Urban Indiana

Purdue to dedicate smart manufacturing facilities

The School of Engineering Technology at Purdue Polytechnic Institute will dedicate four new smart manufacturing facilities on the West Lafayette campus Thursday. Purdue says the facilities create the most expansive learning ecosystem of its kind in the country.

The facilities are part of a broader effort at Purdue that dates back to 2018 to create a new degree program in smart manufacturing with the goal of preparing the next generation workforce and bridge the growing skills gap in the manufacturing industry.

"You're going to have all these jobs that are going to remain open because of the baby boom generation that are retiring [and] fewer people going into manufacturing," said Purdue Professor Ragu Athinarayanan. "Compound that with the fact that we have the widening skills gap, because of the fact that we are beginning to use technologies like IoT, AI, machine learning, intelligent robotics and the like. So this is just going to exacerbate the problem."

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https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/articles/purdue-to-dedicate-smart-manufacturing-facilities