The University of Connecticut is pleased to announce our involvement in DOE’s Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute.
On June 20, 2016, President Barack Obama announced a $70 million federal award to the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC), an industry-led national non-profit, to create a nationwide Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute. The Institute which will include UConn’s involvement, will fuel industry growth and innovation nationwide with more than $140 million in public-private investment geared toward developing advanced manufacturing technology and a supporting workforce and education pipeline. The announcement was made at the Select USA Summit in Washington, D.C.
The Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII) will be an industry-led non-profit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California with networked regional centers across California, Washington, New York, North Carolina and Texas. The United Technologies Corporation Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering, a UConn Tech Park member, will lead the Institute activities in Connecticut, along with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technologies and the United Technologies Research Center.
The national network will work across business, workforce and technical focus areas, leveraging each region’s unique industrial environments. It will be the ninth institute awarded under the National Network of Manufacturing Institutes initiative. The SMLC brings together a strong collaboration of nearly 200 partners from academia, industry, and non-profits across over thirty states. The Institute will accelerate the development and adoption of advanced sensors, data analytics, and controls in manufacturing, while reducing the cost of these technologies by half and radically improving the efficiency of U.S. advanced manufacturing.
The Institute will enable small, medium and large manufacturers, new and unprecedented access to smart tools, innovation and the ability to grow their business.