It’s natural for us get excited about how the region’s manufacturing landscape is evolving because we have the opportunity to have conversations every day with local manufacturers on ways they’re integrating technology, process efficiency and even new materials into their production methods.
On Thursday, February 19, it was fun to see a packed room of attendees at the University of Buffalo’s Center for Excellence Bioinformatics & Life Sciences share our excitement as they listened to an update on UB’s Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics (CMI) and its partnership with Buffalo Manufacturing Works.
The afternoon started with an exciting announcement: Mark Swihart was named executive director of UB’s CMI. Mark is an acclaimed researched, teacher and collaborator and was mostly recently in charge of guiding UB’s diverse nanoscience and nanotechnology research and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be working directly with him and his team at CMI. Mark kicked off the lecture by giving an update on what’s happening at CMI but you can get a good idea of some of the cool things they are doing by watching this video:
For those not familiar with CMI, the Center is at the forefront of computationally-aided materials science, accelerating the discovery and commercialization of innovation new materials. One example is how it teamed up with UB scientific and engineering resources to help one of the region’s oldest manufacturing firms, S. Howes, to develop and advance their quantitative design methodology for one of their core products – thermal screw conveyors. Students and professors helped with testing, modeling and predictive solution methods were developed to aide product development, design efficiency and market competitiveness. A great illustration of what industry and academia can do together.
By partnering with UB’s CMI, we have a unique opportunity to bridge the gap together between fundamental research and its application on the production floor. Michael Ulbrich, president of Buffalo Manufacturing Works, spoke about the exciting developments at our facility as well as some of the equipment that is beginning to arrive. Buffalo Manufacturing Works is spending $30 million on state-of-art equipment over the next five years to support our four technology areas: flexible automation; materials & testing; additive manufacturing; and machining & finishing. Buffalo Manufacturing Works will be giving small to mid-size companies the opportunity to access cutting-edge equipment that traditionally would be cost prohibitive to purchase, or the opportunity to test and down-select equipment with the right capabilities for their needs.
We were happy to receive a lot of great questions from the audience but one of the most important ones asked was who do you call for help? CMI or Buffalo Manufacturing Works? The answer is, whichever you want. If you give Buffalo Manufacturing Works a call, we’ll link you to our partners that can best help you with your needs. It could be CMI, EWI, Insyte Consulting, World Trade Center or any combination of them. Let us get to work for you. Give us a call at 716-710-5500 and we’ll get you started!
