Case Western Part of New National Engineering Collaboration

Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) will take part in two national engineering collaborations as part of more than $100 million in grants announced in August 2022.

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced the creation of four new Engineering Research Centers, each to receive $26 million over 5 years. Each project will have a handful of universities working together, including a group leader. Case is part of two of the four new centers, one led by Ohio State University (OSU) and the other by Texas Tech University (TT).

Ohio State will lead HAMMER, the Center for Hybrid Autonomous Manufacturing Moving from Evolution to Revolution. The research center will pursue development and deployment of intelligent and autonomous manufacturing systems.

The center will also help manufacturers transition to the new technologies and help them train workers to use them, according to a press release from CWRU. The center should expand smaller manufacturers’ capabilities and help relieve supply chain issues.

Professor John Lewandowski will lead Case’s team on the project. 

Northwestern University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville will also be part of the Hammer Center.

TT will lead CASFER, the Center for Advancing Sustainable and Distributed Fertilizer production. The center will develop new technologies to create fertilizers that cause less harm to the environment and reduce or eliminate the carbon emissions from the process, according to Case’s announcement.

Florida A&M University, Georgia Tech and MIT will also work on the project. Professor Roger French is leading Case’s team on CASFER.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.