Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/518124
2015 | Doing Business in Connecticut 33 SPONSORED REPORT existing business owners to help them start or expand. • Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, an intensive business-creation program for veterans, which is adding a series of veteran-outreach certificate programs. • Sustainable Community Outreach and Public Engagement, a program that offers social- entrepreneurship experiences and supports the local chapter of the Net Impact organization. More In late 2014, the University's Board of Trustees approved the budget to design a new Innova- tion Partnership Building (IPB) at the Storrs campus, a unique facility aimed at enhancing Connecticut's global competitiveness by partner- ing with key industries on develop- ment and growth. Such partnerships include the $10 million UTC Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering; $25 million FEI Center for Advanced Microscopy; $7.2 million Fraunhofer Center for Energy Innovation; $7.5 million GE Center for Advanced Materials; and $7.5 million Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center. The IPB will feature advanced electron microscopes, additive manu- facturing equipment using laser sinter- ing and electron beam melting tech- nologies, chemical vapor deposition, advanced data analytics, modeling for systems integrity and operation, and more. Companies will have access to collaborative faculty research, employ- ment of students to work on innova- tive projects, and joint grant support through federal agencies. The activities planned within the UConn IPB are aimed at creating in- novative technologies that lead to ad- vanced research and development and new, high paying jobs in Connecticut. I ndustry demand for additive manufacturing or 3-D printing has exploded in the last few years. And no wonder – it is more versatile and economical than traditional manufacturing. To get a head start on what promises to be a major paradigm shifts in manufactur- ing technology, the University and Pratt & Whitney teamed up in 2013 to create the Additive Manufactur- ing Innovation Center (AMIC), the first ad- ditive manufacturing facility in the North- east to work with metals rather than plastics. AMIC is training the next generation of engineers and designers in the latest advancements in man- ufacturing technol- ogy, including indus- trial 3-D printing. The partnership between UConn and Pratt & Whitney is a natural one since the aerospace industry has a reputation as a leader in the adoption of new materials. And with a recent grant, AMIC is also bringing in smaller companies that can benefit from the technology. In just over a year, five companies are already on board. "Giving small and medium Con- necticut companies access to the state-of-the-art additive manufactur- ing equipment at AMIC will enable them to rapidly evaluate the poten- tial of additive manufacturing to en- hance the quality, speed, and breadth of new product development," said Michael Accorsi, senior associate dean of the School of Engineering. "Locating AMIC at the UConn Innova- tion Partnership Building will greatly facilitate this process." The capabilities exist in the mate- rials labs at UConn to synthesize and characterize new alloys and, in par- ticular, for additive manufacturing. It isn't easy, though. In a best-case sce- nario, he said, it might take several years for one of these new alloys to reach the market if they're going to be used in the aerospace industry. "You have to prove that this new material will be at least as good, if not better, than existing materials – you need many, many tests," said UConn's Rainer Hebert, director of AMIC. Howard Ellis, lab coordinator for computer science and engineering at UConn, right, explains how metal parts are created by additive manufacturing. (Ariel Dowski '14 (CLAS)/ UConn Photo) Accelerating New Product Development