The Scottish education minister was one of the first people to see the Smart Hub Lanarkshire site after it opened its doors for in-person events.
The state-of-the-art centre will help manufacturing Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow and prepare for the future.
Jamie Hepburn MSP laid eyes on the new facility during a visit to New College Lanarkshire (NCL).
The Smart Hub, which is a partnership between the college, North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) and the University of Strathclyde, is home to a robotics and automation training facility and a dedicated space for SMEs to meet, learn and access business support and academic expertise.
Based at NCL's Motherwell campus, the facility "virtually’" opened in April and has since hosted six webinar events, attracting almost 250 attendees from a wide range of manufacturing businesses.
Now, with COVID restrictions easing, the hub has begun to welcome visitors for live demonstrations of collaborative robots - known as "cobots" - in action.
Mr Hepburn was treated to a demonstration showcasing the capabilities of cobots and how these can be integrated into different manufacturing environments.
As well as technical advice, the hub can also offer SMEs insight into business support services available to them.
Barry Skea, head of the faculty of engineering at NCL, told Lanarkshire Live : “It was great to welcome Mr Hepburn to the Smart Hub as one of our first visitors and to show him what our cobots can do.
"Our webinars have been really successful, but there’s something special about getting to run some hands-on demonstrations after all this time.
"We hope to see many SMEs come through our doors as we inspire more companies to take their first steps towards a digital manufacturing process.”
Mr Hepburn said: “This is the type of collaboration we need to see in our tertiary education sector.
"The involvement of NLC in the partnership is also a great example of a college rooted in and working with its local community, which is also very welcome."
Councillor Allan Graham, convener of the enterprise and growth committee at NLC, praised the Hub being and said it was "an exciting development" for the facility to welcome visitors through the doors.
Smart Hub Lanarkshire has guided tours running weekly through November and December; for more details, and to book a place, head online.
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