Grants and Contracts Details
Description
This proposal requests support for developing a proposal for establishing NSF-funded
Engineering Center (ERC) on "Sustainable Products, Processes and Systems" at the University
of Kentucky in partnership with other institutions.
Product design and manufacture in the 2151 century will inevitably require the consideration
of sustainable product/process designs for the manufacture of engineered products and
implementation within a manufacturing system. A paradigm shift from the traditional
approach of only attending to functionality, cost and time-to-market is needed in order to
attain sustainable products, processes and systems incorporating environmentally conscious,
energy-efficient, hazard-free, lean manufacturing methods with product maintenance,
disassembly, recycling and re-manufacturing concerns.
This ERC will serve as a center of excellence for knowledge generation and dissemination on
design and manufacture of sustainable engineered products, and sustainable manufacturing
processes and systems. The ERC consists of four synergistic research clusters: RC I
Sustainable Product Design and Development; RC 2 Sustainable Manufacturing processes;
RC 3 Maintenance, Disassembly, Reuse and Remanufacturing of Sustainable Products; and
RC 4 Integrated Sustainable System for Product Manufacture. There is a strong synergy
among the research activities in the four clusters. Testbeds will be developed to implement
and test the new processes, methodologies, and tools generated by the ERC for sustainable
design and manufacture of automobile, aircraft, consumer, and biomedical products.
The education programs of the ERC will encompass revitalization of our existing graduate
and undergraduate curricula by including sustainability concerns in courses in design for
manufacturing, integrated product development, integrated process development, supply
chain networks, and manufacturing system design. The proposed ERC will develop
programs for community college and high school teachers and students to raise awareness of
Jife-cycle engineering issues. Knowledge will be further disseminated through developing
monographs, textbooks and comprehensive ERC Web sites.
The ERC will be built on the joint strengths of the University of Kentucky, University of
Missouri-Rolla and the University of Rhode Island. The combined expertise from these three
universities will be further enhanced by establishing partnerships with several national
laboratories along with outreach interactions with selected Kentucky universities and
educational institutions. Technical know-how and effective tools/techniques generated by the
ERC will be disseminated to industry through workshops, seminars, intemships, and co-op
programs. An Industrial Consortium will be established with well-defined fee structure and
membership benefits. Several companies including OM, Ford, Boeing, United Technologies,
Lexmark International will be contacted for their participation in the proposed ERC.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 1/1/04 → 12/31/05 |
Funding
- KY Science and Technology Co Inc: $20,000.00
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