WHIN

The Wabash Heartland Innovation Network is a consortium of 10 counties in north-central Indiana devoted to working together to fuel prosperity by harnessing the power of Internet-enabled sensors to develop our region into a global epicenter of digital agriculture and next-generation manufacturing.

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Photo courtesy of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources

USING DATA TO HELP NORTH CENTRAL INDIANA THRIVE

It took 2 generations of farmers in the rural parts of the midwest to choose to adopt electricity about 100 years ago. We are still suffering in our country from the socio-economic divide caused by this lapse. There is another technology emerging with the same potential to change the world, data. In a similar way, the urban centers are already beginning to receive data and digital communication capabilities like broadband, and the rural areas are lagging behind…not just in streaming video, but in more socio-economic drivers like online education and online jobs as well. WHIN exists to keep what happened with electricity adoption from happening again with data adoption in rural America.

WHIN focuses on the region’s under-investment in what Brooking’s GPS Report calls "digitalization" in industry. Digitalization is the adoption of digital technology through things like IoT. The term Internet of Things (IoT) refers to everything that is the Internet (I) as we know it, applied to the physical world (T) as a “user.” It’s input/output devices to connect users to data, and all that data is networked to single location in the cloud where it can be analyzed to help those users make better decisions.

We do this by attracting and vetting technology providers, then working with them to lower the risk for our Alliance members to try out their innovations. And in the process all the data gets sent back to WHIN to be organized and made available for research so more technology providers can be created. The research data is what we call our Living Lab.

Data shows that digitalization is correlated with higher productivity, and higher productivity leads to more investment, and ultimately to a higher standard of living and quality of life. In the end, in much the same way southern California did for silicon 75 years ago, WHIN is building a self-sustaining, virtuous ecosystem around emerging technology pathways related to sensors and data. If we can get everything working together, and everyone benefitting, why wouldn’t commerce come to our Data Decagon in much the same way it has come to the Silicon Valley?

Wabash Heartland Innovation Network is focused upon serving 10 counties: Pulaski, White, Cass, Benton, Carroll, Tippecanoe, Warren, Fountain, Montgomery, and Clinton. By promoting smart technology throughout these 10 counties, WHIN is aiming to become the first recognized smart region in the nation.

Living Lab
Agriculture Alliance
Manufacturing Alliance
Broadband Alliance
Weather Network

Sara Hageman Schenck

Sara is a third-generation farmer and real estate broker focusing on farm real estate, commercial real estate, and farm management. After graduating from Purdue, she lived in Germany and worked in international and development real estate. She has over 20 years of real estate brokerage experience and is a licensed real estate broker in Indiana, Illinois, and Texas, making her very knowledgeable about the vast opportunities available in agricultural properties.

Dave Luhman

David is “Of Counsel” to the law firm of Hoffman, Luhman & Masson, PC, where his practice was focused primarily in the areas of government affairs, wills and estates, and business organizations. He previously served as Tippecanoe County Attorney and as counsel for Tippecanoe County Park and Recreation Board, Tippecanoe County Park and Recreation Foundation, Tippecanoe County Drainage Board and Wabash River Enhancement Corporation.

Johnny Park

Johnny has been WHIN’s CEO since 2018.

Prior to joining WHIN, Johnny founded, scaled and led a successful exit of Spensa Technologies, an ag tech company that helped growers better manage agronomic pests such as insects, weeds and disease with IoT-powered traps and data analytics. Spensa was named by Forbes as one of the Top 25 Most Innovative Ag-Tech Startups in 2017. Before starting Spensa, Johnny was a faculty in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University where his research spanned various topics on robotics, machine learning and sensor networks.

Johnny serves on the Boards of AgriNovus and IU Health West Central Region and he is a
Smart Manufacturing Fellow at Conexus Indiana.

Johnny received his BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees all from the School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at Purdue University.

Meet our progressive team

10 counties. 2 sectors. 1 vision.