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28 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2022 I think we will see this independent drive go beyond electronics to pharmaceuticals, machine tools, rare earth metals, and other critical materials and finished products. Silver Lining 3: STEM Education Not only will the United States need more engineers and technicians to develop and man- ufacture semiconductors and other high tech- nology products like electrical vehicles, but the world has also seen how much supply chain challenges affect our lives. More scientists and engineers will be needed to improve the oper- ations, transportation, and final delivery of the goods we all need to prosper in the 21st cen- tury. All these needs will be a boon to STEM edu- cation. Silver Lining 4: Inflation We have all suffered from inflation, mild at first and rampant now. It appears that much of the inflation is driven by the cost of fossil fuels. ese high costs drive not just transporta- tion, but fertilizer prices, food, construction— almost everything. is is where electronics can come to the rescue. Electronics are one of the few consumer products we purchase that historically come down in price. I was recently shopping and saw a 70-inch flat panel TV for less than $700. Just a few years ago, that TV would have cost about $2,000. Conclusion e United States and the rest of the world still have multiple challenges ahead, including supply and staff shortages, wars, and unrest. But with the near insatiable need for ever-increas- ing high-performing electronics, those of us in this vital industry are blessed indeed. SMT007 Ronald C. Lasky is an instruc- tional professor of engineering for the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, and senior technologist at Indium Corporation, and an I-Connect007 columnist. To read past columns, click here. Download The Printed Circuit Assembler's Guide to… Solder Defects by Christopher Nash and Dr. Ronald C. Lasky. You can also view other titles in our full I-007eBooks library. By Zac Elliott In my May column, I talked about the hype around the metaverse and looked at how the tech- nology may be leveraged by manufacturers in the future. Because the metaverse is only starting to be built, the topic was a bit abstract, but the recent announcement of a partnership between Siemens and NVIDIA brings the industrial metaverse one big step closer to (virtual) reality. In this column, I will discuss the new partnership, the technology each party brings to the table, and how manufacturers can benefit from the collaboration. The Partnership The collaboration between Siemens and NVIDIA brings together two technology platforms to sup- port an industrial metaverse—the digital business platform, Siemens Xcelerator, and the NVIDIA open world platform, NVIDIA Omniverse. The goal is to reach the next level of industrial automation by leveraging AI-driven digital twin technology. This will provide companies of any size with new ways to collaborate, innovate, and improve their perfor- mance. "Photorealistic, physics-based digital twins embedded in the industrial metaverse offer enor- mous potential to transform our economies and industries by providing a virtual world where peo- ple can interact and collaborate to solve real-world problems." To read this entire column, click here. Lean Digital Thread The Manufacturing Metaverse Revisited