Kevin Rollins, a Provo native and the former Dell CEO, once called IT a “young-mentality” industry. It’s also an apt description of the tech sector in his hometown. Overstock.com just opened a development office here and started hiring 150 coders. Also, Brigham Young University has turned out an impressive group of startups, including the Web analytics firm Omniture (bought by Adobe in 2009 for $1.8 billion).

VanDyne, a small company in Fort Collins, recently collaborated with a Colorado State University clean-energy lab to create the SuperTurbo, a supercharger that converts exhaust energy into torque to make engines up to 30 percent more efficient. Woodward, a larger local company, is working with the same lab to develop laser ignition systems for gas, turbine, and aircraft engines.

The major Texas aerospace hubs are Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston. But Waco, located within 200 miles of each of those metropolitan areas, has attracted three new aerospace companies over the past five years, bolstering the local industry’s existing niches: aviation maintenance, avionics, and aircraft dispatch. One new draw will be the Aerospace Technology Center at Texas State Technical College, funded in part with a $1.5 million grant from the US Department of Commerce.

Eastman Chemical, which employs more than 1,500 at its local plants, dominates the chemical industry in Longview, an area spread over three counties in East Texas. The company produces more than 40 products, but ethyl acetate NF—a solvent also used in pharmaceutical production and cosmetics—is a Longview specialty. (It even comes in a kosher variety.)

Biotech is big business in Bloomington, which is home to the $2 billlion Cook Group, a device maker, as well as to a Baxter facility that manufactures intravenous therapies (such as sterilized, prefilled syringes). To help provide a steady stream of workers, Ivy Tech Community College partnered with Monroe County to launch the Indiana Center for the Life Sciences. Tuition is cheap for in-state residents, and the dividends are high: The average annual wage in Indiana’s pharma sector is $88,384.

Using a $32.5 million grant from the US Department of Energy, East Penn Manufacturing—part of a thriving battery-tech cluster in Reading—is producing a new type of battery for hybrid electric cars. This Australian-designed lead-acid battery has a carbon super-capacitor, and it’s 70 percent less expensive to manufacture than a conventional nickel-based cell. By 2013, East Penn expects to have upped its output by 2.8 million batteries per year, and so far the company has added 150 new manufacturing jobs.

Spartanburg is home to BMW’s only US factory, which means that high-precision plastic parts flow into the area from the automaker’s suppliers. But the region has also become a high-end-plastic producer in its own right. One of the largest players is Indorama Ventures, whose polyester and PET plant has the capacity to make 470,000 metric tons per year of resins and fibers. Another is Parker Hannifin’s TechSeal Division, which makes gasket seals in a variety of materials.