Episode 52: Chad Duty, IACMI

Chad Duty, CEO of IACMI. Source | CW

The composites community benefits from several associations and entities that work to forward advanced materials research, one of those being the Institute for Advanced Composite Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI). In this special National Composites Week installment of CW Talks, CW interviews IACMI CEO Chad Duty to discuss the myriad ways that composite materials and composites manufacturing contribute to the products and structures that shape our lives. Duty discusses the institute’s 10^th anniversary, its mission in the industry and rising to meet the challenges and opportunities facing the composites industry today. Listen to the full interview in an episode of CW Talks or read an excerpt below. 

CompositesWorld (CW): IACMI has a 10^th year anniversary this year. How are you celebrating?

Chad Duty (CD):  It’s a great time for IACMI right now. As you mentioned, we are turning 10 this year. Back in 2015 the Department of Energy established us as one of the now 18 Manufacturing USA institutes. Of course, our focus is on composites. This summer, we had our 10th Annual Meeting for our members and we have170 companies and universities and national labs in our consortia — so we had about 300 of our nearest and dearest friends come to celebrate with us in Dayton. It was a fantastic time.

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In addition, we recently opened up a new headquarters here in Knoxville, Tennessee — located on University of Tennessee campus where Uday Vaidya, CTO of IACMI, has a 40,000 square foot state of the art composites manufacturing lab, which is just outstanding.

CW: Let’s talk a little bit about the mission of IACMI. How has that changed since when you first got started — and what things have remained constant?

CD: As you know, we started off really as a Manufacturing USA Institute around composites. The goal there was to advance research and development around composites, and we have remained true to that mission throughout. We’re always developing new processes, new products, trying to get them out into the marketplace. And that’s where that industry consortium really plays a big role. Not only are they motivating the type of projects that we’re working on, but they’re also the route to get those products out to out to the market. That’s really critical and important — and that’s just part of our DNA, of who we are, and I think who will always be.

Now, things that have changed in the last 10 years. We’ve evolved with, with the changing needs of our country. Workforce development has taken on a huge role in what we’ve been doing. We had a pretty strong workforce development portion of what we call affectionately IACMI 1.0, which was the first 5-7 years of IACMI with the first bit of funding.

We’ve just recently been renewed for IACMI 2.0 in the last couple of years. So, in Acme 1.0 we had a really strong internship program. We had about 100 interns that were with companies like Volkswagen globe manufacturing and TPI Composites. They really had an impact, not only on the students, but also in the companies that they were working for. It was a really great symbiotic relationship. 100% of those students — those interns — either went on to get jobs or go to grad school. So, we had 100% placement rate — really successful workforce development effort there.

Over the last several years, especially with the Department of Defense, we started getting some funding through the IBAS program to develop some workforce development programs. Of course, we developed curriculum around composites, but we also had a large effort in CNC machining. We have, more recently, some efforts going on in castings and forgings and so that has really been incredibly impactful in terms of our reach across the nation, not only working with our member companies, but just getting into high schools, colleges and people that are wanting to retrain. It’s really been effective going from a “K-to-gray” approach of workforce development, because we’ve developed a really extensive online curriculum that’s delivered from industry experts in the field. I think we're at about a 40% completion rate for those who start, keep going on, which is about, I don't know, three to four times higher than most online training programs.

And then once the students finish that online training, that they can be enrolled in a one week long boot camp where they get hands on training, whether it be in composites or CNC machining, casting and forging — and all of that is at no cost to the student.

So it’s really a great opportunity for workforce development. There’s a significant need that I think has been has grown in prominence over the last few years. And so IACMI — with our experience in workforce development, our large industry network — was perfectly positioned to take that on. So, that has kind of developed into our new mission — one of not only composites R&D, but innovative workforce development solutions. As we like to say, our goal is to build better processes, products and people.

About National Composites Week

This podcast was released in coordination with National Composites Week 2026, a week devoted to celebrating the ways composites manufacturing is shaping a wide range of industries. If you have your own composites story to tell, share it on social media using the hashtags: 

• #NationalCompositesWeek
• #CompositesPerformanceWithPurpose