Jordan Valley Innovation Center gets $26 million in funding

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The House of Representatives passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act on June 22, which will provide funding for new defense research and the renovation of Jordan Valley Innovation Center.|ret||ret||tab|

The center will serve as the new home for Southwest Missouri State University's Center for Applied Science and Engineering (CASE), previously housed on the SMSU campus.|ret||ret||tab|

The act provides $8 million to renovate the MFA Milling facilities into the Innovation Center. The act also provides $18 million for four defense research projects to be conducted at the center, three of which are for SMSU's CASE. The fourth project is for Government Enterprise Management Systems in Joplin.|ret||ret||tab|

Southwest Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt secured the funds and said they will be the foundation for a new industry in Springfield.|ret||ret||tab|

"These projects are not only important to our national defense, but the economic growth and prosperity of Springfield and Joplin," Blunt said in a news release. "In both the private sector and academia there is great interest in pursuing hi-tech, life science manufacturing research. For Springfield, it means good-paying jobs and new opportunities in manufacturing research and technology that will have multiple positive applications."|ret||ret||tab|

SMSU President John Keiser said he is grateful to Blunt for obtaining the funds for the center.|ret||ret||tab|

"This funding is critical for advancing the research being conducted on campus and for promoting economic development in Springfield and southwest Missouri," Keiser said in a news release. "This project effectively illustrates what metropolitan universities, such as SMS, should do."|ret||ret||tab|

Ryan Giedd, executive director of CASE and the Innovation Center, said the center will house scientists from SMSU and from each of its industrial collaborative partners. They will develop technologies that have applications in national defense and homeland security, he said.|ret||ret||tab|

Geidd said CASE is currently working on developing low-cost projects including night and smoke vision cameras, biosensor instruments for homeland security and plastic materials that can light up.|ret||ret||tab|

"More jobs for Springfield in advanced technology manufacturing are a great benefit to our community and institution," Giedd said in a news release. "We plan to invite local entrepreneurs and businesses to tell us about their advanced technology product ideas to see if we can help develop or test their products."|ret||ret||tab|

The act approved funding for the following projects:|ret||ret||tab|

CASE and Crosslink Polymer Research will develop nano-composite hard-coat for aircraft canopies. The goal is to improve the durability of canopies on Navy fighter jets by increasing their lifetime from 100 hours of flight to 1,000 hours. |ret||ret||tab|

CASE and Natero Inc. will develop carbon nanotube-based radiation hard nonvolatile RAM. The goal is to create a dense, fast, radiation-hardened RAM test chip vehicle to replace the current SRAM used in space applications.|ret||ret||tab|

CASE and Applied Systems Intelligence will migrate PreAct symbolic constructs into hardware with embedded intelligence. The goal is to develop inference engines for use in analyzing multicomponent chemical and biosensor data.|ret||ret||tab|

CASE and Government Enterprise Management Systems will develop a project for command and control services level management. The goal is to create a system that will monitor the efficiency of dozens of the military's command and control computer systems. |ret||ret||tab|

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