Veishea Ananlytics is a values-based, state-of-the-art research, artificial intelligence, and technology solutions agency. By blending Iowa’s legacy of pioneering, education, innovation, and inclusivity with cutting-edge technology, we’re connecting our heritage to a bold and prosperous future.
Veishea Analytics aims to capture the pioneering spirit of Professor John V. Atanasoff, inventor of the electronic digital computer, and the ethos and legacy of the VEISHEA celebration. We hope to take part in bringing the information revolution that was born here back home to stay. We hope to attract and retain the brightest minds throughout the world to join us in rebuilding our Little Tech Hub on the Prairie. Our founders attended and were inspired by the annual VEISHEA celebration, heard the “Call of our Wildest Dreams” and enrolled at Iowa State University and took advantage of the world-class education at their doorsteps.
What was VEISHEA?
For several generations of young Iowans, who sometimes felt disconnected from the rest of the world, and sensed their hometowns were slowly being hollowed out and left behind, there was one weekend every year that was a persistent reminder that Iowa was still a place of wonder, splendor, invention, diversity, and relevancy. Each April, a weekend in Ames, IA affirmed that you could change the world, put a dent in the universe, and realize your dreams without leaving your families and communities for the coast.VEISHEA was an annual celebration that began in 1922 at Iowa State College in Ames, IA. The acronym is from what were the 5 colleges
Veterinary Medicine
Engineering
Industrial Science
Home Economics
Agriculture
Thousands of student exhibits covered the campus, representing each facet of human interest, industry, art, science, and technology. High school students often found their calling, purpose, and futures unfolding before them at VEISHEA, presented to them by peers barely a few years their senior.
VEISHEA showed us all the possibilities of what could be, that we could remain as much pioneers on the scientific and technological frontiers as our ancestors were pioneers in a new nation, and carry on their spirit of exploration, craftsmanship, inter-dependence, and community building. It was a student-run event that showcased how young Iowans, and students from around the world who chose Iowa, were diligently preparing for diverse vocational paths through active participation and contributions toward the innovations that would define the 20th century as it unfolded. Dreamers, makers, doers, and inventors from all 99 Iowa counties were collaborating with like-minded folks from all 50 states and every corner of the world were making it happen in central Iowa.
People often marvel at how the short 66 years between the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk (1903) and the Apollo 11 moon landing (1969) had remade the world completely, and there was no better place to watch that bold and beautiful modern world unfold than the campus in Ames.
Few embodied the Veishea ethos like Mathematics Professor John Atanasoff and his graduate assistant Clifford Berry, the inventors of the first electronic digital computer.
VEISHEA was also a reminder of Iowa’s progressive and inclusive heritage, where George Washington Carver was a faculty member 90 years before other colleges integrated, and Jack Trice’s life and defiant courage is honored and celebrated today. Where public school teachers like Jane Elliot were creating critical thinkers like Pulitzer Prize winners Art Cullen and Nikola-Hannah Jones.
We could imagine ourselves as part of the lineage between our pioneer ancestors who settled Iowa and the future fictional Iowan James T. Kirk who would someday pioneer the stars. We could believe that calling the greater Missouri River Valley of Sioux Falls, Omaha, Lincoln, Kansas City, and Des Moines the “Silicon Prairie” at a hackathon in Palo Alto wouldn’t get you laughed at.
For all the hardships Iowans experienced as family farming got difficult and the rust-belt manufacturing jobs dried up, there was always one Iowa weekend that reminded us of our proud heritage and unlimited possibilities, and the Once and Future Iowa was worth working towards, that if we built it, they would come.
Agronomists and geneticists were designing crops that would feed the world, build sustainable global food chains that would reduce global hunger, and turn Iowa into an economic powerhouse throughout the mid 20th century. Physicists, engineers, chemists, and from Iowa State were leading research efforts during the Cold War, the Space Race, and the dawn of the information age.
While Iowa wasn’t able to retain all of the talented young professionals from following their dreams out of state, they never forgot where they came from. One former Iowan who came back to serve as 1958 VEISHEA Parade Grand Marshall was former WHO radio announcer Ronald Reagan who had recently achieved Hollywood movie stardom.
VEISHEA came to be known as a major event and inspired many generations of Iowans to believe in the futures of both themselves and our state. It was the largest student-run event in the country and young leaders were making it happen.
Unfortunately, as VEISHEA grew it attracted a wilder crowd who considered it more of a party destination than an educational exhibit. Both students and visitors lost sight of the true nature of VEISHA and after several problematic years it was cancelled permanently in 2014.
Join us in restoring the glory and splendor of what was once Iowa.
Despite the University cancelling the VEISHEA celebration, for those of us who attended VEISHEA as high school students and were inspired to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, or any other vocational calling on display on campus, the spirit of VEISHEA lives on in us. We owe it to the next generations of Iowans to restore the pioneering spirit of our ancestors and give them a lasting culture of believers, makers, dreamers, and doers who want to change the world without leaving their families for the coast.
Our Business Model
Our business model is to build one the most admired AI / analytics firms in the world by attracting the enormous amounts of talented young professionals that our Iowa public schools and Universities are already producing. Over the years Iowa’s biggest exports have gone from corn and soybeans to talented young professionals unable to find fulfilling career paths in techology without leaving the state.
Our Three Pillar Strategy
- By keeping our focus centered on delivering the most cutting edge innovations we will attract the most talented technologists by providing meaningful, challenging work where their expertise and ingenuity will pushed to their limits.
- By being selective in serving only clients who share our values we will we foster a culture of trust, integrity, and positive impact, through both our clients and our employees. Values-based companies, non-profits, governments, and other socially-responsible organizations will need a trusted partner to help navigate their digital strategies, and we will be that partner.
- We will participate in rigorous civic engagement by sponsoring Hackathons, training camps, high school robotics and computer science competitions, and apprenticeship style mentoring for entry level technologists.
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