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WEDNESDAY, AUG. 1, 2018 | IN THIS ISSUE
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Gayle Roberts
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Stanley Consultants has announced that board chair Gayle Roberts is retiring after a 35-year career with the firm.
Ms. Roberts joined Stanley Consultants, which provides engineering, environmental and construction services worldwide, shortly after graduating from Iowa State University with a chemical engineering degree.
She accepted challenging assignments and steadily advanced within the firm. In 2007, she was elected the firm's fifth president, becoming the first female president of a global consulting engineering firm. She was elected CEO in 2012 and board chair in 2017.
"Thinking back on my years at Stanley Consultants, I am so fortunate to have worked alongside members and clients who unfailingly recognize the importance of maintaining strong values to serve as guideposts," Ms. Roberts said in a release. "It's been extremely fulfilling to collaborate with them, some of the greatest minds in the industry, to help solve issues and see these projects become a reality for communities all over the world."
Throughout her career, Ms. Roberts served on boards at Iowa State University, University of Iowa, St. Ambrose University and Engineers Without Borders - USA. She is completing a two-year term as vice chair of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), and has won numerous awards for her efforts to champion women in engineering.
Stanley Consultants came in eighth on this year's
CBJ's Largest Privately Held Companies list.
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Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen speaking at Cedar Rapids' Downtown Rotary club on Monday.
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Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen
on Monday
offered a strong defense of her institution's value to the state during an appearance in Cedar Rapids, stressing the importance of ISU's scientific research and entrepreneurship training programs to growing Iowa's economy.
Speaking to Cedar Rapids' Downtown Rotary club, Ms. Wintersteen highlighted the myriad innovations and discoveries made by students and faculty that have improved life for Iowans, from the seedless watermelon to lead-free solder to the establishment of a
nanovaccine institute at ISU, which will use "nanotechnology to address the critical problems of our day," including building a better flu vaccine.
"These are the things you can do through science and innovation," Ms. Wintersteen said. "These are the things that build the economy and provide new opportunities.
She also highlighted ISU's ongoing campaign to encourage and train more entrepreneurs in the state, noting that while the state of Iowa
ranked No. 1 overall in U.S. News & World Report's 2018 Best States list, it placed No. 45 in entrepreneurship and No. 38 for venture capital.
Those efforts appear to be paying off. Four-hundred new businesses have been created by ISU undergrads since its entrepreneurship major was launched last fall, and entrepreneurship is "being lifted up" in every college at the institution, Ms. Wintersteen said. A new innovation center, set to open
in one year, will also allow students in varied disciplines to come together to collaborate on new ideas like electrified concrete, which was developed by ISU students to melt snow and is
being tested at the Des Moines Airport.
"I want them to stay in Iowa. I want them to have the experience here that says, we're going to be supported, mentored, provided opportunities - we're going to stay and start our business in Iowa," Ms. Wintersteen said. "These are the things that will make a difference for Iowa's economy, this is how we can start to grow the economy from the grassroots up."
Asked about how the state's ongoing disinvestment in higher education has impacted ISU's ability to support these expanded initiatives - including the fact that a similar innovation center at the University of Iowa was put on hold this year - Ms. Wintersteen said that university leaders worked with its colleges to "manage" more than $2 million in budget cuts in a way that "didn't directly impact what we do with our students." She acknowledged that it led to differential tuition rates for certain STEM programs, based on the larger expenses faced by those programs, but noted that ISU's tuition is the lowest in the Big 12 conference and lower than many of its other peers.
Ms. Wintersteen also acknowledged that the state has many other expenses that have "grown dramatically in the last decade," but insisted that the university is an investment in the state's future, rather than a cost.
"If we can have more entrepreneurs, if we can keep the founders of businesses in this state, if we can recruit people to the state to work, then we'll have more money for higher education," she said.
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For the complete list of this week's Movers & Shakers, see the July 30th edition of the CBJ.
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PHOTO CBS2/FOX 28
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Developer Steve Emerson is no stranger to Cedar Rapids, having dozens of successful properties throughout the city and within the downtown.
But as
CBS2/FOX 28 reports, Mr. Emerson's latest project is arguably his most ambitious, as city leaders will soon review a proposal for a 25-story, $73 million development at 101 Third Street SE.
Situated across the street from the Alliant Tower and down from the Paramount Theatre, the vacant lot currently serves as parking for downtown workers.
Building on the site would eliminate parking, but Mr. Emerson's design factors that in, with additional parking space and a plethora of amenities.
The mixed-use high rise would offer both condos and apartments, as well as offices and a grocery store.
The empty lot was once the site of an even more ambitious proposal, after city council approved the 28-story, $103 million One Park Place project in May 2016. Despite being deemed financially feasible, the project fell through after the developer failed to meet a city-imposed deadline in November 2017.
However, officials say One Park Place pushed the city's downtown forward.
"I think it really did expand the vision for all of the downtown property owners," said Jennifer Pratt, community development director for Cedar Rapids. "It really set that bar higher and [made people] think of the possibilities."
Read the full story and watch the video here.
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 SPAWAR enlists SantosHuman to optimize warfighter equipment
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Coralville-based SantosHuman Inc. will help Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command modify military equipment with its digital human modeling and simulation technology. IMAGE SANTOSHUMAN
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Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Systems Center Atlantic (SPAWAR Atlantic) has enlisted a Coralville company to help it virtually assess military vehicles, weapon systems and other warfighting equipment.
SantosHuman Inc., based in the University of Iowa BioVentures Center, has provided the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) with access to its digital human modeling and simulation technologies at a significant discount, in recognition of the
DoD's contribution of more than $50 million in research funding.
In a press release, SantosHuman said its technologies would help SPAWAR Atlantic's Human Systems Integration group increase return on
investment, boost modeling accuracy, reduce unnecessary expenditures and establish a system that is adaptable to future variables.
"The DoD has invested millions of dollars in Santos for research funding. It only makes sense to capitalize on the results of that investment by applying the technology to optimize the environments in which our warfighters work," said Deborah Swain, director of Human System Integration at SPAWAR Atlantic in a release. "SPAWAR's current human modeling tools lack the ability to provide valid results when presented alone. In many cases, experts end up repeating the evaluations utilizing physical prototypes because the tool's results aren't consistently valid or trusted."
Using the algorithms and simplified interface offered by SantosHuman, professionals at SPAWAR will now be able to create more advanced and accurate models that can virtually assess military equipment through task-based, "warfighter-in-the-loop trade-off analysis."
"Adopting a predictive digital human model provides an opportunity to significantly reduce expenditures of taxpayer funds on traditional trial-and-error approaches which require iterative prototyping," said Steve Beck, president and CEO of SantosHuman. "By reducing the need for expensive and time-consuming prototyping, we reduce the costs of both materials and labor required to develop physical prototypes, especially when weapon systems aren't readily available for testing."
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August 2
Wake up Marion: Gateway Chiropractic, by Marion Chamber of Commerce, 8-9 a.m., 127 Marion Blvd., Ste. B, Marion. Wake Up Marion is held the first Thursday each month at a different member location. Enjoy complimentary coffee and get to know the host business. Free. For more information and to register, visit
bit.ly/2A39K85.
August 3
First Friday Coffee Connections, by Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, 7:30-8:30 a.m., Keystone Place, 1275 W. Forevergreen Road, North Liberty. Start your day with networking on the first Friday of every month. Free. For more information, visit
bit.ly/2tB8jXU.
August 6
Coralville Roundtable, by Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, noon-1 p.m., Iowa River Power, 501 First Ave., Coralville. Roundtables are social lunches over the noon hour. All are invited to network and keep up-to-date with chamber and community events. Free for members. Call the chamber at (319) 337-9637 if interested and not a member.
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Headlines from CBS2/FOX 28
These news items are provided by CBS2/FOX 28
Students who choose off-campus housing in Iowa City often experience a lease gap, or a period of time in which their housing lease ends and their new one begins.
"It seems almost inescapable that, because of the high number of unclean units or units that need repair, there's gonna have to be some sort of gap," said Attorney Christopher Warnock with the Iowa Tenants' Project.
Between July 20 and August 4, some students will need somewhere else to stay until their next lease.
Not everyone has the resources to move quickly and somewhere else before then.
"A lot of people choose to go live with a friend. some people people have to go back home," said student Gustave Stewart, also
the university student government city liaison. He said he discovered several students faced this problem, and some were not lucky enough to find a place to stay.
"I've heard cases where people might've stayed in their car," said Mr. Stewart.
This is why he and other students worked with the UI to create the lease gap program.
Students who applied this year are now being housed at Burge Hall for $35 dollars a night.
"That gives 40 spots for students during this lease gap period ... to essentially live at least a more affordable rate than when you compare it to hotels," said Mr. Stewart. H
ousing experts say this program will not necessarily solve problems with the housing gap in the long-term.
"Even if people are not students ... you're still stuck on that academic calendar in terms of renting," said Mr. Warnock.
Only four of Iowa's 99 counties have successfully achieved gender balance on their boards and commissions this year, according to
research from the Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.
Researchers at the center have been tracking data every two years since a 2009 law went into effect January 1, 2012, requiring Iowa county boards and commissions have an equal number of men and women appointed to them. Kelly Winfrey, one of the researchers on the project, notes there was a sharp increase in the years following the implementation of the law, but that has since changed. "While we saw some big leaps right after the law was passed and implemented, it's kind of plateaued over the past couple of years," Ms. Winfrey said. The problem, according to Ms. Winfrey, is that the law requires gender balance, but "there's not really an enforcement mechanism to make counties and cities comply with that." Only 59 percent of boards and commissions are gender balanced, the report shows. Some types of boards are more gender balanced than others, like health boards - 78 percent of those are made up equally of men and women.
T
hese news items are provided by CBS2/FOX 28
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CBS2 Chief Meteorologist Terry Swails' Weather First Forecast
Summer is on the way back to Eastern Iowa this weekend. First there will be a cold front that moves through the area tonight. Ahead of the front it will be warm and sunny with temperatures in the low to mid 80s. An isolated storm is possible early, but the higher chances will come after 7 p.m. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will move through overnight and wind down by Thursday morning. Temperatures will be slightly lower tomorrow with high temperatures near 80.
Hot, humid air then makes its way back into the Midwest for Friday and the weekend. Temperatures will be in the upper 80s to low 90s through Monday.
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