Last October, the University of Maine (UMaine) broke ground on its approximately $82 million Green Engineering and Materials (GEM) building, a collaboration between the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, the Maine College of Engineering and Computing, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
With funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Northern Border Regional Commission’s Catalyst Program, the state of Maine, the Maine Jobs & Recovery Act, and the Harold Alfond Foundation, the building will become home to the ‘Factory of the Future,’ which Grimshaw Architects describes as “a place of production where the manufacturing process itself is a central focus to drive continuous innovation.” Habib Dagher, executive director of Advanced Structures and Composites Center, explained the meaning behind the name: “We’re always making it better, and that’s why we call it the Factory of the Future. It’s been designed to be very flexible, so we can add new equipment. If we knew what equipment would go in there in two years we would be calling it the Factory of the Past.”
The Factory of the Future will house AI-enabled and digital manufacturing technologies and feature locations for immersive learning, including interactive classrooms, a ‘Mini-GEM’ workshop serving as a microcosm of the entire manufacturing process, and two full manufacturing bays with the capacity to produce components that are 60 feet wide and 100 feet long.
The building aims to provide students with educational and research opportunities in advanced manufacturing, as well as workforce development training to join the computing or engineering industries, which the university describes as “essential to support and grow the state and nation’s economies.” Whether they be visiting students from kindergarten through high school or doctoral candidates, students of all levels will be able to take advantage of the learning spaces when GEM is completed next year. Giovanna Guidoboni, dean of the Maine College of Engineering and Computing, explained, “In this transformative building, students can take the leap from ideating a proof of concept to manufacturing a large-scale market-ready product. This leap seems enormous; yet, this is what is needed to grow our economy. Here, we make this possible.”
Photo Courtesy Grimshaw
It is not the university’s first foray into advanced manufacturing. In 2019, the university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center broke three Guinness World Records for the world’s largest polymer 3D printer, largest solid 3D-printed object, and largest 3D-printed boat. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) attended the celebration of the project for which she helped secure $20 million in funding, plus an additional $20 million in an energy funding bill. In 2022, the center unveiled the world’s first 3D-printed home, the 600-square-foot BioHome3D, made entirely from bio-based materials. It is completely recyclable and resulted in hardly any construction waste due to the process’s extreme precision.
Two years later, UMaine broke its record with a printer four times larger than the one in 2019, which it called Factory of the Future 1.0 due to its ability to print 500 pounds per hour. Sen. Collins reflected, “UMaine and the Advanced Structures and Composites Center possess the innovation, capacity, and workforce to support the future needs of the Department of Defense in advanced manufacturing. This is a great day for our University, our State, and our Nation.”
Photo Courtesy University of Maine
The next evolution, GEM or Factory of the Future 2.0, will emphasize bio-based materials and sustainable technologies, aiming to spur the transition to clean energy manufacturing. The opportunity is abundant, considering that GEM will serve as a “test bed” for companies and entrepreneurs that want to explore advanced manufacturing or sustainable technologies. For example, industry collaborations will focus on producing marine vessels, building affordable housing, and manufacturing components for clean energy and civil infrastructure, such as solar parts and wood fiber insulation. One of the full-scale manufacturing bays will be dedicated to national defense and marine vessels, while the other will be reserved for housing, energy, and infrastructure. With its emphasis on sustainability, the building will also have a mass timber structural frame.
In the words of Greg Powell, chair of the Harold Alfond Foundation, “The skilled workforce that we have has to be a workforce for tomorrow and has to be energized and inspired by the things that we do. Life has to be more than a job, it has to be inspirational, and one of the key attributes of GEM is how inspirational it is and how it will inspire students of today with the possibilities of the future.” Notably, the foundation committed $320 million to the University of Maine System to help address the state’s workforce and economic needs through the UMS TRANSFORMS initiative.
Since 2022, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), who participated in the groundbreaking ceremony, has helped secure over $90 million for the project and other initiatives conducted by the university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center.
Sen. Collins reflected, “UMaine’s Factory of the Future will establish Maine as a national leader in additive and advanced manufacturing. This state-of-the-art facility will spur innovation, strengthen our national defense, and give students invaluable experience in pioneering high-tech industries.” She added, “A treasure of new products, new opportunities and a new future lay in store with GEM.”
The Factory of the Future will help Maine address numerous challenges, from the housing crisis to the changing climate. A 2023 study commissioned by MaineHousing, the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, and the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development found that the state will need up to 84,000 additional homes by 2030. The Brattle Group, meanwhile, expects Maine’s electricity demand to nearly triple by 2040. Ferrini-Mundy, president of UMaine and its regional campus, the University of Maine at Machias, explained, “Once completed, GEM will create even greater opportunities for our students, faculty, staff, and partners to address a multitude of economic and societal needs for Maine and beyond.”
The crux of the project, therefore, lies in the people it empowers. In the words of Dagher, “We fail if we develop a technology nobody can use. I tell everybody it’s a factory of research and new products, but it’s a factory of people, too. If we’re going to commercialize these technologies we need to develop the people.”
