MILWAUKEE — For an entire year, a graduate student has dedicated his time to testing automation for a mini factory production line.

The Connected Systems Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee — a partnership between industry and academia — seeks to make a difference in the evolution of manufacturing in Wisconsin.

Shamar Webster, a grad student at UWM, works as a technology and research assistant at the University’s Connected Systems Institute.

The goal is to show businesses how to reduce the amount of manpower needed to inspect a production line.

“We wanted to improve this — one, to have more ROI [return on investment] and two, to increase productivity by having technology essentially step up to the pace where humans can get more from it than just having it in place,” said Webster.

Webster said they don’t want to take people out of manufacturing, but they want to change their responsibilities to make sure everyone is safer.

The mini factory at the Connected Systems Institute also has a digital twin.

Joseph Zaccaria, manager of global academics for Rockwell Automation, said this digital representation allows for testing without changing the physical version.

“If you wait for the physical to be done and then you start to do the controls, you wind up doing a bunch of rework and sometimes you do mechanical rework, which is very costly and very time consuming,” said Zaccaria.

Zaccarria said he believes it’s important for Rockwell Automation to partner with UWM. Both want to make sure people of diverse backgrounds have an opportunity to succeed in the manufacturing industry.

“Everyone has something that they can bring to this type of work, this type of industry and there is a space for everyone and it’s exciting. It’s interesting and it’s not dirty, dark and dangerous anymore,” said Zaccaria. 

Webster said his time with the institute has been eye-opening.

“We want to bridge between students understanding what goes into this work in the workforce from both an engineering background, a computer science background and a business background and companies seeing the need to develop and improve the future workforce,” he said.