The Government of Canada and the New Brunswick Innovation Fund have contributed $5.45 million to UNB’s Marine Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence (MAMCE), which will help revolutionize the marine industry in Atlantic Canada. The Government of Canada has provided a non-repayable contribution of $5 million to MAMCE through ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund. NBIF contributed $450,000.
The project will support the expertise and infrastructure required to build a strong foundation for the advancement of additive manufacturing in Atlantic Canada, including top researchers, graduate students and research assistants, focusing on research and development, commercialization and skills and technology transfer. Additionally, MAMCE will purchase a next-generation 3D printer to assist with its services to industry.
The goal is to accelerate the adoption of advanced manufacturing techniques through additive technologies and address issues encountered in marine and other sectors, including corrosion, fatigue and harsh temperatures.
Other organizations have previously contributed to MAMCE’s project, including Mitacs, Irving Shipbuilding Inc., and Lockheed Martin Canada.
UNB’s IBM Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) – Atlantic has received a multi-million-dollar funding package to help deliver a new project that will improve and develop runtime software.
The funding was awarded by the Government of Canada through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and IBM.
Established in 2011, IBM CAS – Atlantic promotes collaborative research between UNB and IBM, and explores innovation, education and research goals in the context of real-world application. The project will build upon UNB and IBM’s past collaborations to develop state-of-the-art runtime systems, which control a computer’s workflow and functionality.
“Computers are now everywhere from smartphones to watches and automobiles,” says Kenneth Kent, executive director of IBM CAS – Atlantic. “A huge part of the utility of these devices comes from their connections to each other and to the cloud. Working with IBM, we are developing next-generation tools and ideas to help build software systems with more functionality, better security and lower cost.”
