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Digital Engineering April 2026
In the latest issue of Digital Engineering, we take a look at the latest innovations in design for additive manufacturing, including the use of natural language inputs, social media cosplayers, and AI integration. The issue also includes a feature…
January Special Focus Issue: Design for Additive
In this Special Focus Issue of Digital Engineering, learn about the latest advancements in design for additive manufacturing, including new software tools, additive in automotive, custom medical devices, and more.
America Makes announces the awardees of three project calls worth $2.23M in total funding from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Manufacturing and Industrial Base Technology Division and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering OUSD (R&E).
The projects were originally announced in July. Collectively, the technical project focus areas seek to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) and address the needs of the supply chain as identified in the America Makes and Department of Defense (DoD) Roadmaps.
“With the July project call announcements, we also unveiled a new project call process to further enhance collaboration among our membership community and stakeholders, streamlining engagement with the Institute,” says Brandon D. Ribic, Ph.D., America Makes technology director. “This change made a difference in the strong member response and high-impact submissions we received.
"As a result, we identified and secured additional funding from OUSD(R&E) to award more projects in these critical technical areas," Ribic adds. "We congratulate all of the awarded teams and look forward to the project outcomes greatly benefiting the supply chain, the AM industry and the DoD’s modernization goals.”
Subject to the finalization of all contractual details and requirements, the selected America Makes Project Call Awardees are as follows:
The set of technical topic areas addressed in the Open Project Call were determined and prioritized by the America Makes membership community and stakeholders. Awards were made in the following technical areas:
Topic: Utilizing machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches to predict additively manufactured material quality
Topic: Cross-validation of physics-based modeling and in-situ process monitoring techniques for metals additive manufacturing
Topic: Cybersecurity for additive manufacturing training
The goal of the Hypersonic Project Call is to overcome the known shortfalls of traditional manufacturing processes by accelerating the maturation of AM of high temperature metals in technical areas to improve cost, performance and lead time for hypersonic capabilities.
Topic: Reliable manufacturing of complex scramjet flowpath components
Topic: Gradient printing of material systems relevant to hypersonic applications
For this first government-driven RIC, the technical focus was directed by the U.S. Army and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to quantify the intrinsic mechanical behavior of AM metal lattice structures.
Topic: Tensile Behavior of AM Lattice Structures
America Makes anticipates the previously announced Member Driven Rapid Innovation Call to get underway soon. Information on this project call can be found here. americamakes.us/member-driven-project-call.
Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.
DE's editors contribute news and new product announcements to Digital Engineering. Press releases may be sent to them via [email protected].
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