The
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s College of Engineering and Applied Science has been selected to help lead a regional effort to decrease energy use in manufacturing.
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the college a $5.7 million grant to help create more Industrial Training Assessment Centers. These centers teach workers about energy assessment, “allowing the manufacturing sector to step up its use of technologies to reduce energy consumption,” according to the university’s news release.
The DOE selected UWM to be a lead institution of its Clean Energy and Manufacturing Workforce Consortia. The goal is to decrease industrial carbon emissions while improving manufacturers’ competitiveness, according to the news release.
The Industrial Training Assessment Centers upskill individuals by teaching them “how to use technologies such as heat pumps, hydrogen for power generation, biofuels, power flow analysis, several renewable energy technologies and cyber-physical modeling,” according to the news release.
UWM engineering professor
Ryo Amano will lead the university’s efforts in partnership with nine community colleges in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota, according to the news release. This will raise the total number of Industrial Training Assessment Centers in the U.S. to 40, according to the news release.
Amano said UWM has been home to “the only Industrial Assessment Center in Wisconsin for nearly 30 years,” according to the news release.
“The total amount of the consortia funding is $14 million, so UWM’s slice is large – more than a third,” Amano said in the news release. “That isn’t surprising, however, because UWM is known for its expertise in training the next generation of energy engineers. The growing number of ITACs is made possible by the DOE’s network of university-based Industrial Assessment Centers.”
Amano, who is also UWM’s Richard & Joanne Grigg Fellow, received a $900,000 grant from the DOE last year to create a Building Training and Assessment Center, which is designed “for specific job training in making energy-saving modifications to existing buildings and institutional facilities,” according to the news release.
