USM/UM Create Partnership To Serve Maine Manufacturers
The University of Southern Maine (USM) and the University of Maine (UM) have developed an initiative to help Maine's manufacturers gain access to highly trained employees and new technologies. A proposal to provide $10 million in funding for The Advanced Manufacturing Assistance Initiative is currently pending before the Maine Legislature.
The Advanced Manufacturing Assistance Initiative will serve businesses throughout Maine—large and small, rural and urban, new and well established—with access to highly trained employees and new technologies. "More than 70 companies and industry associations were visited to make sure the initiative meets the needs of Maine's business community," said John Wright, dean of USM's School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (ASET), who developed the proposal with Larryl Matthews, dean of the UM College of Engineering.
Manufacturers told the USM's ASET and the UM College of Engineering that they need more support in factory design, product design and testing, and the latest computer-aided manufacturing technologies. This support, they said, is essential if Maine businesses are to remain competitive and create jobs.
But USM and the UM can not deliver those services without additional physical space. The $10 million, which is included in a proposed economic development bond, would give USM and the UM the facilities; a statewide capacity to deliver access to advanced manufacturing technologies; and the ability to leverage additional funds for equipment from federal and private sources. USM's share of the bond—$4.4 million—would fund a 20,000 square-foot addition to the Mitchell Center on the Gorham campus.
"This initiative supports, facilitates and actively participates in making precision manufacturing companies successful," said Jeff Sutton, president of Maine Machine Products Company of South Paris. "It gives us flagship credibility and the confidence to do business at increasingly higher levels."
"This proposal represents a strategic investment that will allow USM, working with our colleagues at the UM, to generate better educational and economic opportunities for the people of Maine," said USM President Richard L. Pattenaude.
More Information? Contact Larryl Matthews, Dean, UM College
of Engineering, 581-2219, larryl.matthews@umit.maine.edu
or John Wright, Dean, USM School of Applied Science, Engineering
and Technology, 228-8162, jwright@usm.maine.edu.
>more news releases
|
