View selected videos and slides below.

Defining the Challenge: Creating Knowledge, But Not Wealth – Sridhar Kota

Slides: Defining the Challenge: Creating Knowledge, But Not Wealth

Made in China 2025 and the Future of American Industry – Senator Marco Rubio

A Conversation with Representative Ro Khanna

Academic Panel: From Lab to Market – Turning Domestic Research into High-Value Products

Industry Keynote: The Electronics Manufacturing Supply Chain – Its Role in U.S. Innovation and How to Ensure its Future – David Anderson

Keynote: A Bold New Vision for U.S. Manufacturing Policy – Senator Gary Peters

Investment Panel: Hardware Startups and Scale-Ups – Ensuring the Means to Succeed

Sridhar Kota is the Herrick Professor of Engineering, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, and the founding Executive Director of MForesight. Between 2009 and 2012 Prof. Kota served as the Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He played an instrumental role in conceptualizing and championing the establishment of the national manufacturing innovation institutes. He also orchestrated establishment of the National Robotics Initiative and the National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Initiative. Dr. Kota has authored over 200 technical papers, and has 30 patents on mechanical and bio-inspired engineering systems. He is the recipient of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Machine Design Award, Leonardo da Vinci Award, the Outstanding Educator Award, University of Michigan Regents Award for Distinguished Public Service, and the Distinguished University Innovator Award. He is the founder and CEO of FlexSys, Inc., which developed and flight tested the world’s first modern aircraft with shape-changing wings to improve fuel efficiency and noise reduction. Marco Rubio was First elected to the United States Senate in 2010, Marco Rubio currently serves as Florida’s senior Senator. He is chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and chairman of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women’s Issues. Sen. Rubio is also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee, and the Select Committee on Intelligence. He previously served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and before that as a City Commissioner for West Miami, where he still lives with his wife Jeanette and their four children. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Sen. Rubio initiated the Project for Strong Labor Markets and National Development, which to date has issued two reports addressing critical aspects of the future of U.S. manufacturing. Made in China 2025 and the Future of American Industry assesses the challenges posed by China’s industrial development plan and the implications for American policy. American Investment in the 21st Century documents patterns of investment by American corporations in recent decades and the ramifications of the shareholder primacy theory of American capitalism. Congressman Ro Khanna represents California’s 17th Congressional District, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, and is serving in his second term. Rep. Khanna sits on the House Budget, Armed Services, and Oversight and Reform committees and is first vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He also serves as an Assistant Whip for the Democratic Caucus. Prior to serving in Congress, Rep. Khanna taught economics at Stanford University, law at Santa Clara University, and American Jurisprudence at San Francisco State University, and worked as a lawyer specializing in intellectual property law. In 2012 he wrote, Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Still Key to America’s Future. Rep. Khanna served in President Barack Obama’s administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 2012, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the California Workforce Investment Board. He has also provided pro bono legal counsel to Hurricane Katrina victims with the Mississippi Center for Justice, and co-authored an amicus brief on the fair housing U.S. Supreme Court case, Mount Holly v. Mt. Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, Inc. Rep. Khanna graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and received a law degree from Yale University. In his free time, Rep. Khanna enjoys cheering for the Golden State Warriors, watching movies, and traveling. He and his wife Ritu call Fremont, CA, home. Scott N. Paul is President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a partnership established in 2007 by some of America’s leading manufacturers and the United Steelworkers union. Scott and AAM have worked to make American manufacturing and “Made in America” top-of-mind concerns for voters and our national leaders through effective advocacy and data-driven research. Scott served as a member of the White House Manufacturing Jobs Initiative before resigning on August 15, 2017. He authored a chapter in the 2013 book ReMaking America and has written extensively about Alexander Hamilton’s role in forming U.S. national economic policy. Scott hosts the Manufacturing Report podcast. Scott currently serves as the Board Chair of the National Skills Coalition and on the Board of Visitors of the Political Science Department at the Pennsylvania State University. He sits on the Leadership Council of the Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight. Scott earned a B.A. in Foreign Service and International Politics from Penn State and an M.A. with honors in Security Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Raised in the small town of Rensselaer, Indiana, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his spouse Ilisa Halpern Paul and twin boys. Megan Brewster is a technologist and policy entrepreneur driven by a sense of purpose and a desire for progress, who has worked at the forefront of innovation over the last 15 years across industry, government, and academia. She is currently delivering the future of mobility by crowdsourcing transportation and logistics solutions, and then bringing these ideas to life through digital manufacturing methods (such as large-scale additive). Prior to her current role, she served as the Senior Policy Analyst for Advanced Manufacturing at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she led the advanced manufacturing and semiconductors portfolio areas. During her time in the Federal Government, she also served as a fellow at the Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, handling portfolio areas such as critical minerals, methane emissions, and the energy-water nexus. Dr. Brewster is a materials scientist and engineer and previously worked for Applied Materials, prototyping in-line metrology solutions for next-generation lithium ion battery anodes, and at GE Global Research, investigating performance degradation mechanisms and developing next-generation chemistries for the new sodium metal halide battery business. Dr. Brewster earned her Ph.D. from MIT and her B.S from the University of Washington, both in Materials Science and Engineering, as well as a Ph.D. minor in Technology and Public Policy. Michael Holland is Vice Chancellor for Science Policy and Research Strategies at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Holland works to develop strategies to support cross-disciplinary research, including the development of major research initiatives, and coordinates the University of Pittsburgh’s response to research policy opportunities in support of its strengths and long-term goals. Prior to coming to Pitt, Dr. Holland served as Executive Director of New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, a graduate-level informatics program established in 2012 focused on understanding and improving the quality of life in cities. Previously, he spent 13 years in Washington, DC, overseeing federal R&D programs. He was a program examiner in the Office of Management and Budget, a senior policy advisor in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, staff on the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Science Energy Subcommittee, and Senior Advisor and Staff Director in the Office of the Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy. Holland earned his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hiram Samel is a Senior Lecturer in global economics and management at MIT Sloan, where he teaches global strategy. Prior to joining MIT, he was an Associate Professor of International Business and a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford. His research draws on multiple disciplines including comparative political economy, technology strategy, the economics of innovation and labor studies.Especially relevant to the MForesight summit, Dr. Samel’s work (co-authored with MIT colleagues) on the process and pathways U.S. entrepreneurial firms take in scaling novel, production-related technologies is highlighted in Production in the Innovative Economy (MIT Press) as well as an article in Mechanical Engineering “Invented in America, Scaled Up Overseas.” While a $10 billion public-private matched fund for manufacturing scale-ups based on this research was introduced into the 2016 U.S. Budget, it was never enacted. The research helped foreshadow the rise of economic nationalism in the global technology sector. Prior to becoming an academic, Dr. Samel was an entrepreneur, building and managing medium-sized companies that operate in 20 countries. He is also an investor in and director of a variety of early-stage companies. Marc Sedam, Associate Vice Provost for Innovation and New Ventures at the University of New Hampshire and Managing Director of UNHInnovation, joined UNH in November 2010 with an extensive background in intellectual asset management, licensing, and start-up formation. In addition to his position with UNH, Sedam was the founding director of the Peter T. Paul Entrepreneurship Center and serves as the Executive Director of the New Hampshire Innovation Research Center, New Hampshire’s only translational research funding program. Marc is currently the PI of UNH’s National Science Foundation I-Corps Site and is the Chair-Elect of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). He served on the AUTM Board of Directors between 2015-2016 as the Vice President for Professional Development, a role responsible for AUTM’s education and training activities. Prior to UNH, Sedam was the Chief Operating Officer of Qualyst, Inc., the global leader in the study of pharmaceutically relevant drug transport interactions (acquired in 2017 by BioreclamationIVT). Sedam has a B.S. in biochemistry from The University of New Hampshire and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School with a focus on entrepreneurship and new ventures. Additionally, he is a well-known lecturer on the topics of university innovation and start-up formation. David Anderson is the President of SEMI Americas amd leads SEMI’s activities in the Americas. Anderson has P&L responsibility as well as ownership of all Americas region programs and events, including SEMICON West. He is responsible for establishing industry Standards, advocacy, community development, expositions, and programs. He manages and nurtures relationships with SEMI members in the region as well as with local association and constituents in industry, government, and academia. Anderson has held leadership positions at Fairchild Semiconductor, National Semiconductor, the Semiconductor Industry Suppliers Association, and SEMATECH, where he helped launch the global ISMI (International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative) effort. Most recently, Anderson was CEO and chairman of Novati Technologies, a specialty manufacturing fab and provider of semiconductor and related process technology development and commercialization services. Prior to that, he held executive leadership positions for development foundries ATDF and SVTC Technologies. Anderson has a BS MSE from Purdue University and an MBA from Nasson College with advanced Doctoral studies in Industrial Engineering at Arizona State University. Bart Meroney is the Senior Advisor in the Office of Manufacturing in the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. He currently oversees the work of ITA’s Manufacturing unit, a group of International Trade Specialists that develop and promote policies and programs to increase the international competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers. Mr. Meroney has worked on trade policy issues in the public and private sector for over 20 years. His government service includes policy development at the local, state, and federal level. In 2013, he was a Brookings Institution Legis Fellow on Capitol Hill where he worked on variety of policy issues including the manufacturing sector. Bart is a native North Carolinian and a graduate of the University of North Carolina. Senator Gary Peters was elected in 2014 and is honored to represent the State of Michigan in the U.S. Senate. Throughout his career in public service, Sen. Peters has been a strong, independent voice for Michigan’s middle class families and small businesses. He has focused on uniting our communities by fighting for the things that we all agree on—a stronger economy, good-paying jobs, affordable health care, a secure retirement and a fair chance for everyone to succeed. Sen. Peters was born in Pontiac, Michigan and has lived his entire life in Oakland County. He is a product of Michigan schools, graduating from Alma College where he earned a B.A. in Political Science. After graduation, while working full time and raising a family, he earned an MBA in Finance from the University of Detroit Mercy, a law degree from Wayne State University Law School and an MA in Philosophy from Michigan State University. For more than 20 years, Peters worked as an investment advisor. He volunteered for the U.S. Navy Reserve at age 34, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and he volunteered again for drilling status after the September 11th terrorist attacks. Sen. Peters began his public service as a Rochester Hills City Councilman in 1991 before being elected to the Michigan State Senate and serving as the Michigan State Lottery Commissioner. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008, Peters fought to ensure the survival of our local auto industry and worked to hold the bad actors on Wall Street that caused the recession accountable. In the 115th Congress, Peters serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. Alan R. Shaffer currently serves as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (A&S). Senate confirmed in January 2019, he is responsible to the Under Secretary of Defense for all matters pertaining to acquisition; contract administration; logistics and material readiness; installations and environment; operational energy; chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons; the acquisition workforce; and the defense industrial base. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Shaffer served as the Director, NATO Collaboration Support Office in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. In this role, he was responsible for coordinating and synchronizing the Science and Technology (S&T) collaboration between NATO member and partner nations, comprising a network of about 5,000 scientists. Previous to his role at NATO, Mr. Shaffer served in multiple senior positions at the DoD including as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)); Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research; and Engineering Director, Operational Energy, Plans and Programs (Acting); and Executive Director for several senior DoD Task Forces. Before entering the federal government, Mr. Shaffer served a 24-year United States Air Force career in command, weather, intelligence and acquisition oversight. Mr. Shaffer earned a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Vermont in 1976, a second B.S. in Meteorology from the University of Utah, an M.S. in Meteorology from the Naval Postgraduate School, and an M.S. in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He was awarded the Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award in 2004, the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award, and the Distinguished Executive Presidential Rank Award in 2007 and 2015. David Adler is a senior advisor to XA Investments, a Chicago-based alternative investment manager focused on closed-end funds. He was the organizer of the recent CFA Institute Research Foundation conference, “Restoring American Economic Dynamism” and co-editor of the forthcoming book of conference proceedings, “The Productivity Puzzle.” He is author of the monograph, “The New Economics of Liquidity and Financial Frictions” (CFA Institute Research Foundation), as well as “Snap Judgment” (FT Press) about behavioral economics. David is also a producer of the related NOVA documentary, “Mind Over Money.” He is also producer of the PBS documentary “America’s Crisis in Healthcare and Retirement.” Earlier, he co-edited the anthology, Understanding American Economic Decline (Cambridge University Press), which looked at the prospects for U.S. growth through the precedent of Britain’s comparative economic decline. David Adler was educated at Columbia and Oxford. He was the organizer of the Economics Forum about the Greek crisis at the Fourth Athens Biennale “Agora,” which took place in the abandoned Athens Stock Exchange. He is a frequent contributor to City Journal and American Affairs. Afshan Khan is Executive in Residence at Innovation Works and works with early stage hardware companies focused on robotics, Internet of Things, agriculture technology, energy, and advanced manufacturing. Afshan advises entrepreneurs on critical business issues, including business plan development, market validation, and fundraising. As EIR, Afshan also evaluates companies for funding by Innovation Works. Previously she was CEO of Focal Point Products, an international manufacturer and distributor of polyurethane building materials. She also held key positions at Xerox Corporation, in business development, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic planning. Afshan holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon Tepper Business School, and a B.S. in Business Administration and English from Duquesne University. Shirish Pareek is a manufacturing thinker, entrepreneur, and investor. He is Managing Director of AMG Partners. AMG invests in and acquires advanced manufacturing businesses. Shirish has a passion for manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, and workforce skill building. He has founded and run several manufacturing businesses and serves on numerous manufacturing company boards, such as MiQ Partners, DMI Industries, and Aloi/ACE. Previously, Shirish founded Hydraulex Global, an $80 million premier worldwide remanufacturer and distributor of hydraulic products. Shirish founded Hydraulex Global in 2010 and served as its President and CEO from 2010 to 2017. From 2004 to 2010, he was President and CEO of PartsZone/MinnPar a construction and mining replacement parts business that Shirish founded and grew from less than $2 million to over $20 million in annual revenue. From 2012 to 2016, Shirish served on the U.S. Manufacturing Council of the U.S Department of Commerce, initially as a council member and in its second term as the Co-Chair for Workforce and Skills Sub-Committee. Jon Cardinal is Director of Economic Development for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. In this role, he oversees the Senator’s legislative agenda on various economic policy areas, including small business and entrepreneurship, workforce and labor, rural and urban development, manufacturing, research, and innovation. He also directs a statewide outreach operation that implements the Senator’s economic development goals. Jon began his career on Capitol Hill in 2007, first as an intern and then as an aide on the staff of former Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. He was a 115th Congress Stennis Center Senior Fellow and was honored in 2015 with the Statewide Leadership Award by the New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals for his work on federal workforce policy and economic development. Jon graduated from St. Lawrence University in 2008 with an honors degree in Government. From 2013 to 2017, Jon served a term on the St. Lawrence University Board of Trustees. Tanya Das is a Professional Staff Member on the Energy Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, where she covers a range of issues in energy policy including advanced manufacturing, grid modernization, and technology transfer. Prior to joining the committee, she was an AAAS Congressional Fellow covering economic policy in the office of Senator Chris Coons. Before that, Tanya obtained a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara in metamaterials. Concurrently with obtaining her Ph.D., Tanya explored issues in STEM higher education through her work in program evaluation and was also part of the workforce development team for the AIM Photonics Manufacturing USA institute. KC Morris serves in the Office of Congressman Tom Reed where she leads activities for the House Manufacturing Caucus. KC is an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Manufacturing Legislative Fellow on detail from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She has a long, distinguished career at NIST leading the development of standards to support the industrial internet. Her research focuses on standards for smart and sustainable manufacturing by applying IoT and AI to integrate manufacturing systems from engineering, the shop floor, and the enterprise. Caleb Orr is Project Director of the Project for Strong Labor Markets and National Development at the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship under Chairman Marco Rubio. He is passionate about creating economic policy that increases take-home pay for working families and broadly-held productivity growth. In previous roles he served as a legislative assistant and a legislative correspondent. He has a degree in political science from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. Marc Santos is a Science and Engineering Congressional Fellow in the office of Senator Christopher A. Coons (D-DE). He is part of Senator Coons’ economic policy team leading the manufacturing portfolio and working on small business and innovation issues. Prior to serving as a Congressional Fellow, Marc worked as an Associate and Southwest Water Practice Lead at Hazen and Sawyer, where he provided consulting services in the drinking water industry focused on water supply, treatment and distribution system design challenges. Marc holds a B.S in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an M.E. in Environmental Engineering from Manhattan College. He is a licensed Civil Engineer in Texas and California. Richard McCormack is Director of Speechwriting for U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Mr. McCormack is in charge of all speeches given by the Secretary, writing on subject areas that include international trade, patents, innovation and advanced technologies, standards, commercial space, regulations, spectrum, and international affairs. He also writes and edits Op-Eds and congressional testimony. Prior to joining the Office of the Secretary, Mr. McCormack was Press Secretary and Program Manager at the International Trade Administration. He joined the Commerce Department in early 2017, after serving as founding editor and publisher of Manufacturing & Technology News, a news journal covering global trends in industry, manufacturing, and technology. Over the course of his career, Mr. McCormack edited publications such as New Technology, The Energy Daily, High Performance Computing Week, and others. As an active, Washington, D.C., journalist for 35 years, Mr. McCormack was a guest lecturer at universities, testified before Congress, and appeared on news shows and in documentaries about global trends and issues in international trade and industry. Tom Mahoney is Associate Director of MForesight. Prior to joining MForesight, Mr. Mahoney spent nearly 15 years as President of WVMEP, Inc. providing business and technical consulting services to manufacturers. Before that, he was the Senior Economist at the New Zealand Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, where he worked with public and private leaders to develop a national technology commercialization strategy. Mr. Mahoney began his work in manufacturing and innovation at the National Academy of Sciences, where he was Executive Director of the Manufacturing Studies Board addressing multiple research and policy issues regarding U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. He has written extensively on manufacturing and technology policy issues. His 2017 MForesight report, Ensuring American Manufacturing Leadership Through Next-Generation Supply Chains, was nominated for the Daniel Meckstroth Award for Excellence In Manufacturing Research. Mr. Mahoney earned a B.A. in economics from Davidson College and an M.A. in international economics from The Johns Hopkins University. Mike Russo is the VP of Global Industry Advocacy, and leads SEMI’s public policy and talent advocacy teams and the effort to institutionalize SEMI’s advocacy programs across the globe. In his role Mike is responsible for the development and execution of strategies to advance the interests of the end-to-end electronics manufacturing industry supply chain and the priorities of SEMI’s members in the U.S. and worldwide. Mike spent nearly a decade leading the corporate office of Government Affairs in the U.S. for GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the nation’s largest contract semiconductor chip maker, overseeing government relations, regulatory affairs and strategic initiatives. Mike has also served in various capacities as a private sector advisor to the U.S. government in the areas of manufacturing and industrial policy and has served as a senior staffer in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.