New Robotics Training Facility in Marion Breaks Ground

L-R: Gary Iams, Development officer, OSUM and TRCC Board Member, Myra Wilson, Director of Alber Enterprise Center at OSUM, Dave Wagner, Dean of Engineering Technologies from MTC, and Chuck Speelman, Tri-Rivers Superintendent.

With a blustery wind and a back drop of equipment tearing up the topsoil at Tri-Rivers Career Center, several partners joined together Tuesday to break ground on a new robotics training center. The new facility will be the first of its kind in the State of Ohio and officials hope it will be another step towards establishing Marion as an educational center.

“It’s a huge day for us,” stated Chuck Speelman, Tri-Rivers Superintendent, who led the brief groundbreaking ceremony. He thanked Ohio State University at Marion and Marion Technical College, saying their partnership “is going to make a lasting impact” on the greater Marion County area.

Speelman said the response to the robotics training facility has been overwhelming, explaining that he continues to get calls from groups and businesses asking how they can get involved. He said the response has been so great, that they are already discussing how to develop a second building.

The center, called RAMTECH, will be used to train high school, college, and adult students to run and repair large industrial robotics. Speelman said while there are plenty of schools that offer robotics training using small desktop simulations, RAMTECH will be the first in the state to offer the real-life experience of working on actual large industrial robots.

Concept drawing of new RAMTECH building.

The new addition to the north-west corner of the current Tri-Rivers Career Center building was made possible through donations from several businesses, including Nucor, Glen-Gery, and Menards. Additional funding came through savings realized by cuts and reductions made in the spring at Tri-Rivers. Speelman said that will all of this, the project is completely funded and no loans are being used.

Officials expect the new building to be completed in January 2013. Students are already working on training in current classrooms so they will be ready to move on to the large industrial robots when the facility opens in just a few months.