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Health & Fitness

Hultgren Praises New IL-Based Digital Manufacturing Lab

Manufacturing Partnership will include Community Colleges,

High Schools in 14th District

Washington, DC — U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren (IL-14) today hailed the creation of a new Digital Lab for Manufacturing (Digital Lab), an applied research institute that will both develop and demonstrate digital manufacturing technologies and deploy and commercialize these technologies across key manufacturing industries in Illinois and around the country.

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The Chicago-based Digital Lab will be the first-of-its-kind manufacturing hub with the capabilities, innovation, and the collaboration of industry, educational institutions and government necessary to transform American manufacturing. Led by the University of Illinois, the proposal beat out competitors for the Department of Defense grant, with another $250 million coming from industry, academia and other private sources.

“Bringing Illinois’ strong manufacturing base into the digital age is essential to spur economic growth, grow our global competitiveness and ultimately get Americans back to work. By combining the expertise of industry with our community colleges and universities, the Digital Lab can apply the latest technology to improve manufacturing machines and factories—making Illinois an epicenter of innovation,” said Rep. Hultgren. “I want to congratulate McHenry County College, the College of DuPage, Lake County High Schools and Marengo Community High School for participating in this exciting partnership. They understand the importance of connecting students to the jobs of the 21st century, and building their knowledge to meet the growing demand in advanced manufacturing. I look forward to how innovations in manufacturing can free industries to streamline their operations and hire more American workers for high-skilled, high-wage American jobs.”

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In November, Rep. Hultgren joined the Illinois delegation in sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, urging him to consider the proposal from UI Labs which will oversee the Digital Lab and its team of researchers. The Digital Lab is part of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), envisioned to be a network of independent, public-private manufacturing institutes.

More information on the Digital Lab is available at: http://digitallab.uilabs.org/

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