Creative Young PARC Engineer Selected To Participate In NAE's 2010 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium

Eighty-seven of the nation's brightest young engineers have been selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering's (NAE) 16th annual U.S. frontiers of engineering symposium.

Engineers ages 30 to 45 who are performing exceptional engineering research and technical work in a variety of disciplines will come together for the 2 1/2 day event. The participants — from industry, academia, and government — were nominated by fellow engineers or organizations and chosen from approximately 265 applicants.

We are very proud to have Ana Aria, from the Palo Alto Research Center join an impressive list of participants. Ana currently manages PARC's Printed Electronic Devices group, which uses inkjet printing techniques to fabricate organic, active matrix display backplanes for paper-like displays and flexible sensors. She also serves as principal investigator for PARC’s DARPA sensor-tape program. Internationally recognized for her expertise in polymer-based electronics and printed electronics, including OLEDs, photovoltaics, and TFTs, Dr. Arias holds a doctorate in physics (polymer photovoltaics) from Cambridge University.

Prior to joining PARC, Dr. Arias served as the semiconductor materials group leader of Plastic Logic Limited, a startup company in the U.K. that develops flexible printed backplanes for displays. She received her Master’s and bachelor degrees in physics from Brazil’s Federal University of Paraná, where she focused on the use of semiconducting polymers for light emitting diodes.

About the U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Program

"As we face the challenges the next century brings, we will rely more than ever on innovative engineers," said NAE president Charles M. Vest. "The US. Frontiers of Engineering Program is an opportunity for a diverse group of this country's most promising young engineers to gather together and discuss multidisciplinary ways of leading us into the economy of tomorrow."

The symposium will be held Sept. 23-25 at the IBM Learning Center in Armonk, N.Y., and will examine cloud computing, autonomous aerospace systems, engineering and music, and engineering inspired by biology. A featured speaker will be Dr. Bernard S. Meyerson, IBM Fellow and Vice President of Innovation.

The National Academy of Engineering is an independent, nonprofit institution that serves as an adviser to government and the public on issues in engineering and technology. Its members consist of the nation's premier engineers, who are elected by their peers for their distinguished achievements. Established in 1964, NAE operates under the congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences in 1863.

A meeting program and more information about Frontiers of Engineering are available at http://www.nae.edu/frontiers