The ARM Institute honored members with its latest ARM Champion Awards. Source: ARM Institute
While many companies talk about reshoring and automating U.S. production, a few are taking the lead. The Advanced Robotics in Manufacturing, or ARM, Institute recognized some of its members with ARM Champion Awards at its ninth annual member meeting earlier this month.
“Our member consortium is foundational to the success of the ARM Institute,” noted Jay Douglass, chief operating officer of the ARM Institute. “We are honored to recognize individual members who have gone above and beyond the scope of membership to further our impact and advance U.S. manufacturing. On behalf of the ARM Institute team, I’d like to thank our 2025 class of ARM Champions for their continued commitment and congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition.”
Founded in 2017, the ARM Institute is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) under Agreement No. W911NF-17-3-0004. A part of the Manufacturing USA network, the Pittsburgh-based organization has more than 450 members and partners across industry, academia, and government.
The ARM Institute’s stated goal is “to make robotics, autonomy, and artificial intelligence more accessible to U.S. manufacturers large and small, train and empower the manufacturing workforce, strengthen our economy and global competitiveness, and elevate national security and resilience.”
Yaskawa sponsors 2025 ARM Champion dinner
This year, member company Yaskawa sponsored the ARM Institute’s 2025 Champions Awards dinner. Two of its employees, Roger Christian and Clint Chapman, were previous honorees.
This year’s ARM Champions included:
- Lisa Baraniecki, Lockheed Martin
- Matt Brown, ThoughtForge AI
- Lou Camerlengo, Fivestar
- Brad Conrad, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Office of Advanced Manufacturing (OAM)
- Paul Evans, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)
- Jared Glover, CapSen Robotics
- Michael Groeber, the Ohio State University
- Dave Rappaport, Siemens
- Glenn Saunders, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
- Terri Burgess Sandu, Lorain County Community College (LCCC)
“Hats-off to the ARM Institute Management Team for putting together another fabulous Annual Member Meeting and to the new Champion Award recipients,” said Christian, Yaskawa division leader for new business development. “I also want to recognize the great support and guidance we receive from our DoD sponsors, Harry Pierson and Mike Hollis.”
“Standing at the Point in Pittsburgh, where the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers converge, you can feel the city’s energy bold, innovative, and ready for what’s next,” added Chapman, senior manager of strategic partner relations for education/workforce development at Yaskawa. “That same spirit is what makes the ARM Institute’s Annual Meeting such a special gathering.”
“This year, we didn’t just come together to reflect; we’re coming together to celebrate progress, embrace new challenges, and ignite the next wave of innovation in robotics and manufacturing,” he said. “It was exciting to engage with colleagues, partners, and visionaries who share a commitment to shaping the future of automation, the workforce, and American manufacturing. We rolled up our sleeves, shared what we’ve learned, and charted where we go next together.”
Previous ARM Champions include SK Gupta, co-founder and chief scientist at GrayMatter Robotics, who will be among the speakers at RoboBusiness 2025. The premiere event for developers and suppliers of commercial robotics will be on Oct. 15 and 16 in Santa Clara, Calif. Registration is now open.
ARM Institute annual member meeting grows
The ARM Institute said its annual member meeting included two and a half days of networking, workshops, and demonstrations. The member-exclusive event featured the Robotics Manufacturing Hub, technology presentations in institute-funded projects, and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) workforce development activities.
In addition, ARM provided two Tech Days around its project calls, panel discussions about the role of artificial intelligence in manufacturing, and five-minute pitches on member capabilities or problems they wanted help solving.
Next year’s ARM Institute member meeting will be from Nov. 17 to 19, 2026.
The ARM Institute hosted member receptions and technology demonstrations at its Mill 19 headquarters. Source: ARM Institute
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