Established in 2009 within Purdue University's School of Aviation and Transportation Technology, the Aerospace and MRO Technology Innovation (AMT-I) Center's Hangar of the Future serves as a multidisciplinary, collaborative project laboratory. Here, student design teams collaborate with research faculty and industry partners to address the integration of physical and digital tools in high-consequence operations across aviation, aerospace, and commercial space sectors. The center emphasizes rapid design, testing, and integration of Industry 4.0 technologies, including augmented, virtual, and mixed reality applications, digital twinning, predictive maintenance, additive manufacturing (3D printing), and robotics.
The AMT-I Center's mission is to challenge and equip innovation pioneers by listening to industry's key human and technology challenges, exploring and adapting human-friendly solutions, learning from failures, integrating diverse team skills, and producing impactful solutions that advance knowledge and solve problems. Projects are designed to enhance airworthiness, safety, quality, and reliability in technical operations, with a focus on real-world applicability and usability by frontline technicians. Key performance outcomes include decreased labor hours, increased positive wrench time, and improved task accuracy and first-time fix rates.