Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

Advanced manufacturing, by definition, integrates innovative technologies to create new products. And it does so on an ongoing, continuous basis. As such, it requires engineering training, project planning, and proactive university-industry partnerships. As the United States aspires to more onshore manufacturing, technological universities can help. In fact, the most successful manufacturing workforce development programs involve a tightly integrated university-industry experiential learning program. This, in turn, requires bringing manufacturing companies’ domain knowledge together with university faculty’s deep knowledge to ensure application-driven, solution-inspired research and education, rather than hypothesis-driven research.

To capitalize on the strength of partnership, here at S&T, we have institutionalized our industry collaborations through our consortia, which pair many companies with our faculty and research scientists to address their production challenges. University research through the Kent D. Peaslee Steel Manufacturing Research Center (PSMRC) and other programs at Missouri S&T provide invaluable support to the steel industry to promote a strong, healthy and competitive U.S. manufacturing industry. They also provide the future talent needed for the industry to continue to be successful and competitive in the future.

Another effective partnership mechanism for both research and education is our eight, discipline-specific academies, which invite many of our expert alumni to serve as technical advisors for our engineering programs. Academy membership is by invitation only, and members are selected based on their levels of technical and organizational expertise that can effectively guide our industry partnerships. Consortia and academies have strengthened our ties with companies and resulted in many ongoing joint research projects. Our partnerships have also resulted in numerous internship and co-op experiences for our students.

National research organizations recognize the strength of university-industry partnerships, including the National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, the National Institutes of Health, and NIH’s Academic Entrepreneurship and Product Development programs. Our Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Lab with its consumer and military electronics projects is an example of a program developed on the principle of industry partnership. Other examples of our partnerships include the Missouri Defense Manufacturing Consortium and a collaboration of higher education institutions working to modernize Missouri manufacturing and develop the state’s workforce for advanced manufacturing.

Our critical minerals Technology Hub (Tech Hub), is another successful result of our collaboration with countless industrial partners who share their manufacturing know-how and needs with our faculty research teams. As a result, together, we are addressing the question of how to go from the ore to application-ready products. And, in the process, we can revitalize the economies of our region and bolster the critical minerals supply chain for Missouri and the United States.

Interestingly, academic collaboration with industry will often inspire needed curriculum changes. These curricular changes are necessary to train and educate the skilled workforce needed if we are to successfully onshore advanced manufacturing and foster a culture of innovation.

In short, to achieve our national aspiration of onshoring manufacturing, we must recognize that we are at the beginning of a long and exciting journey of change, collaboration and innovation that will only be possible if we come together to address technical, legal, environmental and social barriers. We must integrate deep research knowledge with vast domain knowledge. Then, we must travel together — as a cohesive team — determined to ensure the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing. Or else, our latest rhetoric will sound hollow — again! And we will wonder what happened — again!

Warmly,

-Mo.

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Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu