NuWaves Engineering
What: Defense contractor that offers electrical engineering design services, as well as designs and develops its own radio frequency products
Where: 122 Edison Drive, Monroe
Phone: (513) 360-0800
Founder, president and CEO: Jeff Wells
Website: www.nuwaves-ltd.com
Employees: 35
Editor’s note: In his 2011 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama challenged Americans to be more innovative than the rest of the world. He called innovation the first step to winning the future. This is the seventh in a series of stories that examines innovative companies and organizations in Butler County and the products and services they provide.
MONROE — A nine-year-old Monroe company that specializes in radio frequency engineering is growing and recently landed a new contract with NASA that gives it more potential to grow, hire more people and score even more contracts in the future, according to its founder, president and CEO.
NuWaves Engineering, Edison Drive, revenues an estimated 21 percent this year over last year, and will grow revenues estimated 40 percent next year, said Jeff Wells, chief executive officer. The company makes 90 percent of its products and services for the military, Wells said.
NuWaves’ products and services help the warfighter, he said.
But facing U.S. defense budget cuts, Wells said the company knew it had to act to diversify some of its customer base. That’s how the company found and won a contract with NASA to make a power amplifier that goes on a radar system in space that monitors the Earth. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is pursuing smaller and more affordable spacecraft, so NuWaves developed a high efficiency switching power amplifier with circuit switching times of less than one microsecond, according to the company.
“Whatever present state of the art is, we’re going to exceed that,” Wells said.
In addition, this month NuWaves received a contract for the U.S. Navy’s Tactical Training Ranges for a ship tracking system and other fleet support and sustainability of legacy systems, according to Wells.
NuWaves offers electrical engineering design services, as well as designs and develops its own radio frequency products. Wells didn’t disclose revenues.
The defense contractor has 35 employees and seven job openings. Wells expects to double jobs in three years to 70.
“You give me one good person and we’ll hire them,” he said.
However, that’s the biggest challenge. Radio frequency engineers aren’t easy to come by. To tackle the problem, the company is focusing on attracting and training University of Dayton, University of Cincinnati and Wright State University students.
About the Author