The NIST USMS Effort
A Survey of Industry Measurement Needs and an Assessment of the Nation’s Measurement System
Dennis A. Swyt, NIST USMS Project Director

• NIST has committed itself to insuring that the measurement needs of the U.S. are met by taking a look at the whole of the nation’s
  measurement system
  
  
• The current objective of the NIST USMS effort is to produce a report on a needs-based assessment of the state of the USMS by June 2006
  
  
• The focus of the assessment is on industry measurement problems that pose barriers to economically important technological innovations
  
  
• The approach is to partner with industry in identification of those measurement needs using technology roadmaps, measurement needs
  workshops, and a variety of other fact-finding methods
  
  
• A comprehensive view of industry measurement needs will be achieved by making a broad survey from bases of industrial sectors,
  technologies, scientific-engineering disciplines underlying physical technologies, and the SI units of measurement
  
  
• It is expected that the assessment will bring the attention of industry and other stakeholders to bear on systemic problems within the
  system, mobilize providers of solutions to specific measurement problems, and catalyze the identification of other needs and
  problems
  
  
• In the end the goal is it is to get important measurement needs addressed and solutions to measurement problems provided