ASME TechCast

On-demand digital manufacturing ecosystems look to become the future of manufacturing. By transitioning away from traditional supply chains, stockpiles of inventory, and excess materials, on-demand manufacturing can offer companies robust and flexible supply chains, reducing inventory and raw material costs. On-demand manufacturing also looks to reduce the effects of supply disruption by allowing companies to shift manufacturing sites at a moment’s notice. Todd Taylor is the vice president of application engineering at Fictiv, a digital manufacturing ecosystem that rapidly delivers custom mechanical parts through its quote-to-order platform and distributed network of global partners. He discusses how on-demand manufacturing will benefit not just startups and smaller firms but also how larger manufacturing firms do business.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the education of many young students. Due to the necessity of distance education, it has been challenging to keep children interested in science, technology, engineering, and math subjects. Jay Flores, CEO and founder of Invent the Change, has spent his entire career trying to inspire young STEM minds. Over the last 10 years, he has worked with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Rockwell Automation, and FIRST Robotics to mentor and educate young people, exploring the power of STEM. On this episode of ASME TechCast, he speaks with us about the current state of STEM, how the pandemic has impacted education, and the disparities found in today’s STEM society.

As vice president at HearstLab Lisa Burton O’Toole, evaluates and invests in women-led startups and strongly believes that we need diverse teams working on technical problems. Burton is passionate about promoting entrepreneurship among technically minded women. In this episode of ASME TechCast, Burton discusses why mentoring is valuable for women and shares advice on how to find a mentor. In 2020, Burton received ASME’s Kate Gleason Award honoring women entrepreneurs who make a significant contribution to the engineering community. 

Additive manufacturing has long been a tool used by the aerospace industry to manufacture parts. The latest advancements within AM are now shifting production toward end-use parts. There are still many challenges including quality, productivity, repeatability, and materials availability. Hauke Schultz, the Additive Manufacturing Roadmap leader at Airbus, is building a vision and roadmap to enhance AM technologies and applications within its three business units: Airbus Commercial, Helicopters, and Defense and Space. Schultz talks about the journey of AM in aerospace, how the last year impacted the industry, and how the future of AM in aerospace will impact engineers.

One of the best places to build railways and highways is underground, away from people on the surface. But tunneling is a costly process that involves small armies of workers and giant tunnel boring machines. But a contractor working on a subway project in Kuala Lumpur has devised a system for self-driving tunneling that could revolutionize the industry. Mechanical Engineering magazine editor in chief Jeffrey Winters asked senior editor John Kosowatz to explain how the system works. Kosowatz researched the technology for his article, “Big Data Spurs Autonomous Tunneling” for the February/March 2021 issue of Mechanical Engineering.

Digital manufacturing is an ever-growing, expanding world that is leaving the world of design and permeating into the world of manufacturing. Fictiv’s platform introduces a digital ecosystem that directly connects designers and makers with manufacturing facilities, eliminating the traditional back and forth of production quotes, lengthy design iterations, and long lead times. In the last seven years, Fictiv has manufactured over 12 million parts for some of the world’s most innovative companies — building the next rockets, self-driving cars, medical devices, and IoT devices. On this episode of ASME TechCast, Dave Evans, co-founder and CEO, highlights Fictiv’s journey from conception through the COVID-19 pandemic and shares tips for how engineers can accelerate development cycles by transitioning to a digital sourcing workflow.

As Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States, his administration promises big changes in policies affecting science, energy, environment, trade, and more. He will have to work with the new 117th Congress, which also brings new faces as the Democrats take control of the Senate by the slimmest of margins. The House of Representatives continues to be led by Democrats but their majority has been greatly reduced. Paul Fakes, ASME's senior manager of government relations, talks about these changes and how they will impact the industries in which engineers participate.

Artificial intelligence has seen a rapid implementation in several industries. When talking about AI in automotive engineering, the first thought that comes to mind is autonomous vehicles. What role do mechanical engineers play in this intersection of AI and autonomy and what are the opportunities for them? What skills will become increasingly valued in automotive companies with the advancement of AI? Dragos Maciuca, executive technical director at Ford’s Research and Innovation Center, answers these questions, and more, in this episode of ASME TechCast. 

The editors of Mechanical Engineering magazine tried something different this year with the annual Emerging Technology Awards. Listen as editor in chief Jeffrey Winters talks with editors John Kosowatz and Carlos González about five innovations that are taking on COVID-19.

The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s new report shows offshore wind generation growing in the U.S. and globally. Turbines are getting larger and developers want to site them in ever deeper water. Design of floating foundations has advanced to where deepwater sites are feasible, while fixed foundations may prove more economical in deeper water. NREL’s Walt Musial, principal engineer and offshore wind lead, talks about the offshore market and what can be expected in the coming year in this podcast.