Dow Opens New Center in Illinois

The Dow Chemical Company ( DOW - Analyst Report ) announced that it has partnered University of Illinois to open the Dow Innovation Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The innovation center is expected to focus on the development of data management to improve technology and research within the company.

With the collaboration, Dow intends to come up with innovative ideas to deal with critical areas like water, energy, coatings and agriculture. The innovation centre is expected to bring about solutions to extremely complex societal challenges utilizing the expertise and know-how of High Performance Computing (HPC), Informatics, and Computer Science at the University of Illinois. The new innovation center will employ 16 University students from Computer Science and related fields on a part-time basis.

Dow also entered into a strategic tie-up with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which will offer it access to expertise and equipment to speed up its discovery processes. With this deal, Dow will be able to leverage NCSA’s expertise and experience to gain a competitive advantage. The company aims to solve the most difficult conditions faced by its customers and society.

University of Illinois is a world leader in research, teaching and public engagement. The Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides an environment where technology-based businesses can work along with the faculty and students to take advantage of opportunities for collaborative research and easy access to University labs, equipment, and services.

Dow manufactures and supplies chemical products used as raw materials in the manufacture of customer products and services worldwide. The company competes with DuPont ( DD - Analyst Report ) and currently retains Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We currently have a long-term (more than 6 months) Neutral recommendation on Dow.