-break product.

For those unaware of the transportation, distribution and logistics prowess of the Indianapolis Region, here are a few of the more salient details:
 

• More than 50% of the U.S. and Canadian populations lie within a day’s truck drive of Indiana
• About 75% of the U.S. and Canadian populations lie within one and a half day's drive of Indiana
• The Indianapolis Region ranks first among metro areas in interstate access with four intersecting interstate highways
• Indianapolis International Airport is home to the world's second-largest FedEx hub
• Indianapolis International Airport is the eighth-largest cargo airport in North America.

LEARN MORE about transportation, distribution and logistics in the Indianapolis Region.
Read the logistics FEATURE STORY from the Indianapolis Region magazine.

Photo courtesy of Banayote Photography.

President Barack Obama today praised a program that will place hundreds of highly qualified math and science teachers in Indiana classrooms and announced an expansion of the program to Ohio, Michigan and up to two additional states in 2010.

The Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship, created at the direction of Gov. Mitch Daniels with financial support from the Lilly Endowment and state funds, provides stipends to prospective teachers who agree to spend a year in exemplary teacher education programs and teach for three years in low-income rural and urban secondary schools. 

“America’s leadership tomorrow depends on how we educate our students today, especially in science, math and engineering,” said President Obama. “That’s why I’m pleased to announce the expansion of our “Educate to Innovate” campaign today and applaud the several new partnerships launched that will help meet our goal of moving American students from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next decade.”

“The Wilson Teaching Fellowship is helping Indiana address a critical shortage of great math and science teachers,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said. “I agree with President Obama and Secretary Duncan that providing our students great teachers is imperative to increasing academic achievement. Hoosier students will benefit greatly from having expert teachers in their classrooms through the Wilson Teaching Fellowship, and I am encouraged our state’s success means students in other states will have the same opportunity.”

Four Indiana universities were chosen to participate: Ball State University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Purdue University, and the University of Indianapolis.

Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows hold baccalaureate degrees in math or science and are high achievers, academically and professionally. They complete an intensive, field-based master’s program in teacher education at a participating university, overseen by both the university’s STEM faculty and its education faculty in cooperation with partner school districts. Fellows receive $30,000 during the Fellowship year and commit to teach for three years, with on-site mentoring, in some of the state’s high-need urban or rural secondary schools.

Interested applicants can find program and application information at http://www.woodrow.org/.  Applications for the 2010 cohort of Fellows are due on January 12, 2010.

The White House press release is available here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-expands-educate-innovate-campaign-excellence-science-technology-eng
 

INDIANAPOLIS (Dec. 24, 2009) -- The Indianapolis region has been chosen as one of three finalists for the new world headquarters of a multi-billion dollar international toy manufacturer and distributor, the Indy Partnership announced today. 

                "While we can't publicly identify the company, due to a clause in our confidentiality agreement, we can tell you that we're thrilled to have ended up on the company's 'nice' list," said Indy Partnership President and CEO Ron Gifford.  

                The company realized last year that it had outgrown its existing location in the northern hemisphere. "Twas the night before Christmas, which is traditionally our busiest time," said Will "Buddy" Keebler, director of Elfonomic Development and company spokesman for the project.  " It became clear that our current facilities were like a bag of misfit toys."

                To find a new home, Keebler said the company made a list, checked it twice, and relied heavily on the Indy Partnership's award-winning website to find out which places would be nice.

                The Indianapolis region presented several assets that could meet the company's unique manufacturing and logistics needs.  "We operate an extensive global logistics operation,"  noted Rudy Cervidae, team leader for the company's extensive global logistics operation. "If you ask me, with jewels like the world's second-largest FedEx hub, major distribution centers like Amazon.com, and a great airport, Indianapolis is likely to nose out the competition." 

                Rudy's face also lit up when he talked about being so close to Purdue's Veterinary School. "Although I can't disclose why, some of our team were prancin' and dancin' when they heard about that," he glowed.

                The toy maker was also impressed that central Indiana is home to the most productive manufacturing workforce in the Midwest. "While our workforce might look small, they are extremely talented and efficient, " Keebler observed. "You certainly have an abundant supply of talent to join our workshop associates."

                Indianapolis has some unique characteristics that favor it. "When you spend as much time in shopping malls as our boss does, you can't underestimate the value of being down the street from the headquarters of the Simon Property Group," Keebler said. "Plus, the whole 'World's Largest Christmas Tree' thing on the Circle -- talk about brand alignment!" 

                Easy access to southern Indiana's plentiful coal supplies also caught the company's eye. "Sadly, coal delivery has been a growing part of our business," Keebler lamented.

                The State of Indiana has put together a very attractive incentive package in an attempt to lure the company here, according to Indiana Secretary of Commerce Mitch Roob. "While I can't talk about what's on the company's wish list, let's just say we put out some serious cookies and milk on this one," Roob noted.  Governor Daniels also met privately with the company's founder and chairman, but Roob would not disclose what the Governor asked for. Roob also denied that the Governor sat on the old man's lap, noting that the Governor hasn't done that since he was 9 years old.  

                The company expects to make a final decision after the holiday season. The other two finalists for the site are Santa Claus, Indiana and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.   Although Santa Claus is considered a sentimental favorite, most observers are skeptical about the Pennsylvania site. According to local site consultant Larry Grinch, "It would take a miracle for this baby to end up in Bethlehem."  

Published: Friday, 6 Nov 2009 -  CNBC just completed a study on "Best Cities to Find a Job" and Indianapolis is ranked 8th.  CNBC specifically highlights central Indiana's Life Sciences and Medical Device Manufacturing industries as bright spots.

The report, released by employment Web site CareerBuilder.com, ranked the top metro areas with the most job postings on the site between January and October 2009.

 “The cities that are more economically diverse and have a variety of industries” have the most jobs available, said CareerBuilder.com spokesperson Jennifer Grasz.

"The Indianapolis Region also has and advantage from the perspective of employers in clean energy, defense, automotive, and information technology," said Matt Waldo, Director of Research and Information for Indy Partnership.  "More highly skilled workers are available now in central Indiana than ever before, and at a competitive cost - and we'll quantify that for you," he continued. 

Check out all that the Indianapolis Region has to offer here.

The CNBC report may be accessed here.

Purdue to find game changing way to produce biofuels

The center will investigate methods to bypass the currently used processes involving biological fermentation, reducing the need for large and expensive biorefineries and expanding the range of biofuels beyond ethanol.

The Department of Energy also chose Purdue's project as one of 16 that will be funded by President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The five-year project to develop direct conversion technologies of plant biomass to fuels will create at least 20 new jobs for students, postdoctoral researchers and professional staff in Indiana and another eight jobs at partner institutions, said Maureen McCann, the associate professor of biological sciences who leads the project.

"This center will not only build the knowledge base that will give us a new generation of technologies in energy research for future implementation, but also has the potential to impact work force opportunities," she said. "New jobs are created directly through the funds given to the center, but there also will be a ripple effect as those we train go on to academia or industry and conduct their own enterprises in energy research. If we are successful in this program of high-risk, high-reward research, then it will result in job creation on a much wider scale as these new technologies are implemented into the green economy."

The Purdue center, named the Center for Direct Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels, or C3Bio, will investigate methods to directly convert plant lignocellulosic biomass, the bulk of the plant, to biofuels and other bio-based products currently derived from oil by the use of new chemical catalysts and thermal treatments. The team aims to produce fuels that closely resemble gasoline in terms of their molecular makeup and energy density, she said.

The center team, which includes experts from the fields of biology, chemistry and chemical engineering, will study the interactions between catalysts and plant cell walls to design improved chemical reactions for the biomass-to-biofuel pipeline.

Mahdi Abu-Omar, a professor of chemistry, will co-chair the center with McCann. The research team also includes Nick Carpita, Clint Chapple, Dan Szymanski and Nathan Mosier from the College of Agriculture; Rakesh Agrawal, Nick Delgass, Fabio Ribeiro and Kendall Thomson from the College of Engineering; and Hilkka Kenttämaa, Chris Staiger and Garth Simpson from the College of Science.

The center will collaborate with the University of Tennessee, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, which have facilities capable of examining the interaction of catalysts with biomass at the atomic level, McCann said.

"The science of chemical catalysis hasn't been much applied to turning biomass into biofuels," McCann said. "We thought there was a real gap in applying a science that is the foundation of the petrochemical industry but for which very little research exists on living plants, or as we like to call them, young coal."

Most of the reactions used in the petrochemical industry, starting from oil, rely on inorganic chemical catalysts, McCann said. For example, inorganic catalysts are used to generate ethylene and propylene, which are then used to create polymers, paints and other materials.

In current fermentation technology, biological catalysts are used to break down starch in corn kernels to glucose, and living organisms, such as bacteria or yeast, also use their own enzymes to produce ethanol from the glucose. Research is being carried out to use biological catalysts to break down plant biomass as a much more abundant source of glucose and other sugars for fermentation by the bacteria or yeast.

"Biological catalysts are fragile," Abu-Omar said. " Chemical catalysts have played a critical role in providing us fuels in the 20th Century from petroleum. In the 21st Century we will need robust and cheap chemical catalysts to provide us with renewable fuels directly from biomass."

The current biological catalysts used also have difficulty in dealing with lignin, a highly complex macromolecule within the plant cell wall. Lignin prevents access to the polysaccharides in the wall that are the source of the useful glucose and xylose, McCann said.

"The fermentation technologies are only 40 to 50 percent efficient in terms of the carbon atoms you started out with in the biomass ending up in fuel molecules," she said. "We think with different catalysts, the lignin could actually be used and converted to fuel molecules. If we can use the lignin, there is the potential to double the amount of fuel from each unit of biomass. Also that fuel could be more energy-dense, more similar to gasoline, than ethanol."

Bypassing the fermentation process also could help scale down biorefinery size, she said.

"If you could use chemical catalysts or a combination of catalysts with heat, you might be able to scale down the large and expensive refineries that you need to carry out the fermentations," McCann said. "It may even make mobile hydrocarbon refineries possible, where you could take the refinery to the field instead of having to transport heavy biomass to another location."

McCann said the interdisciplinary team that draws on a variety of Purdue's strengths was instrumental in getting the award and will drive the center's success.

"With a group that combines multiple areas of expertise, ideas that are at the boundaries of disciplines start to emerge," she said. "Purdue has deep expertise in plant cell wall biology,  developing new scientific instrumentation, the chemistry of catalysis, and in thermal process engineering and the design of catalysts. In addition, we are located in Indiana, which has the necessary agricultural landscape for the development of biofuels, and great connections already exist between farmers, agribusiness, the state of Indiana and Purdue researchers. 

Purdue's long history of research in biofuels and supporting areas add to its strength, McCann said. The center has plans to establish connections with various research hubs across campus and other national research centers.

"Purdue has researchers that have been working on different aspects of energy biosciences for decades, building the foundation for the future," she said. "This center will bring together the massive amount of talented work that the university has accrued and will apply it to the next step in achieving a viable alternative energy source to finite and foreign oil."

Source:  www.Purdue.edu, May 7, 2009.

You may view other regional assets in the alternative fuels area in Indiana by clicking here.

Indiana added more workers than any other state in September, fueled mainly by gains in the hard-hit manufacturing sector.

Forty-three states reported job losses in September, while seven gained jobs, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The numbers underscore the uneven nature of the nation's economic recovery.

September shined in the Indianapolis metro area, where 7.7 percent was the lowest jobless rate since 8 percent in January. Marion County last month recorded 8.4 percent joblessness, while Hamilton County had the area's lowest rate, 6.1 percent. Madison County, at 9.7 percent, had the area's highest unemployment.

Indiana benefited from a rebound in the auto sector last month and a healthy medical device industry, said Robert Guell, a professor at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.

Auto parts and assembly plants ramped up production as General Motors, Honda and Chrysler sought to replenish inventories depleted by the popular Cash for Clunkers program, in which customers traded old vehicles for newer, more fuel-efficient models.

In September, Indiana added 4,400 jobs, an increase from August, with manufacturing posting the strongest gain with 3,000 positions. The professional and business service sectors also filled 2,900 jobs. Construction lost 3,300.

Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, was encouraged by the added jobs but said, "It's still too early to say we have turned the corner."

Matt Kinghorn, economic research analyst with Indiana University's Indiana Business Research Center, agreed.

"It's really encouraging news in seeing Indiana make improvements and (in some sectors) really dramatic improvements. . . . It's still too early to say that Indiana is out of the woods."

Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, said, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, it looks like Indiana is pulling out of the recession faster than our neighbors."

Patrick Kiely, president and CEO of the Indiana Manufacturers Association, said he'll take the happy news after two years of job declines. He said the state has gained about 12,000 manufacturing jobs since dropping from 543,000 in January 2008 to 428,700 in June 2009.

"It is coming back," but "everybody's still as cautious as they can be."

Source:  Indianapolis Star (indystar.com) , 10/22/2009
You may view county-by-county unemployment rates, labor force estimates and other workforce data on the Indy Partnership website - click here.

 

• Allison Transmission
• Delphi
• EnerDel
• Magna E-Car
• Remy