New Program Shows Staff Members Whats Happening at ASME

New Program Shows Staff Members Whats Happening at ASME New Program Shows Staff Members Whats Happening at ASME New Program Shows Staff Members Whats Happening at ASMEASME staff members introduce themselves during an ice breaker exercise at the beginning of the Manufacturing Market Update luncheon on Jan. 24.ASME recently introduced a new series of presentations that aims to acquaint staff members with the products and services ASME departements are developing to support the Societys new strategic plan. The new program titled Whats Happening at ASME? debuted in January with a session concentrating on ASMEs efforts in the manufacturing market and was followed a month later with a presentation spotlighting the robotics market.The program, which was organized by members of the ASME Public Information, Technology Advancement Business Development (TABD), Finance and Human Resources departments, kicked off on Jan. 24 when mora than 100 staff members packed the ASME Headquarters boardroo m in New York for the inaugural presentation, Manufacturing Market Update.During the session, Israr Kabir, business development manager for TABD, provided an overview of the manufacturing market and pinpointed additive manufacturing (AM) as a market segment where ASME could have significant impact. Elements that make AM an ideal entry point for ASME include the Societys extensive history with product design and safety, the segments strong projected growth forecast, and its expected impact on the global supply chain, he said. To put it simply, the train hasnt left the station, Kabir added. John Grimes, business development manager, Technology Advancement Business Development, gave ASME staff members an overview of the robotics market during his presentation at the Whats Happening at ASME session in February.Joining Kabir during the panel session were Arin Ceglia, director of ASME Learning Development, who discussed the additive manufacturing courses her department wa s developing including an intermediate-level design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) with metals course, and Mary Grace Stefanchik, manager of Publications Development, who highlighted a few of the publications now in the pipeline including two manufacturing journals and an upcoming DfAM textbook. Donnie Alonzo, Standards Certification project engineering advisor, who also took part in the session, discussed new Standards Certification activities related to manufacturing, such as the development of several new standards including the Y14.46 Product Definition for AM draft standard that was recently released, the formation of nine new committees related to manufacturing, and ASMEs participation in the ANSI/America Makes Additive Manufacturing Standards Collaborative.On Feb. 27, nearly 100 ASME staff members participated in the second Whats Happening session, Robotics Market Update, which featured presentations by John Grimes, business development manager, TABD Stefani Jones, manag er, learning experience, Learning Development (LD) and Luis Pulgarin, project engineering advisor, Standards Certification.During his presentation, Grimes identified the leading robotics markets including manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, security, and inspection and maintenance and the trends the market was experiencing. Those trends include an average growth in unit sales of 72 percent per year in the robotics for logistics segment, average growth of 70 percent in the robotics for healthcare sector, and average growth of 73 percent per year in the robotics for inspection and maintenance area. Arin Ceglia, director of ASME Learning Development, fields a question during the Robotics Market Update luncheon.Grimes and the other panelists also provided staff members in attendance with an update on the Robotics Technology Advisory Panel one of six panels ASME has established to seek input from subject matter experts to be used in developing new products and serv ices related to ASMEs core strategic technologies and a look at robotics products currently being developed by ASME, including standards for mobile unmanned systems (MUS) and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), an introductory robotics course from Learning Development, and a Robotics Inspection Forum to be held in Houston this June.Spurred by the success of the first two sessions, which were both greeted enthusiastically by staff members, the Whats Happening at ASME team is busily planning upcoming presentations for the series, according to Raj Manchanda, business development director, TABD, a member of the Planning Team who moderated the manufacturing and robotics luncheons. The idea of bringing staff together towards our common goal of developing new knowledge products in key strategic technology areas is very exciting and Im glad to be a part of it, he said.Future presentations being organized by the Planning Team whose other members are Michael Cowan of ASME Public Information, Robin Savage from Finance Accounting, and Andrea Mess from Human Resources may focus on topics other than the strategic technology areas and be presented in other formats, such as breakfasts or coffee breaks, Manchanda added.ASME members, particularly experienced industry experts, interested in collaborating with ASME in Additive Manufacturing and Robotics for Manufacturing Environments, please contact Raj Manchanda at ManchandaRasme.org.