Graduate Engineering Fellowship: Life Cycle Product Design and Manufacture

This proposal requests funding for fellowships in Life-Cycle Product Design and Manufacture, for graduate study in Mechanical Engineering, an identified area of national need and consistent with recent initiatives within the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The overalJ objective of this project is to increase the number of well-qualified U.S. citizens obtaining the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering. The program wiH be conducted by the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. The Fe110wshiprecipients wiH be provided a unique interdisciplinary research environment related to life-cycle design and manufacturing, and the supervised teaching component will provide the fe110wsan exposure to the teaching aspects of a faculty career. The Department and the University are well qualified to administer the proposed fellowship program and achieve the stated objectives. The College of Engineering is 320d in terms ofNSF funding levels among engineering co11egesin public universities. The 2001-2002 level of supported research expenditures is more than $212 million, about $2.0 million of which is carried out by the faculty in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Through the Research Challenge Trust Fund, the endowment of the university has doubled in the past five years. Of particular significance, the Mechanical Engineering Department moved into a new ME building in 2002, providing 40,000 square feet of modern facilities for departmental research and education.