Mechdyne Corporation was founded in 1996 by Iowa State University (ISU) graduates, Dr. Chris Clover, Jim Gruening, and Kurt Hoffmeister after honing their skills at ISU’s Virtual Reality Applications Center. Mechdyne’s very first project focused on creating a virtual reality (VR) firefighting simulator for the U.S. Navy.
Recognizing the potential for advanced visualization and interaction technologies, Mechdyne’s founders went on to become VR solution experts. Through experience and acquisition, Mechdyne has grown to serve a global client base.
While VR is still an important and growing piece of the company’s portfolio, Mechdyne has greatly expanded its capabilities. It was, in fact, enterprise VR clients who presented Mechdyne with non-VR challenges. By taking the idea of working with clients collaboratively and applying new ideas to a wide variety of challenging and expensive obstacles, Mechdyne has created tools and services that allow organizations and industries to explore undiscovered areas and uncover new insights and solutions. Over time, this led to the formation of new business units offering separate or combined solutions.