In 1992 Congress passed the Defense Manufacturing Engineering Education Act with the intent of encouraging academic institutions to increase their emphasis on manufacturing curricula. The need for this incentive to integrate the academic and industrial communities was clear: gaps in manufacturing science were inhibiting the evolution of new manufacturing technologies that are required for the U.S. to maintain a competitive posture in the world marketplace. The Army Research Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories sought to contribute to the congressional intent by initiating a new series...