Carnegie Mellon University Receives Massive $150 million Grant to Advance Robotics - The Green Voice

Carnegie Mellon University has made Pittsburgh a globally recognized hub for robotic development and research. Now the Richard King Mellon Foundation will ensure that the school continues to use the technology to tackle real-world problems, all in a sustainable environment.

On  May 20, it was announced that the RK Mellon Foundation, the largest  philanthropic organization in southwestern Pennsylvania, awarded a $150  million grant to CMU. A press release calls the gift "the largest single  grant in the Foundation's 74-year history."

Exactly half of the  grant — $75 million — will support a new Robotics Innovation Center at  the recently opened 178-acre, riverside Hazelwood Green site. Described  as a "translational research facility," the RIC is estimated to cost  $100 million and will add up to 150,000-square-feet of space to CMU's  robotic research capabilities. It's also described as complementing the  work of CMU's National Robotics Engineering Center located in  Lawrenceville.

"The technologies developed at the Robotics  Innovation Center will ripple across every part of our society and  economy, impacting fields including health care, transportation,  national security, education, agriculture and retail," says Martial  Hebert, dean of CMU's School of Computer Science.

The other $75 million will go towards a new science building on the CMU Oakland campus.

Through  a partnership known as Almono — a name combining Pittsburgh's three  rivers — the Richard King Mellon Foundation, Heinz Endowments, and  Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation have focused on the long-term  redevelopment of Hazelwood Green by transforming it from a former steel  mill into a "center for innovation and economic development." The vision  for the site is described as "inclusive of the local community, with a  focus on sustainability, equity and inclusive economic opportunity."

Currently,  Hazelwood Green is home to CMU's Manufacturing Futures Initiative and  Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute. The two became the first  tenants at Mill 19, a former steel mill converted into a high-tech  building.

Besides being viewed  as an economic driver for Pittsburgh, it also furthers CMU's commitment  to investing in a greener future for the city.  In September 2019,  moving the manufacturing institutes to Mill 19 was viewed as part of CMU's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Defined  in a press release as aiming to "create a more peaceful, prosperous  planet with just and inclusive societies," the goals cover "wide-ranging  issues," among them "preventing the harmful effects of climate change  by 2030."

The Mill 19 move is seen as helping to fulfill two of  CMU's goals - Goal 7, which seeks to "ensure access to affordable,  reliable, sustainable and clean energy for all by," and Goal 9, which,  among other things, focuses on "creating or improving low-carbon  infrastructure, including in buildings." As previously reported by  Pittsburgh Earth Day, Mill 19 is home to one of the largest solar arrays of its kind in the U.S., meaning CMU's latest ventures are being powered, in large part, by renewable energy.

This  also comes through in Hazelwood Green once being a contaminated  brownfield site, and that the existing buildings were used, which  greatly reduces the carbon output produced by demolition and new  construction.

Considering how robotics has been deployed by  students and faculty out of CMU, the possibilities for the RIC,  especially in terms of green innovation, seem all the more promising.  For example, a group of CMU students founded Fifth Season,  formerly Robotany, a Pittsburgh company that uses vertical farming  robotics as an eco-friendly (less water, no pesticides) way to grow  fresh produce all year round. Other success stories include CleanRobotics,  a startup spun out of CMU that strives to keep recyclables out of  landfills with TrashBot, an advanced bin that uses AI and robotics to  better separate trash.

The grant signals an investment in what the  RK Mellon Foundation and CMU view as the health of Hazelwood, and  Pittsburgh's future, not just economically, but environmentally.