NSF Engines Development Award: Advancing smart logistics (IL, IN, MO, WI)

该区域创新引擎发展奖的重点是通过五个核心优势来改变运输物流系统：跨学科应用研究、商业孵化和创业、适应性终身学习、跨部门经济发展和深度社区参与。它们共同构成了智能物流引擎。2019冠状病毒病大流行凸显了受多重经济、社会和自然危机影响的物流系统中的许多长期故障点。解决所有规模和城乡范围内的这些挑战对美国未来的经济繁荣至关重要。伊利诺伊州-印第安纳州-威斯康星州-密苏里州地区在这一领域处于领先地位，因为它具有独特的地理位置，是跨越河流、航空、公路和铁路网络的所有交通方式的枢纽。该项目由伊利诺斯州创新网络牵头，州长州立大学是牵头的学术机构。整个州的主要合作伙伴包括西伊利诺伊、南伊利诺伊大学卡本代尔分校、南伊利诺伊大学爱德华兹维尔分校、伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校、伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校和东伊利诺伊大学。近年来，公司被迫重新配置其供应商位置，以建立弹性，同时寻求满足快速交货而不出现产品短缺的需求。在此期间，68%的小企业认为供应链中断对他们的业务产生了中等到重大的影响，87%的消费者受到了短缺和配给的影响。为了解决这些问题，该项目将重点关注三个核心活动：(1)卡车中程货运系统的物流自动化，(2)无人驾驶飞机和电动汽车的部署，以及(3)内河货运系统。该团队将围绕可翻译的研究进行规划，以证明自动化是一种系统性的增强，并将无人机和电动汽车技术纳入跨行业集群的研究。它将利用智能物流和设计思维，让港口管理者、社区领袖和私营部门合作伙伴参与进来，开发一个区域性的、从城市到农村的水运商业系统和包容性劳动力市场。该项目还将确定重新培训和提高职业道路被自动化打断的个人技能的战略，同时确保地方和分区域经济中的工人能够长期参与新的产业集群。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。

This Regional Innovation Engines Development Award is focused on transforming the transportation logistics system through five core strengths: interdisciplinary applied research, business incubation and entrepreneurship, adaptive lifelong learning, cross-sectoral economic development, and deep community engagement. Together, they form the Smart Logistics Engine. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted many chronic failure points in logistics systems stressed by multi-scalar economic, social, and natural crises. Solving these challenges at all scales and across the urban-to-rural spectrum is crucial to the future economic prosperity of the U.S. The Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin-Missouri region is poised to lead in this sector because of its unique setting as a hub for all transportation modalities spanning river, air, road, and rail networks. This project is led by the Illinois Innovation Network, with Governors State University as the lead academic institution. Key partners across the state include Western Illinois, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, University of Illinois Chicago, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Eastern Illinois University.In recent years, companies have been forced to reconfigure their supplier locations to build resiliency while simultaneously seeking to satisfy the demand for rapid delivery without product shortages. During this time, 68% of small businesses cited supply chain disruptions as having moderate to significant impacts on their business, and 87% of consumers were impacted by shortages and rationing. To solve these issues, this project will focus on three core activities: (1) automation of logistics for truck middle-mile freight systems, (2) autonomous drones and electric vehicles deployment, and (3) inland waterway freight delivery systems. The team will center its planning around translatable research demonstrating automation as a systemic enhancement and research incorporating drone and electric vehicle technologies across industry clusters. It will use intelligent logistics and design thinking to engage port managers, community leaders, and private sector partners to develop a regional, urban-to-rural waterborne commerce system and inclusive labor market. The project also will identify strategies for reskilling and upskilling individuals whose career paths are disrupted by automation while ensuring that workers in local and sub-regional economies can attain long-term participation in new industry clusters.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.