Workshop: Additive Manufacturing for Health; Arlington, Virginia; December 2015

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This award supports a workshop to bring together additive manufacturing researchers in the broad field of health. Additive manufacturing describes a collection of manufacturing processes that produce parts layer-by-layer, controlled by a computer, and without the use of expensive tools or dies. This manufacturing strategy has been an enabling technology for a large number of existing and emerging biomedical research and medical industry applications, and the approach has become widespread in recent years. Additive manufacturing is expected to fundamentally change the nature of advanced manufacturing and revolutionize many areas of research in the 21st Century. The workshop will help realize the full potential of additive manufacturing technology for various health-related applications and products. First, the increased awareness of additive manufacturing for health will increase the level of interest in manufacturing research in general and additive manufacturing in particular. Any research thrusts initiated subsequently based on workshop recommendations and a better understanding of additive manufacturing for health are expected to increase the further adoption of additive manufacturing in various medical research and development efforts.The workshop will last 1.5 days, and will include thought leaders from industry and academe to address the future of additive manufacturing in health as well as the research accomplishments to date and the basic research needs. Invited speakers will make presentations regarding the future applications of additive manufacturing in health. Further invited speakers will address funding perspectives, both in terms of needs and the prognosis for funding support. Speakers will be recruited from industry, academe, and government in order to obtain a broad perspective. The objectives of the workshop are to: (1) review the state-of-the-art in basic research in additive manufacturing for health; (2) examine future prospects of additive manufacturing for health; (3)share perspectives on additive manufacturing for health from funding agencies such as DoD, NIH, NIST, and NSF; (4) identify needs, gaps, and challenges facing additive manufacturing for health, for both existing products and new enabled technologies; and (5) formulate recommendations for basic research initiatives.