Center (ATIC) at ULL's research park. A joint project of the State of Louisiana, ULL and the Lafayette Economic Development Authority, ATIC will house one of the world's only publicly accessible 3D data visualization facilities. Companies can rent time in the "visualization cave" to conduct advanced research and then present findings in ATIC's board rooms and auditorium.
      The center will help local companies compete globally using technology previously available only to larger, better capitalized organizations.
      "One of the challenges for the state is to have meaningful career opportunities for the university graduates," says Lein. "There is a propensity to want to work in the environment where you went to college," he says, citing his chief financial officer as an example. "He graduated from Louisiana State University, is a CPA, went to work for a big firm in New York City, and he would have walked across hot coals for a reasonable job back here. He worked in New Orleans for a while and he still wanted to get back here to Lafayette -he joined us seven years ago and is now CFO. There is a wealth of talent out there like that. We get inquiries from people like him all the time."
      Lein is bullish on the Lafayette area's economic prospects with ULL serving as an economic development engine, and on those of the whole state. The message coming from state capitol Baton Rouge, he says, "is that economic development is everybody's business. It's a pervasive attitude, and attitudes are contagious. Also, they tend to flow from the top down," Lein observes. "You can dwell on things that aren't the way you would like them to be, or you can fix them. Let's fix the bad if it's fixable and let's capitalize on the good."