With its bright orange cladding, the Digital Foundry at New Kensington stands out in downtown New Kensington.

But as it gets up and running, officials hope it will be better known for helping students and residents acquire the skills employers are looking for and giving manufacturers access to technologies they wouldn’t have otherwise.

“It’s going to allow people to participate in the economy of the future,” said Kevin Snider, chancellor of Penn State New Kensington. “It’s geared toward giving them the type of skill sets employers will be looking for over the next couple of decades.

“The manufacturing companies that many of our residents in this county work for need these technologies to stay competitive, and they need their workforce trained. These small companies don’t have the resources to test drive and research the technology they need. The Digital Foundry will fill that need for them.”

Penn State and its partners plan to celebrate the completion of the Digital Foundry at New Kensington with two events in June.

An invitation-only grand opening and media event is scheduled for June 1 at the facility at 851 Fifth Ave.

The public will be able to get a look inside during a community open house from 5 to 8 p.m. June 24, the same night as that month’s Fridays on Fifth food truck event.

The Digital Foundry at New Kensington is a collaborative effort between Penn State New Kensington in Upper Burrell and the Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland, a private, nonprofit membership-based organization created to foster economic growth and development in Westmoreland County.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation has invested nearly $10 million to date for the overall Digital Foundry project and New Kensington since 2018. That’s up from $5.5 million, the initial project announcement.

Economic Growth Connection owns the building but has taken a “behind the scenes role,” said Jim Smith, its president and CEO.

“This is an example of a great partnership between Penn State, the Mellon Foundation and EGC,” he said. “When organizations like that pull together with a common purpose, and you throw in a very cooperative city government, it makes for a really great project that’s going to have some tremendous impact.”

Sherri McCleary, the foundry’s executive director, said the 15,000-square-foot facility will provide services in three areas: workforce training and education for grade school and college students; technology demonstrations for small to medium-sized manufacturing companies; and networking and awareness events such as small trade shows, demonstrations and speakers.

They will focus on connecting the physical world to the cyber world, changing the way products and decisions are made and how operations are managed.

“What it really is all about is the power of connecting things digitally to enable data and information to be used to drive decisions and to drive a better understanding of your products and your processes,” McCleary said. “We’re taking physical systems and connecting them to the cyber world so we can gather data and convert data into information that will allow us to make smarter decisions.”

While many people are used to having “smart” devices in their daily lives, industry is catching up to what data and computing technology allow today, McCleary said.

“Everything in your environment is generating some sort of data,” she said. “It’s not always being captured and not always being converted into something that can lead to a meaningful decision or understanding.”

Snider said the foundry’s inception goes back to the creation of The Corner, Penn State’s innovation hub that is also on Fifth Avenue, which opened in late 2017.

“We knew when we put in The Corner we were going to have to have a maker space as part of the ecosystem for entrepreneurs,” Snider said. “We were struggling with what that would look like. In 2018, we started to formulate the maker space into a digital maker space, which became the Digital Foundry.”

Snider said Penn State students will make use of the foundry remotely from the Upper Burrell campus as well as in-person, which he said would have a ripple effect on New Kensington’s downtown as students patronize restaurants, shops and entertainment venues.

“We’re really looking at the Digital Foundry as being part of the campus and part of what we do,” he said.

Construction started late in 2020 and originally was expected to be finished in late 2021. In addition to the impacts of the covid pandemic and supply chain issues, Snider said, remnants in the ground from the building previously on the site — the home of the former Pittsburgh Beauty Academy, it was destroyed by fire in 2006 — required more excavation work.

“We’re pretty happy with where we are right now,” Snider said.

New Kensington Mayor Tom Guzzo said the facility is an example of the success of collaboration.

“We are honored and excited that the city of New Kensington was chosen as the place where people can be trained for current and future digital and smart manufacturing technology positions,” he said. “As a city founded on innovation as the birthplace of aluminum, we are now once again a city of innovation.”

Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi will speak at the June 1 grand opening. Bendapudi, who grew up in a coastal city in India, began her tenure as the 19th leader of the university on May 9. She was named to the post in December, succeeding Eric J. Barron, who retired after 30 years as president, dean and professor.

In addition to Guzzo and Smith, other remarks are expected from Sam Reiman, director of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and a representative from the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

The June 24 open house will include interactive activities, music, a photo booth, light refreshments, giveaways and tours of the facility.

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