Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence is the next big partner for Wichita State’s new and expanding Innovation Campus.

“We consider Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, Airbus, Dassault Systemes as our primary Innovation campus partners at this point,” Tracee Friess, director of communication and special programs at NIAR, said.

Hexagon is not a stranger in Wichita; they have worked with WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research for the past five years.

“The initial relationship with Hexagon started with us buying equipment from them and they kinda realized what capabilities we had here [at NIAR]” said Brian Brown, director of robotics and automation Lab at NIAR. “Then they gave us cheaper and cheaper equipment and they worked with us more and more and said, ‘OK, we have this project we want to do, will you help us with it?’

“We did this one big project with them. We had a small business jet wing and they were trying to show how quickly they could scan it, ‘cause normally it takes hours or days to do, and we got it down to basically four minutes with a robot [we have here].”

After that partnership both parties realized the benefit of working together and having a Hexagon office stationed in Wichita.

For Hexagon, it will have 3,000-square-feet of space in the Experiential Engineering Building.

This space will mostly be offices — some permanent, some floating — as well as a show/test room.

“The main goal for Hexagon is to have a place [to work] — because they don’t have a Midwest anything — the closest thing that they have is in Dallas,” Brown said. “So if I am a company here in town … I don’t want to have to go to Dallas to see a product. On the other hand [Hexagon] doesn’t want to have to bring their $300,000 scanner up here.”

They will also have a neutral area to teach customers how to use the products they are selling.

“Whether they have two customers at Spirit and two customers at Cox machine that need training, they can bring all four of them together at the neutral facility and teach them all at once and it is more cost efficient for the companies. It’s more cost efficient for Hexagon.”

Hexagon’s equipment will most likely not be available for student use, the general populace not really getting a chance to handle the million dollar machines that will be close to student workers. The staff realizes this may draw skepticism from students and others not associated with the university.

“So then people say, ‘What’s in it for the students?’” Brown said after addressing the benefits for Hexagon. “Well, how many universities can say we have multiple multi-million dollar companies on campus?

“We are building a name … They could’ve gone anywhere in the world and they chose to be right here right next to us.”

However, industry-only businesses, by the definition of Innovation Campus, will not be allowed by companies. Applied learning for students is a must before a company can become a partner with Innovation Campus.

“In order to be an Innovation Campus partner you would either be leasing space on campus and providing applied learning opportunities for students or we would still consider you a partner if you were off campus but still providing applied learning opportunities for students,” Friess said.

The partnership with Hexagon works similarly to WSU’s partnership with Dassault Systemes.

“They’ll have a presence on campus, they’ll have employees here on a regular basis and the goal for them being on campus is to use the resources available through NIAR in order to offer additional resources to their clients, and also for them it’s a pipeline for students,” Friess said.

“On our end it’s kinda the same way. For Wichita State it’s a way to increase exposure for the capabilities of NIAR. It’s also a way to get applied learning experience for students. With that increased exposure becomes increased contracts with industry work and with more contracts, we have more work and more opportunities to hire students and get them more hands on experience.”

Hexagon’s lease in the EEB begins March 1.

Hexagon’s grand opening, which will be an invite-only for most of the industry workers and company higher-ups, will be April 27.