SAMPE 2020 announces keynote speaker

 

 

The Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE, Diamond Bar, Calif., U.S.) has announced that Amanda Simpson, vice president of research and technology at Airbus Americas (Herndon, Va., U.S.), will be the keynote presenter at the SAMPE 2020 Conference & Exhibition to be held May 4-7, 2020 in Seattle, Wash., U.S. 

According to SAMPE’s website, Simpson will present on Tuesday, May 5 from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. She was named the Vice President for Research and Technology at Airbus Americas in June 2018, responsible for coordinating external research activities for Airbus in the United States.

Simpson will offer a retrospective on her 40-year career in aerospace and technology to identify some antiquated manufacturing processes still in use today and examine whether we are effectively preparing ourselves for an increasingly automation-dependent future in manufacturing and production.

She joined Airbus following government assignments in the United States Department of Defense. She was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy, responsible for developing the strategy for the utilization of energy for military operational forces worldwide, and was the senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense for all matters pertaining to energy in our military. Prior to accepting that responsibility, she was the Executive Director of the U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives, an organization developing large-scale renewable energy projects to bring energy security to Army installations leveraging private sector financing. 

Previously, Simpson was the Special Assistant to the Army Acquisition Executive. In that role she was a principal advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) on all matters relating to Army acquisition, procurement, research & development and logistics. In 2010, Simpson was appointed by President Barack Obama to the position of Senior Technical Adviser to the U.S. Department of Commerce where she advised on policy and export control issues necessary to protect the security of the United States.

Simpson has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions including the 2004 Tucson YWCA Woman on the Move, 2005 Arizona Human Rights Fund Individual Award, the 2015 National Conference for College Women Student Leaders Women of Distinction Award, and was named an Outstanding Alumnus of Harvey Mudd College in 2018. She is a recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service and the Department of Defense Pride Civilian Leadership Award. She is a nationally renowned speaker and has presented at corporations, government agencies, civic organizations, conferences and colleges around the country on gender and diversity.

Simpson holds both an Airline Transport Pilot certificate and a Certified Flight Instructor license, and has logged nearly 3,000 hours of flying in more than 60 different types of aircraft including float planes, flying boats, unmanned drones and multi-engine jets.

For more information about SAMPE 2020 and to register, go to www.sampeamerica.org.