Oakland University and Automation Alley have opened the Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence inside the university's Research and Innovation Center in Rochester Hills, merging a fast-growing academic research operation with one of the nation's largest distributed 3D printing networks. The new center houses Automation Alley's Project DIAMOnD hub, a network that has produced more than 50,000 parts since it launched and now includes more than 475 operational industrial 3D printers spread across more than 500 Michigan manufacturers.
The facility sits at 2871 Research Drive on Adams Road south of M-59 in an industrial park, about two miles south of Oakland University's main campus, according to The Oakland Press. The Research and Innovation Center itself is a 50,000-square-foot building that Oakland University purchased in 2022 and has occupied since January 2024. It now includes laboratories and equipment for manufacturing, autonomous vehicles, battery testing and wireless radio-frequency technology, giving the new manufacturing center a broader research footprint than a standalone 3D printing shop.
The move brings Project DIAMOnD's Digital Transformation Center in-house after it had operated out of Auburn Hills starting in September 2024 in partnership with industrial 3D printing firm Geofabrica, according to Automation Alley. That Auburn Hills location gave area businesses hands-on access to 3D printing equipment, scanning and post-processing before the center relocated to Oakland University's building this month.
A Pandemic-Era Network Grows Up
Project DIAMOnD, which stands for Distributed Independent Agile Manufacturing on Demand, began as a response to COVID-19 pandemic supply-chain disruptions, per the Oakland Press. Oakland County and Automation Alley originally built the network in October 2020 using $10 million in federal CARES Act relief funds to distribute 250 industrial 3D printers to small manufacturers, according to CBS News Detroit. Oakland County leaders later set aside an additional $15 million in 2023 to expand printer distribution further.
The network kept growing well past its pandemic origins. As of August 2025, Project DIAMOnD had completed 51,153 print jobs across its network of more than 500 small and medium-sized Michigan manufacturers, according to DBusiness. In December 2024, the Michigan Infrastructure Office allocated $1.9 million in federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding, matched by $475,000 from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and $125,000 from Automation Alley, to expand the network to 100 small manufacturers statewide, with at least 40% of that expanded target reserved for small manufacturers in underserved communities. Automation Alley also launched an additive manufacturing marketplace in October 2025, a secure peer-to-peer digital platform where companies submit 3D printing jobs that participating manufacturers fulfill using encrypted part files, letting designers without their own 3D printing hardware order parts while protecting their intellectual property.
Bridging Campus Research and Factory Floors
Pavan Muzumdar, CEO of Project DIAMOnD, said the facility resembles a privately owned, well-funded and well-resourced production and research facility, per the Oakland Press. Muzumdar also noted that Automation Alley includes more than 4,000 members across its industrial network. Tom Kelly, Automation Alley's executive director and CEO, said innovation in advanced manufacturing happens fastest when academia and industry work together.
Louay Chamra, dean of Oakland University's School of Engineering and Computer Science, said the collaboration gives faculty and students a place to work with industry on important problems. Daniel Aloi, director of research for the school, said students often get hired by manufacturers because they work on real-world problems and interface with the community. The center is designed to give students hands-on experience with real-world manufacturing problems while Project DIAMOnD members work with the center to develop metal 3D-printing technologies for commercial-scale production.
Oakland County Executive David Coulter is also connected to the effort, which arrives as Oakland University's School of Engineering and Computer Science has secured about $8 million in federal funding over the past five years. That grant momentum tracks with the university's broader research expansion: Oakland University's academic research expenditures more than tripled from $12.9 million in fiscal year 2020 to $38 million in fiscal year 2022, pushing the university to 233rd among U.S. institutions in federal research expenditures. The university spent $12.5 million renovating the 48,700-square-foot Research Drive building, which it bought in December 2020 for $3.715 million, before its official grand opening as the SECS Research and Innovation Center in May 2024.
What Manufacturers and Students Get Out of It
Researchers, students, and industry partners will develop what the collaboration calls smart product recipes, standardized digital manufacturing instructions meant to produce consistent parts across the network. Manufacturers working with the center gain access to university expertise and emerging technologies, along with training and research capabilities they would not otherwise have on their own. The Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence is expected to expand as new technologies emerge, with plans to accelerate the development and adoption of advanced manufacturing tools and help research ideas move from laboratories into commercial production.
The launch lands in a region with deep manufacturing roots: Oakland County employs more than 65,000 manufacturing workers and ranks sixth among all U.S. counties in metalworking technology traded industry clusters, according to Oakland County government. That density of industrial suppliers is part of why the new center's blend of university labs and a 500-manufacturer network matters locally, even as Automation Alley continues navigating separate funding turbulence in Lansing. The organization was among 13 Michigan startup support groups whose share of $4.2 million in Michigan Innovation Fund grants was frozen earlier this year amid a legislative dispute over state budget carryover funds, as Hoodline previously reported.
It remains to be seen how many local businesses will use the physical Rochester Hills center directly versus ordering parts remotely through Project DIAMOnD's digital marketplace, and how deeply student researchers will be woven into commercial-scale metal 3D printing projects going forward. For now, the center stands as a concrete link between Oakland University's expanding lab space and a manufacturing network built out of a pandemic-era emergency response.
