Making Connections
The La Salle connections that have helped Aegis along its growth were not limited to the meeting of its founders. One could argue that the company may not exist if it were not for a La Salle connection that led to its startup financing. A La Salle alum who is a friend of Spera and Walls knew of their work developing the initial application at night after their day jobs. Unknown to the founders, he casually discussed the idea of for the product and what was being done to develop it with an angel investor. This investor found the idea interesting and asked to meet to learn more about it. That meeting led to the formation of the initial investor group, the board of directors, and startup financing. La Salle connections are also supporting the company in its daily operations. The Managing Director of all Aegis operations in Europe, Dan Walls ’91, is an alum. The subject matter expert responsible for product documentation, videos, and all such supporting writing and media is an alum as well. Building Connections with Future Engineers Via Engineering Internships Spera and Walls share a concern about the availability of engineering talent for their company as well as for our country as a whole. Having a Research and Development Center in Nuremberg Germany, the company sees the difference in emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers in Germany as compared to America, where Germany is graduating a far greater share of its University students in such fields than we see in the USA. In 2016, Aegis began an internship program with La Salle as part of their alumni networking efforts. This program gives students with engineering interest the oppor-
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tunity to actually work on research and development projects in the business world during the summer at Aegis. These students are not just observing or only working on minor tasks; they have written quality assurance automation tools used to test Aegis software before release and last year a team developed a prototype for a new generation of an existing Aegis product that is both hardware and software. In speaking with Aegis staff about the program, it becomes immediately apparent that the benefits are mutual. The students gain valuable experience of course, but Aegis staff enjoys having them as part of the team for the summer and seeing what they can contribute. Furthermore, Aegis sees this as an incubator for future engineering staff and hopes that when the interns make their way through university, some might be interested in becoming full-time Aegis engineers. The Future of Manufacturing Aegis says that while most of us go about our business not realizing it, the fact is that the world is at the threshold of nothing less than what is called “Industry 4.0” – meaning the fourth industrial revolution. This is a concept first envisioned in Germany where heavy government investment is pushing it ahead via their industry but now has spread across the world. In China it is called “Made in China 2025” and often in the States it is called “IIoT” or the “Industrial Internet of Things.” Regardless of its name, it is coming and it will change manufacturing as much as Henry Ford changed it with his assembly line. In many ways, it is related to the original mission Spera and Walls had when founding the company in that it was the ultimate goal, but it is really only now technologically possible. The fourth revolution means that the