The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) today announced that Jon Riley, currently of L&L Products in Romeo, Michigan, will be joining the NCMS staff as Executive Director of Design & Engineering Programs.

"Jon brings with him extensive experience in the areas of R&D, High Performance Computing, business development, design methodologies and strategies," said Rick Jarman, NCMS President & CEO. "He has a clear vision and strong understanding of the great benefits that high performance computing will bring to manufacturing in the coming years."

At the NCMS, Riley will be responsible for identifying partnerships and alliance opportunities to help the NCMS and U.S. manufacturers remain competitive in a global market. His goal will be to make advanced development tools such as high performance computing (hardware, software and human expertise) available for manufacturers of all sizes.

"The NCMS collaborative model, which delivers innovation while managing risk, is a perfect fit for high performance computing," said Riley. "HPC will be crucial to the future of U.S. manufacturing."

Jon brings over 20 years of experience to the NCMS in the areas of virtual and physical product development, design and validation. For the past 13 years, he has worked at L&L Products, Inc., a successful Tier I automotive supplier, as an engineering manager responsible for their Composite Body Solutions product line, used for a wide variety of crashworthiness and NVH applications. During his time at L&L, Jon led a global initiative to evaluate and implement required resources for the virtual development of these products including people, hardware and software.

Prior to L&L, Jon worked as a dynamics technical specialist in the aerospace industry and in the vehicle safety group at Ford Motor Company. He earned his B.S and M.S. degree in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.