New interdisciplinary labs bolster U.S. manufacturing

The Engineering Fountain on the Purdue University campus.

October 4, 2023 Purdue News

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —

This particular National Manufacturing Day — Oct. 6, 2023 — has extra special significance at Purdue University, as it marks the founding of its groundbreaking Manufacturing and Materials Research Laboratories (MMRL). At the foundation, MMRL brings together 10 faculty, especially young and emerging national leaders, from different engineering disciplines — including the schools of Industrial, Materials, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, with more to follow — to further manufacturing research, funding and industry collaboration.

“MMRL will be an ‘umbrella’ organization with experimental facilities for physical domain manufacturing,” said Arvind Raman, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering and Robert V. Adams Professor in Mechanical Engineering. “This will allow us to have a stronger outward projection to industry partners and federal agencies and promote collaborations leading to federal funding, industry linkups and workforce development.”

MMRL will have a robust educational and workforce development component, helping to create interdisciplinary, manufacturing-related professional master’s degrees, executive education programs, and undergraduate minors and certificates. It aims to increase Purdue’s intellectual property portfolio around manufacturing science and engineering, industrial innovations and accelerate technology commercialization. Additionally, the cutting-edge collaborative working environment is expected to attract top talent — faculty, staff, graduate students and postdocs — to the College of Engineering.

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Media contact: Wes Mills, wemills@purdue.edu