STEP Tools, Inc. Assembles Industrial Review Board (IRB) For Advanced Technology Project

Troy, New York-February 7, 2000 - STEP Tools, Inc., the forerunner in developing STEP-integration software toolsets for the global marketplace, today announced it has officially assembled an ATP Industrial Review Board, consisting of leading manufacturers, software vendors and machine tool controls companies. STEP Tools recently received an Advanced Technology Project (ATP) issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration. The Industrial Review Board will participate in an advisory capacity for over a three year period, as STEP Tools leads the development of their "Model Driven Intelligent Control of Manufacturing" project, an integrated design-to-manufacturing prototype system that allows numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools to be controlled by product design data.

STEP Tools held the official project launch meeting in December 1999, and plans to host the second meeting of the Industrial Review Board in May 2000. The meeting will be held in their new headquarters in the Historic Rice Building in downtown Troy, NY. Members of the Industrial Review Board (IRB) represent all sectors of the industrial marketplace:

Fred Proctor (National Institute of Standards & Technology), King G. Yee (The Boeing Company), Johnny Barnes (IBM Corporation), Paul Horstmann (IBM-NIIIP Project Office), Carla Mapes (IBM Software), Mr. Bob Burleson (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Mr. Harold T. Frisch (NASA/GSFC), Bill Whitecotton (Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems), Jerry Yen and M.K. Simon (General Motors Powertrain), John Turner (GE Fanuc Automation), Dr. K.Y. Wang and Michael Sobolewski (General Electric CR&D), Carol C. Tierney (General Dynamics Land Systems), Tony Haynes (National Center for Manufacturing Sciences), Bob Callahan (RMC Associates), Lou Pavlakos (CIMPlus, Inc.), and Dave Platts (Hurco Machine Tool Products). The board also consists of sub-contractors: Honeywell FM&T (Steve Brooks & Bill Simons), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Bridgeport Machine Tools (Marv Kreithen) and Liberty Consulting (Tom Rando).

IRB members from the CAD/CAM software industry include Robert Bean and John Ryan (CADKEY Corporation), Manish Patel (Unigraphics Solutions), Bill Gibbs and John Callen (Gibbs & Associates), Gary Hargreaves and Beth Bornick (CNC Software, Inc.) and Bob Giese (Alibre, Inc.).

Manufacturing companies from New York's Hudson Valley also reside on the IRB and include: James Moore (Cambridge Valley Machining, Inc.), Chris Healy (Dutchess Precision Industries), John Falatan (Fala Technologies), Otto Scherrieble (Otto-Tech Machine Company, Inc.), Bob Zentner (Tech Industries), Jim LoDolce (LoDolce Machine Company), Jan de Nijs (Monarch Machine Tool Company) and Ed Biro, Sr (The Design EDGE).