The Advanced Composites Center (ACC) vision is to build a robust innovation ecosystem for industry and academia to advance the field of data-driven methods for composites manufacturing.
ACC will be the leader in using advances in data-based methods and machine learning for developing high-rate, cost-efficient composite manufacturing methods, reducing the environmental footprint of the aerospace industry and training the work-force of the future. Leveraging industrial partnerships (see typical IP terms), the ACC will transform fundamental research into practice, and feedback successful technologies into workforce education and training.
The center will lead and act as a national magnet for design, manufacturing, evaluation and certification of novel energy-efficient lightweight composite systems. The outcomes of the ACC include:
- Research
- Workforce education
- Educational outreach
- Professional technical training
- Commercialization
The ACC will have demonstrator- capable manufacturing floor, classroom and presentation space, graduate student suite, fully-equipped conference room, technical office, BARC engineering office, and (shared) industry-user office. The ACC facility equipment will be available as a cost center for other UW and external users. Additionally, the center will be available for composites educational and outreach efforts.
Current status of the ACC
The college of engineering (COE) is in the process of transitioning the ACC into a COE center. The ACC space and facilities will be available for research and projects after this transition is completed.
At present, space has been acquired for the ACC, and seed funding from a public-private partnership is being used for facilities improvements and installation of a robotic Automated Fiber Placement system is nearing completion. We are currently working with industrial partners towards developing a consortium for the center.
