Goodbye Silicon Valley, Hello Silicon Prairie

INDIANAPOLIS – Students looking for a job in Indiana’s technology sector won’t have to travel to Silicon Valley to find their dream job.

Recently Indiana has been experiencing a technology revolution of sorts. A movement has started to call some of the states in the Midwest Silicon Prairie. The technology sector in Indiana is one of the fastest growing sectors in Indiana right now, and across the nation.

A study conducted by tech point from 2009-2014 showed a 54.5% increase in computer and IT job openings in Indiana.

“I think in some ways it’s a renaissance on the Tech side,” said David Roberts president of batteries innovation center.” If you look at Indiana’s history since the industrial revolution we’ve played a significant role in technology, innovation, growth, and manufacturing.”

Batteries Innovation Center is a non-profit lab that helps company’s tests their new technologies. This company allows smaller companies to have access to an experiments lab without fronting the money themselves. Located in Newberry Indiana Batteries Innovation is an attempt to create economic development in a rural area of Indiana.

“Batteries Innovation Center is an experiment by State and local partners to see if you can do rural economic development with a STEM focus,” said Roberts.

Roberts argues that his company can build relations with tech firms outside of Indiana by bring value to them. This helps bring these companies in to Indiana market. Companies like Black Diamond in Austin TX. which is currently a forerunner in nanomaterials in batteries. It is partnerships like these that help move Indiana’s tech industry forward.

Batteries Innovation also works with colleges like Purdue, IUPUI and Rose-Hulman institute of technology to provide hands on learning experiences.

With growth in Technology Indiana’s Chamber of Commerce is working to advance policy related to technology and innovation. These policies will help to increase the growth of Technology based companies in Indiana. The chamber has created the Tech and Innovation Council to address these policies.

One strategy the council is focusing on is human capital.

“We realize it’s so important with innovation based businesses, they really rely on human capital more than traditional capitals,” said Mark Lawrance vice president, engagement and innovation policy for the Indiana chamber of commerce.

Lawrance spoke about how these tech companies are the companies of tomorrow and in order to keep them here they need workers that meet their expectations.

“Talent as we have also learned, talent is the number one site selection factor for corporate decision makers, when they decide where to locate facilities or expand existing operations,” said Lawrance.

Luckily for Indiana it has many schools that are putting out gifted individuals in tech fields. Schools like IU, Notre Dame and Purdue all have excellent programs for engineering and computer science. However Lawrance worries about Brain drain and keeping these gifted students here in the state, rather than watching these students leave to the west cost for Silicon Valley.

Indiana is combating the appeal of the West and East cost by being in the Midwest. While many people consider the states in the Midwest to be the fly over states, the low cost of land and housing means that companies can save money by moving in to the state.

“Those costs start to be really significant because you’re starting to talk about your cost to run a company of that size being in the mid 50 million dollar range in the bay, versus 35, 36 million here in Indiana,” said Roberts.

One company that can help demonstrate Indiana tech sector growth is Determine INC. The company has committed to moving its headquarters to Carmel. The State offered the company a $400,000 in tax credits so the firm can create 24 additional jobs adding to the 35 already here. The company also has plans to spend $700,000 to lease a new office in Carmel.

Another company committed to taking Indiana’s tech sector to the next level is Safe Hiring Solutions. The company focuses on work force development, recruiting and enhancing hiring. The company plans to create as many as 284 new high wage positions by 2020 in Indiana.

In a statement Mike McCarty, chief executive officer of Safe Hiring Solutions and Safe Recruiting Solutions said, “Growing up in central Indiana, we are comfortable here, and the Midwestern values that are instilled in each of us has allowed our business to flourish over the past 13 years.”

Governor-elect Eric Holcomb in a statement said that Indiana has worked hard to create a positive business climate, which ranks top five in the nation, creating low taxes and limiting government regulations in order to advance Hoosiers opportunities to grow their own businesses.

This growth is not just limited to Computer and IT related jobs. Indiana is also seeing some growth on the healthcare side in the medical information technologies that are used to keep medical records.

Doctor Brian Dixon has seen a lot of growth in challenges that center on students creating an app for medical data. The winners are given either a cash prize or help creating their own startup that would allow them to incubate their ideas. At the Indianapolis Big Data Conference hosted one of these student competitions. The students had to analyze twitter data in different ways.

“One team analyzed the data to try and identify different types of cancers and rather cancer awareness campaigns were having a broad reach of getting the message out,” said Dixon.

Dixon pointed to these student competitions as a growing trend over the past few years. A trend that allows students to get together and think outside the box about challenges set up by professionals in the field. With Indiana hosting these types of competitions it creates an effective way for students to get involved with bigger technology companies. Allowing these students to get their names out there and increase their chances of finding a job at one of these big companies.

Derreck Stahly is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a website powered by Franklin College journalism students.