The University of St. Thomas School of Engineering is one of five universities in a consortium that was awarded $2 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to bolster industry-academic partnerships. The award comes from NSF’s Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) program.
“While we traditionally have had very strong industry partnerships in the region, the consortium of universities sharing their approach and practice of engagement will only help us get better,” said Dr. Don Weinkauf, dean of the School of Engineering.
Led by the University of St. Thomas, the consortium has members from four other engineering programs spread across the industrialized north of the U.S., from Minnesota to Massachusetts. They are Andrews University (Michigan), Milwaukee School of Engineering (Wisconsin), University of Detroit Mercy (Michigan), and Western New England University (Massachusetts).
The consortium members will each receive $400,000 over three years to enhance faculty capacity for sustained strategic industry collaborations and partnerships in their regions. The work will support innovation in emerging technologies such as microelectronics, advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and artificial intelligence. The consortium members will share ideas, expertise and resources to improve processes for both internal and external stakeholders to seamlessly establish and maintain partnerships; and seed new collaborations that become self-sustaining while demonstrating a model of success for future potential partners.
The grant is set to drive significant innovation in industry-academia partnerships and the unique cohort model and support structure of the EPIIC program will be instrumental in achieving these advancements.
“We’ve organized our efforts into three key areas: streamlining partnership management, leveraging our faculty’s expertise, and pinpointing industry needs,” said Dr. Kundan Nepal, professor of electrical and computer engineering and lead investigator for the project. “What’s exciting is how we are not just working within our own institutions. We are creating a network that allows us to share resources and insights across universities. This collaborative approach will significantly enhance our ability to build meaningful, lasting partnerships with industry. It’s a win-win that amplifies each institution’s impact, while fostering a broader ecosystem of academic-industry collaboration,” he noted.
As Minnesota’s leading private institution for engineering education, the University of St. Thomas School of Engineering boasts a robust enrollment of 1,400 students. Over the past 10 years, the School of Engineering has conferred nearly 3,000 degrees through a range of undergraduate and graduate programs in Civil, Mechanical, Computer, Electrical, Manufacturing, and Software Engineering (including Artificial Intelligence and Data Science).
