University Of Houston To Launch Superconductor Manufacturing Institute

The University of Houston will spearhead an initiative that aims to speed the commercialization of high temperature superconductors, school officials announced.

The plan to launch the Advanced Superconductor Manufacturing Institute (ASMI), which also has Energetics Inc.'s support in this effort, received a $500,000 backing from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The University of Houston was one of 16 recipients of the NIST planning grant, among 118 applicants in a competitive selection process.

The planning grant will be used to develop an industry-led consortium to address technical obstacles that have limited superconductor manufacturing, as well as to develop a business plan for the institute.

"Under the leadership of [Dr. Venkat Selvamanickam], with our partners in the Advanced Superconductor Manufacturing Institute, I anticipate a revolution in the scalable manufacturing of low cost, high performance superconductors," Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer at UH and acting vice president/vice chancellor for research and technology transfer, said in a statement.

Supporters of the proposed institute, including companies prominent in the superconductor industry, spent almost two years laying the groundwork for ASMI in a UH-led effort catalyzed by Rathindra Bose, then UH vice president for research and technology transfer. Selvamanickam said the next 18 months will be used to build a consortium of industry, academia and others and to develop plans to address the roadblocks to low-cost, high-volume production, quality assurance and reliability testing.

The NIST grant was announced this week, part of the second round of funding provided by NIST's Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia, which launched in 2013 to address expanding advanced manufacturing in the United States.

The United States has five Advanced Manufacturing Institutes but none involve superconductor technology. None of the planning consortiums funded in 2014, the first year the grants were awarded, deal with superconductor technology, either.