instruments - controls - electronics : Featured Stories

Startup veteran and Ohio native Lisa Delp was recently appointed Ohio Third Frontier's new Executive Director. In this interview, she discusses how far we've come in creating a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, and how Ohio Third Frontier's new focus areas will help grow our high tech economy.

What's "smart grid" and what will it mean for me? The question's an increasingly common one as Ohio utilities prepare to test and implement a new generation of technologies designed for more efficient planning, distribution, monitoring and use of electricity. AEP Ohio, which serves 1.5 million customers throughout the state, is implementing smart grid technology among 110,000 customers in central Ohio as part of its gridSMART demonstration project. We asked project director Karen Sloneker, the company's director of customer services and marketing, to help us understand those efforts.

A camera that can read your fingerprints from six feet away. A system that can catch criminals in a 16-square-mile area. Tiny planes that can soar over an urban battlefield and tell friend from foe. All are signs that Ohio is emerging as a major force in 21st century sensor technology.

Big business doesn't always have to mean life in the big city. Some of Ohio's fastest-growing companies are proving that, becoming leaders in high-tech and service fields far from the outer-belts of Ohio's urban centers. And they plan on staying there.

It was a bot battle to end all bot battles when some 60 high school teams from Ohio and elsewhere descended on Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center March 25 - 27. The object? To win a game called Breakaway. hiVelocity was there.

While the image of farmer Brown milking a cow from a stool may linger in the imagination, old Bessie today is more likely to make her way through a sophisticated milking parlor wearing an electronic collar -- not a bell. And while the image of farmer Brown may be one of a humble man in overalls, his world today is one of college degrees, self-steering combines, and use of Twitter and Facebook as a way to connect with other farmers and a hungry population.

Ohio is at the forefront of a new economy, creating new ideas, innovative businesses and new jobs needed for the 21st century. It's an important story. Now, hiVelocity is here to tell it.