In December 2016, Manufacturing USA, a newly developed unit within the Commerce Department’s National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), announced it had received Congressional funding for its newest and 11th institute – the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, or NIIMBL for short. With the formal NIST...

The United States is winning a global battle for domination in integrated photonics, thanks in part to a Manufacturing USA innovation institute that the Obama administration stood up in 2014. And manufacturers embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning will benefit greatly. That is according to John Bowers, acting CEO of the...

Developed by Structural Composites Inc. (SCI, Melbourne, Fla., U.S.), a newly installed composite bridge in north central Tennessee is said to showcase sustainable solutions for aging infrastructure. Equipped with a fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bridge deck embedded with fiber-optic sensors, it has replaced a damaged, decades-old concrete crossing...

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Biden Administration’s American Jobs Plan and “ skinny budget” include a heavy emphasis on federal investments in R&D. Since World War II, federal investments in research have led to life-changing inventions ranging from the recent COVID-19 vaccine to the Internet, but as a bonus, federal R&D also creates lots of...

Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) technology combines the flexibility and low cost of printed electronics technology with the performance of semiconductor devices to create a new category of electronics. No longer constrained by rigid, bulky and non-conforming printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), FHE technology can be applied to nearly any...