About Kaiser Research Group

History

What is this ALL about?

John is a Chemical Engineer who after earning his BS and MSChE from Purdue and Iowa State University, respectively spent a career in the food industry in several research and development roles. After a brief stint at Kraft Foods, John discovered the perfect fit at Mars Wrigley Confectionery researching chocolate. What better food to work on? Chocolate has kept him interested for over 30 years as a complex food with an incredibly rich history and in an industry where secrecy is paramount. John has tackled issues of product shelf life, new raw material and product and process scale-up with a highly skilled multi-cultural global team. Today, these experiences are leveraged to address challenges concerning gelatin, natural color, ice cream, high intensity flavor enhancers, peanuts, CBD, animal vaccines and much more!!!

As a senior manager at Mars, John was hiring fantastic talent, but concerned that onboarding could last 2-3 years while new hires learned fundamental effectiveness skills of project and meeting management, technical presentation and delivery, literature and IP searching, productive ideation and much more. As a Professor of Practice at Iowa State, John quickly discovered his mission….help students, help industry and help the CBE department….yes, a win, win, win!

What are Benefits for Students?

John brings the excitement of seeing a ‘product on the shelf ‘, reducing a carbon footprint for a manufacturing site, process invention and much more to undergraduates, but more importantly he brings the essential skills engineers need to be successful and to onboard rapidly….the Tool Box. After five years at Iowa State University, we now have over fourteen enthusiastic sponsors in food, nutraceuticals, biologics and pharma. This includes global and regional leaders as well as startups. Students learn how to conduct research on a timeline, how to communicate with senior managers to CEOs. Students learn how to apply their undergraduate training directly to real company needs. Think of this as a structured fourteen week internship/co-op with mentorship.

Expectations are high…..however, student feedback reveals it’s worth the effort!

Contact Professor Kaiser or download One Pager for more information regarding ChE499.

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Applied Industry Research

The Cyclone Engineering Toolbox

What are Benefits for Sponsors?

We are proud to say that nearly every sponsor who initiates a project with us wants to continue for one or more semesters. We have a track record of companies who partner with us for 5 or more semesters! Sponsors receive tangible product deliverables – targeted literature and IP reviews, detailed research proposals, ownership of IP w/NDAs, safety, insights on backburner projects and more.

But wait…there’s more. Sponsors eagerly participate to hire our students into their internship, co-op and full time positions. Why? Simple….there’s a level of professional qualification attained through our class.

Sponsors gain valuable insights on technical issues that are often back-burner or wish list….all highly cost effective. Remember, Our mission is about education….not profit!!!!

Don’t take our word for it

"The students in the program did great work and it was fun to discuss the importance of the work to our business with them and the business case that led to the project. It was fun to see the excitement of the students to work on real world problems. I remember a student remarking that they were going to work at a location where they would be responsible for one of the unit operations that was part of our project!"
Jeff Underwood, VP Enterprise Innovation
Kent Corp.
☆☆☆☆☆
"The students in the program did great work and it was fun to discuss the importance of the work to our business with them and the business case that led to the project. It was fun to see the excitement of the students to work on real world problems. I remember a student remarking that they were going to work at a location where they would be responsible for one of the unit operations that was part of our project!"
Jeff Underwood
Jeff Underwood, VP Enterprise Innovation
Kent Corp.
"Overall the experience with the Applied Industry Research program has been rewarding. Not only from the stand point that we are learning new things about our process but also in that we are engaging with students and helping give them a glimpse of some real world engineering problems."
Michael Ross, Chemical Process Engineer
Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
☆☆☆☆☆
"Overall the experience with the Applied Industry Research program has been rewarding. Not only from the stand point that we are learning new things about our process but also in that we are engaging with students and helping give them a glimpse of some real world engineering problems."
Michael Ross
Michael Ross, Chemical Process Engineer
Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
"For the project the ISU team worked on we definitely gained information that we were able to apply to improving a problematic aspect of a process. We are applying the initial learnings provided by the ISU team to improve our internal process capability. I think the other benefit is that it creates a presence on campus for recruiting. We had 2 of the 3 students that worked on our project apply for our 15 month coop program, with one of the students receiving and accepting an offer."
Hans Geyer, Sr. Technical Commodities Manager
The Hershey Company
☆☆☆☆☆
"For the project the ISU team worked on we definitely gained information that we were able to apply to improving a problematic aspect of a process. We are applying the initial learnings provided by the ISU team to improve our internal process capability. I think the other benefit is that it creates a presence on campus for recruiting. We had 2 of the 3 students that worked on our project apply for our 15 month coop program, with one of the students receiving and accepting an offer."
Hans Geyer
Hans Geyer, Sr. Technical Commodities Manager
The Hershey Company
"We would absolutely recommend the Applied Industry Research program at Iowa State. The program provides an opportunity for students to work on current industry challenges and our company is able to apply brainpower to issues that we need to solve for. The AIR program is a force multiplier for large and small industry teams that are working on multiple innovative projects. The program is a great way to try new ideas and learn from the outcomes."
Torey Arvik, Chief Science Officer
Sonomaceuticals/Whole Vine Products
☆☆☆☆☆
"We would absolutely recommend the Applied Industry Research program at Iowa State. The program provides an opportunity for students to work on current industry challenges and our company is able to apply brainpower to issues that we need to solve for. The AIR program is a force multiplier for large and small industry teams that are working on multiple innovative projects. The program is a great way to try new ideas and learn from the outcomes."
Torey Arvik
Torey Arvik, Chief Science Officer
Sonomaceuticals/Whole Vine Products
"Fantastic. The R&D team worked with the Applied Industry Research team on two separate projects and both times, the experience was great. Under John Kaiser’s leadership, he brought a wealth of practical food processing experience to his students. He creates an environment that attracts smart, motivated, creative and responsive students. The output of both projects were valuable, relevant and immediately actionable at commercial scale."
Keith Woelfel, Director R&D
Caliper Foods
☆☆☆☆☆
"Fantastic. The R&D team worked with the Applied Industry Research team on two separate projects and both times, the experience was great. Under John Kaiser’s leadership, he brought a wealth of practical food processing experience to his students. He creates an environment that attracts smart, motivated, creative and responsive students. The output of both projects were valuable, relevant and immediately actionable at commercial scale."
Keith Woelfel
Keith Woelfel, Director R&D
Caliper Foods
This program is a great way to test out the projects that you do not have the resources to complete in a timely manner and accelerate improvements. Also, engaging with the newest generation of engineers is important to long-term sustainability of the industry and for future innovation. It just makes business sense!
Meghan Keck, R&D Chocolate Process Development Engineer
Mars Wrigley Confectionery
☆☆☆☆☆
This program is a great way to test out the projects that you do not have the resources to complete in a timely manner and accelerate improvements. Also, engaging with the newest generation of engineers is important to long-term sustainability of the industry and for future innovation. It just makes business sense!
Meghan Keck
Meghan Keck, R&D Chocolate Process Development Engineer
Mars Wrigley Confectionery