By Dave Lucas
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-974947.mp3
Albany, NY – President Barack Obama's Council of advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST, released a report "Ensuring American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing" - the report was highlighted during the President's speech Friday morning at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, a city where shuttered steel mills stand as reminders of jobs that may never come back. Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.
The president announced a $500 million Advanced Manufacturing Partnership effort to unite government, industry, and academia designed to spur high-tech manufacturing throughout the United States. Obama said the nation's manufacturing sector needs to be reinvigorated so it makes products that haven't yet been dreamed of.
PCAST is an advisory group that makes policy recommendations in the many areas where understanding of science, technology, and innovation is key to strengthening our economy and forming policies that work for the American people.
PCAST members RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt spoke to reporters Friday afternoon on a media conference call where Dr. Jackson explained what advanced manufacturing means for the county's future, saying that its important the federal government helps to create a fertile ground for innovation.
Obama announced $70 million in funding for next-generation robots that can work alongside humans anywhere they are needed. The National Robotics Initiative reportedly will include NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Agriculture, among others.
Google's Eric Schmidt pointed out that President Obama's goal of a "renaissance of American manufacturing" using new technologies and new approaches is definitely within reach. Schmidt says research engineers need to be near manufacturing engineers. Dr. Jackson says RPI already has work going on relevant to automation technologies, including nanotechnology, that will benefit the Capital Region.