Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced today that the FlexTech Alliance, a public-private manufacturing consortium based in San Jose, California, will lead a new Manufacturing Innovation Institute to secure U.S. leadership in next-generation bendable and wearable electronic devices. Flexible hybrid electronics have the power to unleash wearable devices to improve medical health monitoring and personal fitness; soft robotics to care for the elderly or assist wounded soldiers; and light weight sensors embedded into the very trellises and fibers of roads, bridges, and, and other structures across the globe.
The announcement occurred in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) wind tunnel facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. The NFAC is operated by the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex, Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee. A wide range of available support systems combine with this unique facility to allow successful completion of aerodynamic and acoustic experiments that cannot be achieved anywhere else. The 80-by-120-foot wind tunnel test section is the world’s largest wind tunnel and is capable of testing a full size Boeing 737 at velocities up to 100 knots.
“Our NASA center is known for its innovative collaborations, and we are honored that the Department of Defense selected Ames and our unique Silicon Valley facilities to host this announcement,” said Dr. Eugene Tu, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center. “We look forward to utilizing future aerospace applications from this partnership in such areas as wearable biosensors, soft robotics and distributed sensors for system health.”
For more information about the announcements: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/08/28/fact-sheet-obama-…http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/6151…