Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

New Training Center Will Put Kentucky at the Forefront of Changes in Manufacturing

  • 05/13/15

LOUISVILLE, KY – The soon-to-open UL Additive Manufacturing Competency Center (AMCC) on the University of Louisville’s Belknap Campus will help ensure that Kentucky remains at the forefront of the rapidly evolving manufacturing sector.

The center, which is scheduled to open this fall, will train engineers and other professionals from around the world on sophisticated 3D printing and other additive manufacturing machinery.

It will aid in the “critical development of the skills that it will take for us to move into a new space,” Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear says. “Those regions that don’t continue to keep up will be left behind.”

UofL is opening the new training center with UL LLC, the Northbrook, IL-based global science safety company. It will be located in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering’s Institute for Product Realization. Its neighbors will be the FirstBuild micro-factory and the newly opened Engineering Education Garage, which houses space for student projects.

The UL AMCC will offer hands-on training in additive manufacturing, focusing on metals. Curriculum will cover design set up and corrections, machine assembly, and parts production, inspection, testing and validation.

The training will teach students how to produce metal parts, establish safety systems and identify hazards in the emerging field of additive manufacturing.

UofL President James Ramsey says the new center is “an important piece of who we are as a university” because it will help workers improve their skills to fill jobs in a changing field. “We think this raises the bar in many ways,” he says.

Classes are scheduled to begin at the UL AMCC in October, with a goal of training 100 workers before the end of the year. That figure is expected to steadily grow, before topping out at around 900 students in 2019.

The training that the workers receive here will allow them to “adopt new technology quickly and safely,” according to UL CEO Keith Williams.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said he believes the center will enhance the city’s reputation as “a place to come” to participate in the additive manufacturing movement. It is important, he said, for the city to entice some of the students who come here to remain and bring their businesses to the city.

Featured

  • Fargo, N.D., Starts Construction on Consolidated Elementary School

    Fargo Public Schools in Fargo, N.D., recently announced the beginning of construction on a new elementary school, according to a news release. The district partnered with ICON Architectural Group and Kraus-Anderson Construction on the new Horace Mann Elementary School.

  • abstract illustration of school gym

    How the Gymnasium Can Serve as a Model for Learning Space Design

    Multipurpose gyms work because flexibility was built into the brief from the start, not retrofitted later. The same logic applies to academic spaces.

  • Doerr School of Sustainability Accelerator

    From Concrete Warehouse to Innovation Hub: Accelerating Sustainability at Stanford

    The transformation of a once windowless, concrete publishing warehouse into a sun-drenched center for global innovation began with a single, fundamental challenge: how to turn an industrial storage shell into a space built for human connection.

  • Can AI Help Build Stronger Communities in Student Housing?

    Student housing success is shifting from operational performance to student experience, with belonging now at the center. A recent 2025 report underscores a growing emphasis on student well-being, community, and engagement, signaling that expectations now extend beyond logistics to ensure students feel supported in their living environments. AI is enabling that shift by reducing administrative workload and giving teams more time to focus on meaningful student engagement.