You are here

Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence

About CDME

The Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) will be the foremost leader in applied research through business validation, process innovation, design, technology advancement, and best-of-class manufacturing approaches.

Our Mission  

  • Bridge the gap between university research capabilities and the needs of industry
  • Utilize the technical assets and expertise of The Ohio State University
  • Create a common user facility with state-of-the-art equipment, creating a learning laboratory accessible to the industry, research community and students
  • De-risk industry's participation and investment in new technology
  • Build the future workforce of industry-ready students in design, manufacturing and technology innovation

Our Genesis

CDME was developed to meet the translational research needs of the university’s external partners. The center was funded initially via a $6.8M federal grant and by the The Ohio State University's College of Engineering to ensure that university innovation provides a more direct impact on the commercial manufacturing industry. 

 

University Innovation | Industry Implementation

The Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) is the manufacturing port of entry into Ohio State. The center’s ability to move at the speed of industry while continuing to innovate eases the communication between both industry and the university experts to execute project management plans.

The center is staffed with diverse professionals ranging from former business leaders and entrepreneurs to practicing engineers. Wherever possible, the center will utilize existing equipment to support industry and university research community with market validation, design feasibility, commercialization, manufacturing scale, and workforce development programs.

 

Core Values

CDME's operational model is underpinned by four key values: Multi-industry collaboration, technology and product commercialization, workforce development, and regional economic growth.

Multi-industry Collaboration

Collaboration between different industries, competitors, vendors and customers has routinely proven to be more effective at solving tough commercial problems. By design, CDME brings all industry issues into a collaborative environment where organizations that rarely cross paths can speak freely about ideas and concepts. As these concepts gain momentum, CDME helps deliver results through jointly funded development programs that allow all the sponsors to share in the success and intellectual property generated.

Product and Technology Commercialization

Thousands of technologies are developed each year at Ohio State, in small businesses and in the garages of entrepreneurs. CDME's model of integrating resources from the Fisher College of Business, College of Engineering, Technology Commercialization Office, and many other colleges/departments is optimized to rapidly take ideas from concept to market, while identifying and securing external funding to keep the technology moving through the development process.

Workforce Development

Collaborative technology development and new product commercialization is meaningless without a trained and educated workforce. Manufacturing and business technologies are changing at an ever increasing rate, CDME's workforce development programs help keep organizations associates up-to-date. With customized program development, industry manufacturers and small businesses can target training programs on their specific needs, reducing the time spent on non-productive tasks and increasing job satisfaction.

Regional Economic Development

Regional economic growth is a result of effectively managing the interconnectivity of multi-industrial collaboration, technology commercialization and workforce development. When done correctly, each is interconnected with the others and all result in economic growth for the region.