Students working with the ISU Business Analysis Lab picked up some new business after partnering with the largest defense contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp.

Tom DeCarlo, associate professor of marketing, worked with Lockheed Martin from the beginning to get something started with the corporation.

“They were very receptive to the idea,” DeCarlo said.

The pilot project, which started this semester, will give students at the lab the chance to learn the insides of the business world by working with a major corporation, he said.

“Students are learning the right way to do research, and those types of skills will benefit them when they graduate,” DeCarlo said.

Students work in teams, with close contact to sponsor employees.

Overall, students learn how organizations gather information and use it to make decisions and solve problems. The students are also able to provide corporate sponsors with information vital for decision-making or process improvement.

The company also benefits from having ISU students working with them on problem-solving projects, said Michael Upah, program coordinator for the ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship.

“It’s a chance to work with some of the best and brightest students at ISU who may become interested in working with Lockheed after graduation and a deeper relationship with the university in general,” Upah said.

DeCarlo said he noticed improvements in the students who work in the lab.

“There is an amazing difference in the students involved, in their maturity level of presenting and in their ability to conceptualize,” he said.

The business lab, which opened in 1997, began by partnering with 3M, who was looking for ways to partner with academic institutions.

The goals of the business lab were to “enhance student education primarily through experience-based learning and working in cross-disciplined teams made up of engineers, business and industrial technology students,” Upah said.