TUESDAY, OCT. 16, 2018  |  IN THIS ISSUE
Para1New STEM report finds Iowa schools making progress 
 
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and interest in the state appear to be gaining traction, according to a new report released today by the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council.
 
The annual independent evaluation found improvements among the public, students and educators when it comes to STEM attitudes. For example, among students who participated in STEM Scale-Up Programs - a menu of pre-selected STEM activities and topics available to teachers - scored an average of two points higher in national percentile rank on the Iowa Assessments in math and reading, and three points higher in science. Among teachers who participated in the program, 91 percent agreed or strongly agreed that they now have more confidence teaching STEM topics and have increased their STEM knowledge.
 
From 2013 to 2017, the number of Iowa students taking advanced placement courses in STEM-related subjects increased 22 percent, while STEM post-secondary credentials have increased 26 percent at Iowa's four-year public universities, 20 percent at four-year colleges and 2 percent at community colleges.
 
More than half of all Iowans (59 percent) said they had heard of the STEM acronym in 2017, an increase of 10 percent compared to 2016, and more than double compared to 2012. More than 95 percent of Iowans now say that STEM education should be a priority in their local school districts.
 
"The results of this report will have a significant impact on STEM education and workforce development for years to come, as it will help guide future STEM Council programming and projects in Iowa," STEM Council Co-chair Roger Hargens said in a statement.
 
The Iowa STEM Evaluation Report was conducted by an inter-university consortium of Iowa State University's Research Institute for Studies in Education (RISE), University of Iowa's Iowa Testing Programs and the University of Northern Iowa's Center for Social and Behavioral Research (CSBR).
 
To view the entire report, visit IowaSTEM.gov.
IInnovation Expo: Comigo aims to bring students together 
 
University of Iowa student and inventor Isabel Reed hates silos - not the kind that store grains, but the kind that keep information and skillsets from combining and creating something new.
 
"I'm the kind of person who has a notebook by my bedside for all of these ideas for projects, big and small, but more often than not, you're going to need some kind of peer support to get going with those," she told the CBJ during the EDC's annual Innovation Expo. "I was like, there has to be a better way to connect with folks on my very own campus who have different talents than mine - I'm pretty familiar with the folks in my department, but what about the art folks? What about the computer science people?"
 
Enter Comigo, an online platform designed by Ms. Reed to help students find potential collaborators on campus, or for students looking for their next big project to join.
 
Developed in partnership with Iowa City-based Launch Deck, the platform is preparing for its first launch in January, at the University of Iowa. The goal is to license the service to other universities around the country, which would then offer it to students for free. Ms. Reed is actively seeking community sponsors to help launch Comigo on other campuses, and is specifically targeting the top 25 entrepreneurship schools across the nation as it spreads the word.
 
Asked why colleges and universities might pay for the service, Ms. Reed pointed to the growing competition for students in higher education, and framed it as a community investment that could help draw and keep talented students after graduation by getting them engaged in innovative projects.
 
"When I started Comigo - when I found my team and started getting support - I had so many more incentives to stay in Iowa City," Ms. Reed said. "We think it's an investment from the community side, to attract students to the University of Iowa and to give them a really amazing reason to stay."
 
Learn more at the Comigo website.
Para3Innovation Expo: Stratafolio preps for next stage of growth
 
A screenshot of the new Stratafolio platform, now in closed beta. 
The end is near for Stratafolio's beta phase, its founders say, and hopes are high for the next step of its evolution as a startup.
 
Presenting to attendees at the EDC's Innovation Expo on Oct. 10 in Cedar Rapids, the husband-and-wife team of Jeri Frank and Uriel Barillas showcased the latest version of their online subscription service for analyzing commercial real estate investments.  
 
Now in a closed beta serving 16 users, the platform is already being used to track and manage more than $3 billion in real estate assets, according to Mr. Barillas.
 
The two hope to launch the platform, with its slick, intuitive interface, early next year.
 
"This is all being driven by the users," Ms. Frank said of the beta process, which has been underway since last fall. "It's the things they need to be profitable and efficienct, so they can focus on activities that create value."
 
The duo entered the Iowa Startup Accelerator in 2016 as AssetRover, an online service providing tools for investing in residential real estate, but pivoted to focus on the needs of commercial real estate investors based on their findings.
 
Stratafolio will automate the process and provide access to online data sources. It will also offer predictive analytics to indicate how investments are likely to perform, and descriptive analytics to illustrate how investments have performed in the past.
 
"The data has a story to tell," Mr. Barillas told the CBJ in 2017. "We're trying to provide a platform to help them understand what that data means."
 
Learn more at the Stratafolio website.
 
Read the CBJ's members-first profile on the EDC's 15th anniversary in this week's print or digital editions, and look for more profiles from Innovation Expo in this week's CBJ on Small Business newsletter, out on Thursday.
Para4CF data firm launches brand health score for marketers
 
Cedar Falls-based research science firm Discida has launched a new brand health score for marketers, designed to offer a clear, unbiased calculation of how well campaigns are moving the needle for a particular brand.
 
Called the Discida Brand Health Score, it promises to analyze four components of brand health to arrive at one number. Those components include:
  • Performance, which analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of key brand attributes.
  • Knowledge, which scores how familiar a target audience is with the brand.
  • Recognition, which measures how top-of-mind the brand is with stakeholders who matter most.
  • Loyalty, which looks at how much brand love a particular brand inspires.
To continually feed the Brand Health Score algorithm, Discida's data scientists conduct regular studies of name brands in multiple industries. They feed the algorithm with learnings from retail brand studies, like Target and Walmart. The results allow the algorithm to factor in how consumers think and feel, how their impressions change and what a certain market is prioritizing at any given time.

Future iterations of the Brand Health Score will allow marketers to monitor their own brand health alongside that of the competition.
 
"As the machine feeds on more data, it learns exponentially," Alyssa Nolte, Discida's chief development officer, said in a release. "It's been amazing to see how quickly that learning allows the algorithm to evolve, drawing parallels and spotting distinctions between brands."
 
The product has been designed for client- and agency-side marketers, and can be white-labeled for creative agencies that want to brand the service.
 
"As consultants and freelancers increasingly move in on agencies' turf, these firms are pressured to continually prove the ROI of partnership," Ms. Nolte added. "The Discida Health Score will contribute valuable differentiation and inspire confidence among clients and prospect without costing agencies an arm and a leg."

Founded in 2012 as iTracking Research, Discida serves a wide range of clients across industry verticals. To learn more, visit discida.com.
Para5Registered apprenticeship funding deadline set for Oct. 26
 
Iowa companies and organizations now have until 1 p.m. on Oct. 26 to submit proposals to Iowa Workforce Development to receive funding to grow registered apprenticeship opportunities in the state.
 
Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) was recently awarded an additional $1 million ApprenticeshipUSA State Expansion Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to strengthen and grow registered apprenticeship opportunities in Iowa. The grant is focused on expanding opportunities in health care and advanced manufacturing, the fastest growing and largest employment sectors in the state, as well as increasing the participation of women, youth, minorities, veterans and people with disabilities.
 
A portion of the funds were awarded in September to 10 schools and organizations. IWD is offering another opportunity to submit proposals since not all the funding was allocated in the first round.
 
Organizations may apply for funding in five areas: Quality Pre-Apprenticeship; High School Registered Apprenticeship; Healthcare Sector Registered Apprenticeship; Advanced Manufacturing Sector Registered Apprenticeship; and Pilot Quality Pre-Apprenticeship Program.
 
The full Request for Proposal (RFP) and the guidelines for submitting a proposal is available online.
 
Iowa employers and job seekers can also explore registered apprenticeship opportunities at earnandlearniowa.gov. The website helps employers understand how a registered apprenticeship program works, the value it brings to businesses and the resources available to help them set up a program.
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stockCorridor Stocks

NAME
SYM PRICE CHG %CHG
AEGON AEG 6.10 0.05 0.83%
Alliant Energy LNT 43.08 0.52 1.22%
Deere & Company DE 151.96 3.51 2.36%
Dow Jones ^DJI 25,798.42 547.87 2.17%
General Mills GIS 44.37 0.80 1.84%
GoDaddy Inc. GDDY 79.15 4.30 5.74%
Great Western Bank GWB 40.10 0.35 0.88%
Heartland Express HTLD 18.70 0.61 3.37%
KemPharm KMPH 2.53 0.04 1.40%
Marsh & McLennan MMC 80.33 1.33 1.68%
MidWestOne MOFG 33.94 0.74 2.23%
Pearson PSO 10.72 0.33 3.18%
Pepsico PEP 107.39 1.76 1.67%
Principal Financial PFG 54.57 -0.01 -0.02%
QCR Holdings QCRH 38.06 0.28 0.74%
Rockwell Collins COL 135.06 0.33 0.24%
S&P 500 ^GSPC 2,809.92 59.13 2.15%
Tanger Factory SKT 21.81 0.29 1.35%
Procter & Gamble PG 81.01 0.88 1.10%
United Fire Group UFCS 48.77 1.72 3.66%
U.S. Bank USB 50.97 0.46 0.91%
Wells Fargo WFC 53.73 0.49 0.92%
West Bank WTBA 22.85 0.61 2.74%
Whirlpool WHR 108.37 3.00 2.85%
Short-Term Event Planner
       
Oct. 17
1 Million Cups , by 1MC, 9-10 a.m., Geonetric, 415 12th Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids and MERGE, 136 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. Join for community connections, startup pitches and free coffee. The October theme for Cedar Rapids' meeting is corporate social responsibility. Free. For more information, visit facebook.com/1MCICR.
 
Ribbon Cutting: Community CPA , by Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, 4 p.m., 2421 Coral Court, Ste. 1, Coralville. Help celebrate the opening of Community CPA's new Coralville office. Free.
 
Oct. 18
Ribbon Cutting: Crystal Group , by Crystal Group, 3:30 p.m., 855 Metzger Drive, Hiawatha. Help celebrate the opening of Crystal Group's new corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility. Free. For more information, visit crystalrugged.com.
 
Ribbon Cutting: PATV , 4 p.m. by Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, 206 Lafayette St., Iowa City. Help celebrate the opening of the PATV studios in Iowa City. Free.
 
BizMix: Cedar Rapids Roughriders , by Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, 4-6 p.m., Cedar Rapids Ice Arena, 1100 Rockford Road NW, Cedar Rapids. BizMix brings together area professionals for an evening of casual networking over complimentary hors d'oeuvres and cocktails and is hosted by a different member business each month. Free. For more information, visit bit.ly/2C6n8Jq.
 
Forty Under 40 , by Corridor Business Journal, 5:30-8:30 p.m., DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids Convention Center, 350 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids. The Forty Under 40 awards recognize 40 leaders under the age of 40 who have made a significant impact in their business and/or community early in their careers. The evening will begin with a networking reception, followed by dinner and the awards ceremony. Tickets: $70. To register, contact Ashley Levitt at ashley@corridorbusiness.com or (319) 665-6397 ext. 311, or visit corridorbusiness.com/events.
Headlines from CBS2/FOX 28 
These news items are provided by CBS2/FOX 28 
Attorneys for Chris Soules alluded to a possible plea deal in the works during a pretrial hearing on Tuesday. Mr. Soules is charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident that killed 66-year-old Kenneth Mosher back in April 2017. Defense attorney Alfredo Parish notified the court that he had been in communication with prosecutors about a possible resolution to the case after speaking with them for several hours last week. Mr. Soules' attorneys had been seeking a new venue for the trial, but if an agreement is reached, moving court proceedings wouldn't be necessary. The 36-year-old former "The Bachelor" star is accused of leaving the scene of a fatal accident after driving his truck into a tractor near Aurora on April 24, 2017. Mr. Mosher, died as a result after his tractor rolled into a ditch. Mr. Soules made the original 911 call but left the scene as first responders arrived. He was found and arrested at his home five hours later. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The Cedar Rapids Police Department is asking for help identifying a man they say has been stealing from ATMs in town. CPRD says the man pictured here been using a credit card to make fraudulent withdrawals from ATMs in southwest Cedar Rapids. Anyone who can identify the individual in the surveillance photograph are encouraged to call the Cedar Rapids Police Department at (319) 286-5756 or Linn County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-CS-CRIME (272-7463), or text CRIMES (274637) and in the message/subject, type 5227 and your tip. You can continue to trade information with an investigator. Text STOP to opt out at any time. Please reference case #2018-13807.
  
T hese news items are provided by CBS2/FOX 28 
CBS2 Chief Meteorologist Terry Swails' Weather First Forecast
 
It's going to be a fall-like week with cool temperatures and calm conditions. A weak cold front will approach the area today and ahead of it winds will pick up out of the southwest. It will be breezy at times today, but it will also be warmer than yesterday. There will be plenty of sunshine and temperatures will climb into the mid to upper 50s. The cold front will move through tonight and won't produce any rain or clouds, but it will knock the temperatures back on Wednesday. Temperatures will cool down to near freezing tonight and frost will be possible once again. Then tomorrow afternoon temperatures will be near 50 degrees, around 10 degrees cooler than today.