Inside Rowan’s Center for Manufacturing Innovation, a research‑driven hub built to accelerate advanced production

If the south side of Rowan University’s proposed $690 million West Campus project is about how people live, the north side is about what they will build.

Across Route 322 from the planned Wellness Village, Rowan is advancing plans for the Rowan University Center for Manufacturing Innovation, a roughly 350,000‑square‑foot cluster of facilities that university leaders say is meant to pull together advanced manufacturing, med-tech, research and workforce development in one place.

Rowan officials describe the center as a way to help companies move products from prototype to production faster, strengthen regional supply chains and create more high‑paying technical jobs in South Jersey.

The RCMI will sit within a broader innovation park on the West Campus and be anchored by four existing Rowan engineering entities:

• The Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Institute;
• The Center for Research & Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems (CREATES);
• The Machine & Artificial Intelligence Virtual Reality Center;
• The Digital Engineering Hub.

The facilities will offer leasable research space, shared fabrication equipment and room for companies to co‑locate R&D operations alongside Rowan faculty and student teams.

Rowan Chancellor Tony Lowman framed it this way in the university’s release on the project.

“The Center for Manufacturing Innovation on Rowan’s West Campus is about imagining what’s possible when innovation, talent and industry converge,” he said. “This research hub will serve as a launchpad for novel ideas, where students learn by doing, faculty push the boundaries of discovery and industry partners help turn research into solutions that shape the future of manufacturing.

“By creating a place for shared resources, ideas and ambition. Rowan is positioning itself as a national leader in advanced manufacturing and med-tech innovation.”

Lowman, Rowan President Ali Houshmand and Fairmont Properties Founder Randy Ruttenberg spoke exclusively to BINJE and two Philadelphia-area outlets to offer details on the plan. Much of this story, and others in the package, come from that conversation.

On the media call, Lowman said the focus will be on digital and advanced manufacturing, pointing to work already underway through the Digital Engineering Hub and other centers.

“We just launched a digital engineering hub,” Lowman said. “We partner with the Department of Defense, Department of Transportation, the FAA, med tech companies.”

Lowman said the Center for Manufacturing Innovation will feature 3D printing, Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing and other innovative technology.

“It’s really designed to build the interface of where industry is going to work with our students,” he said.

Rowan officials said the connection to the students and workforce is just as important as the research.

Lowman said Rowan already places large numbers of engineering students in internships with companies such as Lockheed Martin, which then hire them into full‑time roles.

The idea at West Campus is to formalize and expand that model: Bring companies on campus, put their equipment and engineers next to Rowan’s labs, and treat the center as a direct pipeline into South Jersey’s manufacturing and med-tech workforce, he said.

Houshmand has long said higher ed doesn’t do enough to prepare students for the work world — and that employers often spend six months to a year simply retraining fresh college graduates to be functional. Houshmand wants places such as the RCMI and the tech park around it to shorten that gap by letting students work on real projects long before graduation.

Of course, the RCMI is not starting from scratch. Rowan’s existing West Campus already includes:

• The Samuel H. Jones Innovation Center;
• CREATES (the Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems);
• The Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine;
• The Virtua Health College Research Center of Rowan University;
• A student‑run produce farm and aquaponics facility.

It’s also the future home of the Rita & Larry Salva School of Nursing & Health Professions, part of Virtua Health College of Medicine & Life Sciences of Rowan University.

Rowan Board of Trustees Chair Chad Bruner said in a release that the university’s recent growth — nearly doubling enrollment over the past dozen years to 24,500 students and landing among the top 100 public research universities in the country — has created a moment to think bigger.

The RCMI is part of that, Lowman said. It’s one piece of Houshmand’s broader push to position Rowan as a “giant in health care” and a research‑heavy public university with deep industry ties.

And it’s the industrial counterweight to the Wellness Village across the street, giving Rowan a chance to say it is building not just a campus expansion, but a district where people live, work, learn, get care — and build what comes next.

Here is a big-picture overview of the entire scope and vision of the project, presented in an easy-to-digest Q&A format.

Here are a number of stories from BINJE on recent moves by Rowan that connect to the vision of the West Campus project:

Rowan unveils AI-powered digital engineering hub; 

Rowan, FDU join forces in health care education; 

Rowan celebrates grand opening of first veterinary school; 

Rowan receives $1M for transportation, engineering research;

Rowan conference to tackle state’s energy future;

Rowan joins academic aerospace consortium;

Rowan, Cooper EDA create Strategic Innovation Center.