UI LABS, an initiative begun more than two years ago by the University of Illinois drawing on the expertise on its three campuses, has been awarded a $70 million grant from the Department of Defense to create a research center for digital-manufacturing technology.

UIC’s role in the proposal focused on its strengths in computer visualization and technical workforce development.

President Obama announced the investment as part of his vision to re-invigorate U.S. manufacturing, by creating new jobs, encouraging economic development, and spurring future innovation.

The Digital Lab will apply cutting-edge mobile, cloud, and high-performance computing technologies to manufacturing challenges - and reduce costs through greater use of technology, from robotics to visualization.

UIC’s strength in computer visualization, as well as its role in creating and continued involvement with “StarLight”, an international research & education communications exchange facility for high-performance networks, is a critical asset for the UIUC / NCSA Blue Waters Peta-scale computing facility to achieve the needed speed links and capacity in the “digital commons” for the digital manufacturing, said Mitra Dutta, UIC Vice Chancellor for Research.

Read the complete article

URL