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TO THE EXTREME: Registration is now open for the “Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and Manufacturing” workshop in Washington, hosted by USACA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to kick off our Spring Technical Meeting on March 9, 2026.
We will convene leaders from government, industry, and academia to help develop a national strategy for materials and manufacturing in extreme environments.
The agenda will feature speakers from DOE and its national labs, as well as the Department of War. Breakout sessions will be organized by aerospace, defense, energy, nuclear, and space, and address industry-wide challenges on supply chain, manufacturing and scale, testing and qualification, and workforce development.
‘Dig deeper’: The workshop “will give members a chance to dig deeper into technical collaboration with the Department of Energy and others in the harsh environment materials field,” said USACA Executive Director Ken Wetzel.
Special thanks to the co-sponsors, USACA members Lucideon and Free Form Fibers, for their support of this unique opportunity for our members.
Space is limited, so register here today!
Inside Game: Following the workshop is USACA’s annual Spring Technical Meeting on March 10 and 11 to further align our priorities and technical roadmaps with national and economic security and industrial resilience goals.
On March 10, USACA will hear from government program managers and host breakout sessions for our Working Groups. On March 11, we will head to Capitol Hill for meetings with key lawmakers and oversight committees.
Wetzel noted “the importance of showing up in Washington in March, when USACA members will head to Capitol Hill to meet directly with congressional offices, share our white papers, and make sure our priorities are clearly understood by policymakers.”
Learn more here.
‘WHERE WE’RE HEADED NEXT’: USACA was once again out in force at the annual Conference on Composites, Materials, and Structures, held in New Orleans last month, where we also held a business meeting.
“I appreciated the opportunity to get the USACA membership, and others, together to talk about our priorities and the work happening across our working groups and where we’re headed next,” Wetzel said. “It was great to discuss updates from the various working groups, and to see how closely their efforts continue to align with real‑world defense and manufacturing needs.”
USACA’s Workforce Development Working Group was especially active in New Orleans, Haynes reports. It collaborated on a new survey to be distributed at the Spring Technical Meeting to gather more data on where member companies are experiencing the most acute gaps in technical skills.
Talent pipeline: USACA was also pleased to host the student luncheon CMS, which was also sponsored by Free Form Fibers and Lucideon. The gathering drew a large group of students and interns from across academia and industry as we surge our efforts to be an incubator for the next generation of engineers.
Luncheon registrants represented the University of Tennessee Knoxville; Stevens Institute of Technology; UTA Research Institute; Advanced Ceramic Fibers; Missouri University of Science and Technology; Purdue University; High Performance Materials Institute; University of Akron; University of South Carolina; Alfred University; Clemson University; ATA Engineering Inc., Florida State University; Texas A&M University; University of Tennessee; University of Southern California; University of Southern Mississippi; University of Tennessee Space Institute; Air Force Research Laboratory; Axiom materials Inc.; and University of Utah.
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