Automation and Robotics Center is a Collaborative Effort to Bolster the High-Tech Manufacturing Workforce

On the edge of downtown Waterloo, Iowa, there’s a historic site where the first John Deere tractor factory changed the face of agriculture forever. A hundred years later in the same building, a new kind of workforce is being built – one fluent in robotics, smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

This is the Automation and Robotics Center at Hawkeye Community College, a collaboration between educators, employers, and community leaders who refused to accept the idea that manufacturing’s best days were behind it.

A Vision That Started with a Challenge

“The vision of from this facility kind of came around about five years ago, and it was to address several workforce needs and to be able to serve our community as a community college,” said Srdjan Golub, Senior Director of Education and Workforce Solutions at Hawkeye.

He and a small group of local leaders saw what was coming: a growing skills gap, a retiring workforce, and a generation unsure what modern manufacturing even looked like. The solution, they decided, was a new approach to technical education in an open, collaborative lab unlike any other.

“We wanted to provide an area where advanced manufacturing with emphasis on industry 4.0 and robotics can be a showpiece,” Golub explained. “So the businesses can come and see what’s new, what’s available, how they can implement those technologies in their businesses. But also they will need to hire individuals that will install, maintain and operate those new machines and processes.”

That simple vision – to showcase, educate, and connect – sparked a collaboration that now defines the region’s approach to workforce development.

TechWorks Campus Built by Collaboration

“This truly was a private public partnership and it took the entire village to get this going,” Golub said. “We had the K-12 system, Waterloo Community Schools, Hawkeye Community College, the University of Northern Iowa. And then we had John Deere as the largest employer in the area.”

Grow Cedar Valley, the region’s economic development organization, was the final piece. Their offices sat on the TechWorks Campus, a development carved out of the old Deere property. When Golub first walked through the vacant factory, the idea clicked.

“I looked at the space. I’m like, wow, this is really good. And it’s all concrete. It has brick. It’s beautiful. It’s definitely manufacturing,” he recalled. “And I just had a vision like, if we put the right stuff in here, and we have the right programs, you know, and make it modern.”

Today, the polished concrete floors and brick walls still nod to that history, but everything else tells a different story. Collaborative robots share space with CNC machines, vision systems, and smart manufacturing lines. Students train on the same technologies used in modern advanced manufacturing facilities. Employers come to see what’s next.

“This can maybe change that myth about manufacturing, that it’s not dirty, dingy, dangerous. It has moved on,” Golub said. “We have the smart sensors, we have the smart factories, we have the robots.”

The Lab Setup of the Future

Every detail of the center was designed with intention, from the layout of the lab to the technology mix.

“We were very deliberate in the setup and the layout of the floor,” Golub said. “On one side we have automation and robotics. And then the other side is our different subject areas… and in the middle, we have a common area for study and a home for the instructors.”

It’s a space designed for movement. Students circulate between FANUC robots, CNC machines, fully-automated manufacturing lines, and a plethora of manufacturing technologies that teach electrical, fluid power, PLCs, and more, guided by instructors who share expertise across disciplines.

In the center of the room, rows of tables and chairs serve as an open classroom; behind that, the instructors have their desks where they can easily monitor and support students working on their labs.

“With the open concept lab with content, hands-on, and having very detailed classes and labs, we can actually serve more students with the same amount or even sometimes fewer instructors,” Golub explained .

This setup should serve as a model for all of higher education in an age of applied, industry-relevant and collaborative learning. It allows the college to serve high school students, adult learners, and incumbent workers under one roof.

Industry-Aligned Technical Education

When it came to choosing equipment to put in the lab, the decision was driven by data and dialogue. The college’s primary goal was to choose technologies that were most relevant to industry needs – both for immediate workforce challenges and for industry’s future technology investments.

“A lot of the equipment in here is due to stakeholder feedback. We looked at nationwide data and the market share that FANUC has,” said Golub.

Local employers, many of them already using FANUC robots, pushed for alignment. “Yes, when you have FANUC robots, FANUC cells in your facility… we would love to have something local not just for our needs, but also that you can grow our own workforce here that has those skills readily available locally,” he recalled.

That alignment between education and industry created a model of authenticity. Students train on the same systems they’ll use on the job.

For Mohammed Albasri, lead robotics instructor, that realism makes all the difference.

“In our program, our students take a variety of classes related to automation. So they are learning about VFDs, PLCs, smart sensors and other components,” he explained. “For robotics we teach our students robot programming, some material handling as well as 2D vision and robot integration.”

The students’ pride in their work is apparent. “What I like about the industry robot is the whole process,” Albasri said. “There’s something satisfying about teaching the robot point and jogging the robot around and then seeing every step they thought about, and the robot actually performing that task exactly the way they want it.”

Learning for Every Pathway

Hawkeye’s approach to education isn’t one-size-fits-all. The programs span from short-term training to full apprenticeships, all built on stackable, nationally recognized credentials.

“We offer stackable credentials, and FANUC allows us to do that because through NOCTI they’ll allow that third party credential. It’s really accepted anywhere,” Golub said. “So we’re not just training for our local folks… but if they want to go anywhere else in the nation, they could.”

From there, the outcomes speak for themselves. “We have individuals that went through our apprenticeship programs… we have a lot of individuals that get jobs at John Deere,” he said. “It’s always great to see some of their incomes double. That is huge.”

The story of this center is best told through the people who pass through it.

Like Kristopher, a student who discovered his passion for robotics after years of not knowing what path to take. “I’m really hoping to get into [automation] because I see the future of it and how everything in industry is moving towards automation. The job prospects are pretty good. It opens up a lot of doors all over the country.”

Or Garett, who came back to Hawkeye after starting a career in industrial maintenance and wanted to accelerate his career. “More companies are becoming more automated and robotic,” he said. “So it’s best to continue learning more about that stuff. For me, the sky’s the limit. You have it take it step by step and keep building.”

A Model for the Nation

For Golub, the impact is both local and far-reaching. “Community colleges are often workforce gems for the local area,” he said. “The beauty of our programs…we are a workforce program fully. It’s not tied to an associate’s degree, so we’re able to be flexible and pivot really the next semester.”

That adaptability has allowed Hawkeye to build partnerships with small manufacturers and major employers alike. “We were able to take a small business that was doing automation…purchased equipment, that same equipment we had here. So we were training on the authentic to work environment,” Golub explained.

While the college is offering these flexible training programs in the Automation and Robotics Center, they plan to expand access to the facility to more credit-based programs at the college.

“My advice to other colleges, other institutions looking to replicate something like this across the nation is you have to have the right people in the right seats,” Golub said. “The resources are important and the people are more important. You have to have individuals that have the passion, the knowledge and connections. You can now do this.”

In Waterloo, that’s exactly what they’ve done.