Destiny of Manufacturing – EP 0208 – Sarah Boisvert – fab lab hub

Sarah Boisvert has more than 30 years of experience in the design, development and commercialization of high-technology products utilizing digital fabrication including laser machining and 3D printing. Her graduate work in market segmentation at Johns Hopkins University led to her expertise in productization of high tech devices. Ms. Boisvert is a co-founder of the commercial division of Potomac Photonics Inc. of Baltimore, Md., which she joined to commercialize a proprietary RF-discharge excimer laser. Following the sale of the company in 1999, Ms. Boisvert founded Fab Lab Hub, part of the MIT-based Fab Lab Network, in order to foster entrepreneurship and workforce training in digital fabrication manufacturing skills. Fab Lab Hub has produced DigiFabCon since 2010, a conference and Fab Festival dedicated to demonstrating how digital fabrication is changing the world. During this time she also consulted for the non-profit Fab Foundation, which supports more than 1,200 fab labs worldwide. There she developed strategic plans, implemented marketing communication and conducted fundraising. She returned to Potomac part time as chief 3D printing officer in February 2014. In 2016, Ms. Boisvert conducted a study – partially funded by a contribution from the Verizon Foundation – into digital skills needed for operators and technicians in manufacturing. For the study, she interviewed leaders at 200 companies ranging in size from startups to Fortune 100 multinationals from a wide variety of industries. The data resulting from her work is the basis of this book. Ms. Boisvert is a fellow and past president of the Laser Institute of America and has served on the Optical Society of America’s Industry Advisory Board as well as on the boards of numerous international technical societies.

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