ISTB 12 a one-stop shop for robotics, manufacturing

Binil Starly had been a North Carolina State faculty member for nine years when he heard about an opportunity at Arizona State University.

ASU was creating a manufacturing school and as part of the formation was constructing a new building — ISTB12 — that would make the university a leader in training students for the industries of tomorrow.

“That excited me,” Starly said. “How many universities even think about bringing manufacturing front and center as a school, and then investing in faculty and physical infrastructure to back that up? Usually, at other universities, manufacturing is always part of either mechanical engineering or industrial engineering.

“But ASU decided to give it prominence.”

That decision convinced Starly to become the director of the School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks in July 2022, and on Friday, the grand opening of ISTB12 was celebrated with an event on the ASU Polytechnic campus, where the building is located.

ASU President Michael Crow said ITSB 12 reflects the university’s commitment to innovation and competition.

“Here in Arizona, we have ways in which we have constructed whole new types of institutions, like this university, whole new ways of working, new ways to partner, new ways to come together, new ways to say, ‘Hey, I think that the United States needs the most advanced manufacturing school ever made.’

“Well, OK, why don’t we figure out how to do that? We’re going to work with the city of Mesa. We’re going to work with the leadership of the state of Arizona. We’re going to work with Honeywell and other companies. We’re going to build this thing. We’re going to attract talent from all over the world, and we’re going to bring it together.”

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs credited ASU for the state’s success in leveraging the emerging advanced manufacturing industry.

“It’s because of this world-class university and its commitment to making sure that Arizona is at the forefront of this new era,” Hobbs said. “Your efforts have contributed to research and development, workforce training and job creation. Today marks more than the opening of a building. It is a milestone in our leadership as a hub of advanced manufacturing technology and innovation.”

ISTB12 will be the centerpiece of the Polytechnic Innovation Zone, one of nine such ASU zones — eight of which are in Arizona, with the ninth being the ASU Creative Economy Hub in Los Angeles.

The Innovation Zones are geographic/real-estate portfolios that ASU runs, or is a partner in, with the goal of co-locating private companies, faculty, students and university research infrastructure in spaces that encourage collaboration, commercialization, knowledge spillover and economic development.

Businesses — from startups to global firms — receive access to university labs, shared facilities, student talent and opportunities for applied research and development. Students get exposure to real industry problems, internships, project-based learning and more.

The Polytechnic Innovation Zone specializes in hands-on exploration of solutions in aviation, alternate energy, health solutions, human-technology integration, commercial printing and design services, and digital/additive manufacturing.

Morgan Olsen, ASU’s executive vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer, said approximately 330 acres of land will make up the Polytechnic Innovation Zone and be available to foster industry collaboration, translational research and economic development.

“This is a huge opportunity for all of us in the state of Arizona,” Olsen said. “Our Innovation Zones offer some really great benefits to businesses who decide to co-locate. We’re talking about things like access to labs, high-tech equipment, our makerspaces and, most importantly, our faculty and students. All of that helps create an environment of supportive innovation and growth. And, of course, the companies that locate here are going to have great access to our students with all the tremendous talents they have.”

Fostering innovation

The 173,000-gross-square-foot ISTB12 facility consists of three floors and more than 128,000 programmable square feet for office, meeting, instructional, research and collaboration spaces to prepare students to contribute to engineering solutions for societal challenges.

It includes specialty and research labs that will enable faculty and students to work on additive manufacturing, robotics for smart manufacturing and industry automation, cyber manufacturing and operations research, semiconductor manufacturing, and manufacturing systems for the energy sector.

“Think for a moment about the young person in your life who loves to take things apart and put them back together,” said Nancy Gonzales, ASU’s executive vice president and university provost. “Someone who is more comfortable with their hands than a textbook. Maybe that young person watches a lot of videos about how things work, tinkers in the garage or stays after school to participate in the high school robotics class.

“They might not think college is for them, or they might not know that college can be this state-of-the-art, high-tech, deeply hands-on and connected to companies that are designing, shaping and building the future in so many areas that affect our everyday lives. … This is the place where your students’ curiosity meets the world of the possible.”

In addition, ISTB12 has three instructional labs, four classrooms dedicated to the School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks, and an additional classroom that holds 200 people and is set up to be a multipurpose classroom facility for the entire university. The Polytechnic School in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering also will be housed in the facility.

Starly said ASU Prep Academy students already are using one of the classrooms every Friday to work on robotics-related projects, and that he expects ASU Health deans to walk the space and determine how ASU Health and manufacturing intersect.

“The future of manufacturing is going to be heavily digital, heavily automated, hardware- and software-integrated across all machines and processes,” Starly said. “ISTB12 is a representation of the connection between the manufacturing processes, AI learning, smart automation and smart robotics that represent the future of manufacturing.”

Kyle Squires, dean of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, said ISTB12 represents a “significant milestone in the evolution of the Fulton Schools” that began in 2003 with a gift from Ira A. Fulton.

“Today, nearly 33,000 students call Fulton home, and ISTB12 marks that next step under our trajectory,” Squires said. “It’s the new home for our School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks, which is the nation’s first engineering school dedicated to defining that future and what manufacturing will be.”

ASU is the only university in the country that has a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and a PhD in manufacturing engineering, and ISTB12 serves as a one-stop shop for the future of manufacturing.

“We’re not training students for any particular sector,” Starly said. “We try to pair general manufacturing knowledge with transferable skills catered to the aerospace or microelectronics industries, two big industries out here in Phoenix.

“Beyond a regional sense, there’s medical, pharmaceutical, food processing and consumer products that involve manufacturing in some shape or form, including for the nuclear energy sector. For example, can we rethink the way we design and manufacture nuclear reactor components? What we’re training students for are common core skill sets that will translate to varied manufacturing processes.

“This is why ASU is No. 1 in innovation. It’s not just language or what we put on our banners. We’re designing and actually doing things to make that happen.”