The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) initiative will bring Tech many benefits, name recognition being the most prominent one. Honored as one of the six colleges that form the AMP, Tech was identified as part of a short list of schools chosen to pursue research toward advanced future-centric manufacturing applications. This is a great opportunity for Institute President G.P. “Bud” Peterson, who is a member of the steering committee, to build personal relationships with other leaders of government, technological research universities and renowned manufacturing companies. Direct contacts with these powerful people and their establishments will surely help push Tech forward.
Collaborations with the different entities in the entire system will not only bring substantial research and work opportunities in the future, but also monetary and academic prosperity to the Institute. It is critical that Tech take advantage of this opportunity to build off the strides in research made by companies and other universities. More recently developed departments at Tech, such as the Marcus Nanotechnology Research Center, can be involved in the initiative, advancing and improving through the AMP by interacting with colleges and companies with more developed divisions in the same research areas.
Tech’s involvement in the AMP initiative should not be seen as a political gesture, but rather as an opportunity to produce real results. Hopefully Peterson will see to this by taking on a very active role in the process and trying to bring more research opportunities to Tech and its faculty where possible. Tech’s focus within the AMP will be on increasing manufacturing capacity and producing quality manufacturing jobs on a national level, as it should be, and it will be all the better if Tech can benefit from this opportunity to bolster its future endeavors.