Cleveland : Featured Stories

For nearly 30 years, the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, or MAGNET, has served as the state's Edison Center charged with providing resources and advocacy for manufacturers in the northeast Ohio region. It's also the designated Edison Center for the state's automotive industry. hiVelocity spoke with Daniel E. Berry, MAGNET's president and CEO, about how manufacturing is faring these days.

There was a time when Ohio overflowed with distilleries that made whisky, which wended its way down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Over time, every last one of those distilleries dried up. Now, small-scale distilleries are reviving the grand tradition.

Doug Craver never stops moving. The 47-year-old northeast Ohio native is a serial entrepreneur who's had his hand in a half-dozen tech companies since he was 25 -- including CMI, Knotice and Realeflow. He's curently president and CEO of LaunchTribe -- but prefers the title of "startup craftsman."

A team of mechanical engineering students at Case Western Reserve University earlier this summer demonstrated their giant tesla coil -- an apparatus that produces extremely high-voltage, long-sparking displays. This one, they claim, not only produces long arcs of electricity, but can play songs. hiVelocity isn't sure about its future in concert halls, but we have to admit one thing: It has style.

Of the 10,000 or so African American students who enroll in U.S. engineering programs each year, fewer than 3,500 graduate with engineering degrees. The National Society of Black Engineers wants to change that, and one of its targets is Ohio.

Ray Lugo has been around America's space program since he was a kid. Now, as director of NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, he could be at the epicenter of changes within the space agency as President Obama has proposed a redirection of NASA priorities. That shift in focus could propel the Glenn Center to the top of the agency's research centers, leading the development of new technologies that will be the foundation of future space flight, and feeding millions of science and technology dollars into Ohio's economy.

Thousands of Ohioans are flocking to the farm, the farmers market and to restaurants to support locally grown produce. It's a bona fide movement, taking place all over the state — where a local farmer is just around the corner.

Hollywood may still have the name recognition for moviemaking, but some unlikely locations far from the glitter of the iconic California town are becoming the top choices for film producers to create their craft, and leaders in Ohio are positioning our state to tap into this latest evolution in the film industry.