Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 21, 2025 15 for the customers that he serves." That's why his customer list and overall business continue to grow. "It's been nine years," Poplawski said. "We go into 10 years next year. This is going to be our third expan- sion. So, we're growing nonstop, and we're trying to help the New England community grow with us by creating a training center for robotics." Workforce development The robotics training center is not a small project. Poplawski says he expects to train up to 1,700 students annually, with each paying $3,100 for the four-and-a-half day class. Assuming he trains 1,700 people, the annual tuition revenue raised would be $5.27 million. The training at Force Automa- tion's facility will be certified by ABB, making it the first school in New England with that designation, Handelsman said. Poplawski said he's making a significant investment in the training facility, including supplying the robotic arms, in order to serve the growing need for workers in the industry. "This is going to be for manufac- turers, for the big companies, for schools, colleges, any person that wants to go into robotics and wants to learn how to program those, and then develop more stuff with it." Paul Lavoie, Connecticut's chief manufacturing officer, said the state offers robotics and automation training that it supports financially through the state's Manufacturing Innovation Fund. "The funding goes to the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT), and they have a robotics lab in East Hartford at their advanced manufacturing center," Lavoie said. That lab is available to all manu- facturers in the state at no additional cost, he said, adding that some Connecticut technical schools and colleges, including UConn and Quin- nipiac University, also offer robotics training programs. Lavoie said manufacturers can get a $25,000 grant to implement a robotics program. The state also offers incumbent worker training grants "of 50 cents on the dollar," he said. Any Connecticut manufacturer that utilizes Force Automation's training program "can submit their receipts and we'll reim- burse them for 50% of it," he said. Poplawski acknowledged the other robotics training programs in the state, but said they are not ABB-cer- tified and generally have a limited amount of equipment. He added that he's creating the training center to meet not only his need for more robotics-trained workers, but the state's need as well. "Our site will have multiple stations," he said. "We're going to be able to do hands-on training of 16 people at a time, and offline programming is going to be another 16 people." Force Automation staff (from left): Mikita Minalto, Patryk Sliwinski, Lukasz Poplawski, Marta Poplawski, Klimentsi Manko, Magdalena Wegrzyniak and Andrezj Cwalina. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER "Liberty Bank understood what we were doing, and they have faith in us and have been supportive all along." Bruce Redman Becker Proprietor, Hotel Marcel To reach their business goals, Hotel Marcel came to Liberty Bank for personalized ser vices, experienced local lending teams, and shared interest in the success of our communities. Contact our Commercial Lending Professionals at liberty-bank.com/commercial Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender. All loans and lines are subject to credit and underwriting approval.

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