The President Announces the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (Text Version)
This is a text version of the video clip for the announcement of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership by the President on June 24, 2011 at Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center.
The full-length video of the President's remarks can viewed on the White House's website.
The concept of advanced manufacturing is not complicated. It means how do we do things better, faster, cheaper to design and manufacture superior products that allow us to compete all over the world.
And so these very smart folks, many of whom are represented here, wrote up a report which is now up on the White House website. But we didn't want to just issue a report, we wanted to actually get something done. So we've launched an all-hands-on-deck effort between our brightest academic minds, some of our boldest business leaders, and our most dedicated public servants from science and technology agencies, all with one big goal, and that is a renaissance of American manufacturing.
We're calling it AMP, A-M-P -- the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. It's made up of some of the most advanced engineering universities, like Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan; some of our most innovative manufacturers, from Johnson & Johnson to Honeywell, Stryker to Allegheny Technologies. I've asked Susan Hockfield, the President of MIT, who is here -- there's Susan -- (applause) -- and Andrew Liveris, the CEO of Dow Chemical -- (applause) -- to lead this partnership, and to work with my own advisors on science, technology and manufacturing.
Throughout our history, our greatest breakthroughs have often come from partnerships just like this one. American innovation has always been sparked by individual scientists and entrepreneurs, often at universities like Carnegie Mellon or Georgia Tech or Berkeley or Stanford. But a lot of companies don't invest in early ideas because it won't pay off right away. And that's where government can step in. That's how we ended up with some of the world-changing innovations that fueled our growth and prosperity and created countless jobs -- the mobile phone, the Internet, GPS, more than 150 drugs and vaccines over the last 40 years was all because we were able to, in strategic ways, bring people together and make some critical investments.
I'll take one example. The National Science Foundation helped fund Stanford's Digital Library Project in the 1990s. The idea was to develop a universal digital library that anybody could access. So two enterprising Ph.D. students got excited about the research that was being done at Stanford -- this is funded by NSF. So these two Ph.D. students, they moved from campus to a friend's garage, and they launched this company called Google. And when the private sector runs with the ball, it then leads to jobs, building and selling, that is successful all over the world.
This new partnership that we've created will make sure tomorrow's breakthroughs are American breakthroughs. (Applause.)
We're teaming up to foster the kind of collaborative R&D that resulted in those same early discoveries, and to create the kind of innovation infrastructure necessary to get ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor to the market more rapidly -- all of which will make our businesses more competitive and create new, high-quality manufacturing jobs.
Now, to help businesses operate at less cost, the Energy Department will develop new manufacturing processes and materials that use half as much energy. That will free up more money for companies to hire new workers or buy new equipment.
It's about making sure our workers and businesses have the skills and the tools they need to compete better, faster, and smarter than anybody else. (Applause.)
News
Financial Opportunity for Innovation Institute on Wide Bandgap Semiconductors for Power Electronics Released Today
May 9, 2013
$23.5 Million Investment in Innovative Manufacturing Projects Supports the New Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative
March 26, 2013
New Energy Department Funding to Establish Combined Heat and Power Technical Assistance Partnerships
February 11, 2013
Events
Renewable Low-Cost Carbon Fiber for Lightweight Vehicles Workshop
June 4-5, 2013
Western Industrial Energy Efficiency & Combined Heat and Power Regional Dialogue Meeting
TBD in Fall 2013
