President Obama announced yesterday the selection of an Illinois consortium led by UI Labs, a nonprofit research and development group led by the University of Illinois, to lead the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDI).
UI Labs was awarded $70 million to fund the DMDI, which will leverage $250 million in commitments from leading industry partners including Council members General Electric, John Deere, Procter & Gamble and Lockheed Martin, as well as other academia, government and community partners to form a $320 million institute.
"Advanced manufacturing is a competitive game-changer, bringing our nation’s research, engineering, and production communities together in new and exciting ways," said Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Lockheed Martin senior vice president and chief technology officer.
"Specifically, the combination of advanced materials, high performance computing resources, modeling and simulation tools, and additive manufacturing practices is allowing large and small enterprises alike to design and build otherwise impossibly complex shapes and systems while significantly reducing manufacturing costs and cycle times,” Johnson added.
The DMDI Institute was established by formal solicitation through the Army Contracting Command - Redstone in support of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center located at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and managed and supported by a tri-service, interagency group composed of members from contributing agencies.
The DMDI Institute will address the life cycle of digital data interchanged among myriad design, engineering, manufacturing and maintenance systems, and flowing across a networked supply chain.
The National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium, one of the partners will help firms to leverage high performance computing (HPC) for modeling, simulation and analysis (MS&A). This capability helps manufacturers to design, test and build prototype products or components much more rapidly – enabling them to bring innovations to market more quickly and less expensively.
The full list of partners is as follows:
41 Companies: 3D Systems, ANSYS, Autodesk, Big Kaiser Precision Tooling Inc., Boeing, Caron Engineering Inc., Caterpillar, CG Tech, Cincinnati Inc., Colorado Association for Manufacturing & Technology, Cray, Dassault Systems, Deere & Company, DMG Mori, Evolved Analytics LLC, General Dynamics - Ordnance & Tactical Systems, General Electric, Haas Automation, Honeywell, Illinois Tool Works, Imagecom Inc. (Aspire 3D), International TechneGroup Inc., Kennametal, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, MSC Software, North American Die Casting Association, National Instruments, Nimbis Services Inc., Okuma, Palo Alto Research Center, Parlec, Procter & Gamble, Product Development & Analysis, PTC, Inc., Rockwell Collins, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, System Insights, The Dow Chemical Company, UPS.
23 Universities and Labs: Colorado University – Boulder, Illinois Institute of Technology, Indiana University, Iowa State University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Purdue University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Southern Illinois University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, University of Iowa, University of Louisville, University of Michigan, University of Nebraska- Lincoln, University of Northern Iowa, University of Texas – Austin, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Western Illinois University.
9 Other Organizations: American Foundry Society, City of Chicago – Department of Housing & Economic Opportunity, Colorado OEDIT, Commonwealth of Kentucky, Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity, Illinois Science & Technology Coalition, MT Connect Institute, Reshoring Initiative, UI Labs
