As chief technology officer at Midco, Jon Pederson’s role is a diverse one. 

He manages a team of 65 people, taking care of core customer-facing technology: Internet, video service, phone service and business services. 

He also represents the Sioux Falls-based company at the highest levels of its industry, assisting with industry relations at a national level.

This month, he marks 34 years with the company – the result of a career that started with a job during college that led him down an unexpected path.

The physicist in Jose-Marie Griffiths appreciates the concept of centrifugal force.

Think of mud flying off a spinning tire. Or the spin cycle of a washing machine.

As the object moves rapidly, a force is created. A spinoff effect occurs. 

And Griffiths suspects she’s about to see that happen at the place she leads – Dakota State University – which this month opened a first-of-its-kind center: The Madison Cyber Labs.

One concept that’s central to workforce development today? Technological innovation.

In order to position the city of Sioux Falls, and the state of South Dakota, as a regional powerhouse of business excellence, investment in infrastructure that allows our city to grow its technology footprint is vital. And thanks to the great work of many in and outside of Sioux Falls, advances in innovation, including technology infrastructure and research/development facilities, will work in tandem with city, state, and federal organizations and stakeholders to attract a talented, technically skilled future workforce home to South Dakota.

Think of the newly opened Madison Cyber Labs at Dakota State University as a big magnet.

“It’s going to attract people to come to work, new faculty who will be able to conduct research with federal agencies they can’t do on other campuses,” DSU president José-Marie Griffiths said. “And we think it will attract partnerships. We know it’s already attracting partnerships.”

The 38,000-square-foot building that opened in recent weeks already is fulfilling much of its promise.

As students move in, collaboration already is starting, those using the building said.

That was the idea when Griffiths proposed the concept to her campus and to the South Dakota Board of Regents just a few short years ago.

“We couldn’t have one lab per faculty member pursuing their individual research agendas. They had to be broader and involve others across campus and potentially involve external partners,” she said.

“The intent is not just research for the sake of research. It’s researching real problems, developing real solutions, but at the same time creating jobs for people who engage in that R&D and spin off companies that take that R&D and put it out into the real world.”

Tell us about yourself, including where you are from, why Dakota State University was the right fit for you, and what led you to pursue the major you selected at DSU.

My name is Matt Paulson. I grew up in Mitchell and was exposed to technology at an early age. My parents bought us a family computer when I was in 4^th grade, and we were one of the first families to have cable internet in our community around 1997. I took all the technology classes available at Mitchell Middle School and Mitchell Senior High School. I helped build the first website for Mitchell Middle School, and I even built a little website about the video game SimCity 2000 that was generating $25.00 per month in advertising income while I was in middle school.

When it came time to pick out a university to attend, I knew I wanted to pursue a technology degree. Dakota State University was a natural fit. It had a strong reputation for its computer science and information systems programs even then and was much more affordable than other out-of-state options I had been considering. It was also an hour away from my hometown, which made selecting Dakota State an easy decision.

It wasn’t immediately clear to me what type of technology career I wanted to pursue, but Dakota State created many opportunities to try different aspects of technology so that students could figure out if they wanted to be a network security specialist, a programmer, a business IT manager or something else. I was able to get an internship doing IT and programming work with the South Dakota Unified Judicial System because of Dakota State. Professors Josh Pauli, Wayne Pauli and Tom Halverson were also able to help line me up with some website development and programming work through a business they were running called Logic Lizard at the time. These experiences helped me identify that web programming was the specialty I wanted to pursue, and I continue to use those formative skills at MarketBeat today.

Sioux Falls-area high school students got an early look this summer at what careers in the information technology field could look like, thanks to a unique program with a lot of partners.

The IT Academy was funded by a federal EPSCoR grant, which is through the National Science Foundation and stands for the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.

For about six weeks, high school students attended class for three hours daily Monday through Thursday in Sioux Falls or Madison, as Dakota State Unviersity instructors taught computer science.

In the afternoon, the students went to paid internships throughout the community and even statewide, where they learned about career opportunities and got to contribute work to their employers.