The University of Maine broke ground Tuesday on its Green Engineering and Materials Building, a planned 50,000-square-foot facility designed to house what the school calls a cutting-edge “factory of the future.”
Scheduled for completion in 2026, the GEM Building represents a nearly $82 million investment. The facility is intended to meet research and education needs in advanced manufacturing, as well to train the engineering and computing workforce, according to a news release.
GEM will incorporate digital manufacturing technologies, immersive learning spaces, a lab and two manufacturing bays for students at UMaine and across the University of Maine System.
The research facility will be equipped with AI-enabled 3D printers and advanced computational tools, optimized through real-time monitoring, digital twin technology and augmented and virtual reality.
The facility will take “the next step in large-scale flexible additive and hybrid manufacturing with the goal to produce large, integrated systems in a closed-loop digital manufacturing environment powered by high-performance computing and artificial intelligence,” said Habib Dagher, executive director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center.
Photo / Courtesy University of Maine
From left, UMaine College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Emily Haddad; Maine College of Engineering and Computing Dean Giovanna Guidoboni; Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Next Generation Materials & Processes Program Manager Huijuan Dai; UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy; UMS Chancellor Dannel Malloy; ASCC Director Habib Dagher; Maine Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Heather Johnson and U.S. Army DEVCOM Soldier Center Director of Research and Technology Integration Craig Rettie.
GEM will operate as a partnership between the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, the Maine College of Engineering and Computing and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, with opportunities for other programs and industries on campus and remotely.
“Once completed, GEM will create even greater opportunities for our students, faculty, staff and partners to address a multitude of economic and societal needs for Maine and beyond,” said Joan Ferrini-Mundy, president of UMaine and its regional campus, the University of Maine at Machias.
The facility is slated to facilitate the use of bio-based materials to manufacture affordable housing, marine vessel production, and renewable energy and civil infrastructure components. The idea is to conduct the advanced manufacturing research and workforce development training so that new technologies can be transitioned to industry.
GEM is supported by funding sources including the Harold Alfond Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the state of Maine and the Northern Border Regional Commission’s Catalyst Program.
In 2022, Congress approved an omnibus federal funding package that included $35 million to help build the lab.
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