Large or small New Jersey manufacturers looking to grow their base won’t want to miss NJIT’s upcoming free summit on clean energy supply chains. The summit will feature a line-up of top national and local energy experts and policy makers, including a keynote address from MIT’s Martin Schmidt, associate provost and professor of electrical and computer engineering, and the faculty lead for the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a White House initiative among U.S. corporations, research universities and federal decision makers.
The March 30, 2012 event from 11:30 a.m.–5 p.m. will be held in the first floor Atrium of NJIT’s Campus Center. Spots are going fast and early registration is recommended. To learn more or register, visit http://dl.njit.edu/mnj.html or call 800.624.9850. Although the summit was designed for manufacturers, higher education and local school district administrators are urged to attend to gain a more sophisticated perspective of the knowledge and skill set that their students will need to enter this sector and its growing workforce. Lunch will be available for purchase through a variety of dining alternatives in the NJIT Campus Center.
“New Jersey’s future competitiveness is dependent on a robust manufacturing supply chain to provide the components and systems necessary for energy sector growth. In this summit, manufacturers across the supply chain and New Jersey policy leaders will engage in an active discussion unpacking key trends, issues and opportunities for a future clean energy supply chain in New Jersey. Sector-based areas of focus will include solar/distributed grid, wind, and natural gas,” said Meredith Aronson, PhD, director of the New Jersey Advanced Manufacturing Talent Network at NJIT. Support for the event was provided by a grant from the NJ Department of Labor. The Network is sponsoring the event with NJIT’s Division of Continuing Professional Educationhttp://www.njit.edu/continuing/.
Following Schmidt’s talk, two panel discussions featuring experts representing both companies and local officials will offer practical information and insight into how best to connect to New Jersey’s supply chain for solar and distributed grid power systems, wind and natural gas energy sectors.
NJIT Senior Vice President for Research and Development Donald H. Sebastian will lead a panel about NJ’s energy supply chain. Panelists will focus on the future of the sector, detail the supply chain in New Jersey and outline future workforce needs to support the sector. Speakers from Petra Solar and Princeton Power Systems will discuss solar and the distributed grid. Another group looking at wind will include speakers from General Electric, Offshore MW and Fluitec. A third group will tackle the current and future world of natural gas featuring speakers from Exxon-Mobil and PermaPure.
NJIT President Emeritus Saul Fenster will lead a policy response panel, later in the day. To date, panelists include Lauren Moore, director, Office of Business Advocacy, New Jersey Business Action Center, Department of State; Aaron Fichtner, deputy commissioner, Department of Labor and Workforce Development; NJ Assemblymen Alberto Coutinho (29) and Upendra Chivakul (17).
