Launched through a generous donation from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, MFI aims to accelerate discovery to commercialization in manufacturing through end-to-end data collection and analysis.

Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Manufacturing Futures Initiative (MFI) creates a highly collaborative advanced manufacturing research ecosystem that drives the digital transformation of manufacturing, the accelerated translation of associated research discoveries toward commercialization, and the concomitant methodologies and technologies to enhance the workforce.

MFI will achieve these broad objectives through programs and activities that:

• Generate high-impact research results having national visibility, inform associated policy, and/or build capabilities for economic growth,
• Connect multidisciplinary expertise across the university and nurture the convergence of advanced manufacturing science and technologies, artificial intelligence and other cyber-based technologies, and the social sciences,
• Build partnerships with stakeholders at national and regional levels, particularly in the Hazelwood Green Mill 19 facility
• Raise awareness and provide support for new funding opportunities and foster research thrusts that build critical mass to attract further funding,
• Leverage Carnegie Mellon’s strengths, for example in additive manufacturing, machine learning and robotics, learning science and policy,
• Accelerate translation of research into commercialization through industry sponsorship and partnering, startup generation and support, and technology licensing

Through MFI, CMU will be connected to the innovation pipeline spurred by the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute (ARM) and the rest of the Manufacturing USA institutes – and build Pittsburgh into the country’s leading manufacturing hub.

The initiative will attract and collaborate with industry, as well as public, private, and academic partners, with a mission to accelerate adoption of new technology through interdisciplinary research on materials discovery, product design, robotics and automation, machine learning, policy, workforce training, and education. 

Carnegie Mellon University's impact

Carnegie Mellon University is uniquely situated to help the Pittsburgh region fulfill its potential as a manufacturing hub of the future. The university's world leadership in advanced manufacturing technologies, artificial intelligence, integrated design and entrepreneurship, the science of learning, and technology policy, coupled with CMU’s unparalleled ability to work problems at disciplinary boundaries, and the generous capital and infrastructure investment of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, are enabling CMU to envision and accelerate the world into the physical and artificial future unlike any other.