K-State Olathe highlights future of manufacturing program with $5 million in federal funding

Kansas State-Olathe campus representatives joined other local governments Tuesday to highlight new federal funding secured in February by 3rd District Rep. Sharice Davids and Sen. Jerry Moran.

K-State Olathe is set to receive $5 million later this year to purchase lab equipment for the school’s supply chain research and advanced manufacturing curriculum. The equipment will support a $4 million expansion the campus opened in January for those programs.

“Several years ago, our campus launched a strategic plan aligned with the university’s next gen land grant strategy,” campus dean Ben Wolfe said. “One of the central priorities of that plan was to build the infrastructure needed to support the manufacturing industry in Johnson County, the greater-Kansas City region, the state of Kansas and across the country.”

Wolfe said he believes the campus has made significant progress since that plan launched in late-2023. A major piece of that progress has been the creation of the bulk solids program, although the full educational side of that program will launch later this year when the new equipment is actually acquired.

As the manufacturing programs continue to take shape, K-State Olathe is establishing professional partners to work with students and researchers using the new facilities. Wolfe said Panasonic, Garmin and Honeywell are part of those talks currently.

“I think there’s an opportunity to train a pool of workers that multiple manufacturers can come to and draw talent from, and that’s ultimately our goal,” Wolfe told The Olathe Reporter. “Everyday new manufacturers announce they’re building a facility and coming here to Johnson County or the state of Kansas, and really that’s what this program is meant to do, is build up that workforce.”

Among the campus’s goals from the 2023 strategic plan was to get to an enrollment of 500 students by 2030 and to serve about 2,500 non-credit learners. Wolfe said they’re at about 225 students now with about 1,500 non-credit learners.

As the campus grows, Wolfe said success will be measured by those enrollment goals, but also by how well the campus uses its new equipment. For example, companies will be able to use those tools to test production issues without shutting down whole facilities.

Alongside the $5 million for K-State Olathe, other projects around the Kansas 3rd District received federal funding. Some highlights include $2.25 million to fix up John Brown Park in Osawatomie, $2 million for an air traffic control tower at the New Century Airport and $884,000 for sewer rehabilitation in Olathe.