Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for DEmocratizing Manufacturing Accessibility for Designers (DEMAND)

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。工程研究中心（ERC）的愿景是为设计师民主化制造无障碍（DEMAND），为每个设计师提供无缝和直观地制造任何产品的潜力，无论：1)专业知识或背景，2)与制造公司的联系，以及3)产品数量（从一种到数百万种）。这一愿景将通过打破现有制造生态系统中深度的信息“不对称”，建立一个新的以云为中心的平台来实现，在这个平台上，设计师的想法和需求可以与制造商的能力和能力实时匹配。这一ERC愿景的实现将使制造业民主化，以便所有能力的设计师，包括外行，将被授权看到他们的想法被实现为有用的产品。感兴趣的各方将能够参与有助于满足我们不断发展的社会需求的制造活动。该框架与中小企业合作，也将有助于增加制造业产出，并支持我们未来劳动力的工程教育。与这项努力相关的集中研究和集体才能也将用于探索和为代表性不足的群体和妇女创造一个包容的环境。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 vision for the Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Democratizing Manufacturing Accessibility for Designers (DEMAND) is offer the potential for every designer to fabricate any product seamlessly and intuitively regardless of: 1) expertise or background, 2) connection with manufacturing firms, and 3) product volume (from one of a kind to millions). This vision will be achieved by breaking the deep information "asymmetry" in the existing manufacturing ecosystem and establishing a new Cloud-centric platform on which the designers' ideas and needs can be matched, in real time, with manufacturers' capabilities and capacities. The realization of this ERC vision will democratize manufacturing so that designers of all capabilities, including laypeople, will be empowered to see their ideas realized as useful products. Interested parties will be able to engage in manufacturing activities that can help serve the needs of our evolving society. This framework, in partnership with small and medium businesses, will also help to increase manufacturing output and support the engineering education of our future workforce. The convergent research and collective talent associated with the effort will also be used to explore and create an inclusive environment for underrepresented groups and women.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.