NIU’s College of Engineering will receive $5.75 million from Congress to design technology for manufacturing lightweight tanks and other weaponry in Rockford for the U.S. military.

Congressman Don Manzullo, R-Egan, attained $5.5 million for the program out of the FY04 Small Business Administration and Defense appropriations bills passed earlier this year. Of that, NIU received $2.25 million last fiscal year and will get the remaining $3.5 million set aside for this year’s fiscal year appropriation.

The funding will help establish a defense-related manufacturing research and development initiative in Rockford, said Kathryn Buettner, associate vice president and executive director of NIU’s External Affairs and Economic Development.

The Rapid Optimization of Commercial Knowledge project, or R.O.C.K., is a program which will help Rockford’s manufacturing industry create a new generation of faster, lighter and stronger fighting vehicles for the U.S. military, said NIU President John Peters in his Oct. 7 State of the University Address.

NIU’s College of Engineering is a “top player” in the project, said Promod Vohra, interim dean of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. The goal of the project is to bring manufacturing prominence back to Rockford.

NIU will provide expertise on the design of products as well as supply testing facilities for the weapons, Buettner said.

“It’s an opportunity for our engineering college to provide assistance and research support to Rockford on an applied project,” Buettner said.

NIU is attempting to help Rockford’s falling industry sector, Vohra said.

“The underlying principle is that the academic and business communities are getting together to solve a problem in a region that needs to improve jobs and manufacturing,” Vohra said. This will help to solve similar issues nationally, Vohra said.

The plan is to translate this technology into commercial products for everyday use, Buettner said. This process may help solve problems in manufacturing towns similar to Rockford.

“Rockford as a town is suffering from the decline in the manufacturing sector nationwide,” Buettner said.

Since 1999, Rockford’s industry has seen a loss of 12,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of nearly 13 percent, the highest in Illinois, according to a report in the March 11 Legislation and Audit and External Affairs Committee Book for NIU’s Board of Trustees.

The project is a “public-private venture” that involves NIU, Alion Science & Technology, Rockford Area Ventures and other Illinois universities and manufacturers.

Alion is a global research and development company primarily serving the U.S. government.

RAV provides opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses to commercialize technology-based manufacturing ideas and research.

“It is not unusual for a university to help with military technology,” Buettner said. “This is just our first project of this type.”