Sessions & Keynotes

Necessary Leadership Skills for Engineers: What Kind of Leader Are You?

Presenter: Phil Bride
Business Track

Leadership is a skill that must be developed continuously. We will cover some of the necessary skills and give you a few tools to make immediate improvements in your skills.

What You Need To Know To Attract Capital for Growth

Presenter: Joe Connors
Business Track

Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Customers buy from your business and suppliers sell to your business – but it’s Capital that powers your business. Capital is not free. Its cost is based on the risk perceived by its provider. The relationship between risk and cost of capital is best understood based on The Capital Pricing Model (CPM). This insightful talk will reveal and explain the CPM, thus empowering you and your business to plan and take action to minimize perceived risk and attract affordable capital.

Generative AI: Opportunities and Risks

Presenter: Laura Zager
Business Track

It seems like everyone is talking about generative AI, but is it truly revolutionary or just hype? And if there is value to be had, how do we harness it? This seminar will provide an introduction to generative AI tools, some factors to consider when deciding whether and how to use these tools, and highlight some of the open issues around the current and future role of generative AI in the US and elsewhere.

Production Capacity Forecasting

Presenter: Leonard Weitman
Manufacturing Track

All manufacturers need to understand their overall line’s capacity, and each process’s capacity, to plan and keep up with growing customer product demand and changing product mix. In addition to keeping up with product demand, it is important to understand future equipment needs for the purpose of forecasting required space, capital, and labor.

Many small to medium-sized companies do not have the enterprise resource planning tools, or in-house expertise, to readily develop these production capacity forecasts. The methodology discussed in this presentation provides answers to the above business needs by considering the following attributes:

Products manufactured
Expected product demand for the foreseeable future
Process flow for each product
Equipment used for each process
Equipment used for each material movement
Processing rate at each process step
Process yield (scrap rate) at each process step
Equipment reliability (unplanned downtime) and preventive maintenance time
Labor required at each process step and material movement

Applying the above attributes, using a common spreadsheet, future needs for equipment, space, capital, and labor are forecasted. Once equipment needs over time are understood, it is also possible to identify a floorplan designed for minimally disruptive growth, and opportunities for automation, more sophisticated equipment, and utility usage reduction.

Advances in PCB Materials

Presenter: Darren Hitchcock
Manufacturing Track

This session will focus on new and advanced technologies for printed circuit board raw materials. The move toward smooth copper and low loss dielectric materials for improved signal integrity will be discussed. Darren will cover advances in PCB materials relative to high reliability, high density, as well as the latest changes coming for industry raw materials specifications. He will also cover trends in the industry related to coplanarity, solder joint reliability, signal integrity, and reliability as well as their impact on raw material properties and PCB fabrication.

The Elephants in the Room

Presenter: Nolan Johnson
Design Track

A look at the most important current and emerging challenges in (and for) electronics manufacturing today.

Accelerating the Market Adoption of Your Innovation

Presenter: Jerry Vieira
Design Track

Technology-firms periodically face the challenge of finding ways to accelerate the slow market adoption of their latest innovations and product breakthroughs. Stretched-out cash flow projections, continually extended schedules, or the need for additional dilutive investment can make life painful and embarrassing to all involved: owners, customers, banks, investors, suppliers, designers, and finance managers. Little known to both technologists and marketers is the research-based science of the market diffusion of innovative products and ideas. This talk will present the concepts, strategies, tools, and approaches derived from that research and open your eyes to the factors that will accelerate your success.

The latest developments in Field Programmable Gate Arrays

Presenter: Ken Hiatt
Panel Discussion

Current trends, market moves, advances and what’s in store in the FPGA universe

20 Years in Design & Manufacturing; Looking Back, Looking Forward

Presenter: Duane Benson
Keynote

In this talk, Duane Benson looks back at how far we’ve come in electronics design and manufacturing over the last twenty years – since the first NEDME event. He contrasts that to where the industry will be in the next twenty years, putting it in terms of practical knowledge that will help you navigate that future. Finally, Duane talks about three wild card technological possibilities that, any one of which, if it comes to pass could change the world forever.

Leveraging AI in Intel Manufacturing IT for Value

Presenter: Robert Lawson Vaughn
Keynote

The AI journey for Intel Corporation’s manufacturing IT organization began many years ago with a focus on solving difficult problems with strong value propositions. Intel’s AI strategy for manufacturing unifies internal IT AI capabilities horizontally across multiple teams while emphasizing collaboration, data management, talent development, and standardized practices. It ensures alignment with broader corporate goals to balance value against new risk vectors. Continuous feedback and innovation drive this dynamic approach, positioning Intel to excel in AI-driven manufacturing solutions.

Design for Success

Presenter: Matt Stevenson
Design Track

One of the biggest challenges facing PCB designers today, is not understanding the cost drivers in the
PCB manufacturing process. Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is the practice of designing printed circuit
boards that meet not only the requirements of the project, capabilities of the assembly manufacturing
process, but also the capabilities of the board fabrication process at the lowest possible cost. While not
a substitute to early design engagement with the PCB fabricator, this presentation will discuss these cost
drivers (from the PCB manufacturer’s perspective) and the design decisions that will impact product
reliability and help companies “Design for success”.

We will explore some of the common places where cost will be added in the PCB manufacturing process
that may or may not truly be needed in your design. By having things such as material requirements,
required circuit density as well as assembly requirements in mind ahead of the design can definitely go a
long way to keeping PCB costs in check with the project budget.