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This is Chris Redgrave for Zions Bank Speaking on Business.
If you ask Gary Olsen, vice president of business development for VPI Engineering in Draper, what he thinks of entrepreneur incubator programs at our universities in Utah, he'll give the thumbs up. That's because VPI, which stands for Vision Products. Inc., is a byproduct of Utah State University's Centers for Self-Organizing Intelligent Systems from 1996.
The idea was incubated and started at USU, and because of this business development program, Gary and others started VPI. They now work with multiple companies, based on their outsourced engineering needs.
Besides being able to buy into the company, another thing the 45 employees like about working for VPI is the variety of businesses associated with their company. In meeting with Gary, he said it's not uncommon to receive four to five calls a week looking for engineering expertise from VPI. So, the engineering team gets to work on a variety of projects, like the one from Lego, who wanted a USB camera to go on the exploration mars toy. VPI had to design this digital camera to be mounted on the Lego rover so kids at school A could remotely, through the internet, drive the Lego rover at school B.
Another customer, Provocraft, produces "Cricut," which is a die-cut machine, or a personal electronic cutter, and VPI helped design the software for it. It forms desired letters, shapes and phrases for scrapbookers or even wall decorations.
To give you an idea of this company's scope of projects, VPI had the opportunity to work on a manufacturing system to identify any flaws with ammunitions and cartridges for our military to avoid any backfires or exploding guns. So, from Lego toys to the military, VPI is on their toes and engaged with their growing base of industries and companies in Utah and beyond.
If you'd like to find out more about how to build your company's global presence, you can attend the eleventh annual Zions Bank Trade and Business Conference on May 23. For more information or to register, visit zionsbank.com/conference.
For Zions Bank, I'm Chris Redgrave, speaking on business.
VPI Engineering 11814 S. Election Rd, Ste. 200 Draper, UT 84020 801-495-2310 www.vpieng.com
