“A lot of people think you can’t get high performance when you’re using recycled materials, but we’ve proven that’s not true,” says Haley Keith, CEO of MITO Material Solutions . A new product, Fenix Fiber+, is an innovative combination of MITO’s hybrid graphene additives and Vartega’s sustainably sourced carbon fiber. Together, they are ready to...

“I think I want to be a plumber because plumbing seems like a big puzzle,” says 17-year-old Ella, who I met at a National Manufacturing Day event sponsored by MSC Industrial Supply Co. in Knoxville, Tenn. Ella is a tiny, timid girl hiding behind glasses and blazing blue hair. It’s an ah-hah moment for me. “Oh, you like puzzles?” I respond....

The manufacturing employment gap has existed for years, but some manufacturers have built great work cultures and evolved with societal changes to successfully build talent pipelines. In some areas, local stakeholders have created education and workforce development (EWD) programs that utilize local manufacturers and specialty partners to feed...

“You can see their eyes light up when they learn about something new. Aha, it happened!” shares Vanina Ghossein, her own face beaming. Her enthusiasm for a new curriculum she has helped develop around composites for K-12 is palpable. “I love everything about it–from planning an activity, looking for materials, deciding how students should do it...

It looks like a simple creek crossing. A small deck, some guardrails, riprap below. On the windy roads of rural East Tennessee, there are thousands of small bridges that look similar, but this bridge is like no other. The Little Bridge That Could has the power to change the way we approach infrastructure in America.

Morgan County, Tenn., is the...