Hello Product Design and Development Division (PD3) Members!
It’s that time of year, when individuals invest in themselves and head back to school to continue to learn new
tools that will help establish a good foundation for when they enter, or re-enter, into industry. Some of these
tools and concepts may be something that others in the industry already utilize and have mastered, while
others may be new tools that will help keep us moving forward. This is one of my favorite times of the year, as
I had a great experience throughout school and was fortunate to connect with teachers and professors who
invested in me and grew my passion for science, manufacturing, and polymers—special thanks to Tim
Osswald, Lih-sheng (Tom) Turgn, and Roxann Engelstad.
Looking at our division, we pride ourselves on being a source for continuous learning and bringing the right
concepts and data to our membership and the industry. Given that objective, the division has decided that
the theme for our activities this year is “Getting the Right Data to Achieve the Right Design”. The theme is in
part to honor the late Mike Sepe who always pushed us in the industry to stop blindly believing preconceived
theories and instead generate data to support one’s theory and design direction. Whether he pushed us to
generate data that allowed us to understand how our design and material would respond not only on Day 1
but also on Day 1,000 or pushed us to explore mold and melt temperatures that were outside the typical
processing window to benefit our part performance, Mike was always more interested in seeing the data
rather than listening to opinions. Despite individuals like Mike preaching what data is important for design, we
still struggle as designers and engineers to find and apply that data correctly. Having a good understanding of
the fundamentals and having access to good data will be critical for us to apply and harness the power that
artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning offer. Therefore, throughout the year, we will highlight
technical content that provides insight into what data is important and how to read it. We will also generate
content that will highlight what can go wrong if we don’t apply these principles in our designs. If you are
interested in contributing to these articles or want to see content specifically about a topic, please reach out
to us and we will try our best to integrate/curate good content.
One of the other ways that we, as a division, are looking to get the “right data”, is to also look to expand our
board of directors. Our board currently has many seasoned veterans that have allowed us to create a good
foundation for the board, and make us a great source for curating the material that I mentioned above.
However, we also recognize that it is important to not only present the right data but present it in the right
format. Additionally, there are new topics that our current PD3 membership may be better authorities on than
our current board to help us bring those topics to the forefront. I think a prime example of the contributions
our “newer” board members can make include Dr. Akanksha Garg’s most recent Design for… webinar, where she
spoke about the importance of understanding and overcoming the material quality issues with circular plastics.
It was a rare opportunity to talk to a real expert that is passionate about this topic, without being masked by
the marketing or public opinion. She brought “the data” and we had a real conversation! To continue expanding
our scope and expertise, we will be bringing on four new board members. We are excited to see where their
passion and unique areas of expertise will take us to keep us relevant to you, our membership. If you are
interested in being more active on the board, please feel free to reach out to me, or any of our board members.
We are always excited to connect with passionate design and materials professionals who highlight the
benefits that polymers can add to our design community!
Until we connect again, I hope you all enjoy the content of this newsletter!
Erik Foltz
PD3 Chair (2023-2025)
The Madison Group