Kansas Aircraft Design and Manufacturing Research Center (ADMRC)
History
In 1995, the National Science Foundation (NSF) State/Industry/University Research Center Program issued a request for proposal. This request was viewed as an opportunity for cooperation among Kansas industries and universities. With members of the KSGC Executive Committee leading and with the cooperative spirit developed by the KSGC, the Kansas aviation industries and the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Wichita State University, and Pittsburgh State University developed a state proposal. A statewide competition was conducted. An industry panel selected eight research projects to form the state proposal. A strength of the proposal was a three-year commitment to provide $300,000 per year from the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC) and a three-year commitment of $300,000 per year from Kansas industries to match the requested $300,000 per year of NSF funds. The industrial partners included The Boeing Company; Cessna Aircraft; Raytheon Aircraft; Diamond J, Inc.; 17 small manufacturers in Kansas; the Southeastern Kansas Manufacturers Round Table (three small manufacturers), and Cray Research. The proposal was submitted in April 1995.
From that proposal development, the partners realized a center for collaborative research was important to Kansas. Rather than wait for the NSF decision, the industry partners and KTEC agreed to a kick-start phase by committing funds to support the research projects during the last quarter of 1995. However, NSF did not fund the Kansas program. The momentum and the importance of this activity to Kansas drove the industry and KTEC partners to fund the research projects for calendar year 1996.
ADMRC today
The annual ADMRC budget has been approximately $600,000, with 50% provided by industry and 50% by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC). Using these funds, ADMRC supports more than a dozen research projects. This ADMRC partnership has permitted outstanding Kansas university faculty members to focus expertise on Kansas industry’s problems. Industry wins because its problems are addressed, while the university’s faculty and students wins by interaction with industry representatives and involvement in real-world problems.
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