Since its establishment in 2006, the Institute for Materials Research has continuously supported and helped steer the materials-allied research enterprise at The Ohio State University to be among the very best in the nation. This has been fueled by the institute’s role in winning some of the most competitive funding awards, attracting top talent to the Ohio State community who are carrying out world leading research, and helping develop and sustain the university’s research infrastructure.
Over the years, the scope of the institute’s work has significantly expanded into new frontiers of international collaboration and industry interaction. This has connected IMR’s basic core of ongoing fundamental and applied research to new translational activities that connect to the private sector, for which both the exposure to student talent and demonstration of technology prototypes through advanced manufacturing research are critical.
In order to recognize and appropriately represent the permanence of our the institute is excited to announce its name change to the Institute for Materials and Manufacturing Research (IMR).
“This momentous name change of our institute, which after 17 years was not done lightly, recognizes the historic world-class efforts in manufacturing research at Ohio State, its essentialness with materials research now and in the future, and its incredible growth in recent years,” said IMR executive director Steven Ringel.
This growth includes Ohio State’s new HAMMER Engineering Research Center, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF); the expanded Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence; and key hires and investments into IMR via its M&MS Discovery Theme, Ringel said.
“Manufacturing research blends materials processing, engineering, chemistry and physics, with engineering design, touching almost all areas of materials research. Manufacturing research lowers barriers to collaborate with industry and prepares students with an appreciation for connecting research to future products,” he said.
“Coinciding with the recent, regional investments in semiconductors by Intel, in batteries by Honda and LG, and in areas like manufacturing for space industry, transportation and in medical manufacturing, the Institute for Materials and Manufacturing Research is ideally positioned to assure Ohio State’s relevancy and guide its leadership in these sectors.”
IMR’s expansion grew from the successes of the university’s Materials and Manufacturing for Sustainability (M&MS) Discovery Theme, starting back in 2015. The IMR-operated program targeted global challenges related to energy and environmental sustainability through research and innovation in the areas of advanced materials, devices, and manufacturing processes and systems. The M&MS Discovery Theme also enabled Ohio State’s hiring of two dozen faculty members, several of whom are centrally focused on advanced manufacturing in different technology sectors, as well as the establishment of the university’s first global research center of excellence, the IIT Bombay-Ohio State Frontier Center.
The institute’s convergence with manufacturing was also shaped by years of prior successful collaboration with key manufacturing centers at Ohio State, such as the Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) and the Ohio Manufacturing Institute, with deep involvement from the IMR Innovation Lab.
As a result, beginning in FY20, IMR created and counseled a task force aiming to unify Ohio State’s vision and efforts in manufacturing-related research and development. This undertaking included differentiating the various manufacturing efforts already advancing innovation and education at the university.
That task force aiming to establish Ohio State as a national leader in advanced manufacturing was led by Michael Groeber, an associate professor in Integrated Systems Engineering and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, who now serves as the IMR Director of Manufacturing.
Three recent examples of IMR’s ongoing manufacturing efforts, which started several years ago, are inherently interdisciplinary. For instance, IMR’s Energy Innovation Lab has been working toward multiple next-generation energy storage prototypes in ongoing projects involving faculty in the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering, with support from industry partners. In semiconductors, IMR is leading a multi-college and multi-institutional Center for Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication and Education, funded by the Intel Corporation, within which processes leading to prototyping of future semiconductors are being explored. In advanced structures, last year, IMR played a major and central role in landing the first NSF Engineering Research Center since the 1980s, called Hybrid Autonomous Manufacturing, Moving from Evolution to Revolution (HAMMER) Engineering Research Center. IMR also helped seed and hosted the initial biomanufacturing innovation space for the Medical Modeling, Materials and Manufacturing Lab, which brought together under one roof at Nanotech West Laboratory an interdisciplinary team of experts from IMR, the College of Medicine and the College of Engineering.
“It’s an incredibly exciting time at Ohio State where the convergence of manufacturing technologies is rapidly evolving to meet the demand for advanced technologies such as batteries and semiconductors,” said IMR director of innovation Jay Sayre. “The overlap has never been greater where core processes like thin-film deposition techniques in lithium-ion batteries has similarities to the integration of novel materials with silicon in semiconductor manufacturing. Shared advancements due to this convergence will open up opportunities for innovation and the development of more efficient and integrated systems that advance both industries.”
Story by Mike Huson, IMR communications coordinator.
Contact: huson.4@osu.edu
Follow: @OhioStateIMR