The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is holding the "National Workshop on Challenges to Innovation in Advanced Manufacturing: Industry Drivers and R&D Needs" at its Gaithersburg, Md. campus November 3-4. The workshop's goal is to identify the key industry factors driving innovation in advanced manufacturing technology and the measurement- and standards-related research and development needed to enable these innovations.
"This workshop is part of NIST's commitment to focus on the critical role of technological innovation in promoting a healthy future for U.S. manufacturing," says Howard Harary, Manufacturing and Engineering Laboratory acting director and workshop chair. "Wide participation from the manufacturing sectors is essential to identifying the most important cross-cutting issues."
Discussions will cover sustainability, flexibility, advanced processes, supply chain integration, science-based modeling and simulation, manufacturing networks and communications, and automation and robots. Other topics will include intelligence and optimization of manufacturing systems, high throughput, high-accuracy measurement technologies for factory floor production and the increased pace of innovation cycles.
Register online. Reporters interested in attending should contact Evelyn Brown (301) 975-5661, evelyn.brown [at] nist.gov (evelyn[dot]brown[at]nist[dot]gov).