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Materials Science and Engineering in a Post-Pandemic World: A DoD Perspective Proceedings of a Workshop (2022) / Chapter Skim
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5 Positioning DoD and Its Workforce for New or Expanded Areas
Pages 31-37

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From page 31...
... . THE NEXT-GENERATION AIR FORCE WORKFORCE Dan Miracle, Air Force Research Laboratory When COVID-19 hit, AFRL was in the process of implementing several largescale changes to address current workforce challenges.
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From page 32...
... Recent diversity and inclusion initiatives also include the creation of the Air Force Women in Science and Engineering professional development seminars, more accessible advertising and hiring practices, and training in management skills for supervisors from scientific backgrounds. Most of these programs were initiated a few years ago, but Miracle said COVID-19 has actually accelerated their progress because of the widespread embrace of digital collaboration tools.
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From page 33...
... Despite the challenges, Miracle stressed that AFRL strongly believes that the right workforce, with the right support, will advance the mission of developing innovative, affordable warfighting solutions. MATERIALS, MANUFACTURING, AND SOCIETY Ajay Malshe, Purdue University Malshe highlighted key challenges to materials and manufacturing workforce development in the age of "Industry 4.0," where the data revolution is integrated into every aspect of manufacturing.
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From page 34...
... IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON MATERIALS SCIENCE EDUCATION AND FUTURE WORKFORCE Katsuyo Thornton, University of Michigan Thornton spoke about the potential for computational materials science (CMS) to accelerate materials science and engineering advancements and discussed related education and workforce issues.
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From page 35...
... Finally, materials science is starting to incorporate data science components, and a solid basis in computational skills will enable the workforce to take advantage of the world's growing computational power. CMS education is well-suited to online learning and may be delivered through asynchronous instruction, so when COVID-19 hit, it was not as disruptive to CMS as it was for other fields, Thornton said.
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From page 36...
... Building on Beuth's points, Clement said this type of multidisciplinary learn ing provides the breadth of knowledge industry employers seek. She suggested the materials community can work to define, enable, and share this core knowledge with the future materials science workforce.
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From page 37...
... Learning from Entrepreneurship Building on this discussion, Naresh Thadhani, Georgia Institute of Technology, raised the importance of experiential learning and its relationship to entrepreneurialism. Many schools are creating entrepreneurship contests to teach problem solving, and several materials science and engineering students at his institution have done well in these contests, demonstrating the important role that materials play in leading technological innovations, he noted.
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Key Terms

  • machine learning
  • computational materials
  • computational skills
  • future materials
  • integrated computational

  • additive manufacturing
  • remote technology
  • dan miracle
  • katsuyo thornton
  • agile learning

  • jack beuth
  • multidisciplinary work
  • nextmanufacturing center
  • collaboration tools
  • ajay malshe

  • purdue university
  • workforce pipeline
  • manufacturing research
  • multiple workforce
  • workforce goals

  • accelerate materials
  • own manufacturing
  • manufacturing supply
  • manufacturing workforce
  • workforce approaches

  • computational power
  • workforce functions
  • computational work
  • multidisciplinary learning
  • soft skills


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