By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
A $333,000 federal grant will fund the first major initiative for the Center to Advance Manufacturing.
[RELATED: BGSU, University of Findlay, & Owens team up to create new Center for Advanced Manufacturing & Logistics]
The center with a slightly different name was launched two years ago, and Tim Mayle was appointed to direct the initiative a year later. It’s taken time to get center in full swing.
(BGSU photo)
“You don’t want to turn the switch on without the ability to deliver,” Mayle said. “You have to build out staff and strategy. I had to learn a lot about what kind of resources we have in higher education, not just at BGSU.”
Mayle had been director of the economic development at the Findlay Hancock County Alliance, a privately funded entity.
The $333,000 federal STEM Talent Challenge grant will fund 16 training modules for workers involved in advanced manufacturing as well as BGSU engineering students.
The one-, two-, or three-week courses cover a range of specific tasks needed in advanced manufacturing, including the integration of artificial intelligence, material handling, robotics, machine vision systems, sensors and actuators, additive manufacturing, and quality systems planning.
All these were developed in collaboration with industry based on their needs.
While these badges do not carry academic credits themselves, Mayle said, they can be “stacked” together into credit-earning systems.
The modules will be offered in-person, online, and hybrid. BGSU School of Engineering faculty will teach the courses.
Having short time frame classes is important, he said. This is more flexible than offering courses on a semester basis. “Business doesn’t like to wait. We have to make sure we’re able to respond to their needs,” Mayle said.
“We’re connecting the dots.” he said, from high school students to the people already in the workforce.
The University was one of 11 grant recipients from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration STEM Talent Challenge that were selected from a pool of 90 applicants. The national competition supports programs to train science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) talent and fuel regional innovation economies across the nation. A total of $4.5 million in STEM Talent Challenge awards given to the 11 programs nationwide.
“The Advancing Regional Talent in Smart Technology Enabled Manufacturing (ART in STEM) project will create an ecosystem to transform smart manufacturing curriculum and training in our Northwest Ohio region. As a public university for the public good, we are part of Ohio’s journey to create a future generation of STEM workforce to thrive in the heartland of U.S. manufacturing.” said Dr. MD Sarder,
director of the BGSU School of Engineering and Principal Investigator of this grant, at the time the grant was announced.
“This grant is really a culmination of several years,” Mayle said. The money wouldn’t have been awarded without BGSU’s investment in the high-tech equipment, and without the consortium of Owens Community College, the University of Findlay, and BGSU.
A key goal of the BGSU program is promoting diversity in the workforce. The center hopes to increase the number of women in industry, he said. “How do we get them to explore these opportunities earlier?”
The center, using the BGSU graduate students, is also helping companies that hire more non-English speakers.
In the past, said Mayle, who grew up in Fremont, many Spanish speakers came to the area for jobs in agriculture. That sector has decreased in recent years. Now these workers are turning to manufacturing.
These immigrants are needed in the workforce, Mayle said.
The center can help make sure all a company’s documents for human relations, operations, and safety are accessible to those who are not native English speakers.
All this builds on the seven-county region’s strength in advanced manufacturing. It has the highest concentration of robots in the nation, Mayle said. And manufacturing is a leading employer.
This is just one initiative for the center.
Using its capacity to collect data, the center has worked with two companies, looking at their supply chains.
[RELATED: Center for Advanced Manufacturing & Logistics is already producing gains for regional industry]
The center can track everything coming into the region and using that information it works with the companies to determine if a component that’s now imported could be made domestically, or even in house.
That helps further grow manufacturing on the region.
Mayle said the center is also working on helping companies make more use of the state’s Tech Cred program. The program provides funds for training employees.
Currently $2.1 million is being spent, but more is available, he said.
Some companies don’t have the staff or knowledge to apply. The center can be concierge service helping them navigate the process.
This won’t directly benefit BGSU, he said. Companies could opt to hire their own trainers. But it will provide more opportunities for the university.
