NextFlex News – November 2022

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

As we head into the holiday season, it’s my great privilege to look back upon the past year and recognize the accomplishments of so many – our members, government partners, educators delivering FlexFactor® and other NextFlex Learning Programs and, of course, our staff – who work tirelessly on our collective mission. We are looking forward to many new beginnings in 2023 with new projects, new members, and new opportunities to engage. Here’s a preview of how events are shaping up in the new year:

First, in collaboration with SEMI, NextFlex will host a session on FHE standards along with gap analysis sessions for NBMC and FHE. The standards initiative began last July during an exploratory meeting held at SEMICON West where preliminary needs were identified by the manufacturing community. To follow that up, a session will be held during the 2023 Technology Workshops on January 17-19 at SEMI in Milpitas and at NextFlex in San Jose. In addition to these sessions, NextFlex will host a 1.5-day deep dive session focused on shaping our proposal for the CHIPS and Science Act. The session will feature presentations from subject matter experts as well as facilitated breakout sessions to gather specific, high-priority technical inputs, particularly for novel approaches to advanced packaging. Members and non-members are welcome to attend these sessions.

Secondly, mark your calendars for the NextFlex Winter Symposium which will be held March 28-30 at NextFlex. We anticipate the announcement of a new project call and with that we’ll host a Proposer’s Day event, a teaming activity, project update sessions, and more. Portions of this event will be open to all who are interested.

Finally, we are working to secure dates in June for our workshop on “FHE for Defense Applications” to be held in the Washington, DC area. Many of you will recall this important workshop from the past, and we’re delighted to see the return of this workshop in 2023. NextFlex workshops are open to all.

Please stay tuned for more information about these upcoming events in the first half of 2023. I look forward to seeing you at one or more of these great opportunities to engage with the FHE community. Speaking of opportunities to engage, don’t forget to look us up if you happen to be attending the Defense Manufacturing Conference December 5-8 in Tampa, FL! We, along with the other Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, will be displaying our exciting new technologies.

Wishing you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends.

Sincerely,

Malcolm J. Thompson, Ph.D.
Executive Director