Emerging Technologies Round-Up – September 2013

Key Activities: Impact Forum and Other Activities Planned for the 2013 Congress in San Diego, Open Research Forum Held in Washington, D.C.

At the upcoming International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, ASME will be showcasing an Advanced Manufacturing Impact Forum on Monday, Nov. 18. The Advanced Manufacturing Impact Forum brings together luminaries from government, industry, and academia to address advanced technology and policy; new opportunities created by public and private partnerships; the status of the U.S. Government's initiatives through organizations such as the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute and the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation; and the exploration of future standards development needs.

The Impact Forum will commence immediately following the Opening Keynote Session and panel discussion on Advanced Manufacturing moderated by ASME Executive Director Tom Loughlin and including panelists Pradeep Khosla, chancellor at the University of California, San Diego; Michael Molnar, chief manufacturing officer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology; Greg Morris, strategy and business development lead for Additive Technologies at GE Aviation; and Richard Morris, vice president of assembly and logistics at BMW Manufacturing Co.

Four roundtable sessions will include discussions of the topics "Future Standards Needs — Process vs. Product Certification"; "From Discovery to Scale-Up: The National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI)"; "Case Study: From Kitchen to Adaptive Manufacturing"; and "Public/Private Partnerships — NNMI: Impact and Opportunities."

The Forum concludes with an hour-long Town Hall Discussion, "Future Directions," and a networking reception sponsored by the Manufacturing Engineering Division.

To learn more and register, please visit https://www.asme.org/events/advanced-manufacturing-impact-forum.aspx.

Other emerging technology activities and business meetings will take place at Congress throughout the week. Please visit the Congress website for information on technical sessions focusing on the energy-water nexus, thermal energy storage and integrated/sustainable building equipment and systems.

The Energy-Water Nexus Interdisciplinary Council will hold a business meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 19 from 3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. The Integrated/Sustainable Building Equipment and Systems Task Force will hold a business meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 19 from 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. The Thermal Energy Storage Task Force will hold its business meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 19 from 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. All Congress attendees are welcome to attend any of these meetings. Times subject to change, however, so please check the Congress final program for business meeting times and locations. For more information, contact Brandes Smith, Emerging Technologies, by e-mail at smithb@asme.org.

In other news, ASME's Center for Research and Technology Development (CRTD) and Emerging Technologies (ET) department, and the Thermal Energy Storage Task Force hosted its third Open Research Forum on thermal energy storage on Sept. 24 in Washington, D.C. The Forum — focusing on buildings applications, transportation applications and electric utility applications — featured speakers and audience members from the U.S. Department of Energy, Boeing Research and Technology, Baltimore Aircoil Co., the National Science Foundation, CALMAC Manufacturing Corp., the University of South Florida, NextEra Energy Resources, and many other organizations. The Forum showcased thermal energy storage best practices, challenges and address potential solutions and how ASME could have an impact. An action plan, based on the discussions that took place at the Forum, is expected to be published at the end of the year.

An inaugural Forum, on the subject of integrated/sustainable building equipment and systems, was held on April 24 at the ASME Washington, D.C., office. To view the action plan from the April Forum, visit the CRTD Group page on ASME.org. Additional Open Research Forums are planned over the course of the year and will include topics on fracking, nanoengineering for energy and sustainability, advanced manufacturing, nanomanufacturing, and energy-water-nexus. For further information about the ASME Open Research Forums, please contact Michael Tinkleman at tinklemanm@asme.org or Norma Johnston at johnstonn@asme.org.