An annual conference at the University of Louisville aims to bring academia, industry, government and investors together to talk advanced manufacturing.
The 2019 KY Nano+AM Symposium, held this year from July 31 through August 1 at the UofL Swain Student Activities Center, will showcase the latest research and advances from in and around Kentucky, including work in 3-D printing and manufacturing at the micro/nano-scale.
“Kentucky has always been a manufacturing state, but we need to innovate and continue to advance,” said Dr. Kevin Walsh, associate dean of research and facilities at the UofL J.B. Speed School of Engineering, who’s leading the event. “This forum provides a way for us to annually get together, discuss new findings, share results, showcase capabilities, generate ideas, debate the future and network with one another.”
The conference also includes hands-on workshops on additive manufacturing, roll-to-roll printing and micro-fluidics. The symposium will feature nationally-known keynote speakers, poster presentations, facility tours, networking, a cocktail reception and an investor forum backed by the UofL Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation.
The event’s keynote speakers are: Harold Sears, a Ford Motor Company rapid manufacturing technical leader often called a “3-D printing futurist;” Dr. Edward Kinzel, an aerospace and mechanical engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame; Dr. Philip Rack, a professor of materials science at The University of Tennessee, and Dr. Placid Ferreira, an endowed professor of material science and engineering from the University of Illinois.
The annual conference is a partnership between UofL and the University of Kentucky. Together, they offer a collection of advanced manufacturing core facilities open to industry and academia, called the Kentucky Multi-Scale Network.
Attendees can tour UofL’s multi-scale facilities, including the Micro-Nanotechnology Center (MNTC) cleanroom, the Rapid Prototyping Center (RPC) and the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research. Those facilities work with industry on a variety of projects, from brewing beer in space to saving energy when manufacturing cement.
Kentucky Multi-Scale is part of the National Science Foundation’s National Nanotechnology Network, which consists of 16 academic sites across the U.S. with similar advanced core facilities. Some of its other members include Harvard, Stanford and Cornell universities.
You can register to attend the 2019 Nano+AM Symposium here.
