According to an announcement from Arkansas State, the university will use the funding to equip its Center for Advanced Materials and Steel Manufacturing, which will focus on developing mechanical property measurements for steels and other alloys, conducting computational materials science investigations of novel materials, and exploring ways  maximize the use of artificial intelligence in the manufacturing process.

The center will house X-ray diffraction, spectroscopy, and electron microscopy analytical tools and will fill a void for production facilities in Mississippi County, which currently have to ship materials for testing, delaying delivery of customer orders. 

Arkansas State is reallocating faculty positions to support the center by creating a new department in the college focused specifically on material science, metallurgy and steel manufacturing supported by data science and artificial intelligence. Faculty and students will work collaboratively with scientists and employees at steel plants around the region.

“We look forward to successfully working closely with leaders in the steel industry to implement cutting-edge research in advanced materials and steel manufacturing, supported by data science and artificial intelligence,” said Abhijit Bhattacharyya, inaugural dean of the Arkansas State College of Engineering and Computer Science.

“We will help solve industry-related problems and provide faculty and students invaluable opportunities to work side by side with scientists from the steel industry. The programs we are developing will be world class, just like the world-class steel mills located in our backyard.”

Arkansas State University chancellor Todd Shields said northeast Arkansas already is a national leader in steel production, and the new center will play a critical role in providing the research, process improvement and workforce development to support the industry. 

“The center and these partnerships will fundamentally transform the region and elevate its role as the steel capital of America. Arkansas State benefits from our proximity as the closest research university to current and future steel industry, and we are extremely excited about the successful partnerships that have already developed,” he said.