Once a rust-belt community, South Bend, Ind., has developed an enterprising strategy to connect partners, investments and infrastructure, helping the city become a Midwestern hub of hightech research and economic growth.
A number of initiatives make up the playbook of South Bend's technological transformation, starting two years ago when the Semiconductor Research Corporation's Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI) selected the University of Notre Dame as the fourth of its national research centers.
A strong partner of the city, the South Bend-area university and its technical work in nanotechnology was attractive to NRI, whose goal is to advance research that …