Published: May 14, 2007 11:47 pm            

Rose grads bringing business to Terre Haute

VEXTEC will initially employ up to 5 people

TERRE HAUTE — A privately owned software consulting and services company, co-founded by graduates of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, will build a new facility on Hunt Street, north of Tri-Aerospace LLC.

VEXTEC, based in Brentwood, Tenn., plans to build a 5,000- to 6,000-square-foot testing facility to be operating by September or October, initially employing up to five people, with plans to increase that work force to 10 or 12 by next year, said Loren Nasser, chief executive officer of VEXTEC.

“We are a technology company that invented a technology called Virtual Life Management or VLM, a modeling and simulation technology. The development of VLM is sponsored by the federal government,” Nasser said.

“The target market for our new VLM-managed service is the aircraft and aerospace industries, the automotive and industrial equipment industries and the electronics industries.”

“Just as the genetic code was broke for DNA on how you can predict human behavior based on DNA structures, we have done the same thing in material science. We can look at the makeup of how materials were formulated as they are manufactured and be able to predict how that material turned into a product will perform as it is being used,” Nasser said.

It is a one-of-a-kind technology, Nasser said, initially funded by the Air Force, then later by the Navy, Army and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The new Terre Haute facility will perform laboratory testing for the VLM.

“It is one-of-a-kind testing. It will be a test laboratory, with the initial operation to use small scale jet engines, very tiny jet engines, that will be operated in the facility and use the data that we collect from the operation of those miniature jets to enter into our VLM technology and predict how very large jets are going to respond over time,” Nasser said.

“The Air Force is very interested in this and will piggy-back on a bunch of the development for new materials to go into aircraft and new components and sensors in the facility we will have at the Terre Haute airport,” Nasser said.

The Terre Haute Airport Authority board of directors, which oversees finances at the Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field, last week approved the sale of 6.62 acres of land for $25,000 to attract VEXTEC Corp.

“This is getting some business in our airport development zone, in our TIF [tax increment finance] district and also a potential of utilizing our Foreign Trade Zone, which we need to get up and running before it lapses,” Airport Director Dennis Dunbar told the board last week.

“It is a strong company with several contracts with several firms, with cutting-edge technology with good-paying jobs,” Dunbar said.

The airport’s Foreign Trade Zone was to expire this fall, however Pfizer Inc. has requested it remain active for use with its new Exubera product, said Kara McIntosh, airport development director.

VEXTEC was founded in 2000 by Nasser, Robert G. Tryon III and Animesh Dey.

Terre Haute was selected, in part, because Nasser and Tryon, chief technology officer, are graduates of Rose-Hulman. Also, Rolls-Royce has a facility in Indianapolis and the Terre Haute airport has a military component with the 181st Fighter Wing, Nasser said.

Nasser is a 1978 graduate of Terre Haute North Vigo High School and 1982 graduate of Rose-Hulman. He earned a master’s degree from University of Tennessee Space Institute.

Tryon is a 1977 graduate of Terre Haute South Vigo High School and a 1981 and 1982 graduate of Rose-Hulman. He earned his doctorate degree from Vanderbilt University.

The company has two other graduates of Rose-Hulman — Richard Homes and Matt King.

VEXTEC overall employs 30 people and anticipates growing to about 50 employees over the next 12 months, Nasser said.

The company has been continually involved in major federally sponsored research initiatives, such as the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft development program, next generation space shuttle concept studies, Air Force engine rotor life extension program and high cycle fatigue initiative, according to the company’s Web site.

The company in 2005 was awarded a contract with the Air Force for software for the design and certification of unitized airframe components.

The Army in February awarded VEXTEC a multi-year contract to develop a business decision software tool that considers vehicle piece cost, reliability and reliability cost as integrated functions. The company also has been involved in private-sector sponsored research connected with automobile, electronic package and aerospace reliability assessment.

The company has representatives in San Francisco, New Orleans, Detroit and Dayton, Ohio.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.

        

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