Los Angeles will be the place to be March 29-30 when the Society of Manufacturing Engineers holds its Nanomanufacturing Conference. Keynoting will be Eric Drexler on “Engineering from the Bottom Up – Productive Nanosystems and the Future of Technology”. Also not to be missed: Foresight director Jim Von Ehr of Zyvex on “Assembly Pathway to Nanotechnology” and Participating Member Mark Sims of Nanorex on “NanoMechanical Engineering: Design and Analysis Tools for Productive Nanosystems.” See also the agenda and meeting brochure (1.6 MB PDF). There’s also a workshop on Tuesday [update: workshop includes a talk by Foresight Exec VP Jillian Elliott]. Here’s the Conference Overview:
“Molecular nanotechnology and manufacturing, or using matter to build complex products and structures atom-by-atom like pieces of Legos, will soon lead us into the sixth industrial revolution. Like steam engines, electricity and transistors, nanotechnology is primed to completely disrupt markets, industries and business models worldwide. Similarly, it will replace our entire manufacturing base with a new, radically precise, less expensive, and more flexible way of making products. These pervasive changes in manufacturing will leave virtually no product, process or industry untouched.”
Before I get outraged comments from chemists: Be assured that Eric, Jim, and Mark have a healthy respect for how atoms actually behave, which is not like Legos. —Christine
