Professor Carnegie Mellon University
Erica Fuchs is passionate about building nationally the intellectual foundations and analytic tools to inform National Technology Strategy.
CMU News online
2025-07-11
Carnegie Mellon University experts are developing practical solutions for a fast-changing energy system.
"America’s economic and military power depends on reliable access to critical materials for energy storage, yet today the U.S. is highly reliant on high-risk locations, including military adversaries, for the extraction, refining, processing and manufacturing of these materials, posing significant risks to U.S. jobs and economic security," says Erica Fuchs, Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy. "Meeting the government's call to action, analyses by CMU's Critical Technology Initiative shows that with the right reindustrialization policies, U.S. production costs can be competitive with China, and create good jobs for high-school educated workers.
Atlantic Council online
2022-12-02
Beyond this, important questions remain as to whether sensitive emerging technologies—such as applied artificial intelligence, bio-machine interfaces, or quantum computing—should be included in the mapping and information-sharing process, and also whether the United States and the EU have the analytical capacities needed for proper technological foresight, as highlighted by the Brookings Institution’s Erica R.H. Fuchs.
The Brookings Institution online
2022-09-28
In a Hamilton Project proposal, author Erica R.H. Fuchs of Carnegie Mellon University and the National Bureau of Economic Research proposes the creation of a national capability for cross-mission critical technology analytics to build the intellectual foundations, data, and analytics needed to inform national technology strategy.
Carnegie Mellon University News online
2021-10-05
Carnegie Mellon University hosted Ambassador Katherine Tai, United States trade representative, in a roundtable discussion on the data and analytic tools necessary to support U.S. innovation and trade strategies in critical technologies, such as vaccines, batteries and semiconductors. During her visit, the ambassador observed research demonstrations by faculty and students working in several critical technology clusters on a tour guided by Bill Sanders, dean of CMU's College of Engineering, and Erica Fuchs, a professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP).
The Register online
2021-08-05
Since then, according to Professor Erica Fuchs of Carnegie Mellon University, "half of economic growth in the US and worldwide has also been attributed to this trend and the innovations it enabled throughout the economy.” Virtually all of industry, science, medicine, and every aspect of daily life now depends on computers that are ever faster, cheaper, and more widely spread.
Los Angeles Times online
2018-11-05
Cutting-edge manufacturing not only involves the extreme precision of a Rolls Royce turbofan disc. It’s also moving toward mass customization and what Erica Fuchs calls “parts consolidation” — making more-complex blocks of components so a car, for example, has far fewer parts. This new frontier often involves experimentation, with engineers learning through frequent contact with production staff, requiring workers to make new kinds of contributions.
1 min
Carnegie Mellon University experts are developing practical solutions for a fast-changing energy system. Their work modernizes infrastructure, accelerates innovation and harnesses AI for a more efficient and resilient future at a moment when the stakes for national competitiveness and public well-being have never been higher. Learn what CMU experts have to say about their Work That Matters.
2013
2017
Reading High School Alumni Association
2015
S.B.
Materials Science and Engineering
1999
Ph.D.
Engineering Systems
2006
S.M.
Technology Policy
2003
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Proposal for a Center-Planning Workshop
Lockheed Martin Corporation
gift
National Science Foundation, Technology Innovation and Partnerships Directorate
September 15, 2022-Septembr 14, 2023
2019
Popular dialogue around additive manufacturing (AM) often assumes that AM will cause a move from centralized to distributed manufacturing. However, distributed configurations can face additional hurdles to achieve economies of scale. We combine a Process-Based Cost Model and an optimization model to analyze the optimal location and number of manufacturing sites, and the tradeoffs between production, transportation and inventory costs.
2020
Commercialization of a new material or process invention can take decades. A predominance of tacit knowledge, information asymmetries, and insufficient human capital with knowledge in the field can contribute to this delay. Focusing on an emerging technology which offers an extreme example of such issues, we seek to capture what expert decision-making looks like at the technological frontier and opportunities for interventions to accelerate the commercialization of technologies with these issues.
2021
Long-term public support may encourage the diffusion of emerging technologies by coordinating the generation of knowledge and providing patient funding, but unexpected policy changes may hinder private investment and even lead to situations of technology lockout. Leveraging archival data; insights from 45 interviews across academia, industry, and government; and 75 hours of participant observations, we develop insights about why institutional instability in Portugal affected the adoption of Polymer Additive Manufacturing (PAM) and Metal Additive Manufacturing (MAM) differently.
2021
We measure the labor-demand effects of two simultaneous forms of technological change—automation of production processes and consolidation of parts. We collect detailed shop-floor data from four semiconductor firms with different levels of automation and consolidation. Using the O*NET survey instrument, we collect novel task data for operator laborers that contains process-step level skill requirements, including operations and control, near vision, and dexterity requirements.
2023
The extent to which domestic industrial capabilities are essential in contributing to a Nations' prosperity and national well-being is the topic of long-standing debate. On the one hand, globalization and the outsourcing of production can lead to greater productivity, lower product costs, and gains from trade. On the other hand, national capabilities have long been a source of competitiveness and security during times of war and other crises.
