The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and the Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT) proudly announce the selection of five MTConnect Challenge 2 Finalists. The five selected Challenge 2 finalists will present their MTConnect-based software applications at the [MC]2 2014 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference to be held April 8 – 10, 2014, in Orlando, Florida., where attendees will vote to award three winners with a total of $225,000 in cash prizes, including a $100,000 award for first prize. “The impact and value of the MTConnect Challenge are evident in the submissions we received from a broad, diverse, and innovative audience—from graduate students and individual programmers to a Fortune 500 organization and companies in between,” explained John Wilczynski, NCDMM program manager. “The generation of ideas, insight, and applications that the MTConnect Challenge inspired will enable the defense manufacturing industry to begin to leverage the MTConnect standard to make substantial gains in manufacturing intelligence breakthroughs within their enterprises. “ “On behalf of all of us at NCDMM, AMT, the U.S. Army, and the MTConnect Challenge judging panel, we extend our congratulations to the five finalists and wish them the best as they present to the MTConnect community at the [MC]2 2014 Conference next month for three top awards,” added Hilena Hailu, AMT Project Manager. MTConnect Challenge 2 was seeking the development of software applications that can be easily adopted by manufacturing enterprises, especially the lower tier producers, to enhance their manufacturing capabilities and support Department of Defense (DoD) supply chain management goals. Challenge 2 judging criteria included benefit to manufacturing intelligence, creativity and innovation, practicality of concept, impact on industry, and overall quality. The title of the project submissions and the project’s author(s) and organization (if named), for the five Challenge 2 finalists are listed below: •Expanding Manufacturing's Vision: MTConnect + Google Glass – Itamco, Joel Neidig •Promise – Shane Crandall •MTConnect for Microsoft Visio – International TechneGroup Inc., James Finn •Interactive Work Instructions (IWI) – GE Global Research, PARC, Donovan Buckley & Arvind Rangarajan •MTConnect and NI Measurement Studio Integration (to monitor machining process parameters to aid in chatter identification) – Clemson University, Valerie Pezzullo The MTConnect Challenge is an Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Defense-wide Manufacturing Science and Technology (DMS&T) sponsored, two-part challenge project to develop manufacturing solutions using the MTConnect protocol. NCDMM, AMT, and the United States Army are overseeing the Challenge. The MTConnect Institute manages the development and further adoption of the standard. MTConnect is an open, royalty-free set of communications standards intended to foster greater interoperability and information sharing between manufacturing equipment, devices, and software applications. To date, harnessing the wealth of available information and data across equipment and devices has been challenging due in large part to the disparate nature of software programs.