 Welcome to UWM and the College of Engineering and Applied Science. This is as, you know, UWM is really proud to be a Research 1 University. And the college is really proud to have a long connection with industry and to really have an applied focus around our research activities. And so this type of event is really great for us to be able to host and to be able to bring the group together and talk about what's a really important topic. I think for the state. It's about a year and a half or so ago, I guess, when we first talked to WDC about their desire to try to leverage our expertise to do something in this materials and manufacturing area. It's an area that the state has a long history of, of course, goes back in a variety of ways in terms of contributing to the growth and development of the state and one that just continues to evolve and try to move forward. And so WDC was really interested in what can, can they do to sort of catalyze that activity and really continue to enhance this particular sector of the Wisconsin economy. And as we talked though, there was a desire to perhaps do things a little bit differently than some of the other investments they have made in other consortium like water or energy and other things that we're involved with. And this concept of the center of excellence really grew out of that. And it was one of, of having a, a opportunity to really leverage and bring forward the expertise that exists across the state in the universities from the faculty and the cutting edge research they're doing to the students and that sort of talent and that future generation and to build a framework or an infrastructure, if you will, that would reach out and really leverage all of those assets and resources and create something that truly would be a center of excellence that then we could, as we bring industry together, really look at what are those fundamental issues and what are those sort of cross-cutting needs and how can that center then support those across the breadth of different areas that are represented here. There's some companies where materials is really a fundamental part of their business. There's others where, you know, innovative materials and new materials are critical to their products and their future success even though they're not quote unquote materials companies per se and then manufacturing sort of probably defines. It's been, like I said, materials is everywhere and, but I think it was really critical that this type of activity be able to support a really broad and diverse set of industrial bases, different types of companies and so this center of excellence concept I think was really key and what you're going to hear a little bit today is some different ways you'll get an example of how other people have approached this really prime example from our keynote speaker and then you'll hear a little bit about how we have been able to really kind of be the convener and reach out to what the resources that exist across the state and begin to pull those together and so then the workshop is really all about how do we bring the industry perspective to that, how do we make sure that this center while truly excellent is also working to solve real problems and working to add value to your companies and working to move the economy and the state of Wisconsin forward and that's what this gathering is all about and that's why we're really excited to be a part of this to be the sort of lead university to be able to host this workshop and be able to take these steps in terms of moving forward with this exciting venture and so again I welcome you to UWM and to the college, I thank you for being a part of this your involvement of course is critical to our success collectively and hopefully you will have a very good and enjoyable and productive day so thanks again for being here