The ARM Institute Champion Awards celebrate individuals from across the ARM Institute’s 450+ member organization consortium who have gone above and beyond to promote the institute’s mission.
September 15, 2025 -– The ARM (Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing) Institute recently presented several individuals from its member consortium with ARM Champion awards during the institute’s 9th Annual Member Meeting, which took place Sept. 3-5 in Pittsburgh, PA. The ARM Champion Awards recognize ARM Members who have gone above and beyond to advocate for institute’s mission and strengthen U.S. manufacturing. ARM Champions are nominated by their fellow members and the ARM Institute team. The robotics institute’s leadership team selects awardees from the nominations.
This year, ARM Member Yaskawa generously sponsored the institute’s 2025 Champions Awards dinner during the Member Meeting! Yaskawa has had two members of their team recognized as ARM Institute Champions during prior Member Meetings: Roger Christian and Clint Chapman. Both Roger and Clint have made countless invaluable contributions to the ARM Institute, making them the perfect organization to sponsor this important celebration.
The 2025 class of ARM Champions celebrates:
- Lisa Baraniecki, Lockheed Martin
- Matt Brown, ThoughtForge AI
- Lou Camerlengo, Fivestar
- Brad Conrad, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Office of Advanced Manufacturing (OAM)
- Paul Evans, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)
- Jared Glover, CapSen Robotics
- Michael Groeber, the Ohio State University
- Dave Rappaport, Siemens
- Glenn Saunders, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Terri Burgess Sandu, Lorain County Community College (LCCC)
“Hats-off to the ARM Institute Management Team for putting together another fabulous Annual Member Meeting and to the new Champion Award recipients! It was Yaskawa’s great pleasure to sponsor the dinner since this prestigious award represents above-and-beyond individual contributions that make this consortium so great. I also want to recognize the great support and guidance we receive from our DOD sponsors, Harry Pierson and Mike Hollis.” said Roger Christian, Yaskawa Division Leader for New Business Development.
“Our member consortium is foundational to the success of the ARM Institute,” noted Jay Douglass, ARM Institute Chief Operating Officer, “We are honored to recognize individual members who have gone above and beyond the scope of membership to further our impact and advance US manufacturing. On behalf of the ARM Institute team, I’d like to thank our 2025 class of ARM Champions for their continued commitment and congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition.”
“Standing at the Point in Pittsburgh, where the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers converge, you can feel the city’s energy bold, innovative, and ready for what’s next. That same spirit is what makes the ARM Institute’s Annual Meeting such a special gathering. This year, we didn’t just come together to reflect; we’re coming together to celebrate progress, embrace new challenges, and ignite the next wave of innovation in robotics and manufacturing,” said Clint Chapman, Sr. Manager Strategic Partner Relations for Education/Workforce Development at Yaskawa, “It was exciting to engage with colleagues, partners, and visionaries who share a commitment to shaping the future of automation, the workforce, and American manufacturing. We rolled up our sleeves, shared what we’ve learned, and charted where we go next together.”
Previously awarded ARM Champions include: Corey Adams (Universal Robots), Nihad Alfaysale (former ARM Institute Government Chief Technology Adviser), Juan Aparicio (Reshape Automation), Maria Araujo (formerly of Johnson & Johnson), Neil Ashbaugh (New Century Careers), Gregorio Balandran (Amcor), Clint Chapman (Yaskawa), Xu Chen (University of Washington), Roger Christian (Yaskawa), Michel Conklin (Southwest Bots IQ), Laura Evans (Fanuc), Debbie Franklin (Wichita State University), Lisa Fronczek (NIST), Shane Groves (Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex), SK Gupta (USC/GrayMatter), Frank Henderson (Henderson Sewing), Greg Hudas (ARM Institute Government Program Manager), Mingu Kang (ARIS Technology), Jeannine Kunz (SME), Stuart Lawrence (Titan Robotics), Changliu Liu (CMU), Scott Lucas (WSU Tech), Dan Mantz (REC Foundation), Carley Mollica (Lockheed Martin), Matt Minner (Catalyst Connection), Tom Mudano (AmSkills), Dijam Panigrahi (GridRaster), Martin Philo (GrayMatter Robotics), Aaron Prather (ASTM), Ritch Ramey (A3 – Association for Advancing Automation), Curtis Richardson (Spirit AeroSystems), Matt Robinson (Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and ROS-Industrial), Ted Rozier (Festo), Eugen Solowjow (Siemens), Brian Wilson (Duro UAS), and John Wen (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute).
The ARM Champion Awards are presented each year at the ARM Institute’s Annual Member Meeting. This member-exclusive event convenes representatives from across the institute’s consortium for 2.5 days of networking, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing. The 2024 ARM Member Meeting took place September 3-5 in Pittsburgh and marked the institute’s 9th annual Member Meeting. The 2026 Annual Member Meeting is scheduled to take place November 17-19 in Pittsburgh, PA.
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ABOUT THE ARM INSTITUTE
The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense under Agreement Number W911NF-17-3-0004 and is part of the Manufacturing USA® network. The ARM Institute leverages a unique, robust, and diverse ecosystem of 400+ consortium members and partners across industry, academia, and government to make robotics, autonomy, and artificial intelligence more accessible to U.S. manufacturers large and small, train and empower the manufacturing workforce, strengthen our economy and global competitiveness, and elevate national security and resilience. Based in Pittsburgh, PA since 2017, with a satellite office in St. Petersburg, FL, the ARM Institute is leading the way to a future where people & robots work together to respond to our nation’s greatest challenges and to produce the world’s most desired products. For more information, visit www.arminstitute.org and follow the ARM Institute on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).