Caterpillar opens first near-campus facility in Convergence Center

WEST LAFAYETE, Ind. − The ribbon has been cut on Caterpillar's new office in the Convergence Center in Purdue's Discovery Park District.

This new office, the first near-campus Caterpillar facility, is now formally opened after a ribbon cutting on Tuesday. This facility also reaffirms the company's $1 million commitment to the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, following the announcement of the donation in December 2021.

According to the release about this opening, "The newly named Caterpillar Smart Foundry represents a cornerstone element of the Purdue Polytechnic Smart Learning Factory."

“We envision these two new buildings as a flagship component of Purdue’s growing campus landscape,” said Daniel Castro-Lacouture, dean of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, in the release. “This collaboration with Caterpillar will help transform our concept into reality. It gives us one more piece of an innovative project that we believe represents a leading design for teaching, learning, research and engagement on a university campus.”

Paul Rivera, vice president of facility operations at Caterpillar, told the Journal & Courier who is working at the facility and what work is being done there.

"(The current interns) are design interns," Rivera said. "And then there's also four to five manufacturing engineers (who will be working) here as well. We work well with the design folks as well as the manufacturing engineering folks."

Rivera also mentioned that there are 200 job openings at the Lafayette Caterpillar plant to be filled before the year's end. Those available jobs range from production, supply chain and operations management roles.

Karl Weiss, senior vice president and chief technology officer for Caterpillar, is a Purdue alum who spoke more about primarily student opportunities at the new Caterpillar space in the Convergence Center.

"Our students are given projects to help different business units be successful," Weiss said, "but at the same time, (we) help the students learn about industry and how they connect their classroom work to the industry. The big advantage is you no longer have to cross the river and go to the other side of the city. They can walk here and do much of their work from this location.

"...I owe a lot to both institutions (Purdue and Caterpillar)," Weiss continued. "Through my education and career, and it really is gratifying to see the two bond even more closely together for this effort at the Polytech Smart Factory and this space; it can only grow and be more powerful. So I'm very proud to be able to facilitate that."

Margaret Christopherson is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email her at mchristopherson@jconline.com and follow her on Twitter @MargaretJC2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: The ribbon has been cut on Caterpillar's new office space near Purdue