|
January 03, 2013
By Martin Swant | mswant@al.com
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Later this month, Huntsville will host some of the beginning talks for a $1 billion manufacturing network that President Barack Obama hopes will connect new technologies, manufacturers and start-up companies to spur innovation across the country. The event on Jan. 16 -- organized by the U.S. Dept. of Defense, NASA and the University of Alabama at Huntsville -- will be the first public meeting for how best to create 15 U.S. centers where states, cities, companies and colleges can collaborate to apply new technologies in ways that improve U.S. manufacturing and innovation. The Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office at the National Institute of Science and Technology is spearheading the program.
The workshop will be held at the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, with limited seating. Registration ends on Monday.
Business and government officials from across the country are expected to attend, but organizers hope to have a strong attendance from local industry leaders. The hope is that one of the future centers will be located in Huntsville to collaborate with aerospace, automotive and other industries, according to William Killingsworth, director of the Office for Enterprise Innovation at UAH's Research Institute.
"What goes on in Huntsville with the Army, NASA, Boeing, Lockheed and Raytheon is that each of these organizations are responsible for manufacturing that involves many, many, many companies," he said last month. "Bringing those companies into a highly complex network I think would be very valuable for manufacturing overall in the country and our local industry here."
Read our earlier story about the initiative.
Registration or additional information is available here.
For more information, visit http://commerce.alabama.gov
For more state-wide press releases, click here
|