UI Labs’ Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) just landed a large sum of funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to help it further its mission to innovate manufacturing industries.
The DMDII announced Thursday that the Department of Defense awarded the group $10 million this year and is pledging at least $20 million more over the next five years. The DoD says it could ultimately provide DMDII with up to $60 million in total government funding.
“Since our founding, the opportunity and urgency to lead the charge to digitize U.S. manufacturing has only grown,” said Caralynn Nowinski Collens, the CEO of UI LABS, in a statement. “It is essential for our national security and our prosperity that DMDII ramp up its efforts to pull manufacturers into the modern era.”
The DMDII, located in a former window factory on Goose Island, works with manufacturers to give them the digital tools they need to keep their businesses competitive. Since launching in 2014, the institute has now worked with more than 300 companies, including Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, Rolls-Royce, Siemens and McKinsey & Company.
The DMDII has also invested about $90 million in more than 60 applied research projects nationwide, such as updating legacy machines for the digital age, and reducing error and scrap in high-value parts.
“I’m proud that Chicago remains at the forefront of the smart manufacturing revolution,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a statement. “It speaks volumes for this city—our entrepreneurs, technologists, business leaders—that the Department of Defense is again turning to DMDII and Chicago to lead the way.”
