By: Alysa Guffey
Photo credit: Isabella Volmert
At the end of April, 10,000 square feet of construction space in Cushing Hall of Engineering will be unveiled to reveal the Engineering Innovation Hub (EIH) — a project that has been in the works for 18 months.
The EIH is part of iNDustry Labs — the Notre Dame partner under a larger network called LIFT, which aims to enhance regional industry in the larger South Bend-Elkhart area — and has been in the works for four years.
In the spring of 2019, the LIFT network received a $42 million grant to create a structure for economic development in the region, professor of electrical engineering and iNDustry Labs faculty director Tom Fuja said.
The hub’s emphasis on regional development expands its mission beyond education and research, Fuja noted.
“It also is going to have an outreach mission, in that there’s going to be some capabilities in this facility, some tools, some equipment that is going to be a potential interest value to regional companies,” Fuja said.
Polymer 3D printers, 3D metal and ceramic printing equipment, robotics equipment and Haas Computer Numeric Control (CNC) machines are some of the state-of-the-art equipment that will be provided in the hub.
“This is absolutely going to be top quality tools, as good as or better than you’re going to find in industry and it’s really going to help prepare students to go out and take leadership roles in the industry,” Fuja said.
Read the full feature at The Observer's website here.