VUJC Holds Collaborative Robotics Open House

By Kris Norton

Jasper – The VUJC invited students and community members to the campus for their first Collaborative Robotics Training Lab Open House on Tuesday afternoon.

Among whirring robotic arms and live demonstrations, students, school superintendents and local manufacturing representatives alike learned what advancing technology can bring to local businesses – and to those who program them.

Dean of Vincennes University Jasper Campus Christian Blome says that the Collaborative Robots, or ‘Co-Bots’, are a step in the right direction in preparing students for what comes next upon graduation.

“This is technology that they’re going to be facing once they get out in the workforce and so we want our students to have a rich experience that prepares them for the future,” Blome said. “But, also, gives them the knowledge, expertise, and leadership skills to help usher this new level of technology into their work environments.”

Hosted in the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Manufacturing Building on campus, pre-programmed robotic arms showcased the machine's versatility - from sanding and buffing chairs, to rolling dice, to packing golf balls into crates.

The full gamut was on display for a wide variety of community members, Blome says.

“It was quite a cross-section of the community that was here today,” Blome said. “We had representatives from the manufacturing community, from various other small and medium businesses here in Dubois County, we had a lot of our superintendents from the surrounding schools corps, the chamber was here, Dubois Strong. It was a really nice collaboration that cut across the whole county.”

The Developing a Workforce Ecosystem for Industry 4.0 itself has taken a good deal of collaboration.

The VUJC Collaborative Robotics Training Lab is supported by Lilly Endowment’s “Charting the Future for Indiana’s Colleges and Universities” grant funding. The Initiative is designed to help Indiana colleges address key challenges and opportunities in Indiana’s current and future economy.

Key, too, has been the presence of the manufacturer: Telamon Robotics. Telamon is currently offering area businesses and manufacturers an opportunity to bring their machinery into the workplace to see how it meshes with the overall operation.

Blome credits the like-minded approach between education and business in cultivating special partnerships.

“On a local level, the integration that we have here between education and manufacturing is special, and we couldn’t provide and embed this without those partnerships,” Blome said. “[We’re] Just really grateful for the local school corporations and all of our manufacturing partners to allow these students to then go out and intern. There’s so many moving pieces that we couldn’t do it without it being a true collaboration.”

More information about the Robotics Lab and VUJC can be found online at www.vinu.edu