RCN-SEES: Sustainable Manufacturing Advances in Research and Technology (SMART) Coordination Network

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1140000 (Huang). This award is funded under NSF's Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) activities, which aim to address challenges of creating a sustainable world. U.S. manufacturing, a key component of national economic development and prosperity, has been greatly challenged by competitive trends over the past decade, as global manufacturing competition has begun to shift towards fast implementation, just-in-time model-based manufacturing, frequent product transitions, and shifting of technical personnel to meet those changing needs. Further burdens are being placed on all industries owing to uncertain energy prices and possible greenhouse gas constraints. Revitalization of U.S. manufacturing is of utmost importance in the national economy. In academia, engineering sustainability, advanced manufacturing theory, alternative energy and biofuels have become very active but relatively disconnected research areas. Research coordination in the academic community and its networking with industries are insufficient and lack depth. To bridge the gap between the academic knowledge discovery and industrial technology innovation for sustainable manufacturing, our multidisciplinary team proposes to create an interdisciplinary, international research coordination network to promote Sustainable Manufacturing Advances in Research and Technology (SMART). SMART reflects the theme of the joint effort among a number of leading academic laboratories, centers, non-government organizations, and major manufacturing industries. During this project, the team will (1) conduct comprehensive and in-depth review of frontier research and technological development for sustainable manufacturing, (2) define the roadmap towards manufacturing sustainability and identify the bottlenecks in a number of focused research areas via several workshops, (3) coordinate research through sharing knowledge, resources, software, and results, (4) establish partnerships with industrial groups to expedite technology introduction, and (5) conduct education and outreach to a wide range of stakeholders. The SMART coordination network (CN) will be further strengthened through collaborating with eight leading research laboratories in seven other countries. Sustainable manufacturing research involves a wide spectrum of areas and disciplines, such as advanced manufacturing, sustainability assessment and decision making, product and process systems engineering, energy and environmental engineering, multiscale complex systems science and engineering, information technology, economics and sociology. The SMART CN will support a new paradigm for manufacturing sustainability and aggregate concerted efforts from multiple research groups with complementary expertise to transform the knowledge base of manufacturing sustainability, and develop a consensus roadmap for future efforts. It is anticipated that success in this endeavor will have a significant impact on industrial efforts in developing sustainable manufacturing technologies. The SMART CN will serve as a starting point for further increasing the diversity of the next generation of researchers, especially under-represented groups, and will have a hub-type website to serve the different communities. The project will also generate a number of case study educational modules for sustainable engineering education that should be widely adoptable for undergraduate/graduate education and professional training in industries.