Defense Speak Interpreted: If CHIPS Cuts Back, What Happens to Electronics Packaging Funds?
American Made Advocacy: Where’s the Budget for a Modern Military Run on Microelectronics?
Beyond the Board: Orbital High Ground—Why Space Superiority Is Slipping Away
Build Better 2024 Summit: Creating a Vision for Future Tech
October 18, 2024 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Most likely, there aren’t many manufacturing summits that take place on an aircraft carrier, so it was pretty impressive to be on the USS Hornet, with a beautiful view of the San Francisco harbor at Build Better 2024 on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. The event was billed as “the only manufacturing summit for engineering and operations leaders developing electronics.”
I appreciated that the summit leveraged its location by focusing solely on manufacturing and NPI, but with a strong software and AI lens—we were in Silicon Valley, after all. This “boat” is now a museum in Alameda, and was the perfect place to congregate, learn, and network.
Certainly, when it was built, the USS Hornet was cutting-edge defense tech for its time, so it was not lost on me that a piece of American history is an interesting juxtaposition for a conference focused on creating visionary, future tech. The location served to highlight the industry’s current focus on defense and its nexus with technology in today’s complicated world.
The conference, aptly named “The Next Way,” featured 11 short presentations, several of which were only 15 minutes long, and three dedicated networking events throughout the day. This rapid-fire approach to presentations was a good way to keep the audience engaged, especially with breaks to network, which all the attendees seemed to capitalize on.
The event was hosted by Instrumental, a manufacturing software company offering an AI and data platform for manufacturers to connect existing data and generate new data, including an interesting new feature using AI to more quickly get through the failure analysis process. Anna-Katarina Shedetsky, co-founder and CEO of Instrumental, explained that this tool allows for companies to quickly react to minor product variations, literally going through thousands of variations and identifying the ones that really matter. She indicated that this would both decrease product development time and allow OEMs to build more profit margin into their products up front.
Page 1 of 2
Share on:
Testimonial
"We’re proud to call I-Connect007 a trusted partner. Their innovative approach and industry insight made our podcast collaboration a success by connecting us with the right audience and delivering real results."
Julia McCaffrey - NCAB GroupSuggested Items
Walt Custer: Making Data Interesting
09/03/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007I just learned that IPC Hall of Famer Walt Custer has passed away at 81. I first met Walt about 20 years ago when I started covering the fabrication industry. Right away, he started telling me which companies to watch and which trends to follow. This was in the years following 9/11, and things were still pretty fluid.
The Chemical Connection: Experience and Wisdom Gained by Doing Business
09/03/2025 | Don Ball -- Column: The Chemical ConnectionA well-managed company learns to adjust its strategies and processes based on what it learns during challenging times. The experience gained from making (or losing) a difficult sale is invaluable in adapting new sales and manufacturing processes necessary to make that sale the next time, no matter how painful those new processes might be.
Labor Day: U.S. Federal Holiday
09/01/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007Today is Labor Day, a U.S. federal holiday that Americans celebrate on the first Monday of September each year. This marks the 131st anniversary of the holiday. In 1887, Oregon was the first state to make Labor Day an official holiday. In 1894, after the Pullman Strike, Congress passed a bill that recognized Labor Day as a federal holiday, and President Grover Cleveland signed the bill into law.
Target Condition: Floor Planning Without a Floor
08/27/2025 | Kelly Dack -- Column: Target ConditionBy a show of hands, how many PCB designers have been asked to start a layout without a board outline, keep-out zones, or even height constraints? How many have had to work within a specific enclosure before the schematic was finalized? If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Starting a PCB layout without critical constraints is like hiring an interior designer to buy furniture and carpet for a house you haven’t even purchased yet, or, even worse, trying to fit four bedrooms' worth of furniture in a one-room cabin.
Meet the Round 1 Winners of the Bright Manufacturing Student Challenge 2025
08/20/2025 | Tara Dunn, SMTAThe Bright Manufacturing Student Challenge is an opportunity for student teams to design and develop innovative solutions for real-world electronics manufacturing problems. The eight-week competition, sponsored by the Electronics Manufacturing & Assembly Collaborative (EMAC) through electronicsworkforce.com, allows students to showcase their technical skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities.