Luis G. Pedraja
June 22, 2021
Q&A: New $25M QCC manufacturing center will put the industry on display
On June 14, Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester announced it had received more than $25 million in funding to renovate and build out a new advanced manufacturing and robotics center. The forthcoming expansion, named the I3Q Center, will provide training for an array of disciplines, including robotics, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, drone training, mobile app development, e-game testing, website development, hospitality and food service. QCC President Dr. Luis Pedraja spoke with WBJ about the school’s plans for the facilities, and how it might help bolster the region’s manufacturing workforce.
What exactly is this project? Is it a new building?
It’s actually a combination of a renovation of our current athletic facility and space we use for advanced manufacturing, to make it more handicap-compatible and more usable, but also an expansion. There’ll be an extension to increase our workforce capabilities and to take advanced manufacturing, robotics, and other key industry areas and workforce areas and put them in a location more in the view of students and public.
When did QCC start exploring this idea?
We started thinking about it after I became president in 2017, and in 2018 we had developed an initial proposal; but it was in 2019 we submitted the proposal.
How will it serve QCC, and how will it serve the community?
Well, it is a space that not only will help advance training and workforce capabilities, but it also can be used for other purposes. It’s going to have some multipurpose areas. We’re going to put a commercial kitchen there to support our culinary arts program, but as you can imagine, we can get the students in those programs to advance so in someway it will help the community.
It will get us more trained people into the workforce. People hear manufacturing, and they think of something from their grandparents’ time. They think old assembly lines. There are still components that might still be there but most of it is state of the art, now. It’s machining. It’s programming the machinery that is going to do the work. It's more exciting than what people realize, and being able to see it, I think, is going to change the perception.
We need more people in those fields, and sometimes it’s hard to attract people. Nobody really sees the current program. We hope to put it where people going into the athletics facility and to classes can see it because the center will have glass walls so people can see what’s going on. They’ll be able to imagine themselves doing that kind of work.
Has QCC seen an increased interest in manufacturing programs?
There’s been a steady flow of students but not to meet the demands of the workforce. We’ve done some work with the industry where they partner with us to train people. We’re doing some of that, and this center might help us do more of that.
When will it be up and running?
My hope is that, once we get initial designs, it'll take a couple years to do the full renovation. As you know with building projects, sometimes they are on schedule and sometimes they're not. My hope is within two years of when we start, it’ll be set. It’ll be phased. We’ll do one part first that can open, then the other part will open.
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Senior Staff Writer Monica Benevides.
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