CAREER: Developing Computational Tools to Revitalize the U.S. Textile Manufacturing Workforce

上世纪80年代后，美国服装生产工作岗位在海外流失，随后制造业基础设施的衰落在新冠肺炎大流行期间得到了突显，当时国内生产的个人防护装备的需求无法满足。为了解决这一赤字，美国纺织业需要物质和人力资源来更新、提高技能和加快制造。这种转变的核心是2D/3D数字技术，这些技术可以实现即时的产品迭代，并快速将服装从开发阶段转移到生产阶段。目前，对于美国纺织制造业劳动力中的许多人来说，数字能力很低，他们传统上更喜欢手动技术，并质疑数字技术的准确性，因此限制了采用率。在教育领域，缺乏关于如何将3D数字技术整合到课程中的知识，这使得培养精通技术的未来劳动力并为现有劳动力提供培训具有挑战性。为了解决这些差距，该职业项目的总体目标是通过以下方式加速制造业的数字化：(1)创建一种新的计算工具，以取代新产品开发期间的面对面匹配会议，并在使用2D/3D数字技术时促进快速决策；以及(2)为当前和未来的劳动力设计有效的培训模块，以加强他们的核心知识和增长。该项目的工具和研究成果将促进学术知识的发展，并在纺织、学习科学、计算机科学和人机交互等领域做出贡献。此外，这项研究中提出的方法将为在设计、人体工程学和技术的交叉点创造美国制造业的新工作岗位铺平道路，这将显著受益于该项目开发的计算工具和网络学习方法。这项研究的一个主要教育部分侧重于利用精通技术的群体的数字技能，包括为教育工作者组织研讨会，设计课程材料，为本科生和研究生提供研究参与和指导，以及向4-H和K-12学生提供外联。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The loss of U.S. apparel production jobs overseas and a subsequent decline in manufacturing infrastructure after the 1980s was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for domestically produced personal protective equipment could not be met. In order to address this deficit, the U.S. textile industry requires the physical and human resources to update, upskill, and accelerate manufacturing. At the core of this transformation are 2D/3D digital technologies, which enable instant product iterations and quickly move garments from development into production. Currently, digital competence is low for many in the U.S. textile manufacturing workforce, which has traditionally preferred manual techniques and questioned the accuracy of digital technologies, thus limiting rates of adoption. In education, there is a lack of knowledge about how to integrate 3D digital technologies into the curriculum, which has made it challenging to develop a tech-savvy future workforce and provide training to the existing workforce.To address these gaps, the overarching goal of this CAREER project is to accelerate digitalization in manufacturing by: (1) creating a novel computational tool to replace in-person fit sessions during new product development, and facilitate rapid decision-making when using 2D/3D digital technologies, and (2) designing effective training modules for the current and future workforce to strengthen their core knowledge and growth. Tools and research findings from this project will advance scholarly knowledge and make a contribution across the fields such as textiles, learning sciences, computer science, and human-computer interaction. In addition, the methods proposed in this research will pave the way to create new jobs in U.S. manufacturing industries at the intersection of design, ergonomics, and technology, which will significantly benefit from the computational tool and cyber learning approaches developed in this project. A major educational component of the research focuses on leveraging the digital skills of the technologically savvy cohort, and includes organizing workshops for educators, designing curricular materials, providing research involvement and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students, and outreach to 4-H and K-12 students.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.