Designs for a planned $12 million technology and manufacturing center in Fall River, Mass., have yet to be completed, but hopes are already high at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Administrators there expect the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center to help create more high tech and high paying jobs in southeastern Massachusetts, by providing research and development assistance to area companies and training for workers. UMass Dartmouth is just one organization involved in planning and development, but it will provide the facility’s major attraction: faculty and students. The Massachusetts Development Office is managing the project.
“There are many goals really; it’s what some people would call wealth creation, but it’s certainly job creation,” said Dan Murphy, UMass Dartmouth’s interim dean of the College of Engineering and director of the ATMC. “The usual mission of a university is three-pronged: education, research, and the third is service. This is under the service umbrella.”
At least one organization has already committed itself to setting up research facilities at the ATMC, while others, including Newport’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center, are researching possible opportunities there, according to Murphy.
The U.S. Army Soldier & Biological Chemical Command already does some work with UMass faculty and students and has committed to a “strategic partnership,” which would extend its existing relationship with the school, he explained. That organization is based in Natick, Mass., and is commonly referred to as the Natick Labs.
“We’ve been working with them on a very small scale, but the opportunity that this new facility brings has led to a much broader understanding and agreement,” Murphy said. “Our faculty and their scientists have begun to meet on a monthly basis we’d expect to see some projects this fall.”
Among the types of projects university professors and students are working on with officials from the Natick Labs are “clothing that thinks,” he said. That includes designing clothing for soldiers and emergency “first responders,” which would include sensors and microprocessors to protect them from the elements. For example, he said, they’ve worked on camouflage clothing that changes color based on the wearer’s surroundings and clothing that would circulate cool air.
“We’re probably one of six or seven universities that have a textile science department that dovetails very nicely with the mission of the Natick Labs,” Murphy said.
Sixty to 100 of UMass Dartmouth’s 5,800 full-time, day students could find projects to work on at the ATMC, either on their own or through faculty members who are working on projects there, Murphy said. And computer science majors wouldn’t be the only ones put to work, he said, adding that a range of majors would be needed from electrical engineering and textile sciences to mathematics and business majors. Students and faculty members from nearby Bristol Community College would also likely be tapped for ATMC projects, he said.
“There’s a real plus there for the industries (that participate). Upon graduation these students will come out with skills that are relevant for those industries,” Murphy said. “They’ll bring into the workforce the cutting edge technology and skills that will continue to help those companies compete in the marketplace. It’s the training of these students, it’s invaluable.”
The ATMC building will be located on a parcel of land at the intersection of Route 24 and 195 in Fall River, which is the former Kerr Mill site. One building remains on the property, the rest were destroyed in a 1987 fire. Massachusetts officials have appropriated $4 million to acquire the land and clean up the property, Murphy said. UMass officials are participating in developing the ATMC, but not the remaining property. Plans call for eventually creating up to 250,000-square-feet of new office and incubator space, Murphy said.
The Mass. Development project manager could not be reached for comment last Tuesday.
In addition, FROED officials are planning to file an urban renewal plan for the site.
About 30,000-square-feet of the ATMC would be incubator space for startup businesses, according to Kenneth Fiola Jr., FROED’s executive vice president. Murphy said the ATMC would also include a distance learning classroom, as well as a conference room where seminars and trainings could be held.
Groundbreaking is expected within the year and construction would be finished about 18 months later, Murphy added.
“We believe there will be a lot of spin-offs, possible spin-offs for the city and the area,” Fiola said during a May interview.
Fiola also said in that interview the ATMC would help attract more high tech companies to the area by capitalizing on the university’s resources. Research conducted by his office indicated high tech businesses like to be located near institutions that conduct research and work on developing new technologies.
University officials are conducting a study, which was funded by a $1 million state appropriation, to determine what types of facilities are needed in the building. For instance they must determine how many square feet are needed for manufacturing, metallurgy research and computer software. The school is also conducting an economic analysis of the region to determine what type of financial support they might get from the area and what types of money business located in the ATMC might generate.
