SPEEA helps launch collaborative research center to promote job growth

September 2018

Portland, Ore. - A $20-plus million success story called the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center (OMIC) is expanding near Boeing’s Portland campus.

More than 25 years in the making, the center started with SPEEA member Matt Carter, now a Technical Fellow in Boeing Research and Technology (BR&T), and others who saw the potential for industry, university and government collaboration. Flash forward to 2016, when the group of industry and university leaders brought plans to the Oregon state legislature.

Carter, who now serves as chair of the both the OMIC Governing Board and Tech Board, is convinced the state lawmakers, influenced in part by union support, made the right choice to commit to fund and create the OMIC.

 Already producing results for industry through research, OMIC also plans a training/ apprenticeship program to prepare more workers for high-demand, living wage jobs.

“This is a win for everyone involved,” Carter said.

Industries of all kinds benefit from the early stage technical development at OMIC which opened its doors in 2017. After initial research and testing, those solutions transfer from OMIC to the partner companies, which adapt the new solutions specifically to their manufacturing needs.

The ever-growing partnership includes 21 companies including Boeing, ATI Specialty Alloys and Components, Daimler Trucks North America and Oregon’s engineering colleges (Oregon State University, Portland State University and Oregon Tech), with financial backing from the state legislature.

OMIC Research

• Hard metal manufacturing

• Automation & optimization

• Advanced joining

• Alloy development

• Structural testing