Dive Brief:
- The American Center for Manufacturing and Innovation and Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering have established a partnership to help develop safety training and career pathways in energetics and advanced manufacturing, the company confirmed exclusively with sister publication Manufacturing Dive.
- Through the partnership, the Whiting School of Engineering “is helping to build the workforce needed to sustain advanced manufacturing at scale,” Peter Zeender, executive director of the Office of Research and Translation, said in a statement.
- The initial focal point of the collaboration will be on ACMI’s National Security Industrial Hub and Munitions campus in Bloomfield, Indiana, which broke ground on Feb. 19.
Dive Insight:
ACMI maintains relationships with multiple universities, including Purdue University, Chief of Staff Paul Kadzielski said in an email Wednesday morning. Purdue is located in Indiana, and John Hopkins University is located in Maryland.
However, ACMI’s partnership with John Hopkins University is “broader than the National Security Industrial Hub in southern Indiana or the munitions sector,” Kadzielski said. “It will involve engagement across our national network and across technical disciplines.”
The company will work across stakeholders in the Whiting School of Engineering “to engage best-in-class expertise,” he said, including the school’s Office of Translation and Research and its Energetics Research Group.
Several of the critical initiatives the engineering school will undertake include assessments to enhance facility design for safety and efficiency.
Other initiatives include developing “rigorous frameworks” for operating complex manufacturing environments that prioritize safe-scaled energetics production and other key materials and mechanisms, according to the company. The school is also designing and implementing specialized safety training programs for personnel involved in energetics production.
Kadzielski said that artificial intelligence may be used, but did not comment any further. “The training that Johns Hopkins is designing and implementing will benefit all tenants of our National Security Industrial Hub,” he added.