Blog
COMPLETING THE CIRCUIT: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING PROCESS AT CHICAGO'S DIGITAL MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN INNOVATION INSTITUTE
by UI LABS
August 2, 2018
The silicon brains of today’s warfighters are just as complex as their alloy exteriors, requiring engineers like those at Lockheed Martin to have mastery of not only aeronautics and flight, but also advanced computing and electronics. As one of the...
FOUR YEARS OF FORGING THE FUTURE OF MANUFACTURING
by Alyssa Sullivan
March 20, 2018
Just over four years ago, the official launch of the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) took place at the White House, with great fanfare and at least one reference to Iron Man. Last week, elected officials, Department of...
MANUFACTURING DAY 2017
by UI LABS
October 12, 2017
Manufacturing Day began in 2012, with a mission to change the public perception of manufacturing and inspire more students to pursue manufacturing careers. By bringing students and other targeted groups into today’s modern manufacturing facilities, Manufacturing Day helps to dispel...
MIT ALUMNI TALK DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AT UI LABS
by UI LABS
May 22, 2017
For manufacturing organizations to survive in the 21st century, they don’t just require advanced technology—they need visionary leaders to help them enter the digital age. It’s fitting, then, that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) held...
I'VE SEEN THE FUTURE, AND IT'S DIGITAL
by Caralynn Nowinski Collens
April 13, 2017
The future of industry will be digital. It’s inevitable, but that doesn’t make it easy. UI LABS was founded to take on grand challenges in this arena: To digitize the U.S. supply chain to make manufacturing more competitive globally, and...
AUGMENTED REALITY STAKEHOLDERS CONVENE TO MOVE TECHNOLOGY FORWARD
by UI LABS
March 15, 2017
Sometimes in the Wild West of rapidly evolving technology, we’re stronger working together than alone. A recent workshop proved that’s the mindset of Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, and Procter and Gamble, which teamed up to lead a discussion of augmented reality...
MAKING DIGITAL MANUFACTURING ACCESSIBLE
by Caralynn Nowinski Collens
February 1, 2017
In the next 10 years, manufacturers will need to hire for nearly 3.5 million jobs. But because of the growing skills gap, 2 million of those positions could go unfilled. For the United States to maintain its position as a...
CLEAN ENERGY: CONNECTING THE DOTS
by UI LABS
January 3, 2017
Over the past decade, clean energy innovation has come a long way, delivering sizable efficiency gains and cost reduction across the energy spectrum. What technologies hold the greatest promise to continue the trend of increasing effectiveness while prices go down?...
ADVANCEMENTS IN SMART MANUFACTURING REQUIRE SMART U.S. POLICY
by Caralynn Nowinski Collens
December 5, 2016
Despite the shifting political landscape that always accompanies an election year, U.S. policymakers and industry face a clear decision point: Invest in smart manufacturing and R&D now, or fall behind our global competitors. I witnessed firsthand the robust international efforts...
COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGY ON DISPLAY AT THE DEFENSE MANUFACTURING CONFERENCE
by UI LABS
November 28, 2016
Through a connection made at the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute, two startups are working together on a shop-floor system that helps manufacturers automate quality control (QC) using tag-less tracing and robotic 3D scanning. ARIS Technology and Covisus Inc., both DMDII members, are...
BROADENING THE NETWORK: STARTUPS PLAY KEY ROLE IN DMDII TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE
by UI LABS
November 21, 2016
Since it was established in 2014, the Digital Manufacturing & Design Innovation Institute’s membership has grown rapidly to include nearly 300 partners. But if you ask the Institute’s interim executive director, Tom McDermott, the quantity isn’t what excites him most. “More interesting...
FEDERAL CYBER RULES MAY CATCH MANUFACTURERS UNAWARE
by UI LABS
November 11, 2016
A new set of federal cybersecurity regulations goes into effect at the end of next year, but many manufacturers remain unaware of the rules and their impact. “They either haven’t heard of them at all, or they’ve heard of them...
STARTUP FINDS PART-TIME HOME AT DMDII
by UI LABS
October 27, 2016
Benjamin Bullis, an IT professional by day, has an idea for a new type of work light, a high-powered, ultra-flexible LED product. He envisions a light that is not only high quality and affordable, but designed and manufactured in the...
MANUFACTURING DAY AT UI LABS SPOTLIGHTS ISSUES OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
by UI LABS
October 13, 2016
As digitization transforms American manufacturing, the nature of skilled work is changing and demand for technical talent is on the rise. To foster a skilled workforce, making manufacturing careers accessible and inclusive is more important than ever. “Manufacturing today is...
MAYORS OF LONDON & CHICAGO TOUR CITY DIGITAL PROJECTS AT UI LABS
by UI LABS
September 16, 2016
We had an incredible opportunity today to showcase the technology being developed through City Digital to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and London Mayor Sadiq Khan at the UI LABS Innovation Center. Representatives from City Digital's partner organizations were onsite to show the...
FIRST-EVER 'WOMEN IN MANUFACTURING' EVENT HOSTED AT UI LABS
by Caralynn Nowinski Collens
June 7, 2016
On Friday, June 3, UI LABS was pleased to host “Championing Women in Manufacturing,” the first event we’ve ever had at our Innovation Center related specifically to the issues that women face in this field. We were delighted to have...
EXPANDING OUR CONSORTIUM, EVOLVING OUR MODEL, SETTING THE STAGE FOR COLLABORATIVE TRANSFORMATION
by Caralynn Nowinski Collens
April 11, 2016
UI LABS started with the concept of solving challenges that are too big for any one organization to address. We put U+I in our name to represent the importance of bringing universities and industry together to tackle these issues. Over...
DIGITIZING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING
by UI LABS
October 21, 2015
Do you know what Digital Manufacturing is? There may be many ways to define this term, but take a look below at what Dean Bartles, Executive Director of the DMDII, defines Digital Manufacturing as in this intriguing article published by Manufacturing...
DMDII GRAND OPENING
by UI LABS
May 22, 2015
DMDII, in collaboration with UI LABS and CityWorks, opened its doors to debut their state-of-the-art digital manufacturing lab and a cutting-edge work space housed within a 94,000-square-foot facility on Goose Island in Chicago. A 24,000-square-foot glass-enclosed digital manufacturing lab contains...