What We Do Industry & Entrepreneurs

By using the John A. Swanson Center for Product Innovation, clients from small businesses to large industries gain access to unique, effective resources. Not only do companies have access to more than four million dollars worth of state-of-the-art equipment, but they also leverage over 100 engineering faculty, focused on specialized areas of research, to enhance their new innovations.

How is this done? At the Center, industry-based design projects form the coursework foundation for the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering's Product Realization certification.

Industry and entrepreneurs can work with the Center in one of three ways:

• On a fee-for-service basis.
• With a four-month long undergraduate design project
• In a full-scale, one- to two-year long graduate research project

Interested companies can bring a concept, a former product or process to the facility, and a new product and/or process will be created based on the company's needs and specifications. Using the Center's leading edge laboratory equipment, we are able to produce accurate, quality components in very little time.

Most projects begin in the Design Laboratory, where computer-aided design and analysis software are used to manipulate existing specifications and "virtually" test new ones. Once complete, the design is transmitted electronically to the W.M. Keck Laboratory, where a working prototype is created using one of three rapid prototyping technologies. By using steriolithography, fused disposition modeling and 3-D printing, the laboratory helps clients rapidly manufacture the new product.

The John A. Swanson Center for Product Innovation is competitively priced to meet the needs of smaller companies that lack the resources to access the advanced equipment that is within the Center.

Click here for info on how to participate.

Swanson Center for Product Innovation

 

Questions?

• Don Shields
• Phone: 412-624-8120
• swansoninfo@
  engr.pitt.edu