NILES, Ohio – Youngstown is the starting point for additive manufacturing, according to a former Pentagon official.
“In my mind, Youngstown, since the founding of NAMII [the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute], which went on to become America Makes, it really is ground zero for added manufacturing, which will be important to all aspects of emerging technology as we go forward,” Jaret C. Riddick, former Pentagon principal director of autonomy, said Wednesday at YBI’s Advanced Manufacturing User Expo.
The event at the Eastwood Event Centre drew about 200 registrants and was YBI’s second AMUX. Riddick was the keynote speaker.
Riddick, who is a senior adviser for SMI, is an authority on autonomous systems and artificial intelligence. SMI is a government affairs consulting firm. He was in Youngstown when officials cut the ribbon on the precursor of America Makes.
“YBI was a catalyst to bringing America Makes,” he said. “You have Youngstown State University, which is a preeminent institution in research and added manufacturing. So those pieces already exist organically, and now the new entrant is the Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense, which really can act as sort of umbrella, an integrator of all of these organic parts that are there to channel into the needs in aerospace and defense and, obviously, in autonomy.”
It creates a place-based innovation effort built on decades of momentum in the Mahoning Valley, where the steel culture led to the manufacturing initiative in the region and the latest defense and aerospace hub.
“What you have here in Youngstown, you have organically grown many of the threads of a place-based innovation effort without calling it that, and sort of what I’m signaling now is that with this this new hub that’s coming in, you have the opportunity to start to bring some of these threads together in a real business innovation effort …” Riddick said.
YBI CEO Barb Ewing said the daylong event attracted more attendees than last year’s.
“It truly is an event designed to promote advanced manufacturing technologies, facilitate conversations between industry leaders, between community leaders trying to get people to have a deeper understanding of both why manufacturing is important, the resources that are out there to help strengthen our economy using tech-based economic development and just really connect the community so that we’re building something better,” she said.
Speakers and panelists addressed how to create the workforce of tomorrow, Akron’s polymer industry cluster, services of the Youngstown Innovation Hub, the Art of the Possible and Building People Systems to Scale. Humtown Products CEO Mark Lamoncha talked with Ewing for the session titled Conversations That Matter: The Industrial Athlete.
Panelists and attendees included a range of industries and sectors.
“We’ve got a lot of industry partners here, both large and small, and then we’ve got some community leaders here – economic development organizations, workforce partners – so it is a broad array of people who are just interested in manufacturing technologies in whatever way fits their mission,” Ewing said.
This year’s event also included an element that wasn’t part of last year’s AMUX.
“Last year we did not really have a workforce component, and what we’ve learned in the last year is you really can’t have serious conversations about advanced manufacturing without conversations about workforce,” the YBI CEO said. “It is a truism at this point that workforce development is economic development.”
Megan Malara, executive director of the Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense, participated on the Youngstown Innovation Hub Services panel.
“We are here to support our regional ecosystem,” she said. “I think that’s one of the reasons why our Innovation Hub is located here. YBI is one of our key strategic partners as a part of the Innovation Hub, and being around the rest of our regional manufacturers and partners, it’s a great opportunity to collaborate and get the word out about opportunities that we have available through the Innovation Hub and really make connections.”
Some of those opportunities include incubation space for companies, workforce development and funding for businesses that want to commercialize new technology.
“We want to make sure people know about us and know what they can access in getting in contact with us,” Malara said.
Daniel Longo, YBI Advanced Manufacturing Services engineering program manager, led a panel called Lessons Learned Developing AM Techniques on the Shop Floor.
It included Emmanuel Katsaros, principal engineer at REM Electronics in Warren; Ryan Day, CFO at Hynes Industries in Austintown; and Mark Peters, director of engineering at Fireline Inc. in Youngstown.
One example of developing additive manufacturing techniques on the shop floor Longo cited is legacy machinery. A piece of equipment that was the newest innovation when purchased becomes difficult for the next generation running the company to find parts for.
“And now grandson’s running the company, and they’re holding together with duct tape and a prayer,” he said.
There are grant opportunities to help that company replace that old machinery with a more modern 21st-century version that’s connected to the internet and has data transfer capabilities.
“So now they’re not logging in with notebook and pencil, and it really does upscale overall efficiency, and in general, it makes them more competitive, not only for the region but also now being more competitive across the nation,” Longo said.
Ewing said she hopes those who attended AMUX would get an understanding of how technology can be used to transform whatever industry they’re in. Discussions included how people involved in traditional manufacturing processes found ways to integrate sensors, 3D printing or Internet of Things into their operations, she said.
“But we also hope that they will get some glimmers of leaning into technology and what they could do to develop new materials using technology, or integrate it in a different way to really push themselves into a new industry …” Ewing said. “The whole should be greater than the sum of the parts, and we want them to walk out feeling like they are positioned to grow into new areas.”
Pictured at top: Jaret C. Riddick, senior adviser at SMI and former Pentagon principal director of autonomy.