WESF plays a role in promoting standardization and eliminating global trade barriers.
Public and private sector stakeholders in the standards community came together on September 11 for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standards Forum, an event designed to highlight global standardization as a strategic priority for the United States.
NIST director Dr. Laurie Locascio delivered the morning keynote address, speaking on the U.S. Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology and its implementation roadmap. Dr. Locascio highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships and diverse participation in standards development, noting that it is “time to join together to preserve and promote all that we value in our standards system, so that it continues to champion competitiveness and innovation.”
The day’s first panel—Public-Private Partnerships to Advance Global Standardization—featured ANSI senior vice president of government relations and public policy Mary Saunders, alongside Andrew Kireta, president of ASTM International; Daniel Burnett, president and CEO, IEEE/ISTO; Susan Miller, president and CEO of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS); and George Borlase, interim executive director and vice president of standards development for Underwriters Laboratories Standards and Engagement (ULSE). Charles Romine, associate director of laboratory programs for NIST, served as moderator.
Panelists discussed the importance of pre-standardization activities, and how public-private partnerships can support these initiatives to lead to robust technical proposals. Diversity of stakeholders in both pre-standardization and standards development activities is key, with Saunders emphasizing that emerging technologies involve new groups of participants who may respond to different value propositions for participation in standards. Panelists provided examples of successful public-private partnerships in standardization, and addressed challenges, best practices, and common misconceptions that they encountered in these efforts. Saunders also highlighted ANSI’s recently released report, Enabling Standards Development Through Public-Private Partnerships,which details best practices and recommendations on the use of public-private partnerships.
Gordon Gillerman, conformity assessment advisor for NIST, provided the afternoon keynote address. Gillerman outlined the effectiveness of conformity assessment as a tool for industry to bring new technology to the market, while saving resources to use for R&D for future technologies. He noted the impact of the UN Sustainable Development Goals on standardization activities, and spoke on challenges that new and emerging technologies bring to conformity assessment—including products that are updated with new software after purchase, and artificial intelligence tools that are continually being trained on new material.
Two afternoon panels addressed the topic of Driving Innovation Through Standardization, featuring panelists representing the NIST laboratories and private sector partners, alongside moderators Craig Schlenoff, acting deputy associate director for laboratory programs, and David Yashar, acting deputy director, standards coordination office. The panelists offered insights into their organizations’ and laboratories’ work in standardization, often noting the importance of partnership for the most robust and effective standards, and the critical role that measurement standards play across industries. Discussions addressed when standardization should start within the development of a new technology, and the importance of engaging with industry early—particularly with fast-moving technologies.