America Makes hosts top innovative panel
By Bruce Walton
YOUNGSTOWN
Slightly more than a dozen students from the National Defense University met here to discuss how to better incorporate 3-D technology to bolster future workforces.
They met Tuesday afternoon with a panel of the heads of the most innovative and leading institutions and businesses in the Mahoning Valley at America Makes building on West Boardman Street.
America Makes is a national accelerator for additive manufacturing established in the city in 2012.
Rob Gorham, director of operations of America Makes, moderated the panel consisting of Barb Ewing, COO of the Youngstown Business Incubator; Martin Abraham, provost of Youngstown State University; and Mike Garvey, president and CEO of M-7 Technologies.
The NDU is a 10-monthlong higher-learning program for members of the U.S. Department of Defense to develop leaders who have the ability to operate and creatively think in an unpredictable and complex world, according its mission statement.
NDU usually tours multiple cities for similar panels to hear from the leading innovative minds. Students visited the Youngstown area for the first time this year.
The panel focused on 3-D printing, or “additive manufacturing,” and its use and implementation of 3-D printed products, including software required to use it, as well as the education needed to prepare a workforce.
Gorham said additive manufacturing is important in this area because of the growing global investment the rest of the world makes that helps with an additional production line that can complement manufacturing, not replace it.
Gorham said 3-D printing should help reduce costs, manufacturing time and enhance functionality. But he also said he looked forward to showing the uniqueness he believes Youngstown has as an example of innovation in additive manufacturing.
“You’ve got a skill set and a mindset and an enthusiasm that exists here that’s very unique,” Gorham said. “Manufacturing is in the DNA of this area.”
The panel answered questions from the students, asking how they are considered innovative in their area, how they can compete with cheap labor, and the connection with the professional world and the education of future innovators.
Abraham spoke about a shifting paradigm at YSU, where older, tenured professors are leaving and are being replaced with younger professors.
The provost said YSU will educate those new professors to use different instruction methods for more experiential learning and more flexibility for students coming from community colleges and professional backgrounds to move quicker through the curriculum.