U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu serves as the Department of Defense's chief technology officer. In a recent talk at MIT, she spoke about the DoD's initiatives to build a stronger U.S. manufacturing base and to tackle the country's 'toughest challenges.' President Biden nominated Shyu as under secretary in April 2021, and three months later she stepped into the role. She is responsible for supporting research, development, and prototyping across the DoD. In her talk, which was part of the Manufacturing@MIT Distinguished Speaker Series, she touched on many areas, including funding startups 'so good ideas don't languish,' training a manufacturing workforce, strengthening U.S. supply chains, preparing for climate change, preventing intellectual property theft, supporting 'leap-ahead' technologies, and rebuilding America's semiconductor industry. She described the recently announced DoD Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), which will provide capital...
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