Notre Dame’s iNDustry Labs and Southwire’s partnership facilitates knowledge and career growth

The original article was written by Christina Clark and shared on the iNDustry Labs website.

The University of Notre Dame’s iNDustry Labs continues its mission to establish and grow relationships with regional business leaders, and to find opportunities to collaborate with Notre Dame faculty, students, and alumni. iNDustry Labs brings together faculty and students from the Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business, the College of Engineering, and related fields on campus to join forces with local industrial leaders in practical ways. One of iNDustry Labs’ recent examples of collaboration is with Southwire’s local manufacturing site, based in Bremen, Indiana.

“Southwire is North America’s leading manufacturer of wire and cable products,” said Jason Nine, director of process technology and optimization for Southwire, and a Notre Dame Master of Business Administration (MBA) alumnus. “Our $9.7 billion organization is made up of more than 9,000 team members across the globe who unite as ONE Southwire each and every day to serve each other, their customers and their communities. Southwire and our subsidiaries provide solutions including building wire and cable, metal-clad cable, utility products, portable and electronic cord products and OEM wire products. In addition, Southwire offers electrical products, engineered solutions and a variety of field support services.”

The magnitude of reach that Southwire’s production has across the continental U.S. may come as a surprise to those who may not have driven by the plant’s location, just 30 minutes from Notre Dame’s campus. The location manufactures wire that is used in electric vehicle charging cables, data center cables, appliance wiring, and more.

A Regional Partnership

Since 2024, iNDustry Labs and Southwire have shared a strategic partnership, led by Alex Topalovic, engineer-in-residence, iNDustry Labs; Clint Thompson, vice president of process technology and data optimization; Niles Volkel, Bremen Site Leader; and Nine, all at Southwire’s Bremen site.

“iNDustry Labs has engaged with us in several areas, like supply chain optimization and using advanced analytics with our data,” said Nine. “We have been looking at complex, multimodal operations. iNDustry Labs has helped us bring another level of thinking and problem-solving to these types of challenges.”

Along with the engineers and faculty members involved in the partnership, Southwire and iNDustry Labs also work with students to bring them into the company to see what a career in manufacturing can look like.

“We have a really strong, strategic relationship with Southwire. It started with our iNDustry Labs engineers-in-residence and our advanced analytics groups working on a number of projects with software to enhance Southwire’s competitiveness,” said Nick Berente, faculty director, iNDustry Labs, senior associate dean for academic programs, and James H. Sweeny III and Alicia Sweeny Collegiate Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations at the Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business.

“The students benefit from active, hands-on experiential learning with real-world data, at a local company doing interesting things,” said Berente. “I think sometimes the students don’t realize how impressive and innovative some of these manufacturing facilities can be.”

An MBA that elevates business confidence

The educational and research benefits for both Notre Dame and Southwire have deepened as students in both undergraduate and graduate programs tour the Southwire facility and begin to see themselves inspired to work in South Bend’s regional industries. The relationship has inspired Southwire professionals to dive deeper into their field as well.

“We have a number of folks here at Southwire that are now working towards more education with Notre Dame,” said Nine. “One is in a master’s program, and we have colleagues learning data literacy that came from the shop floor and didn’t previously have a formal STEM education.”

Nine, himself, is a Notre Dame alumnus, earning his MBA in 2011.

“For me, the MBA program gave me confidence. As much as I’d been in the industry, it had mostly been from the technical aspect for many years. When I earned my MBA, it helped me think about continuing to move up into those higher-level discussions.”

The Notre Dame Executive MBA program was not just about the proximity of the University of Notre Dame to Nine’s professional life in Bremen. It was also about the feeling he had when he attended an information session at the Mendoza College of Business.

“The leaders talked a lot about values-based leadership, with morals and ethics, along with very competent business disciplines,” Nine said. “Almost instantly, I just felt a warmth about the program, and I was positive that it was the program I wanted to be a part of.”

Innovating Together

The relationship between iNDustry Labs, Mendoza College of Business, the University of Notre Dame overall, and Southwire is continuing to strengthen as the students, faculty, and manufacturing professionals continue to learn from each other.

“Notre Dame, broadly, is a research university. A lot of research benefits from strong partnerships with industry. iNDustry Labs has a number of different ways that we interact with the local industry. One of the most important ways that we involve local businesses, like Southwire, is in different research and teaching endeavors,” said Berente. “A big goal of the University of Notre Dame is regional economic development. We want to interact with the local economy as much as we can.”

Nine sees the benefits for Southwire, as well, especially in the area of bringing professionals with problem-solving mindsets into the manufacturing industry.

“We’d like to continue with our experiential opportunities for the University at Southwire,” he said. “We’ve already had more than 350 engineering and business students come through and get to see real-world examples of our manufacturing. That’s a win-win for both of us as we think about developing future talent.”

Notre Dame’s iNDustry Labs continues to support companies in leveraging Notre Dame resources to unlock more business value, as well as making it easy for Notre Dame students and faculty to work with local companies to advance research and education.

To learn more about Notre Dame’s iNDustry Labs and how we partner with regional companies, please visit the iNDustry Labs website ›

Check out the original article to learn more about iNDustry Labs ›

These experiential learning opportunities are part of the distinct Notre Dame student experience. Giving society members, including those who support our graduate business students through the John Cardinal O’Hara Society, make these endeavors possible for students as part of their formation in mind, body, and spirit.