Excerpt from The Programs of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory: January, 2005 I am excited about the new role that we play in the newly formed Interagency Working Group (iwc) on Manufacturing Research and Development This group, of which I am vice-chair, will continue the work of the Government Agencies Technology Exchange in Manufacturing (gate-m) to improve cooperation and coordination among federal agencies involved in manufacturing r&d. This year, the iwg for Manufacturing r&d identified three technical priority areas: Intelligent and Integrated Manufacturing Systems; Manufacturing for the Hydrogen Economy; and Nanomanufacturing. In each of these areas, the iwg commissioned white papers to outline the challenges and technical progress needed as a basis for future federal r&d efforts. A public forum for comment on the iwc technical priorities is planned for early 2005. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.