In today’s issue:
- ASTRO’s Neal Orringer Participates in White House Office of Science & Technology Policy Roundtable Discussion
- ASTRO and NIAR Host AM Workforce Development Workshop at Wichita State University
- ASTRO’s AM Forward-FL pilot program to hold 1st Participant Workshop
- ASTRO is Growing!
- New Hires
- Upcoming Events
- Follow us online!
ASTRO’s Neal Orringer Participates in White House Office of Science & Technology Policy Roundtable Discussion
Discussion Focused on Digital Stockpiles for Medical Supply Chain Resilience
This week, ASTRO’s president, Neal Orringer joined industry experts at the White House for a meeting about building Medical Supply Chain Resilience through a U.S. Manufacturing Reserve and Digital Stockpile. The Office of Science & Technology Policy hosted the meeting.
More to come in next month’s edition.
ASTRO and NIAR Host AM Workforce Development Workshop at Wichita State University
This week, dozens of the region’s top technology and manufacturing minds met at Wichita State University for a two-day workshop, where a new Additive Manufacturing (AM) Workforce Development Center was
ASTRO’s JC Christensen speaks at workshop
introduced. This Center, funded in part through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge, will provide training to all facets of AM, ensuring the Midwest region has the opportunity to develop its AM workforce to the fullest. It is scheduled to be open for business in 2025.
Participants were provided an overview and opportunity to comment on the draft AM Sourcing and Qualification Guide being developed by ASTRO. This Guide is intended to be useful to both Lead System Integrators (LSIs) and small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) that are utilizing or planning to utilize AM technologies to meet production requirements.
Keynote speakers at the workshop included Slade Gardner, President and Founder of Big Metal Additive; Sue Helper, Senior Advisor for Industrial Strategy, White House Office of Management and Budget; Michael Rambo, Senior Manager, Global Technology Strategy Research and Technology, Spirit AeroSystems, and Jason Gorey, Executive Director of ASTRO America. Other speakers represented key manufacturers, government agencies, suppliers, and more. See the full agenda here.
Read the press release here.
For more information on ASTRO’s work with NIAR, click here.
For more information on AM Forward, click here.
ASTRO’s AM Forward – FL pilot program to hold 1st Participant Workshop at Florida State University’s Panama City Campus
Next week, Florida State University is hosting the first in a series of regional workshops. “Expanding the Northern Florida Ecosystem,” formally launches AM Forward FL (AMF-FL), a first-of-its-kind statewide consortium to advance the development of an regional innovation ecosystem supporting AM enterprise in aerospace, defense, and energy supply chainss.
Inspired by the potential of AM to address critical supply chain challenges and create a new generation of technicians, engineers, and technologists, AMF-FL seeks to establish Florida as a hub for small, medium, and large companies to join academia, local government, and nonprofit organizations in a thriving hub of advanced manufacturing development and adoption. Our focus is to catalyze ground-breaking research and technology transition, particularly in communities previously viewed as less competitive in the advanced manufacturing sector.
Earlier this year, ASTRO America was awarded a $1 million NSF Regional Innovation Engine Development grant to create connections and discern appropriate stakeholders across the State. We are leveraging that grant to host workshops to gather insights and input from stakeholders for effective deployment of AM technology into the Florida supply chain. We hope to identify committed partners that are equally interested in establishing a powerful advanced manufacturing ecosystem in Florida.
Ultimately, hope to assemble a team that will prepare a winning project proposal to the National Science Foundation for a $160 million Regional Innovation Engine..
More info on the workshop can be found here.
Check out the full agenda here.
Register here!
We’re Growing!!
New ASTRO Staff at Rock Island Arsenal
We are pleased to introduce you to the newest members of ASTRO’s Rock Island team:
Noah Barnhill, Principal Project Engineer, Rock Island Arsenal
Noah manages one of ASTRO’s cornerstone projects – its $95 million OTA to develop additive and advanced manufacturing technologies for the U.S. Army, along with associated projects and resulting growth in the Quad Cities region.
Noah brings with him more than 22 years of experience planning, designing, and executing a wide range of projects, including 12 years as a program manager/engineer for the U.S. Army. He also served as Quality/Manufacturing Engineer for John Deere Harvester Works, where he led a Six Sigma project to improve quality on a major combine sub-system: spearheading a cross functional team of Mechanical Engineers, Manufacturing Engineers, Quality Engineers, and factory operations supervisors in containment, Root Cause Analysis, PFMEA, DFMEA, and supplier quality improvements. He was Deputy/Chief Engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, where he was selected to serve as Chief Resident Engineer and portfolio manager for multiple projects totaling over $400M, managing 5+ engineers and a technical staff of 35. Prior to that, Noah was a Geotechnical Engineer for Law Engineering, where he built and managed the company’s materials testing laboratory, obtaining AASHTO and USACE accreditation within the first 6 months of operation.
Joey Wheeler, Engineer, Rock Island Arsenal
Joey uses his training in AM technologies to support one of ASTRO’s $95 million OTA to develop additive and advanced manufacturing technologies for the U.S. Army. Joey also supports associated projects and resulting growth in the Quad Cities region.
Joey joins ASTRO after work as a teaching assistant at the Colorado School of Mines where he assisted students in Advanced Mechanics of Materials and Programming and Hardware Interface. Specific topics covered included energy methods, indicial notation, stress and strain tensors, fracture mechanics, and fatigue analysis, Matlab, and Arduinos. His previous experience includes prestigious internships with Katalyst Space Technologies and Qualcomm.
Joey earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering and his MS in Additive Manufacturing from the Colorado School of Mines.
Mitchell Keeler, Engineer, Rock Island Arsenal
Mitchell supports one of ASTRO’s $95 million OTA to develop additive and advanced manufacturing technologies for the U.S. Army, associated projects and resulting growth in the Quad Cities region.
Mitchell joins ASTRO after working for the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) at the Colorado School of Mines. At ADAPT, he served as a laboratory manager, where he managed and oversaw training for the Additive Manufacturing teaching lab. He also worked as a research assistant for various research projects primarily involving L-PBF.
Mitchell earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering and his MS in Additive Manufacturing from the Colorado School of Mines.
Another Staffing Update!
We are also pleased to announce that Bill Tredway has joined the ASTRO team as an Engineering Fellow:
Bill Tredway, Engineering Fellow
Bill is leading ASTRO’s Additive Manufacturing Qualification work. Specifically, he serves as project head for the Common Additive Manufacturing Qualification Template (CAM-QT) project through AmericaMakes. For this project, ASTRO is the principal investigator and recently announced leading OEMs GE Aerospace, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney as partners. The project focuses on developing a set of common qualification requirements for AM suppliers that will pave the way towards greater adoption of AM technologies, expanding key supply chains.
Bill previously spent 34 years at Raytheon Technologies Research Center (formerly United Technologies Research Center), where he led teams in developing new technologies related to advanced materials and advanced manufacturing. Key achievements include leading the Advanced Manufacturing science and technology portfolio for UTRC and leading the group’s Physical Science department, with approx. 130 technical staff. He also served as a group lead for Advanced Materials as well as Surface Engineering and Materials and Processing, and a project lead for Integrate Soldier Systems as well as Ceramic Glass Turbine Engine Development.
Read about ASTRO’s leadership team here.
Upcoming Events
- ASTRO America is proud to invite local businesses and stakeholders to Florida State University’s Panama City campus on October 2-3 for a workshop on how to expand 3D printing capabilities and grow local innovation ecosystems.
- Registration is now open for ASTRO’s AM Forward FL Workshop #2 in Orlando, FL!