Strategy for Resilient Manufacturing Ecosystems through Artificial Intelligence

Workshop 1, titled “Aligning Artificial Intelligence and U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Competitiveness,” was held on December 2020 as an NSF/NIST sponsored event, hosted by UCLA, and as the first of a three-workshop Symposium to address the U.S. Strategy for Resilient Manufacturing Ecosystems through AI. The Workshop 1 report, released in March 2021, identified AI for Industry-Wide Data Sharing, AI for the Factory Floor, AI for Discovery of Capabilities and Solutions, and AI for Building Resilient Supply Chains, as the priority areas of AI opportunity for manufacturing competitiveness and joint AI and manufacturing R&D. These were organized as interdependent implementation areas and were interwoven with principles for addressing development and implementation challenges. Workshops 2 and 3 are being planned together and in close succession and both will continue as NSF/NIST sponsored events, hosted at UCLA.

Workshop 2 is planned and being scheduled as a series of five roundtables, one each on each of the four AI priority areas, followed by a fifth roundtable to summarize R&D recommendations and determine their integration into an industry-wide adoption strategy. Each roundtable will comprise a manufacturing co-chair, an AI co-chair, an organizing committee member lead, a technical writer, and approximately ten AI and manufacturing oriented participants, all with expertise in the particular AI priority area. Each of the four roundtables will conclude with a one hour report out and discussion of findings conducted as an open session for a broader community of recommended and interested participants to hear and contribute. Workshop 2 will produce a cumulative report of Workshops 1 and 2 and will conclude with a seminar on the report when it is ready as a draft expected in September 2021.

Workshop 3 is being planned for October and November with a similar format to organize R&D and implementation priorities from Workshop 2 into a national strategy, cast as primary workstreams and critical elements for advancing the adoption of AI in Advanced Manufacturing and maximizing its value for U.S. industry. Both workshops will again convene the AI and advanced manufacturing communities as well as Manufacturing USA Institute, IT, federal agency, and national lab communities with the objective of a final, widely discussed and comprehensive report addressing the role of AI in U.S. manufacturing competitiveness.