National Institute of Standards and Technology 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NIST announces the Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop V to be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, June 5, 6 and 7, 2012. The format is a two-day forum followed by a one-day hands-on workshop. This workshop will provide information on the U.S. Government (USG) Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap initiative. This workshop will also provide an updated status on NIST efforts to help develop open standards in interoperability, portability and security in cloud computing. This event is open to the public. In addition, NIST invites organizations to participate as Exhibitors as described in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.

The NIST-hosted Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO) invites interested parties to provide input on a new public- private partnership program, the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI or Network). The proposed Network will be composed of up to fifteen Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs or Institutes) around the country, each serving as a hub of manufacturing excellence that will help to make United States (U.S.) manufacturing facilities and enterprises more competitive and encourage investment in the U.S. This program was proposed in the President's fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget \1\ and was announced by the President on March 9, 2012.\2\ The NNMI program will be managed collaboratively by the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce's NIST, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies. Industry, state, academic and other organizations will co-invest in the Institutes along with the NNMI program. For purposes of this notice, ``co-invest'' means that non-federal entities will contribute financial and other resources to the Institutes to complement federal investments.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites interested parties to attend a pre-consortium meeting on ``Developing Standard Requirements for Fatigue Performance of Transvenous Cardiac Pacing and Defibrillation Leads.''

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites all interested parties, including U.S.-based manufacturers, U.S. industry and trade associations and federal government agencies, to submit recommendations and suggestions for workshops covering specific sectors and targeted countries or regions of the world where training in the U.S. approaches to development and use of standards, including assessment of conformity to standards, may facilitate trade, increase U.S. exports, and/or benefit U.S. industry. Standards in Trade (SIT) workshops are designed to introduce U.S. stakeholders to emerging standards and conformity assessment issues in other countries and regions; identify regulatory information and market access issues; and provide timely information to foreign officials on U.S. practices in standards, metrology and conformity assessment. Interested parties must consider Administration priorities outlined in the current National Export Strategy. NIST will offer a limited number of workshops each year. Most workshops will be scheduled for a 3 to 5 day period at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland. NIST will evaluate all recommendations and may use the suggested topics in planning its workshops, subject to the availability of resources. Additional guidance is available on the NIST Standards in Trade (SIT) workshop program Web page. This notice is not an invitation for proposals to fund grants, contracts or cooperative agreements of any kind.

NIST announces that the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Advisory Board, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will hold an open meeting on Sunday, May 6, 2012, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO), housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), announces the first of a series of public workshops entitled ``Designing for Impact: Workshop on Building the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.'' The workshops will provide a forum for the AMPNO to introduce the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) and its regional components, Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs). The workshops will also provide a forum for public discussion of this new initiative, which President Obama announced on March 9, 2012. The discussion will focus on the following topics: Technologies with Broad Impact, Institute Structure and Governance, Strategies for Sustainable Institute Operations, and Education and Workforce Development.

The Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction (ACEHR or Committee), will hold a meeting via teleconference on Friday, April 27, 2012 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The primary purpose of this meeting is to review the Committee's draft annual report to the NIST Director. Any draft meeting materials will be posted on the NEHRP Web site at https://nehrp.gov/. Interested members of the public will be able to participate in the meeting from remote locations by calling into a central phone number.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is forming a Work Group (WG) to examine alternative methods for testing the accuracy of commercial measuring devices including, but not limited to retail motor-fuel dispensers. The WG will investigate the current methodology and standards (e.g., neck-type volumetric field standards and associated test procedures) widely used by weights and measures officials and service companies to test commercial measuring devices as well as proposed alternatives to ensure that the methodologies and standards facilitate measurements that are traceable to the International System of Units (SI). WG membership is open to any interested party. This notice also summarizes key issues to be considered by this WG.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will hold a free public workshop titled ``Conformity AssessmentApproaches and Best Practices'' on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 9 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The purpose of the NIST public workshop is (1) to examine current approaches to conformity assessment among Federal agencies and the private sector and (2) to provide a forum for discussion with NIST on conformity assessment practices, challenges and the means by which these challenges are being addressed.

This notice announces the Secretary of Commerce's approval of Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 180-4, Secure Hash Standard (SHS). FIPS 180-4 updates FIPS 180-3 by providing a general procedure for creating an initialization value, adding two additional secure hash algorithms to the Standard: SHA-512/224 and SHA- 512/256 and removing a restriction that padding must be done before hash computation begins, which was required in FIPS 180-3.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Law Enforcement Standards Office (OLES), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC), will hold a public meeting on Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 1 p.m. Mountain Time, via teleconference. The purpose of the meeting is to present the final criteria for assessing the suitability of P25 Compliance Assessment Program (CAP) conventional conformance tests, as well as the final, prioritized list of features and functionalities that will require conformance testing in the P25 CAP.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology announces the release of a paper entitled Recommendations for Establishing an Identity Ecosystem Governance Structure on Tuesday, February 7, 2012. This paper supports the implementation of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace and responds to comments received in response to the related Notice of Inquiry published in the Federal Register on June 14, 2011.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.