IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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IPC COMMUNITY 92 SUMMER 2023 organizations help answer that, and many engagement opportunities have evolved through those conversations. My goal was to establish USPAE as a trusted third party at the program level, and some of those conversa- tions continue in my new role. Tell us about the mission of USPAE. The mission of USPAE is a simple state- ment with a great deal of complexity behind it—strengthen the global competitiveness of the electronics industry and to partner with the U.S. government, primarily in the defense sector. Most of our lives are enabled by elec- tronics, and there are so many geopolitical and supply chain needs and challenges. With all that is happening in policy and the global industry, how do we maintain and grow com- petitiveness? The defense sector has driven a lot of this need. We want to partner across the defense sector and electronics industry to meet the needs of the U.S. government while remaining strong and competitive. What are USPAE's top priorities? To strengthen our relationships and con- nections and be positioned to support rapid needs for our country. We need to focus on information sharing, helping to shape the technical approaches from what our indus- try has already created, and to use technolo- gies and manufacturing processes to increase competitiveness. Sometimes, offices in the Department of Defense (DoD) don't know how to spec out the best requirements that capture advanced electronics technology, or how to determine an emerging issue that includes our industry ecosystems—and we can help with that. We also help the government reduce admin- istrative roadblocks and create partnerships with new industry members to ultimately capture the broad electronics ecosystem and keep growing in electronics assembly, circuit boards, semiconductor, and packaging oppor- tunities. Can we recreate and do interesting things to meet emerging needs? Partnerships with others are critical to growing into other electronics areas such as additive manufac- turing or advanced materials. USPAE is a trusted advisor to DoD, shown by DoD's establishment of the new Defense Electronics Consortium. Would you talk about USPAE's work with the Consortium? Sure. It's an Other Transaction Agreement (a government contract vehicle), and it is exclu- sively focused on electronics, giving it a very limited scope, and allowing DoD to do things very quickly. Programs flowing through the Consortium can be completed in months rather than years. What are some of the benefits of USPAE membership? The primary benefit of joining USPAE is our direct connection between gov- e r n m e n t a n d i n d u s t r y. Many of our members are small- or medium-sized companies and may not f u l l y u n d e r s t a n d t h e dynamics and complexi- For more information, visit uspae.org, or contact USPAE at info@uspae.org.