With standardization at the heart of U.S. competitiveness, leading experts including ANSI's President and CEO S. Joe Bhatia, Dr. Walt Copan, Under Secretary of Commerce and Director, NIST, and Phil Wennblom, Director of Standards Policy at Intel Corporation, spoke about how their respective organizations advance standards and compliance - critical elements to supporting innovation, global trade, and public health and safety. The experts were part of the recent webcast on Public Private Partnerships: The Foundation for America's Approach to Standards-setting, hosted by John J. Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Langone Chair in American Leadership.
"Standards and compliance are two sides of the same coin," noted Mr. Bhatia. "Together, they bring full currency to the power of standardization." He added how standards and compliance work to protect the health and safety of citizens, drive new and emerging technologies, and facilitate global trade. In addition, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, 93% of global exports rely on conformance to standards.
The engaging July 16, 2020, roundtable also provided insights on how U.S. standardization is a "bottom up," structure, meaning that it is driven by the needs of the market and public interest. "The public-private partnership sets the U.S. standardization system apart from the rest of the world," said Bhatia.
"The United States approach first and foremost in technology standards development represents a genuine public-private partnership," noted Mr. Copan. "It is industry-led, private-sector led, and that is very important for the American way of life. It ensures that industrial outcomes are going to have the greatest potential for impact and value creation for entrepreneurship, [as] they are supported by standards that are the underpinning of trust." He added that NIST works with private sector in well over 100 standards developing organizations around the world and over 1,500 work streams and project groups.
On behalf of the industry perspective, Mr. Wennblom added that standards are a tool "to pursue challenges and opportunities," as they enable global supply chains, provide businesses and consumers with assurance that products will meet expectations, support product interoperability, and provide encapsulated knowledge for businesses to protect their data. Standards also provide platforms that enable innovation, he added. "Think about the standards that define the internet, which has enabled all sorts of innovation." He noted that Intel is involved in more than 300 standards-setting organizations. Intel implements standards in products and services, manufacturing, and product development.
The participants also covered how U.S. standardization differs from Europe and China's standardization approach, and how the respective organizations support advancements in AI through standardization.
See the CSIS webcast on demand.
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