Future Manufacturing

Timeline

August 2025-present

About the project

The US is a global leader in the adoption and development of industry 4.0 technologies in manufacturing. However, the US manufacturing sector is expected to have around 2 million unfilled jobs, according to industry insights from Deloitte. Small and medium-sized manufacturers make up the majority of the manufacturing ecosystem and may be most impacted by gaps in recruiting and training for the next generation of workers.

As part of a larger project supported by the National Science Foundation, the Education and Workforce Development (EWD) team seeks to 1) identify industry-based training opportunities for adopting and implementing cyber manufacturing technologies, 2) outline equitable onboarding and retention opportunities to build a diverse cyber manufacturing workforce, and 3) develop a career pipeline into the manufacturing industry.

This principal investigator is Dr. Neil Dasgupta, and the EWD team is led by Dr. Julie Hui, assistant professor at Michigan’s School of Information, and Mengjie Lyu, PhD, a researcher at the Economic Growth Institute at the University of Michigan. This project is a collaboration with the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, the University of Michigan’s School of Information, and the University of California San Diego.

My role

As the graduate research assistant, I assist in conducting interviews with manufacturing leaders, solution vendors, ecosystem representatives, and shop floor workers to understand their perceptions and experiences with new technology adoption in the workplace. Moreover, I aid in qualitative data analysis, literature review, and writing manuscripts for publication.