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

规划资助：智能纺织品可扩展和可持续数字制造融合工程研究中心

• 批准号: 1937031
• 负责人: Shu Yang
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1937031&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Planning; Grant; Engineering; Research; Center

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.

工程研究中心的规划赠款竞争是作为ERC计划内的试点招标运行。ERC竞赛不需要规划赠款，但旨在培养团队规划融合的中心规模工程研究的能力。可穿戴技术的使用在未来十年将显著增加。许多柔性电子设备已经开始作为健康监测器、植入物、电池或配件被纳入服装中。因此，人们越来越迫切地需要将数字化制造用于创造可持续产品，特别是智能纺织品，以节省我们生活中各个方面的水，营养和能源。基于纺织品的设备，无论是被动的还是主动的，都将充当嵌入智能的平台。它为将设计、传感、通信和先进制造技术融合到不显眼的纺织品中提供了难得的机遇和挑战。对于纺织品作为设备，它需要一种融合的方法，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纤维和纱线制造，最终产品，智能织物。如果成功，计划中的ERC将使传统纺织制造业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，建筑内部和外壳以及医疗设备。 计划中的ERC将拥有广泛的大学研究人员和设计师，与政府和行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融合方法。规划补助金将使我们能够（1）确定研究和教育/劳动力发展的挑战，因为不同团队之间的非常规合作;（2）开展试点项目，以测试/促进跨中心倡议，并计划举办研讨会，将计划中的ERC的潜在利益相关者聚集在一起;（3）通过研讨会和规划会议，为可应用于许多不同问题的由专家推动的一般研究框架和工作流程建立初步愿景。这些试点项目将：1）开发预测建模和可持续纺织品制造，包括自折叠纺织品; 2）在基于纺织品的健康监测器制造中嵌入智能和可持续性; 3）创建类似植物的“第二皮肤”，用于能量收集和自我供电; 4）融合时尚和技术。在规划补助金中，我们还将为设计信息和感官数据的大型存储库创建一个设计数据观测站。 规划补助金将促进融合科学家，工程师和设计师，以加强现有的合作，并围绕计划的ERC建立共识，以解决更复杂的问题。它将加速研究创新，丰富我们的教学经验，激发公众的热情，并准备一支多元化的STEAM劳动力队伍，以推动美国在数字制造领域的领导地位。在规划补助金中，我们将专注于1）ERC特定的跨学校和学科课程创新，以丰富STEAM的教育经验。2)教师发展，以提高教学和学习的有效性，创造可复制的，跨学科的学习模块在课堂和不太正式的环境。3)在学生教育和培训的早期阶段就与潜在的工业伙伴合作。4)建立技术准备。该奖项反映了NSF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。