Aerospace & Defense • February 16, 2016

AeroDef 2016 Recap

Shawn Maguire Shawn Maguire

AeroDef 2016 iBase-t booth

Last week, we had the opportunity to exhibit at AeroDef 2016 Manufacturing Expo and Conference in Long Beach, California. Exhibitors and attendees arrived to AeroDef from across the country, some even traveling from overseas seeking aerospace and defense visions and innovations.  Produced by Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the expo offered us great insight into the aerospace trends and transformations.

On Tuesday, the expo kicked off with a Keynote Speaker, Scott Willoughby from Northrop Grumman who shared the innovation and creation behind NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. It is designed to explore our solar system as well as other solar systems, looking back 13.5 billion years. NASA is hoping to see when the first stars were formed and even hoping to discover life on other planets!  This first keynote set the mood for the excitement of innovation in aerospace.

JWST

Other keynotes and panels were all interesting as well, many of them elaborating on the future of automation and smart manufacturing. From what we saw, the attendees varied from CEOs, Presidents, VPs, Directors, and Managers to Design Engineers and Manufacturing Engineers. We were humbled to interact with them as each one was an expert in their field of work. It was also refreshing to interact with the student attendees who had the opportunity to showcase their aerospace projects during the event. Having a prestigious platform like AeroDef to showcase aerospace projects from STEM students is a great way to nurture our future aerospace experts.

iBase-t’s newly updated booth saw a lot of traffic on both expo days.  We were able to interact with many new faces and some old friends. Connecting with like-minded individuals while providing an introduction to our Solumina Software Suite, is an experience we always look forward to. This expo definitely attracts the right audience and we are happy to have the opportunity each year to network with the leading innovators in the aerospace and defense manufacturing industry.

We hope that the other attendees had the same pleasant experience as we did.  If you didn’t get to attend this year, we hope to see you next year at AeroDef 2017 in Fort Worth, TX!

Also check out our Twitter feed for more photos and up-to-date information.