University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone announces a $1.7 million gift from Rockwell Automation to support a new Connected Systems Institute (CSI) at UWM. The multidisciplinary CSI, reportedly the first of its kind in the state, will focus on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which uses sensors to gather data from equipment, machines and manufactured products through secure data networks. The CSI will build on existing collaborations between UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science and its Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business, along with other academic units at UWM and other UW System universities. By providing undergraduate, graduate, professional and executive education, research and programs, the institute will develop talent, expertise and solutions to lead companies to greater productivity through IIoT technologies and applications.
Adel Nasiri, associate dean for research and a professor in UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science, headed up the planning phase for the institute. A planning grant from Rockwell Automation allowed Nasiri and the UWM planning team to study firsthand leading IoT institutes and centers in Germany, China, Taiwan, Singapore and the United States.
“There’s currently a gap between industry on the one hand and research and education on the other,” Nasiri says. “The Connected Systems Institute will serve as a central point where industry representatives and scholars can collaborate on industrial IoT technologies. As a global manufacturing center, Milwaukee is an ideal location for this consortium.”
The Connected Systems Institute, to be centrally located at UWM, will house state-of-the-art IoT simulation, emulation, test bed and test plant facilities, where participating companies may test end-to-end production solutions. Rockwell Automation’s gift to the Connected Systems Institute supports UWM’s comprehensive fundraising effort, named Made in Milwaukee, Shaping the World: The Campaign for UWM. Focused on raising support for students, research and community engagement, the campaign has a goal of $200 million, the largest in UWM’s history.
For more information, visit: www.uwm.edu
