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Background
The U.S. government initiated the High Performance Computing and
Communication (HPCC) Program in 1991 with the High Performance Computing
Act (Public Law 102-194). The government’s effort was intended to
accelerate the development of future generations of high performance
computers and networks and the use of these resources in the government
and throughout the U.S. economy. The four original components of the HPCC
Program were augmented in FY94 with a new component known as Information
Infrastructure Technology and Applications (IITA). The IITA component
supported research and development efforts that would enable integration
of critical information systems and demonstrate feasible solutions to
problems of national importance. Twenty-first century manufacturing, i.e.,
advanced manufacturing processes and products, was one of the challenges
to be addressed by IITA activities. Concurrent with the addition of IITA,
the SIMA Program was initiated at NIST to address the manufacturing
information interface issues implicit in the IITA objectives. Later,
recognizing the HPCC Program’s continuing successes and broadening scope,
the HPCC Program was renamed as the Information Technology Research and
Development Program (ITRD) and the components of the Program were
refocused into Program Component Areas (PCAs). There continues to be
evolution in the structure and focus of the constituent elements of the
ITRD effort; both NIST and its SIMA Program continue to coordinate
technical directions with other Federal agencies participating in ITRD.
SIMA Program Office
The
SIMA Program Office (SPO) focuses NIST's efforts to apply
information technologies to improve exchange of engineering and
manufacturing data. The SIMA program is managed from within NIST's Manufacturing Engineering
Laboratory (MEL) by the Manufacturing
Systems Integration Division (MSID).
The SPO, in turn, oversees research
projects conducted by MEL and each of
NIST's other six
organizational laboratories. The SIMA Program currently
supports 18 technical projects and programs distributed among all of NIST's laboratory operating units. The
SPO manages the
funding, progress reporting, and tracking of deliverables for all
SIMA technical projects. The SPO is the
liaison to related technical activities and programs throughout NIST and
external to NIST, including the Computing, Information, and Communications
National Coordination Office of the Executive Office of the President.
The SPO publishes formal program progress reports,
conducts management reviews of project technical activities, plans and
conducts technology transfer workshops, and prepares program descriptive
materials for public dissemination. |
