Youngstown Mentioned In President's Speech - 21 News Now, More Local News for Youngstown, Ohio -

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Residents of the Mahoning Valley are buzzing about President Obama's mention of Youngstown in his State Of The Union address Tuesday.

While talking about positive things that are happening in the country, Youngstown was the first city the President mentioned.

"Last year we created our first manufacturing innovativation institute in Youngstown, Ohio, a once shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the-art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything," Obama said in his address.

The National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, or NAMII, is the first of 15 labs to be established across the country as part of the President's National Network for Manufacturing Innovation so his mention of it was not a surprise to those at the institute, but it did generate a lot of interest.

"I will say that last night the Twitter world and Facebook linked in with just a blaze of comments," says NAMII spokesperson Barb Ewing. "It was really gratifying to see all the attention it garnered."

The impressive fact is that the work inside this building in Youngstown will be vital to the future of advanced manufacturing in America.

3D printing is part of additive manufacturing in which parts or components can be made by adding material, layer by layer, instead of cutting away material. The process can reduce the amount of needed raw materials by up to ten times.

"It is a completelty different ball game, and there are so many opportunities, so we really are in a position to be on the cutting edge for it," Ewing says. 

And with Youngstown being the first, it could serve as the national model for the institutes that follow.