CAREER: Nanomanufacturing Process Modeling and Control - A Foundation for Large-Scale Production

该学院早期职业发展（Career）奖的研究目标是将集成纳米制造和纳米信息学（INN）建立为纳米制造（NM）质量改进的核心学科。该CAREER项目将创建(i)关于NM中多尺度工艺变化的系统级建模和控制的知识体系；（ii） INN项目和课程，以培养专注于质量控制的新一代NM工程师。多尺度过程变化对纳米技术的建模和控制提出了独特的挑战。该研究将通过定义系统级建模和控制问题以及开发多尺度物理统计建模方法来解决这些挑战，以跨尺度耦合过程模型，以实现一致的预测和控制。该方法将通过改进基于纳米线的太阳能光伏和聚合物纳米复合材料的制造工艺来验证。综合教育的努力将导致创建一个INN项目和课程。将建立一个国家和国际合作网络，以实现卓越的教育，并培养全球参与的网络管理人才。如果成功，这项研究的结果将提供技术和工具，以改变纳米技术的质量和生产力，从而扩大纳米技术对社会的影响。具体来说，该研究将通过改善纳米结构（纳米线和纳米复合材料）的均匀性和产率来帮助克服纳米瓶颈，并将其应用于光伏和聚合物纳米复合材料的能源领域。结果将被传播，以便在具有成本效益的NM中进行质量控制。这些教育活动的目的是加强美国的关系在NM的竞争优势。工程专业的研究生和本科生将受益于新的INN课程和参与研究。该计划的研究和教育基础设施将得到加强和发展。K-12的推广和未被充分代表的群体的参与将促进NM的工程事业产生更广泛的影响。

The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award is to establish Integrated Nanomanufacturing and Nanoinformatics (INN) as a core academic discipline for quality improvement in nanomanufacturing (NM). This CAREER project will create (i) a body of knowledge regarding the system-level modeling and control of multiscale process variations in NM; and (ii) an INN program and curricula to educate a new generation of NM engineers with a concentration on quality control. The multiscale process variations present unique modeling and control challenges for NM. The research will address these challenges by defining the system-level modeling and control issues and developing multiscale physical-statistical modeling approaches to couple the process models across scales for consistent prediction and control. The methodology will be validated by improving the manufacturing processes of nanowire-based solar photovoltaics and polymer nanocomposites. The integrated education efforts will lead to the creation of an INN program and curricula. A national and international INN collaboration network will be established to achieve excellence in education and to train a globally engaged NM workforce. If successful, the results of this research will provide technologies and tools to transform the quality and productivity in NM so as to broaden nanotechnology's impact on the society. Specifically, the research will assist to overcome the NM bottleneck by improving nanostructure (nanowire and nanocomposites) uniformity and process yield with energy applications in photovoltaics and polymer nanocomposites. The results will be disseminated to allow quality control in cost-effective NM. The educational activities aim to enhance the U.S.' competitive edge in NM. Graduate and undergraduate engineering students will benefit through the new INN curriculum and involvement in the research. Research and educational infrastructure for INN program will be enhanced and developed. K-12 outreach and involvement of underrepresented groups will promote the engineering career in NM for broader impact.