Whether it's a garage, basement storeroom or ramshackle tool shed, every backyard inventor needs a place -- buffered from everyday life -- to create. The ideal inventor's sanctum not only fosters individual ingenuity, it entices clever collaboration. And it's equipped with every tool and material to take an idea from concept to reality.

NDSU's Center for Technology Enterprise is the high-tech version of the backyard inventor's retreat. Anchor tenant in the technology business incubator will be Bobcat Co., a business unit of diversified industrial-firm Ingersoll-Rand Co. Ltd.

Bobcat® sells its mini track loaders, skid-steer loaders, all-wheel steer loaders, compact hydraulic "mini" excavators, telescopic tool carriers, utility vehicles and attachments in 75 countries around the world. The company's mechanical and electrical engineers are based at sites in Gwinner and Bismarck, N.D.; overseas in France and the Czech Republic; and in Bobcat's existing facility in NDSU's Research and Technology Park.

"The intent is to have research teams dedicated to new product development working in the new Center for Technology Enterprise," said Scott Jacobson, Bobcat's manager of global electronic systems. By eliminating the distractions of day-to-day operations, Bobcat engineers will be able to focus their energy on new product development.

Plus, Jacobson said, Bobcat wants to tap more deeply into NDSU's think tank. "Every time we meet with NDSU we learn about some new technology, some new process or some new expert they have on staff that can help Bobcat with its projects," Jacobson said. "We are just beginning to fully understand what NDSU and the Research and Technology Park can offer us."

The new facility is designed to be a one-stop center that provides entrepreneurial tools such as venture capital, supply services, business networking and technical assistance.

Bobcat initially will assign approximately 14 engineers to the center. In all, Bobcat will occupy around 15,000 square feet, space enough for a staff of 50. Three other NDSU research park tenants also will move into the 50,000-square-foot building, which should be ready for occupancy by January 2007.

Three engineers work in Bobcat's NDSU research park facility, among them electrical design engineer Shawn Vasichek. Vasichek is Bobcat's official contact for design projects assigned to NDSU's senior engineering students. Since moving into the research park, Bobcat has increased the number of senior design projects it assigns. And Vasichek said the new focus on research and development through the Center for Technology Enterprise will take some projects to a higher level, involving more specific and longer-term research by both students and faculty. "Those projects will probably be geared more to graduate-level students," Vasichek said.

Both NDSU graduates, Jacobson, BS '84, and Vasichek, BS '96, expect collaborative research projects and internships will translate into employment with Bobcat for several NDSU graduates and expose them to other valuable industry contacts. "When students work on projects directly linked to industry, it helps the company and it provides the students with real-world learning experiences," Jacobson said.

Ingersoll-Rand, which acquired North Dakota-based Bobcat Co. in 1995, is made up of five sectors: Climate Control Technologies, Construction Technologies, Industrial Technologies, Security Technologies and Compact Vehicle Technologies. Further information on Ingersoll-Rand can be found on the company's Web site at www.irco.com.