After a year of growth, what will 2024 bring Pittsburgh’s Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute?

From its continued work on the Build Back Better-funded Robotics Manufacturing Hub to managing four innovation accelerators in the region, Rice says they’ve needed all hands on deck within the organization — and more hands are needed.

“Our team has grown exponentially. We’re about 35 folks now,” Rice, the ARM Institute’s senior outreach manager, told Technical.ly. “I think that’s about at least 10 folks added to the team. We’re getting ready to post our 2023 annual national member meeting, which should have record attendance this year. So it’s been a great year.”

The ARM Institute is a consortium made up of hundreds of partners across sectors, all with a goal of making robotics-driven advanced manufacturing careers accessible. The org is funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and is part of the Manufacturing USA network.

2023 changes

As part of managing the innovation accelerators, in May, the ARM institute was tasked with distributing $6 million to them as well. The four accelerators are Community College of Allegheny County’s Entrepreneurial Labs and Makerspace, Penn State New Kensington’s Digital Foundry at New Kensington, Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s IUP STEAMSHOP and Westmoreland County Community College’s MAKERSPACE District. The goal is for the programs to build on their existing skills, as well as expand their services.

As of October, the ARM Institute is also partnering with two new Defense Manufacturing Communities, which means that it’s now involved in over half the nation’s defense manufacturing communities. The Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program exists to support the defense industrial industry and make sure the United States is prepared to respond to threats, Rice said. Through this public-private partnership, the ARM Institute and its member organizations will be able to use their technology and education solutions to make the country’s industrial base stronger while securing manufacturing resiliency.

For Rice, what stands out about the program is how regionally focused it is, and the potential it offers to address the needs of specific manufacturing communities.

“One of the things that we’re excited about is taking the ARM Endorsement program into Texas, through one of the Defense Manufacturing Communities, and evaluating training programs there for robotics versus manufacturing, and identifying those that are like the most competitive and the most efficient at preparing students for those robotics careers,” Rice said.

Additional causes for excitement: As of November, the ARM Institute’s member consortium grew to 400 members. The org is also ending the year with the announcement that it’ll be launching the first-ever ARM Institute scholarship with the Industrial Arts Workshop (IAW). The scholarship will support a Hazelwood student in a year’s worth of existing IAW core programming, which includes arts, community development and workforce readiness training.

“Welding training provides both a pathway to a well-paying job and inspires artistic expression,” ARM Institute CEO Ira Moskowitz said in a written statement. “As one of our core values, regional engagement is important to the ARM Institute team. We selected IAW for this scholarship specifically to strengthen our outreach in our community in Hazelwood.”

2024 plans

Looking to 2024, Rice said the ARM Institute’s leadership plans to look at the impact of AI on robotics, and expand its research with Carnegie Mellon University on AI and other disruptive technologies on manufacturing careers. (Yes, that line of thinking follows a trend.) Currently, the research is only available to members, but Rice said the organization is looking forward to sharing insights as well as publishing on the impact the ARM Institute has had on the robotics manufacturing hub in the new year.

The ARM Institute is part of a manufacturing ecosystem of collaborators “making sure that everyone is well equipped to work towards a future where we’d have humans and robots together to build the future of manufacturing,” she said. “We’ve worked across every single stakeholder, whether that’s industry, academia, or government — there’s a spot for everyone. And we really try to catalyze the collaboration between these stakeholders to make sure that the future of manufacturing in the United States is great.”