IACMI-The Composites Institute holds grand opening of its new national headquarters
Ten years after its creation, the subsidiary of the UT Research Foundation moves to the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm.
There’s an old saying about good things come to those who wait, and that was clearly the situation when IACMI-The Composites Institute® celebrated the opening of its new national headquarters Wednesday at the University of Tennessee (UT) Research Park at Cherokee Farm.
To commemorate the long duration between its first location and the new 44,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility that IACMI shares with the UT, Knoxville (UTK) Fibers and Composites Manufacturing Facility (FCMF), Chad Duty, IACMI Chief Executive Officer (CEO), presented the initial schematic for the space that Uday Vaidya had sketched out soon after he arrived at UTK in 2015.
The man that Duty described as “the Kevin Bacon of Composites” serves as Chief Technology Officer of the organization that is officially known as the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation in addition to holding the UT-Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Governor’s Chair for Advanced Composites Manufacturing.
“It takes a village, but it also takes someone pushing it forward every day,” Duty said about Vaidya and his patient persistence.
The move into the 85,000-square-foot Innovation South building at the UT Research Park following nearly a decade when IACMI was located in the Hardin Valley area, making it easier for businesses to further collaborate with UTK. That point was not lost when Deb Crawford, UTK Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development, spoke to a crowd that probably approached 100.
“IACMI is a symbol of what is possible at the UT Research Park,” she said, adding that it will serve as a co-location site for the university and both small and large businesses. In fact, the Spark Innovation Center will relocate from the Institute for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing to Innovation South.
That point was further amplified by comments from Duty who called the new location a “hub in the Southeast for regional collaboration in cutting-edge composites and manufacturing. This new location, along with FCMF, offers exceptional opportunities for public-private partnerships, providing IACMI members and industry leaders with access to innovative research, world-class facilities, and shared office space in Knoxville.”
Vaidya noted that the high bay facility will enable “us to develop materials-by-design solutions that will reduce the cost, energy, and manufacturing time of next-generation products. It will be a place to conduct research and development at scale and transition innovative ideas and concepts to field commercial applications. This is unique to the East Tennessee ecosystem.”
Both Duty and Vaidya called out Craig Blue, Chief Manufacturing Officer at ORNL, and Tom Rogers, retired President and CEO of the UT Research Park, for their leadership during the past decade.
IACMI is a 170-member community comprised of industry, academic institutions, and government organizations working to enhance U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, with a strong focus on technology, commercialization, and workforce development. It was established a decade ago by the Department of Energy, one of the now 18 Manufacturing USA Institutes. Today, it also receives funding from the Department of Defense.
Like what you've read?
Forward to a friend!