Manufacturing USA COVID-19 Efforts Highlighted in ASME Congressional Briefing

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains and shut down industries, the Manufacturing USA program, a series of public-private partnerships between government and industry dedicated to advancing American manufacturing, rose to the challenge. Nine of the institutes collaborated with over 90 partners in 24 states and Puerto Rico on a slew of manufacturing innovation projects aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of COVID-19.
 
ASME recently partnered with Manufacturing USA to host a congressional briefing to highlight some of the technological advances to come out of the institutes and to celebrate the release of the “Manufacturing USA: Rapid Response to COVID-19” special report. 
The congressional briefing was moderated by Doug Woods, President of the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), and featured a panel of four speakers representing some of these cutting-edge projects executed in partnership with the LIFT, NIIMBL, NextFlex, and ARM institutes.
 
Featured panelists included:  

• Paul Perkins, Amatrol, Inc. CEO, Jeffersonville, IN, LIFT (Detroit, MI) member 
• Will Wilder, Wilder Systems CEO, Austin, TX, ARM (Pittsburgh, PA) member 
• Azar Alizadeh, Ph.D., GE Global Research Principal Scientist, Niskayuna, NY NextFlex (San Jose, CA) member 
• Andy Pekosz, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University Professor, Baltimore, MD NIIMBL (Newark, DE) member 

Highlighted projects focused on leveraging manufacturing technology for the development and distribution of essential COVID-related Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), optimizing vaccine production and therapeutics, and workforce development to ensure a capable and robust workforce. For more in-depth information about each of these projects, view the “Manufacturing USA: Rapid Response to COVID-19” special report here: https://www.manufacturingusa.com/news/manufacturing-usa-rapid-response-covid-19-report
 
For video archives of ASME virtual Congressional Briefings, visit the ASME Government Relations YouTube Page