Prolific IBM inventor takes on Penn State Research: Let's make this into Happy Silicon Valley

By Stephanie Kalina-Metzger

Photo: Provided.

All it took for Madhavan Swaminathan was a little encouragement to jumpstart his career in innovation. The new head of the Department of Electrical Engineering in Penn State’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science comes to Penn State by way of Georgia Tech, where he spent 28 years leading the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center and the National Science Foundation Center for Advanced Electronics through Machine Learning.

Swaminathan, who was born in India, said that innovation wasn’t really encouraged when he was young, but that all changed when he came to the United States, earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Syracuse University and joined IBM.

“At that time, IBM was investing in the next supercomputers, when I was asked to develop new packaging technologies and my manager told me to concentrate on developing innovative solutions in that area,” said Swaminathan.

For those who might conjure up the idea of boxes and bubble wrap when it comes to packaging, Swaminathan explains that the packaging he speaks of is an entirely different concept. “If you view any electronic system, it has two parts. The first part are the transistors within a chip and the second part is the packaging. The transistors within the chip act as the brain and then there’s everything around the chip that supports its function, similar to the human body,” he said.

Swaminathan goes on to explain how minute these transistors are. “There can be one billion transistors within a chip and those transistors have to communicate within the external world and with other chips as well. To reduce the size of the system, you have to work on new packaging technologies,” he said, adding that packaging is very important in 5G and 6G communications and computers, where efficiency and battery life are important to send the electrons back and forth between chips.

“Students these days are very different. They are very much interested in startups and commercializing ideas, but college faculty members don’t always have an eye towards business. You need to have both sides and I intend to meet with faculty to encourage them towards providing a holistic education focused not only on research, but also on marketing and business."

Being given the green light to begin innovating at IBM was a boon for Swaminathan and he took to the task with enthusiasm. From 1991 to 1994, while working there, he registered six patents related to advanced packaging.

Later, during a 28-year career at Georgia Tech as the John Pippin Chair in Microsystems Packaging and Electromagnetics at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he developed 25 additional patents, mainly related to advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration of semiconductors.

“At Georgia Tech, we were studying new technologies for packaging and were licensed to create companies,” said Swaminathan, adding that Jacket Micro Devices was just one of those companies that began under his purview and was later acquired by a larger company.

Throughout all of these achievements, what excites Swaminathan most, he said, is living between the worlds of innovation and commercialization. “Being able to commercialize that which emerges from leading-edge research is a very important component, otherwise these great ideas can get lost,” he said.

A Penn State recruit

Swaminathan said that he wasn’t actively seeking a job when Penn State came calling. “I was actually very happy where I was at the time, but I was encouraged to apply via a search firm, so I did.”

“I can’t see any reason why Happy Valley can’t one day be known as Happy Silicon Valley."

Swaminathan explains that he made it through the first round and a final interview before the Dean contacted him and asked him what it would take to convince him to relocate to Happy Valley.

“Continuing my research was very important to me and what struck me about Penn State were the people. I connected with them and their dedication to cutting-edge research was truly outstanding, which is why I thought, why not?” he said.

Swaminathan brings with him to Penn State a large packaging research center, which will include 13 other universities and which he will continue to lead, paving a path for his students.

“Students these days are very different. They are very much interested in startups and commercializing ideas, but college faculty members don’t always have an eye towards business. You need to have both sides and I intend to meet with faculty to encourage them towards providing a holistic education focused not only on research, but also on marketing and business,” he said.

“Being able to commercialize that which emerges from leading-edge research is a very important component, otherwise these great ideas can get lost."

The reason Swaminathan cites commercialization as high on his list of priorities is because of the challenges faced within the United States.

“Whatever is done in the lab needs to translate into manufacturing. Right now, there are two challenges. [The first is] reshoring. Currently most manufacturing in semi-conductors happens outside of the United States. That needs to come back. Also, there’s the supply chain problem. The U.S. produces only 12% of chips here, while consuming more than 50%,” he said.

Swaminathan said that he’s looking forward to living and innovating in Happy Valley and is optimistic about the future.

“I can’t see any reason why Happy Valley can’t one day be known as Happy Silicon Valley,” he said with a smile.

An industry-first AI robot means ample growth opportunities for a Happy Valley recycler

By Holly Riddle

Photo: Provided.

Serial entrepreneur and Penn State alum Ned Eldridge knows how to turn trash into treasure. The president and CEO of eLoop — headquartered in Export, Pennsylvania, but with a location in Happy Valley — founded the electronics recycling service provider in 2008 and, since then, the company has recycled more than 70 million pounds of materials, keeping more than 21 million pounds of toxic metals from ending up in landfills. Now, the company has its sights set on changing the way the entire country recycles flat-panel hardware, using the power of AI to increase productivity to a mammoth degree.

Bringing a robot first to State College

Ned Eldridge, president and CEO of eLoop. Photo: Provided.

Despite today’s success, eLoop experienced difficulties for its first few years, before Eldridge found the right niche.

“We were handling residential electronic scrap, and believe me, it was a very tough way to make a living,” said Eldridge. After six years of struggling for success, though, eLoop pivoted ,  from focusing on residential recycling to recycling business assets for corporations.

Eldridge added, “Now, not only do we handle residential electronics scrap, but we also handle a lot of B2B work, where we upcycle computer equipment, IT assets, communication gear, different types of monitors, PCs — all with the idea that we can refurb and resell this equipment.”

Today, about 70% of eLoop’s work is this B2B service, collecting business’s equipment, destroying their data and then refurbishing and reselling the hardware, with a team of about three dozen employees.

Some of the items to frequently make their way through the eLoop facilities? Flat-panel televisions and computer monitors.

“It’s a huge productivity improvement over current methods. That in itself gives us a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

Currently, an eLoop employee can process about four flat-panel televisions in an hour. However, that number will soon increase 20 times over, with operators processing 80 flat-panel televisions per hour thanks to a new, AI-powered, automated, robotic recycling system called the FPD Pro (though Eldridge plans to give the robot a more personable name; he tossed out Nittany as a possibility). The new tech is the first of its kind and the eLoop location in State College will have the very first FPD Pro robot in the entire United States.

Faster, cheaper and more profitable

So how does the FPD Pro work? This video breaks it down.

“It’s a huge productivity improvement over current methods,” said Eldridge. “That in itself gives us a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

Once the system is operational, Eldridge said eLoop will be able to collect flat-panel televisions and computer monitors from other recyclers from all over the region, including in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and, of course, Pennsylvania. As those recyclers send their video displays to eLoop for processing, they’ll in turn reap the more affordable gate fees that will come from eLoop’s increased productivity — $0.10 per pound of materials processed versus competitor rates of $0.15–$0.20 per pound.

The team will ramp up productivity over a series of phases; in the first phase, Eldridge estimates eLoop will be able to process about 4.8 million pounds of hardware per year with a single shift. In the second phase, eLoop will increase employment and operate two shifts at the recycling facility, so as to process approximately 14 million pounds of hardware per year.

After eLoop proves the FPD Pro’s value, Eldridge expects other U.S. recyclers to follow the company’s lead.

“We're the first ones to buy into it. We expect that once ours is set up, it's going to be kind of a model, that other recyclers will come in from around the country to see it,” he said. “I will bet, once we prove the concept, they'll be adopting the technology.”

Photo: Provided.

But until they do, Eldridge said, “nothing stops me from adding another machine in my operation or expanding to other geographies around the Northeast.” Even when running at full capacity with the one FPD Pro, eLoop will only be processing about 10% of all the flat-panel televisions that are recycled within the region, which means there’s ample opportunity for growth.

While some of the recycled flat-screen televisions and computer monitors can be refurbished and resold, though, there’s another valuable result to come from this process, one that will likely appeal to Happy Valley’s robust population of researchers.

“We stand to become a great source for scientists that want to recover rare earth minerals from these products,” explained Eldridge. “Rare earth minerals are scarce and need to be recycled, and they're controlled primarily through mining operations in China. However, experts will tell you that there's an awful lot of rare earth minerals that can be recovered through recycling old electronic equipment like cell phones, etcetera, so we hope to be able to establish that laboratory in State College as well.”

You can learn more about eLoop at https://www.eloopllc.com.

$500 microgrants from Penn State’s Lion Launchpad make all the difference to budding entrepreneurs

By Stephanie Kalina-Metzger

Photo: Provided.

Management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it” and Penn State, through its Lion LaunchPad Microgrant Program, is helping students take charge of their futures by offering seed money to help them jumpstart their entrepreneurial dreams.

Starting a business and sticking around

Microgrants are provided through the Lion Launchpad initiative, sponsored by the Penn State Engineering Entrepreneurship Program, which offers a range of co-curricular programs to students interested in entrepreneurship and innovation. Ted Graef, director of the Penn State Engineering Entrepreneurship Program, said that students are given up to $500 in seed money, to help fund ideas in their earliest stages.

“Funds can be used to purchase materials to assemble prototypes, or to pay for design or coding services, or to apply for a trademark and other, similar expenses,” said Graef, adding that the funding also paves the way for students to be equipped to take part in business competitions at Penn State.

He said, “Our goal is simply to help the students start businesses.” He goes on to explain that many are lifestyle businesses that will stay in the State College Area after students finish school. “Granted, it may not be the same initial business. It’s more about getting them started and acquainted with the process of getting a business up and running.”

Graef explains that the current Lion LaunchPad microgrant program was made possible by Chris Jeffery, a Penn State alum who himself became an entrepreneur. Jeffery created Lion Menus, a precursor to GrubHub, which eventually bought the business. Jeffery later made a donation to the entrepreneurship program and was excited that the funds would help students get their own businesses started.

“He was all for helping them in real time,” said Graef.

Photo: Provided.

Proof of concept

Many students who have benefited from the Lion LaunchPad program have become quite successful in their fields. Graef tells the story of Matt Woods, co-founder and former chief technology officer of Xact Metal, a 3D metal printing company.

After an internship at SpaceX, Woods applied for and benefited from a microgrant for creating a prototype metal 3D printer.

Woods said in a prior interview, “This paid for machine time at the Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory and for metal powders from eBay … At the time, that $500 felt like a mound of cash to work with.”

Xact Metal is now a growing company that, in 2019, was named The Emerging Business of the Year by the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County. It is headquartered at Innovation Park at Penn State and is dedicated to supporting the next generation of innovative solutions powered by metal 3D printing.

Graef referenced additional instances where microgrants have helped students.

“One student wanted to start a baking business and we bought him pans. Another was making Penn State-themed shoe charms for crocs and we helped her with the equipment to make them,” said Graef.

At the time, that $500 felt like a mound of cash to work with.

Bubune Owusu is one student who recently benefited from the microgrant program. The fifth-year student studying electrical engineering, with a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation (ENTI), founded a line of clothing called “Be Your Best” (BYB Clothing).

“I started the business as part of the ENTI minor and loved the process so much that I kept it going,” he said. Oswusu wanted to broaden his brand by dyeing his own fabrics and screen printing.

“The microgrant helped me attain a much-needed pot, hot plate and flash dryer, all of which made me more efficient and gave me the ability to use my creativity to set my brand apart from others,” he said, adding that without the grant it would have taken months to get the equipment and then extra time to develop the ability to effectively master the use of that equipment.

Photo: Provided.

Senior Sydney Turner is another student who benefited from a recent microgrant. The soon-to-be graduate is pursuing a double major in advertising and art, with a minor in ENTI. Through the SEDAPP program, she was able to pursue her entrepreneurial aspirations to start an art business. Thanks to the microgrant, the watercolorist was able to purchase a printer, ink and test papers to help create products for her business.

“The microgrant has been such a valuable asset to my new venture,” said Turner, adding that, thanks to the infusion of cash, she was able to make labels, art prints and stickers.

“Having a funding opportunity where needed supplies could be taken care of was crucial for my new venture’s success,” she said.

Looking toward the future

Graef said that, though the Lion LaunchPad program is solvent today, it may not be tomorrow.

“We are always looking for those who are willing to invest in the program to help these young entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground,” he said, adding that one of these microgrants, which are seemingly a small amount of money to some, can make all the difference in the world to others, helping creative individuals overcome early-stage hurdles and enabling them to bring to life innovative and unique ideas that can power the future.

Penn State’s AIMI ushers in Industry 5.0 with a bold vision for the future

By Caryn Anderson

AIMI connects you with Penn State. Photo: Provided.

Penn State’s Center for Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Industry (AIMI), which launched on June 30, 2022, has a complex, multifaceted goal. In part, AIMI aims to help small and medium manufacturers (SMMs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) get the resources they need to leverage the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Additionally, the center strives to secure an indigenous supply chain, support robust workforce development and improve education and economies throughout the country.

To learn more about AIMI, we sat down with its director, Soundar Kumara, a pioneer in nonlinear real-time data analysis for the manufacturing industry, and assistant director Gretta Kellogg.

Meet the industry powerhouses behind AIMI

Kumara has been working in this space for decades, with research and teaching excellence that contributed to his recognition as one of Smart Magazine's "20 Most Influential Academics" in 2021. Widely considered the "father of smart manufacturing in the current era," Kumara also pioneered teaching manufacturing-related AI, databases and data analytics to undergraduates and graduates, while addressing the interdisciplinary approach needed for successful smart manufacturing.

Kellogg worked as a program manager for two Genomic Centers at Penn State. Her work was so successful that she was recruited to launch Cornell University’s Epigenomics Core facility. Then, she was asked to return to Penn State specifically to work with Kumara and support AIMI’s mission.

“The background that [Kumara] provides, his experience and his professional expertise over the decades is really important because I have never known a center or core facility that is able to launch without relying upon the expertise of the initial leader in that space,” said Kellogg.

"There is a passion and goal to reach out, in the state of Pennsylvania in particular, to fulfill our land grant mission [with] the small and medium manufacturing organizations. AIMI strives to help them get to the place where they can do advanced manufacturing and become leaders in the world.”

She added, “AIMI’s success really depends upon the breadth and depth of his knowledge in AI and ML and his ability to apply that specifically to manufacturing. There is a passion and goal to reach out, in the state of Pennsylvania in particular, to fulfill our land grant mission [with] the small and medium manufacturing organizations. AIMI strives to help them get to the place where they can do advanced manufacturing and become leaders in the world.”

But when ICDA initially approached Kumara to help AIMI get started, he was hesitant. After heading another center in the past, which he eventually left after spending too much time fundraising instead of performing research, he didn’t want to risk a repeat of history.

Kumara noted, “But then I realized this was an opportunity to parlay my experience and expertise into something that would make a difference. After talking to my friends around the country, I could see that SME, AI and ML are the future — and that excites me.”

Taking small and medium industries into the future

AIMI’s slogan, “We are the innovators for you,” reflects the center’s calling, which is to lead industry into the future. Part of that, Kumara acknowledges, is addressing small and medium industries, particularly in order for supply chains to remain local and within the United States, lessening dependence on other countries for materials and products.

“COVID has taught us that we need to be more self-reliant,” said Kumara. “We need to innovate small and medium industries, taking them to what used to be Industry 4.0, but today is Industry 5.0. Also, how do we bring SMEs together to be part of the manufacturing ecosystems? That’s where AIMI’s work begins.”

The center recently submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation, outlining its project to revitalize underserved communities with a skilled workforce that can support a thriving United States-based supply chain for greater manufacturing resilience. This will be in conjunction with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, a nonprofit organization helping Connecticut’s small and medium-sized industries. More locally, AIMI will also partner with PennTAP and Ben Franklin Technology Partners with the goal of bringing all these organizations together to fulfill Penn State’s land grant mission.

“COVID has taught us that we need to be more self-reliant,” said Kumara. “We need to innovate small and medium industries, taking them to what used to be Industry 4.0, but today is Industry 5.0. Also, how do we bring SMEs together to be part of the manufacturing ecosystems? That’s where AIMI’s work begins.”

But taking Industry 5.0 to SMEs is easier said than done. Kumara has experience working with a range of smaller organizations. What he discovered was that some smaller companies don’t even have access to the internet.

“You can’t go and just tell them they need AI and ML. They’ll show you where the door is,” he noted.

Understanding the unique problems and challenges these companies face and advancing the necessary research and upskilling to solve those challenges is mission critical, though. That’s why AIMI is bringing a consortium together to study the problems within SMEs and find a solution.

Kumara said, “It isn’t just our pipe dream; the country needs this to happen. My vision and dream is for AIMI to become the world’s leading AI and ML center, eventually becoming a global force within the next five to 10 years. We are bringing in the Commonwealth campuses and building a model with our partners to create a national force that SMEs can turn to for our expertise and resources.”

AIMI memberships benefit industry. Photo: Provided.

Immediate impact

AIMI is also considering how it can help build local economies by upskilling the local workforce, creating jobs and improving rural education.

“If we do a good job of building up small and medium enterprises across the state, then that helps the students and local communities immediately,” noted Kellogg. “Instead of having to recruit from people way outside, you can have workforce development pipelines that take advantage of the high school and college students in the community and the students that come out of our Penn State campus locations across the state.”

The benefit? Graduates can work immediately with small and medium manufacturing companies right there in their area. They don’t have to move, and the companies don’t have to recruit to go out and find them.

What about large industries?

Although AIMI will focus on SMEs and SMMs, it will also be a conduit for AI in larger industries.

“We realized that unless we build those small and medium industries, our large industries will not be successful in the next generation,” said Kumara.

He envisions in the next five years, small and medium industries will function as an extended arm of large industries. Today, a big industry might have a finance department, marketing department and assembly department. In the future, they will have an assembly SME as an extended arm of the company. Large hospital systems will tie into small hospitals.

He concluded, “If large industries really want to use AI and ML successfully, they need to advance small and medium industries. We are their in-between.”

AIMI plans to host a two-day workshop at Penn State in the spring, during which they’ll gather information from small and medium industries, to learn about their challenges and problems. As it’s still in its early stages, AIMI also partners with student groups already active in learning and applying AI and ML to various projects, including Penn State EnvironMentors, Penn State’s Readiness Institute and the Nittany AI Alliance.

To learn more about AIMI, visit https://aimi.psu.edu/ or contact AIMI to further discuss your interests.

Penn State engineers optimizing water purification system for the U.S. Marines

By Timothy Kelly

An experimental MCDI unit. Photo: Chris Arges.

A team of researchers, led by Chris Arges, Penn State associate professor of chemical engineering, is working to optimize a water desalination process called membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) for mobile teams of U.S. Marines. We asked Arges to explain how the system works, why he chose Penn State for his research and why this work is so important. Here’s what we learned.

"The biggest draw to come to Penn State was the nanofabrication facility within the Materials Research Institute."

How MCDI works

Arges described the MCDI system like a sandwich. The two slices of bread are the electrodes. Two slices of cheese are the membranes stuck to each piece of bread. The bottom membrane only allows sodium to move through it and the top membrane only allows chloride to move through it. The water to be purified moves between the two membranes. When the electrodes are charged, the sodium and chloride move out of the water, into the membranes. The charge holds the ions to the electrodes, thus purifying the water. Purified water is collected in a container.

When the electrodes can’t hold anymore ions, the flow of water is slowed, the charge is reversed and the ions move back into the water, making it briny. The briny water is then routed to waste. As a bonus, this step generates electricity that can be stored for use in the next deionization cycle.

Making MCDI better

Arges said that his team wants to redesign the system so it can operate with more electric current flowing through the material. Pushing more current through the system purifies more water.

Increasing the surface area of the electrodes with microscopic wells allows them to hold more ions. It also increases the contact between the electrodes and the membranes, shortening the distance the ions need to travel.

“The MCDI … units could be found in homes or neighborhoods for purifying water or deployed in emergency areas, like after a hurricane, for producing potable water."

Arges further explained that the objective is to, “reduce all the resistances… [of] the bulk material [and] the interfacial resistances to a point that gets us the high current without too high of a voltage. That's… what’s really driving our research in this project.”

He continued, “By studying these interfaces and identifying the bottleneck resistance, we devise strategies to overcome the resistances. This leads to greater ion removal rates from the water during desalination.”

The Materials Research Institute housing the Nanofabrication Lab. Photo: T. Kelly.

Why Penn State?

“When starting my own independent career in 2016 at [Louisiana State University], I decided to apply my expertise in materials for fuel cells to water purification,” Arges said. But something was missing at LSU.

He said the biggest draw to come to Penn State was the nanofabrication facility within the Materials Research Institute. With tools in the Nanofabrication Lab, he said, “we use advanced metrology and fabrication techniques … to study the rate of ion transport and gas/liquid transport … at the nanoscale.”

MCDI solves smaller-scale problems, too

"It is important that we continue to improve the performance and durability of water purification units so everyone, whether rich or poor, has access to quality and potable water.”

Clean water and energy efficiency are in the DNA of Arges’s research, according to the Arges Research Lab website. As to why it’s so important to him, Arges said the water shortages around the world, which are being made worse by climate disruption, moved him to address the problem. He said, “Water is central to our way of life. It is needed for energy production, agriculture … and surviving. It is important that we continue to improve the performance and durability of water purification units so everyone, whether rich or poor, has access to quality and potable water.”

According to Arges, “By improving the materials and their interfaces in MCDI … we hope that there will be greater proliferation of these systems … since they are modular and only require electricity for water purification…” The end result could be a smaller unit with a lower capital cost for purifying water and reduced energy duty.

Even so, the MCDI system won’t solve the large-scale water problems we see around the world, including the American Southwest. Economy-of-scale makes reverse osmosis the most cost-effective solution for large, centralized desalination facilities. By contrast, “The MCDI … units could be found in homes or neighborhoods for purifying water or deployed in emergency areas, like after a hurricane, for producing potable water,” Arges said.

Finding inspiration in the tiny-but-mighty hummingbird

By Holly Riddle

You don’t need to be a mechanical engineering professor like Penn State’s Dr. Bo Cheng to recognize that hummingbirds contrast significantly with their avian relatives. The smallest of bird species, hummingbirds flit and dart their way from food source to food source in a way no other bird can. Flying backward, forward and upside down at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour, hummingbirds are the only vertebrae capable of hovering for a period of time during flight — and that’s exactly why hummingbirds have inspired modern aerial vehicles like drones.

Unfortunately, these modern aerial vehicles still have a long way to go to catch up with the biological superiority of the tiny-but-mighty hummingbird. However, Dr. Cheng’s recently published research provides new insights into how hummingbirds’ unique wing movements could be robotically replicated, making for more agile, stable and efficient aerial vehicles.

Dr. Cheng and his team reverse-engineered the hummingbird musculoskeletal system to create a model that simulates hummingbird flight motion, and found that hummingbirds’ primary muscles pull the birds’ wings in three directions, while the birds use multiple smaller muscles to tighten their shoulder joints.

In a Penn State release, Dr. Cheng detailed the findings: “It’s like when we do fitness training and a trainer says to tighten your core to be more agile. We found that hummingbirds are using [a] similar kind of mechanism. They tighten their wings in the pitch and up-down directions but keep the wing loose along the back-and-forth direction, so their wings appear to be flapping back and forth only while their power muscles, or their flight engines, are actually pulling the wings in all three directions. In this way, the wings have very good agility in the up and down motion as well as the twist motion.”

"State College is by far the best college town that I've ever lived in. It's a great place to focus on research, raise young children and explore the wilderness."

HappyValley Industry recently caught up with Dr. Cheng to learn more about his work, what it means for industry and why he chooses to live and work in Happy Valley.

What is your research topic and why is it important on a global scale? 

This research reveals how hummingbirds use their flight muscles to generate wing motions and the underlying fundamental principles, which can inform robotics on how to properly mimic hummingbird flight.

Both researchers and [the] general public are very impressed by the unique flight abilities of hummingbirds, in terms of both hovering capability and their agile maneuvers. Understanding and mimicking how hummingbird[s] fly and control their flight can potentially transform the design of aerial vehicles.

How do you envision your research impacting/changing your industry? 

This research can be potentially used to improve the drone technologies in the future, in terms of improving flight agility, stability and efficiency.

What inspired you to follow this line of research? 

This is a no-brainer. Hummingbirds are arguably the most agile fliers in nature, and state-of-the-art drone technology is far behind researching hummingbird-level flight performance.

Why did you choose to conduct this research at Penn State specifically? 

Penn State is a world-renowned research institution that attracts many talented faculty members and students. Here, I can recruit talented students [from] all around world and find world-class collaborators.

Would you encourage other researchers to make their home in Happy Valley? If so, why?

State College is by far the best college town that I've ever lived in. It's a great place to focus on research, raise young children and explore the wilderness. It is also not too far from the major cities on the East Coast.

Do you know a researcher who would be a great fit for our HappyValley Industry 5 Questions with a Happy Valley Researcher series? Let us know!

“The need for innovation in Pennsylvania has never been more important”: A look at Ben Franklin’s post-COVID impact

The issue of brain drain, or losing workforce talent, is a real concern for innovation hubs around the country. While there are a myriad of tangential concerns — cost of living, livability, schools — the problem boils down to one key issue: workforce talent goes where job opportunities exist. Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA has been laser-focused on bringing — and keeping — high-paying jobs in Pennsylvania for the past 30 years, and it’s never been more important than today.

“Ben Franklin keeps high-paying jobs in Pennsylvania by focusing on the needs of local, innovative tech-based companies and small manufacturers, and the entrepreneurs who lead those companies,” President and CEO Steve Brawley said. “We help startups survive their higher-risk, formative years and lay a stable foundation to build upon, so they can attract and retain talent in Pennsylvania.”

He said that the jobs Ben Franklin tech companies create are in industries that pay higher-than-average starting salaries. Most importantly, they are creating the kinds of jobs that workforce talent seeks to build their careers, right here in Pennsylvania.

"Ben Franklin keeps high-paying jobs in Pennsylvania by focusing on the needs of local, innovative tech-based companies and small manufacturers, and the entrepreneurs who lead those companies."

Over the past year, Ben Franklin has been hard at work making smart investments in businesses that keep Pennsylvania’s best and brightest minds in our communities.

“The need for innovation in Pennsylvania has never been more important than the last two years,” Brawley said. “At a time when every tax dollar matters, Ben Franklin continues to pay dividends for Pennsylvania and demonstrate its reputation for serving as an economic driver for the state.”

Happy Valley vs. Silicon Valley: Why are we behind and how can we get ahead?

By Staff Writer

Ben Lawrence. Photo: Jim Valent.

According to sales professional turned author Ben Lawrence, Happy Valley has a problem: Despite being home to one of the nation’s largest research institutions and investing millions into startup business efforts, our region is still among the worst performers at spinning cutting-edge research into profitable business. Compare, for example, Stanford University’s business startup success to Penn State’s and it’s like comparing Tom Brady’s NFL career stats to Danny Wuerffel’s. It’s a painful gap to consider but according to local author and business leader Ben Lawrence, it’s one that Happy Valley can close and win.

“I’ve spent decades working with both Silicon Valley and Happy Valley startups,” says Lawrence, “and here’s the takeaway: Happy Valley has every opportunity to outpace Silicon Valley, yet Happy Valley is missing the boat on how to do it.  In fact, I read that Penn State is in the top 25 for research dollars but not even in the top 100 for technology transfer.”

And that’s a big reason why Lawrence just published a book on how to transform any business or community into a leading one on the business success scale.

Entitled The HEART of the WOLF: The Upside-Down Secret to Being a Kickass Salesperson, Ben’s #1 Amazon new release chronicles his 30 years of frontline selling and business experience on behalf of both Silicon Valley and Happy Valley organizations, while guiding readers through the steps that drive the #1 ingredient every business needs: revenue.

“Happy Valley’s R&D, talent pool, and community support are neck and neck with California’s,” said Lawrence.  “Where we fall short, however, is in our ability to elevate our area’s brilliant technologies and talent into real-world sales.  And after years of commercializing tech for both ‘Valleys’, I discovered a sales formula that lights up any deserving organization’s cash register.”

Proof of Lawrence’s sales formula lighting up business sits right here in Happy Valley, where Ben served as VP of Sales and Chief Business Officer at KCF Technologies.  Arguably the most shining example of Happy Valley-born and raised startup success in the last decade, the company grew 50X with Ben at the helm of its sales efforts, all while incurring zero debt and taking on zero outside investment.

“I’m so proud of our team at KCF because we proved that Happy Valley can build thriving businesses as well as, if not better than, anyone.  Why?  In short, because our region has not only great tech and skilled people, but we embody grit and thriftiness in quantities I haven’t found in other high-tech regions.  KCF and Happy Valley built business the old-fashioned way, by selling profitable contracts to good customers.”

The HEART of the WOLF: The Upside-Down Secret to Being a Kickass Salesperson is available now in hardback, paperback or e-book on Amazon and at leadthesalespack.com.

“So many startups and the regions who house them cling to government grants and outside investors to fuel their cash needs and in my experience, relying upon those third-party sources rips your company’s focus away from the North Star of sustainable business, customer success, in favor of investor success.”

But growing organically, which typically means hitting the streets and making sales calls and having to unseat established vendors, is a scary, difficult exercise for most startups and keeps many from ever reaching their full potential, according to Lawrence.

“As I write in my book,” said Lawrence, “too many startups outsource sales to third parties who never understand or are as passionate about the company as the founders are, and as a result, the company never gets off the ground.”

So what can Happy Valley organizations do to break the chains of meager tech transfer?  How can our tech and talent-heavy region soar to its highest peaks?  Lawrence offers a few recommendations, all of which are outlined in detail in his book.

“First,” offers Lawrence, “become intimately familiar with the real-world problem you believe your technology or startup can solve.  Not by surfing the internet and social media polling, mind you, but by seeking out and spending time with people on the front lines who feel the pain of the problems you’re ready to solve.”

“Next, learn firsthand with and from your dream customers at the decision-maker level what their true cost of the problem is.  Not just the dollars and cents but the cost in lost time, lost opportunity, safety, lifestyle, turnover rates, health, or whatever real-world value metrics actually matter to your customers. You need to become more of an expert on the problem and its real-world implications than your customers are.  In fact, you need to become more of an expert on your customer’s problem than you need to be an expert on your own technology!”

“Third, deliver provocative education to your dream customers, again and again, in every form imaginable including live, in-person briefings whenever you can land them, enlightening your customers on how they can improve their organizations and their lives by solving the problem you are uniquely capable of solving,” Lawrence says.

Are the steps straightforward?  Yes.
Are they steps we learn in traditional education?  No.
Are they steps most organizations usually get wrong?  According to Lawrence, “Most definitely.”

But if Happy Valley follows his guidance and replicates KCF’s success across more of our community’s promising businesses, our days of matching Silicon Valley’s accomplishments are well within reach.

The HEART of the WOLF: The Upside-Down Secret to Being a Kickass Salesperson is available now in hardback, paperback or e-book on Amazon and at leadthesalespack.com. The Kindle e-book version is available for $0.99 through January 9th.

How AIRWALK (and Central PA) missed out on being a $5 billion company

By Jodie Dello Stritto

If you were a 90s kid, you probably know AIRWALK shoes. Staple footwear for skaters, even Tony Hawk was a brand ambassador. But did you know that in its heyday in the 1990s the company’s world headquarters was in the Greenwood Shopping Center on old Route 220 in Altoona? AIRWALK was nestled into a storefront between the Ultimate Bagel and Meadows Ice Cream and a few doors from the “Day Old Bread” store.  In 1997 the company expanded to Boalsburg. 

During the height of its popularity in the mid ’90s, AIRWALK was rated by Teenage Research Unlimited as the 12th coolest brand of all brands and the 3rd coolest footwear brand. Footwear Industries of America named AIRWALK the Marketer of the Year in 1996. MTV was rotating its edgy TV spots, fashion magazines featured full-page ads, and big cities were plastered with ads on plywood at construction sites. Consumers, predominantly teenage boys, loved AIRWALK because they identified with what the brand stood for – irreverence and self-expression. The company’s goal was to build on this loyalty and become a youth lifestyle brand beyond just footwear, but ultimately, it fell short.

Today, AIRWALK is part of the Authentic Brands Group and part of a portfolio that includes Reebok, Nautica, Sports Illustrated, Eddie Bauer, Brooks Brothers, and more. New styles sell through JC Penney in the U.S., and vintage AIRWALK styles are listed on eBay and Poshmark, including this VTG 90s Airwalk Jason Lee Classic Skate Shoes Sneakers 7 Super Rare Iconic, priced at $400.

AIRWALK’s journey has been profiled and debated in many articles and in New York Times best-seller The Tipping Point. State College business owner Greg Woodman began working with the brand as a marketing consultant in 1993, then joined the company as VP of marketing in 1994 until the brand was sold in 1999. He helped to drive the company’s rapid growth from $16 million to over $200 million in less than 5 years. He shares his insights on AIRWALK’s local beginnings, its lightning-speed growth, the sale to a private equity firm in 1999, and where the brand is today.

HappyValley Industry: Can you describe what drove AIRWALK’S major growth from ’93 to ’96? 

GW: The short answer is that AIRWALK knew its audience—teenage boys—and focused exclusively on connecting with them. The brand nailed the skate culture at the time and even became part of shaping it. Customers were more than kids who bought shoes, they were part of a community that identified with specific beliefs and values that AIRWALK represented.

HappyValley Industry: What was the competitive landscape like at the time?

In 1996, the year AIRWALK reached $200 million, Vans was at $120 million and Skechers just $80 million. These 3 companies, along with Doc Martens, were competing head-to-head to lead the “Lifestyle category” that was emerging. AIRWALK owner George Yohn saw this movement toward Lifestyle shoes early on. Both Vans and Skechers were markedly smaller than AIRWALK. Vans had positioned itself exclusively as a Southern California sport-lifestyle brand, specifically tied to action sports and music. While Vans sold technical skate shoes, the majority of their sales volume was active casual fashion shoes. Little known side note, when Fast Times at Ridgemont High came out in 1982, Vans took off big-time, and in 1984, the company declared bankruptcy. Growth is tricky! Skechers went public in 1999 and, as we all know, doubled-down on their play for the lifestyle category.

HappyValley Industry: What happened after AIRWALK grew so fast?

GW: Growth, especially fast growth, eats up capital. The company was financed by the owner, George Yohn. At 73, he was tired of financing every problem and was in poor health. He decided to sell. George died one year after the sale from a heart attack.

Unfortunately, management became divided on the brand strategy; leadership was not equipped to handle how quickly AIRWALK became a global brand. At that stage, it’s essential to know with 100% clarity who you are. Despite George’s position on creating a Lifestyle brand and the company’s success, a civil war over the company’s direction led to dissension and diluted the vision and the lack of a clear, singular focus diffused the impact of the marketing budget. AIRWALK lost sight of its North Star.

Potential buyers also had strong opinions on the direction the company and brand should take: Lifestyle vs. Technical Skate/action sports. The management team, already divided on this issue, began plotting their exit strategies based on prospective buyers. When it became apparent that Sunrise Capital, the eventual buyer, wanted the brand to focus on the Technical Skate market, team members who were advocating for a Lifestyle strategy moved on. Personally, I was in the Lifestyle camp 100%, along with George Yohn. I felt we could continue to build on the action sports heritage as part of the brand. If you were close to the consumer, it was clear that the ship—the market—had sailed decidedly toward Lifestyle.

The new private equity owners took all their market insights from those who favored a Technical Skate strategy and drove the brand into bankruptcy within three years. They moved the brand to Colorado and brought on a team with expertise in performance athletics.

If you look at how Skechers and Vans advanced, they read the market and embraced Lifestyle brand positioning. Vans 2022 revenue is $3.47 billion and Skechers is around $7.4 billion. George was right! AIRWALK, on the other hand, stumbled and bounced around, ending up down-market at Payless stores until it was sold to Authentic Brands in 2014.

Greg Woodman, former VP of marketing at AIRWALK and current State College business owner of Affinity Connection. Photo: Provided.

HappyValley Industry: What are the biggest lessons businesses can take from AIRWALK’s story?

Most importantly, follow your North Star. A company’s vision and core beliefs have to drive its strategy. And that vision and those beliefs must be based on consumer insights. Staying close to the customer is essential.

Also, when you’re ready to grow or the market needs you to grow, cash is key. Get a pre-mortem financial plan in place to help you weather the storm and avoid ‘growing broke.’ Because when you desperately need investment, it can be tempting to accept help from places that don’t offer the best stewardship for your brand.

Finally, the right people are crucial, especially in leadership roles, but it’s about more than just experience, knowledge, or skills. An effective management team must be committed to aligning around a shared vision. It’s the only way to keep the company moving in a single direction and to ensure that the brand stays true to its values.

It is nice to see AIRWALK still alive and part of a portfolio with some high-quality brands. Authentic Brands is set to go public in a year or two. If you purchase their stock, it will be bet on “brand value.” What is the value of a product in the heart and mind of the consumer? It’s an emotion that does not appear on a balance sheet. Despite being dragged through the mud for 22 years, it is amazing that the brand equity of AIRWALK is still alive. How cool it would be if AIRWALK had done some things differently and a $5 billion dollar brand was here in Happy Valley! I’m still cheering it on from afar.

Greg left AIRWALK after its sale and purchased Stewart Howe Alumni Service, which he renamed Affinity Connection. Based in Downtown State College, the company provides marketing and publishing services with a specialty in storytelling for clients ranging from non-profits to small businesses. Affinity Connection also publishes HappyValley Industry and provides services to Startup Alleghenies to publish its weekly eletter on small and emerging businesses, The Alleghenies.