Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Convergence of Scalable and Sustainable Digital Fabrication of Smart Textiles

工程研究中心规划拨款竞赛是ERC项目的试点征集。规划补助金不需要作为ERC竞赛的一部分，但它旨在在团队之间建立能力，以规划聚合的、中心规模的工程研究。可穿戴技术的使用将在未来十年显著增加。许多柔性电子设备已开始作为健康监测器、植入物、电池或配件集成到服装中。因此，越来越迫切地需要数字化制造来创造可持续的产品，特别是智能纺织品，这些产品将在我们生活的方方面面节约水、营养和能源。基于纺织品的设备，无论是被动的还是主动的，都将作为嵌入智能的平台。当将设计、传感、通信和先进的制造技术融合到不起眼的纺织品中时，它提供了难得的机会和挑战。为了使纺织品作为设备运行，它需要一种融合方法，以建立和支持科学，技术，工程，数学和艺术（STEAM）交叉的协作和协同作用，以实现可扩展和可持续的制造纤维和纱线，最终产品，智能织物。如果成功，计划中的ERC将使传统纺织制造转变为可持续的数字制造，这将影响可穿戴电子产品、智能服装、机器人、安全、建筑内饰和外壳以及医疗设备。计划中的ERC将有广泛的大学研究人员和设计师，与政府和工业利益相关者联系在一起，开发一个通用平台，这是任何现有合作或单一机构都无法实现的。它需要系统级的设计考虑和跨学科的聚合方法。规划补助金将使我们能够(1)确定不同团队之间非传统合作的研究和教育/劳动力发展挑战；(2)推行试验计划，以测试/促进跨中心的措施，并策划工作坊，让潜在持份者参与计划中的ERC；(3)通过研讨会和规划会议建立一个可应用于许多不同问题的一般利益相关者驱动的研究框架和工作流程的初步愿景。试点项目将1)发展纺织品的预测建模和可持续制造，包括自折叠纺织品；2)在纺织健康监测仪制造中嵌入智能化和可持续性；3)创造类似植物的“第二层皮肤”，用于能量收集和自我供电；4)融合时尚和科技。在规划拨款中，我们还将为大型设计信息和感官数据库创建一个设计数据观测站。计划拨款将促进科学家、工程师和设计师的融合，以加强现有的合作，并围绕计划中的ERC建立共识，以解决更复杂的问题。它将加速研究创新，丰富我们的教学和学习经验，激励公众，并为多样化的STEAM员工队伍做好准备，以推进美国在数字制造方面的领导地位。在计划拨款中，我们将重点关注1)跨学校和学科的ERC特定课程创新，以丰富STEAM的教育经验。2)教师发展，以提高教与学的有效性，在课堂和非正式环境中创建可复制的跨学科学习模块。3)在学生的早期教育和培训中吸引潜在的行业合作伙伴。(4)加强技术准备。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.The use of wearable technology is poised to significantly increase in the next decade. Many flexible electronic devices have begun to be incorporated into clothing as health monitors, implants, batteries, or accessories. Therefore, there are ever more pressing needs to bring digital fabrication to create sustainable products, specifically, smart textiles that will conserve water, nutrients, and energy in every facet of our lives. Textile-based devices, both passive and active, will act as platforms to embed intelligence. It offers a rare opportunity as well as challenges when blending design, sensing, communication, and advanced manufacturing technologies into unobtrusive textiles. For textile to perform as devices, it requires a convergence approach that builds and supports collaboration and synergy that intersects science, technology, engineering, mathematics and art (STEAM) for a scalable and sustainable manufacturing fibers and yarns towards the final products, smart fabrics. If successful, the planned ERC will enable transformation of traditional textile manufacturing into sustainable digital fabrication, which will impact wearable electronics, smart clothing, robotics, safety, building interiors and envelopes, and medical devices. The planned ERC will have a broad set of university researchers and designers tied to government and industrial stakeholders to develop a general platform that is not possible by any existing collaboration or a single institution. It necessitates system-level design considerations and a convergent approach across disciplines. The planning grant will allow us to (1) identify research and education/workforce development challenges given the unconventional collaborations between different teams; (2) carry out pilot projects to test/facilitate cross-center initiatives, and plan a workshop to bring together potential stakeholders for the planned ERC; (3) establish initial vision via workshop and planning meetings for a general stakeholder-driven research framework and workflow that can be applied to many different problems. The pilot projects will 1) Develop predictive modeling and sustainable manufacturing of textile, including self-folding textiles; 2) Embed intelligence and sustainability in manufacturing of textile-based health monitors; 3) Create plant-like "second skins" for energy-harvesting, and self-powering, and 4) Blend fashion and technology. In the planning grant, we will also create a design data observatory for large repositories of design information and sensory data. The planning grant will foster convergence that blends scientists, engineers, and designers to strengthen the existing collaborations and build consensus around the planned ERC to address more complex problems. It will accelerate research innovation, enrich our teaching and learning experience, excite the public, and prepare a diverse STEAM workforce to advance U.S. leadership in digital manufacturing. In the planning grant, we will focus on 1) ERC specific curricular innovation across schools and disciplines to enrich education experience in STEAM. 2) Faculty development to enhance effectiveness of teaching and learning, creating replicable, interdisciplinary learning modules in both the classroom and less formal environments. 3) Engaging potential industrial partners in the early stage of education and training of students. 4) Building up technology readiness.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.