The University of Notre Dame’s Engineering Innovation Hub (EIH) has opened its doors to students and industry partners. The new 10,000-square-foot facility offers a state-of-the-art experiential learning and advanced manufacturing environment with first-rate resources for collaboration, fabrication, automation, robotics and modeling.

Located on the first floor of Cushing-Fitzpatrick Halls of Engineering, the EIH features modern ideation and project space, fabrication and machining technology, advanced manufacturing stations, 3D printing stations, metrology and computing resources, and assembly space.

The EIH is a component of Notre Dame’s iNDustry Labs, which forges partnerships among the region’s leading industries, the University and other colleges and universities to support a more prosperous South Bend-Elkhart region. iNDustry Labs is an anchor of the LIFT (Labs for Industry Futures and Transformation) Network, established with a 2019 grant awarded to Notre Dame from Lilly Endowment Inc. The EIH was made possible with generous support from this grant and investments from industry partners and individual benefactors.

Students will benefit from the EIH either through classwork and research or as members of student clubs and organizations engaged in everything from robotics and satellites to biodesign and assistive technology. With access to EIH resources, students will consider new solutions to practical and meaningful engineering challenges, taking products from concept to realization.

The new facility will help ensure that students graduate with the experience and skills needed to remain competitive in a wide variety of careers, said Daryl Peterson, managing director.

“This EIH is game-changer for our students,” he said. “This remarkable facility will help prepare future engineers who are not only technical experts, but also people who harness creativity and innovation throughout their careers and to serve a world in need.”

Peterson recently joined Notre Dame from Deere & Co., where he served for more than two decades in operations. He oversees the EIH’s technology, programs and outreach in support of its dual mission of academic and industry engagement.

The new facility also will serve as a fabrication and test facility for graduate and undergraduate research and as a resource for local and regional manufacturing industry partners and startup businesses.

“We’re excited that this new facility is not only a powerful resource for our students, but also an opportunity to partner with others in supporting our region’s economic development,” said Patricia Culligan, the Matthew H. McCloskey Dean of the College of Engineering. “Forging closer ties among industry and other colleges and universities benefits all of us. We’re grateful to the many who helped turn the dream of this facility into a reality.”