K-State’s Technology Development Institute is giving Kansans a boost for all their economic needs.
Imagine yourself walking down the streets of your beloved hometown; the sun is shining bright, and memories are flooding your thoughts. You remember the countless trips to the local grocery store with your friends and driving the roundabout with music blasting. As the years have ticked by, those memories are all that are really left of the town. The roundabout is cracked and grooved, full of potholes, and the grocery store is two months from shutting down completely. You desperately wish something could be done.
After you return to college, no internships are available, so you begin brainstorming a blueprint for a new machine you’ve been thinking of, hoping you can start a manufacturing business from the ground up. Once the blueprint is created, the next step is a prototype, but you have no means to follow through.
What if all these problems could have been solved by one company?
Luckily, here at K-State, we are home to that special company. K-State’s Technology Development Institute (TDI) is having a significant impact on job creation and the Kansas economy. Since 1995, TDI has completed more than 3,000 projects for more than 700 clients, uncovering internship opportunities for more than 700 K-State students.
“This is about working with small companies across the state and beyond and helping people who have ideas,” said Jeff Tucker, executive director of TDI.
TDI is housed in a 22,000-square-foot facility packed with machines and equipment. The space hosts offices, engineering design labs, a 3D printing and scanning studio and a prototyping workshop.
On campus, faculty and staff at TDI work with university partners to help researchers with prototyping or fabrication, but the bulk of the institute’s clients come from across the state and country. These clients get access to all kinds of helpful resources, from engineering and design services to modeling products to help with patents and commercialization.
In addition to helping clients, the institute’s robust intern program gives students practical experience, which prepares the next generation of professionals for the industry as they graduate from K-State and begin their careers.
TDI’s work enables individuals and businesses to thrive, but the credit for success is shared.
“What we’re doing is throwing out seeds all over the place and waiting for them to sprout,” Tucker said, “which may or may not be the result of our efforts. It comes back to the entrepreneur or the innovator to take it the rest of the way.
“But you have to have the spark to get it going.”
Whether you’re a student with a dream or a Kansan with a vision, TDI is here to help you take the first step.
By Kate Ellwood
Curated from: How K-State is engineering the next generation of enabling technologies