In his first public address as the Chief Manufacturing Officer for NIST at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Michael Molnar spoke to an audience of manufacturing engineers at the first Interactive Manufacturing Experience (imX 2011) conference, Sept. 12-14, 2011 in Las Vegas. In this newly created position, Molnar is NIST’s central point of contact with the White House, the Department of Commerce and other agencies on technical and policy issues related to manufacturing.
“As everybody in manufacturing knows, you can’t do anything if you can’t measure it,” Molnar said.
Molnar explained the many TLA (three-letter acronyms) he has learned in his two weeks on the job associated with the U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Initiative. This included new national Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) and Technology Innovation Program (TIP). The Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMTECH) Consortia was established to support R&D in advanced manufacturing and is a key part of AMP. TIP targets the supporting, promoting and accelerating of high-risk research in industry and academia.
Molnar solicited input from the attendees and other manufacturing experts regarding how the AMTech Consortia should work. Input is required by Sept. 20, 2011 and accepted
only by email.
To see Molnar’s presentation slides at imX 2011, click here.