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Ohio State takes lead role to improve state’s auto industry

February 3, 2010

On the heels of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s State of the State speech, in which he suggested that  businesses and industry work with Ohio’s universities to solve economic challenges, the Ohio State University is playing a major role in making recommendations to grow the state’s auto industry.

At a meeting yesterday of Strickland’s Ohio Auto Industry Support Council, Giorgio Rizzoni, director of Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research and professor of mechanical engineering, presented a set of five specific recommendations to protect and advance automotive manufacturing in the state.

The recommendations were developed by a council working group co-chaired by Rizzoni and Eric Burkland, president of the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, and including members Glenn Daehn, director of the Ohio Manufacturing Institute and an Ohio State professor of materials science and engineering; Noah Sudow, associate director of economic advancement for the Ohio Board of Regents; and John Magill, chief strategic officer of the Ohio Department of Development.

The working group recommended that the state:

• Create a Distributed Manufacturing Innovation Network, which would use computer and networking resources as well as people to connect industry challenges with the resources most likely to create solutions;
• Make use of the University System of Ohio’s resources in expertise, equipment, research staff and students as a catalyst for long-term innovation ideas for the auto industry;
• Identify and train manufacturing advocates — manufacturing professionals who are generalists — who can assess company needs, act as full-service agents to link companies with resources and manage projects in university or industry environments;
• Establish agreements between state-supported organizations, such as Edison Technology Centers (which foster the advancement of applied research and development to increase competitiveness of existing companies within Ohio’s key industry sectors) and Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers (statewide programs that provide products, services and assistance to Ohio manufacturers), and colleges and universities to foster the exchange of personnel; and
• Streamline project initiation by providing rapid state funding and approval for projects in which automotive companies agree to cost sharing.

The Ohio Auto Industry Support Council will begin forming a committee that will, within the next three to four months, identify ways and means to implement the recommendations.

“We’re working to reach a historic agreement between the University System of Ohio and consumer products powerhouse Proctor & Gamble that will turn the most innovative ideas developed in our universities into products and economic development,” Strickland said. “To further advance Ohio’s economic growth, I have also called on the Ohio Auto Industry Support Council to use this agreement as a model to advance similar partnerships between the university system and Ohio’s manufacturing sector. I appreciate the council’s quick action to begin working to help more Ohio businesses generate economic development and job creation.”

Through such agreements, Strickland said, companies would get the expertise of the innovative thinkers at universities, universities would benefit from unprecedented opportunities to collaborate with companies on new products or services, and Ohioans would gain the end result of new economic development.

Gas-sipping cars get nicer spots at Tuttle and Lane garages

January 20, 2010

By Adam King

Ohio State’s idea of sustainability is beginning to extend to even the most unlikely of places one could think of as being “green” — a pair of parking garages.

But it’s all in Transportation and Parking’s effort to help earn Silver LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for the new Lane Avenue Parking Garage and the adjacent and soon-to-be opened Student Academic Services Building. Currently the only Silver LEED-certified building on campus is the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center. Continue reading ‘Gas-sipping cars get nicer spots at Tuttle and Lane garages’

Shades of Green

May 21, 2009

 by Julia Harris

Many good ideas never mature past the “Oh! What a good idea!” phase.

But for the students and teachers at Cranbrook Elementary, a small school within walking distance of campus, a good idea hatched by employees in the business operations arm of Ohio State’s Office of Business and Finance has germinated into a fruitful partnership. Continue reading ‘Shades of Green’

CURB’s her enthusiasm

May 21, 2009

FOD staffer heads a Clintonville group dedicated to a greener community

by Julia Harris

For Peggy Barylak, senior human research consultant with Facilities Operations and Development, green has been a favorite color - and way of life - for a lot longer than it’s been a social and political movement.

In fact, hers has been a decades-long crusade that has changed habits and opened eyes about recycling and environmental issues for residents of Clintonville and beyond. Continue reading ‘CURB’s her enthusiasm’