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Grant will be used to expand robotics and autonomous systems technology to small and medium employers in Southwestern Pennsylvania On September 2, President Biden announced the Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative as one winner of the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge. Catalyst Connection will lead the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Robotics Expansion project. The SME Robotics Expansion Project will help SMEs adopt advanced manufacturing and digital…

The Certified Manufacturing Associate training program helps prepare dislocated workers, underemployed individuals, veterans, and more start a new career in manufacturing. The 25-class online training program from Tooling U-SME can be bundled with the nationally recognized Certified Manufacturing Associate credential. This training program prepares individuals for high-demand, entry-level careers including assemblers, manufacturing associates, and production operators. It can also be used by manufacturers as an effective onboarding program for…

Digital Transformation, like so many other terms in the Industry 4.0 buzz word bingo wheel, can easily get lost in translation and be dismissed as another “sounds neat, but not realistic for me” technology topic. The panel discussion held on March 24th at the Pittsburgh Technology Council offices at Nova Place, showed that it was anything but. The session was sold out with over sixty manufacturers and technology and…

The Pennsylvania Manufacturing Advisory Council was formed last year as a public-private consortium. Its goal is to provide the Commonwealth’s legislative leaders and leading gubernatorial candidates with policy, program and legislative priority recommendations that will enhance the competitiveness of Pennsylvania’s nearly 15,000 manufacturing firms and their 585,000 employees. The Council has heard from more than 130 PA-based manufacturers through roundtables, town halls and other venues and now wants to hear…

Catalyst Connection recognizes the great benefit of implementing a diverse, equitable, and inclusive manufacturing community; as well as the benefit that workers and manufacturers receive when unencumbered by workplace bias. We recently held a four-part Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion webinar series to provide a deeper dive on the importance of creating the inclusive manufacturing community. The series has been presented by one of our Workforce Specialists', Nate Broadus. The…