The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will be able to train more students in performing energy assessments after receiving new federal funding.
UWM's College of Engineering and Applied Science was awarded $5.7 million from the Department of Energy to be one of the lead institutions in the department's clean energy and manufacturing workforce consortia.
This was one of 21 projects selected to expand the Industrial Training and Assessment Center Program, which provides hands-on job training for clean energy careers for small and medium-sized manufacturers.
“We were selected because of our historically significant contribution, the quality of its members (students) and its performance excellence of our Industrial Assessment Center, which is the only one in Wisconsin,” Ryo Amano, a UWM mechanical engineering professor who will direct the initiative, said by email.
The grant will help UWM establish Industrial Training and Assessment Centers at 12 community colleges in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, with UWM serving as the lead manager institution that educates the centers, according to Amano. UWM’s Industrial Assessment Center, which provides free energy, productivity and waste assessments to small and medium-sized industrial facilities, has conducted assessments for over 250 manufacturers in Wisconsin.
The training facilities will provide information on analyzing energy assessments and implementing energy equipment facilities, which can improve capability, according to Amano. Both students and workers will learn new skills as a result of increased assessments that could include technologies such as heat pumps, hydrogen for power generation, biofuels and more.
“Students who have learned to conduct energy assessments will build a skilled workforce for the energy transition so that more U.S. industries can benefit,” Amano said.
UWM’s Industrial Assessment Center will train nearly 600 students in the Midwest through the consortia, according to Amano.Each cohort college will train approximately 20 students per institution.
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Funding for the consortia will last for three to five years, according to Amano.
While the consortia received $14 million, Amano couldn’t say how that would be divided among schools, as negotiations are still ongoing and no other members have been selected yet.
This consortium marks the third center for UWM, the first being the traditional Industrial Training and Assessment Center and the other a Building Training and Assessment Center, which works with five Wisconsin junior and technical colleges to facilitate the energy assessments, that received a $900,000 grant from the Department of Energy last year.
