FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Ryan Keepman, Evans Transportation Services; NW Mutual Data Science Institute aims to coordinate AI efforts

July 12, 2024

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Ryan Keepman, CEO of Evans Transportation Services.

He discusses the company’s recent expansion into Mexico and growth over the past several years, with revenues rising from $80 million to $400 million since 2018. The Delafield-based transportation and logistics firm projects 24% growth this year alone, and Keepman attributes that to both the company’s evolving culture and bringing in new technologies.

“Our business is people,” he said. “We don’t own any trucks. We are an intermediary of services, so putting an emphasis on our people, our culture, ensuring that they had the ability to grow … Finding the right people, building a culture around those people to empower them. Building more and better leaders, as cliche as it sounds.”

Within the last two years, the company has opened a project logistics division that can move large shipments that require engineering teams, barges, cranes and other equipment. This year, he says it will likely bring in $15 million in revenue.

Keepman highlights pent up demand for more shipping capacity in Mexico as more companies are setting up operations there as part of the “nearshoring” trend.

“To put it in perspective, for every three trucks that go into Mexico, seven trucks are needed to come back into the U.S. right now,” he said. “So there’s a large demand. And a lot of our customers and their suppliers are moving operations into Mexico.”

The podcast also touches on Keepman’s expectations for future demand, particularly the need for better infrastructure over the southern border.

“Right now, the increase is only going to create more demand for Mexico to invest back into themselves,” he said. “And so I think as we see that infrastructure improve on the other side of the border, we’ll also see a greater presence of American companies in Mexico.”

Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

— The co-director of the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute says the institute can help member organizations establish a framework for how to most effectively deploy AI.

Scott Rex spoke yesterday during a Wisconsin Technology Council meeting in Wauwatosa, where he and other panelists discussed the work of the institute and where it’s headed. Since launching in 2018 as a partnership between the Milwaukee-based insurer, UW-Milwaukee and Marquette University, it has received about $75 million in funding.

The group has been putting those funds toward research and innovation, aligning educational programs with business needs and more. Due to its focus on data science, the rapidly growing field of AI is a major focus for its efforts, according to Rex.

“Marquette’s campus, as well as UWM, we don’t really have an understanding of how we’re going to play with AI,” he said. “So one of the roles I think NMDSI can play is bringing together all of the folks who have opinions and are using AI, and get some common practices together.”

This fall, the institute aims to create a forum to bring together faculty across various disciplines, including traditional STEM fields as well as others, he said.

“We do want to be aware that AI is not the only area of focus that we have,” he said. “There’s a lot of machine learning work that we do, coordinated science work that we do, but AI certainly is what’s captured the students’ interest and we need to get ahead of that.”

Jonathan Stark, the institute’s executive director, says partners are “putting some wheels in motion to increase our footprint.” The NMDSI last year supported funding for several new courses to expand data science learning opportunities.

“We really want data science training and AI training to hit every student on our campuses,” he said.

Rex noted the introduction and widespread adoption of generative AI — which can create text, images, videos and other data — isn’t following the traditional “trickle down” route of previous new technologies.

“Prior to generative AI, all tech has been top-down driven,” he said. “It begins in a very specialized, very expensive way, and maybe after 15 or 20 years, it trickles down to common usage.”

By contrast, he says generative AI is the first technology that’s “been unleashed” among everyday users first. He says that can provide opportunities for faster pace of adoption, though panelists also noted they’re taking into consideration ethical concerns and biases in AI due to the datasets on which it’s trained.

This quick adoption is already underway, pushing higher education and industry leaders to constantly keep up with how the technology is being used. Brian Thompson, chief innovation and partnership officer at UW-Milwaukee, yesterday argued both a top-down and bottom-up approach are needed to use AI to its fullest potential.

“The adoption curve on AI, generative AI, is orders of magnitude faster than even the fastest recent technology,” he said.

See more on the institute.

— The greater Milwaukee area saw a year-over-year home sales decline for the first time this year in June, according to the latest Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors report.

June home sales across Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties dropped 7% over the year, from 1,740 in June 2023 to 1,619 last month.

Still, overall home sales for the year remained “strong” through the second quarter, GMAR says. The report shows a 5.7% increase in this number, which rose from 7,502 in the second quarter of 2023 to 7,932 this year.

Meanwhile, second-quarter listings were 8.1% higher over the year, rising from 9,891 to 10,697. But they were 5.6% lower for June, falling from 2,104 to 1,987.

GMAR points to rising prices as “most significant,” as average prices rose from $409,885 in the second quarter of last year to $434,100 in the second quarter of 2024. That’s an increase of 5.9% or more than $24,000.

“This surge in prices can be attributed to the persistent issue of limited new listings and construction, a problem that has endured for years,” report authors wrote.

See the report.

— The Milwaukee 2024 Host Committee announced it raised $85 million, surpassing its initial goal of $68 million.

That money will help the host committee cover costs associated with the convention, such as transportation and venues. The committee announced it was a record amount raised by a host committee for a GOP convention.

— UW-Madison researchers have created a method for boosting the clearance of waste materials from the brain, which can contribute to a number of conditions such as epilepsy.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is touting this method as a top licensing prospect, which was created by biomedical engineering specialists and Profs. Kip Ludwig and Justin Williams. Ludwig is the co-director of the university’s Wisconsin Institute for Translational Neuroengineering.

An overview of the technology from WARF notes waste removal from the central nervous system is “essential” for maintaining brain health, and the disruption of this natural process can lead to buildup of harmful proteins. These proteins may be responsible for the harmful effects of various diseases and disorders, including traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

“Removal of these pathogenic proteins has been found to have substantial therapeutic benefit,” authors wrote, noting disruption of waste clearance has also been linked to mental health disorders including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder.

The researchers’ method for improving waste removal uses low frequency electrical stimulation of the cranial nerves while the patient is asleep, combined with sequences of higher frequency stimulation.

“During the period of sleep, this stimulation helps break down waste biomolecules and misfolded proteins for subsequent clearance,” authors wrote. “Administration of electrical stimulation can be selectively modified to adjust [cerebrospinal fluid] clearance, for example, to quickly clear drug concentrations in the brain during an overdose.”

See more in the WARF overview and see the patent.

Top headlines from the Health Care Report…

— State health officials are seeking feedback on maternal and child health in Wisconsin through a survey.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

Sign up here.

Host committee raises $85 million for Milwaukee RNC

Betting on biohealth: Inside efforts to create a personalized medicine tech hub

TOPICS

AGRIBUSINESS

– Top Wisconsin beef producers honored

CONSTRUCTION

– Economist predicts workforce, financing and demand will be problems for construction

– Milwaukee airport seeks contractors for international concourse redevelopment

– A quirk in the law stymies lead pipe removal in Superior

ECONOMY

– Here are the 12 inaugural Northeast Wisconsin Top Workplaces