NextFlex News – August 2025
Dear NextFlex Friends and Supporters:
Last week, Stan Farnsworth, our Director of Business Development, attended the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, AL. The SMD Symposium is the largest gathering of industry leaders, government officials, and technical experts who are driving innovation and strategy in the space and missile defense community.
A highlight of the event included a fireside chat with USD R&E featuring Hon Emil Michael and LTG (R) Dan Karbler, Former CG, US Army SMDC. Several key takeaways from the session with Mr. Michael and General Karbler include:
On the subject of Technology:
- Communicated urgent goals of accelerating technologies into deployment
- Mass attritable unmanned systems are much more important now
- To meet defense goals, technology needs to be shown, demonstrated, tested and validated
On the subject of Workforce Development:
- Interns and early-phase career workers are key to the future, and they should be provided with good management and leadership to guide them along their 10,000-hour journey to excellence
- Senior, experienced workers have a role to play in providing leadership
Finally, Mr. Michael pointed out that in order to move forward, we should not be nostalgic for old processes but, rather, to learn from them and move forward with new processes as appropriate to fit current and future needs. And, we need to grow the industrial base by taking advantage of all entry points such as the SBIR system and DARPA, and the Office of Strategic Capital on the financing side to accelerate scale. Altogether, Mr. Michael painted an inspiring vision with real guidance on how we can work together to achieve success.
Speaking of events in Huntsville, I would strongly advise you to consider registering for our upcoming NextFlex workshop, Hybrid Electronics for Automotive and Aerospace Applications, in Huntsville, AL on October 14-16.
The event is co-sponsored by Auburn University and Boeing and will be taking place at the Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus in Huntsville. Dr. Pradeep Lall of Auburn University and Dr. John Williams of Boeing are co-chairing the event. We also have some fantastic speakers lined up, so you will not want to miss this event. There will plenty of good food, amazing presentations, and lots of time for networking.
You can find more information about the agenda and the speakers by visiting our website. I hope to see you there!
Finally, I am very pleased to report that Fabian Schnegg, NextFlex Deputy Director of Engineering and Fab Operations, will be giving a keynote presentation in the Electronics Keynotes session on October 23 at TechBlick Berlin. Be sure to say hello if you’re attending!
Sincerely,
Dr. Dan Gamota
NextFlex Executive Director