TLI, MNCEO Announce Over $800,000 in Funding
The University of Minnesota’s Technological Leadership Institute (TLI) and the Minnesota Center for Electrification Opportunity (MNCEO) today announced that they have been awarded more than $800,000 in funding to boost training and upskilling for Minnesota’s electrification infrastructure. This funding is supported through partnerships with the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR), The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, and the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
The grant will help to design and deploy upskilling programs for partner corporations' workforce, lower the costs of college for employees, and allow the TLI to launch the nation's first professional MS in Electrification Systems Management.
“This is a huge win for TLI and MNCEO, and a huge vote of confidence for the growing electrification industry in Minnesota,” said Travis Thul, operations director for TLI. “The need for electrification training is already significant and growing rapidly across many industries, including the defense sector. Our biggest challenge in the near term will be to keep up with the demand.”
The three-year ONR award is designed to leverage TLI's innovative electrification curriculum into a flexible asynchronous program that can build into a stackable MS degree. The content is to be tailored in partnership with Navy stakeholders, local industry, and Minnesota-based uniformed personnel. This content will ensure military and civilian personnel alike have access to on-demand electrification knowledge critical for deploying micro-grids and understanding how nuclear-electric power systems work.
“The Navy plans to greatly expand America’s shipbuilding capacity, and for that to happen, we’ll need industry partners who can pivot to the new kinds of electrically based technologies that are just around the corner,” said Dr. Michael Simpson of ONR. “These are the technologies needed to build new types of ships, new types of aircraft, new types of hypersonic capability, and more. We need to invest not only in the partners we currently have, but also the growing cadre of industry partners we’d like to gain in the future.”
Simpson emphasized that the grant is not a naval contract, but rather an investment in the technological capacity of industry partners. “The grant approach is really exciting to me, because we're not dictating a specific list of requirements,” he said. “We're leaving it to the ingenuity of educational institutions, who are aware of the Navy’s STEM needs and can help us to address them.”
The DEED component of the funding allows MNCEO to support more rapid deliverables for its consortium members. This includes this fall’s Electroposium 2.0, a day-long showcase for cutting-edge technological advancements in the electrification field, offering hands-on training and fostering vibrant discussions about the future of the industry, and a Magnetworking symposium. The Magnetworking initiative is designed to specifically engage with high level decision makers among the consortium members to discuss workforce development, supply chains, common hurdles, and best practices. It will also serve to build bridges among Minnesota electrification technology cluster.
“Electrification is an important goal for Minnesota because of the immense opportunity for economic growth as renewable and electrified technologies proliferate,” said Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) Commissioner Matt Varilek. “DEED is pleased to support this effort – our state will have an advantage over other states because our skilled labor force can help integrate, troubleshoot, and design the systems that leverage these rapidly evolving technologies. Just as importantly, in addition to economic benefits, electrification plays a critical role in reducing air pollution and CO2 emissions to help combat climate change.”
At the same time, MNCEO announced Dual Skills Partnership funding with the OHE and DLI. This funding will support Design Ready Controls and Toro's partnership in the electrification engineering graduate certificate. In addition to their employees enrolling into the professional graduate program, employees will also receive on-the-job-training pertinent to electrification as they work to transition into this workspace.
For more information on Electroposium 2.0, visit the event website or contact Chip Laingen at lain0008@umn.edu. To learn more about TLI’s graduate certificate in electrification engineering, or to audit a course for professional development credit, please contact Brooke Barnhart at bbarnhar@umn.edu.
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ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGICAL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE: The Technological Leadership Institute (TLI) is an interdisciplinary center at the University of Minnesota that was established in 1987 by an endowment from the Honeywell Foundation. Its mission is to develop local and global leaders for technology-intensive enterprises through its Master of Science degree programs: Management of Technology , Medical Device Innovation and Security Technologies . All TLI degree programs are tailored to empower professionals and leaders in their strategic vision to leverage technology to drive business development. To learn more about the Technological Leadership Institute, visit www.tli.umn.edu .