Tag: Automation

Amazon Robotics Gift Supports Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center

Funding will go toward assisting diverse entrepreneurs in the fields of robotics and automation

John Avery and Thomas Felis
ATDC Director John Avery (left) and Thomas Felis, director of robotics strategy for Amazon Global Robotics. (Photo: Peralte C. Paul)

ATLANTA — To help support the growth of startups and individuals working to advance automation and robotics, Amazon Robotics today announced it is providing a substantial investment over three years to the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC).

 

ATDC is Georgia’s technology startup incubator and helps entrepreneurs across the state build, launch, and scale successful companies. The goal of the gift is to accelerate growth of automation and robotics by leveraging staff and resources at ATDC in collaboration with Amazon.

 

“Our mission is to support infrastructure for startups and to help foster compelling startup companies with tremendous talent that solve big problems,” said Thomas Felis, director of robotics strategy for Amazon Global Robotics. “Equally important to us is Georgia Tech’s track record of working with and supporting entrepreneurs from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.”

 

The funding includes allocation for an ATDC full-time automation and robotics catalyst to recruit and coach companies focused on automation and robotics. The catalyst will identify relevant startups and help onboard them into ATDC’s startup pipeline and portfolio.

 

“Georgia Tech is a leader in robotics research, and we are excited to have Amazon support our startup mission at ATDC to bring entrepreneurial ideas to life and to market,” said John Avery, ATDC director. “Innovation can come from anywhere and everywhere, and this collaboration reflects our commitment to support diverse startup founders.”

 

This effort will also support Georgia Tech’s ongoing robotics research, including the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines.

 

The Amazon sponsorship expands ATDC’s targeted vertical focus areas to seven, including financial, health, and retail technology, 5G, logistics and supply chain, and advanced manufacturing.

 

ATDC will also work with Amazon to identify specific areas of technical interest with the aim of developing virtual and physical events to attract relevant startups.

 

To apply to join the robotics and automation incubator, click here.

What automation means for economic development

Karen Fite Automation GaMEP
GaMEP Director Karen Fite (standing), moderates the Automation Panel at the 51st Annual Basic Economic Development Course. (Photo: Péralte C. Paul)

Automation.

 

The word and what it represents is driving a lot of discussion about what that means for manufacturers and for those in economic development tasked with bringing industry — and jobs — to their communities.

 

But automation is not the boogeyman people think it is, said Mark Ligler, vice president of Factory Automation Systems. The Atlanta-based company is a systems integration resource for many of the top manufacturers in the United States and supports them in programmable controller and drive systems, robot integration, and information solutions.

 

“Automation is not a job killer,” Ligler said. “It’s a job creator and it’s keeping people here employed.”

 

Ligler made his remarks as part of a panel discussion, “What Automation means for Your Community” at the 51st annual Basic Economic Development Course (BEDC) held Feb. 27 through March 2.

 

The interactive professional development course is produced by the Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) and offered in partnership with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). It provides seasoned economic development professionals and those new to the field with the core fundamentals of business attraction, workforce development, retention and expansion, and entrepreneur and small business challenges, as well as transformative trends in the industry.

 

Basic Economic Development Course
Sixty-five economic development professionals from across the country attended Georgia Tech’s Basic Economic Development Course at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center. (Photo: Special)

The 2018 BEDC theme — “Automation and Economic Development” — centered on how that is changing a number of industries and drove the panel discussions and other events for the 65 attendees who came from across the country.

 

“The research tells us that in roughly 60 percent of current occupations that at least a third of tasks performed in those jobs could be automated,” said Karen Fite, director of the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP).

 

A federally funded program at Georgia Tech, GaMEP works with manufacturers in the state to increase their competitiveness and efficiency and boost productivity.

 

Fite, who moderated the panel, said the question for those in economic development and manufacturers is to understand how automation will affect business and industry and how to best prepare for the jobs and skills it will require.

 

It was a sentiment echoed by other panelists, which included Josh Benton, executive director of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development; Tom Sammon, a GaMEP project manager specializing on implementing Lean manufacturing practices and helping companies develop capital equipment applications, and John Fluker, president and chief sales officer of Grenzebach Corp. in Newnan, Ga.

 

“Automation, when you look at it from a longterm perspective, is all about competitiveness,” Fluker said.

 

“Competitiveness and demographics are driving automation,” he said, adding the technologies behind it are helping create a new landscape with jobs that demand new skills.

 

“It’s not a job killer,” he said. “It’s a skills changer.”