Allison Barnard Feeney (Fed)

Allison Barnard Feeney is a mechanical engineer in the Smart Connected Systems Division in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL).  She addresses national problems related to the digitalization of manufacturing, such as system interoperability, formal language development, building trust in digital data, and building knowledge from disparate data. Allison came to CTL from the Engineering Lab, where she led Smart Manufacturing Operations Planning and Control Program, it’s Digital Thread for Smart Manufacturing Project, and the Product Definition for Smart Manufacturing Project in the Model-Based Enterprise program.

Allison has worked in the areas of manufacturing standards development, implementation, conformance testing, product data standards, and systems integration throughout her NIST career. She has been a key participant in the development of the STEP product data standard (STEP - Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data, ISO 10303) and is the Chair of the US Technical Advisory Group to ISO TC 184/ SC 4, and the US representative to SC 4’s Policy and Planning Committee. 

2019 Department of Commerce Gold Medal

Mark Luce, Allison Barnard Feeney, Thomas D. Hedberg, Jr., Moneer Helu, Brian A. Weiss, Alden Dima

The group is honored for exceptional leadership in developing the NIST Smart Manufacturing Systems Test Bed, which enables transformative innovation in manufacturing through the adoption of critical digital technologies. As the first standards-based integration of manufacturing systems, the test bed provides foundational documents, open data and technology demonstrations. These outputs support innovation in commercial software, research and workforce training, which has led to new products in use by manufacturers and the technical resources needed by industry to use these products reliably.

2019 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal

Allison Barnard Feeney, Shaw C. Feng, John A. Horst

The group is recognized for leading advances to standard-based data exchange between engineering, manufacturing and inspection to reduce inspection time by as much as 80% and improve product quality. The group developed core components, rules and validation methods in the Quality Information Framework (QIF) 3.0, an advanced inspection standard for integrating inspection data that reduces manual data reentry and dependence on proprietary formats to realize industry's vision of using data that is traceable to the original product design model throughout the inspection process.

2018 ANSI Finegan Standards Medal

The Finegan Standards Medal honors an individual, not necessarily an executive, who has shown extraordinary leadership in the actual development and application of voluntary standards.

2019 NIST George Uriano Award 

Allison Barnard Feeney and Thomas Hedberg, Jr.

Ms. Barnard Feeney and Mr. Hedberg are recognized for leading advances to standards-based communication between engineering, manufacturing and metrology that have reduced manufacturing cycle time by 75 percent and improved part quality. Industry’s vision of using digital models throughout the manufacturing enterprise is hampered by a lack of sufficiently expressive 3D product models, and software able to process and use those models. The team proactively partnered with industry and software developers to remedy these deficiencies, directly resulting in adoption of standards and technologies in new market segments. The new capabilities reduce manual data re-entry while cutting the cost of data exchange by reducing dependence on proprietary formats.

2016 NIST Edward Bennet Rosa Award 

2015 PDES, Inc. Brad Ridgon Technical Management Award 

2006 PDES, Inc. Bryan K. Martin Technical Excellence Award 

2005 Department of Commerce Silver Medal