Heartland Community College celebrated the opening of a new facility designed for the instruction of state-of-the-art advanced manufacturing programs including Electric Vehicle Technology, High-Voltage Energy Storage, Robotics, Renewable Energy, and Automation.
Funded in part by a $7.5 million State of Illinois grant from the Rebuild Illinois capital plan, Heartland’s Advanced Manufacturing Center features the State Farm Electric Vehicle Laboratory, the permanent home of the College’s pathbreaking Electric Vehicle/Energy Storage program which launched in 2021. Gov. JB Pritzker was on hand earlier this week to give remarks about one of the two new state-of-the-art facilities opening in Illinois.
Heartland Community College President Keith Cornille touted the advancement in program opportunities offered at the school and what this new facility means for students who will go through it.
Construction of the 45,000 square foot facility began in the fall of 2022. The $17M facility incorporates remodeled space to further support programs such as robotics, HVAC, welding, and digital media, in addition to the newly constructed State Farm EV Lab.
The Advanced Manufacturing Center project is funded in a public/private partnership with programmatic and financial support from local business leaders. In August of 2023, State Farm provided a $1 million grant to support the 6,278 square foot Heartland electric vehicle/energy storage training facility.
