The New Engineering Research Centers Purposes, Goals, and Expectations (1986) / Chapter Skim
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2: Genesis of the Engineering Research Centers
2: Genesis of the Engineering Research Centers
Pages 35-58
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II Genesis of the Engineering Research Centers
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We used one overall criterion in arriving at our decisions: excellence. The NSF's ERC proposal review panel agreed to use excellence as the major criterion in view of the ambitious goals set for the ERC program, and in view of the enormous hope and expectations that everyone has for the ERCs.
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. owing Issues: · research support · quality of engineering manpower · facilities and equipment · effective institutional resource utilization · academic infrastructure for emerging and critical technologies.
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These programs reinforce the traditional NSF support for engineering science and research, which will significantly affect the intellectual and technology bases of the nation in years to come. The NSF is considering a number of other new initiatives to improve the quality of engineering manpower, basic engineering systems research, and the utilization of institutional resources such as the federal laboratories.
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At many universities undergraduate students traditionally have not been heavily involved in research programs. If we are going to involve undergraduate students in ERCs, in what ways is it to be done, and how are they going
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The ERCs need to develop fundamentally new concepts and technologies comparable in scale to numerical control machining, which was first developed 35 years ago and which is having a
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industrial competitiveness. NSF STRATEGY FOR STRENGTHENING ENGINEERING Some university people are very concerned about the ERCs.
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To a question about the possibility of funding "mini-Centers" at schools where the engineering faculty is small, he replied that NSF is open to this concept if the proposal for such a Center demonstrates that it could contribute to the ultimate goals of the ERC program. He also said that there is no policy to preclude a single university from hosting more than one ERC if subsequent proposals are strong enough on their own to win support.
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That posed potential conflict-of-interest problems in the review process because most of the university people who could function as expert peer reviewers were included in the proposals as participants. The group brought together to serve on the ERC panel is impressive.
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There were several steps in the review process. Before the ERC panel met, the Foundation's engineering divisions had called in 88 outside experts in the various engineering fields.
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State and local agencies and government laboratories might also be participants; provision for such participation in a proposal would add to its strength. After reviewing the "not recommended" proposals and discussing the reasons given by topic panels for this rating, we were satisfied that we could rely on the ratings assigned in the preliminary reviews.
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I believe that the thing that most impressed panel members was the number of good ideas for research that appeared among the engineering research proposals. It is apparent that there is a tremendous capacity in our engineering schools for doing forefront research, and that the full capacity is not being utilized.
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They were: leadership ~ proper focus on problems · bona fide industrial participation · infrastructure, including -university commitment to cross-disciplinary research goals -internal organization · intellectual challenge should -establish new intellectual frontiers -contribute to the knowledge base -provide graduate research topics · education: should enhance opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Nam said that the ERC should not be a collection of individual research topics that could be funded just as well through project grants.
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The 6 proposals selected by NSF for funding were those that had been recommended for award by the ERC panel: · Engineering Center for Telecommunications Research, at Columbia University · Center for Robotic Systems in Microelectronics, at the University of California, Santa Barbara · Biotechnology Process Engineering Center at MIT · Center for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, at Purdue University · Systems Research Center at the University of Maryland in collaboration with Harvard University · Center for Composites Manufacturing Science and Engineering, at the University of Delaware in collaboration with Rutgers University. We were free to select proposals for award on the basis of excellence, even if that meant selecting two proposals submitted by a single institution.
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DISCUSSION Participants asked questions regarding the selection procedure to be used by NSF in evaluating future ERC proposals.
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The fact that so many institutions took the time and effort to write proposals is a strong indication of the desire on the part of engineering schools to initiate the type of research organization described in the announcement. The message must be that the format for the Centers, involving as it does both research and education on topics of importance for international competitiveness, is of great interest to engineering schools.
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In the first round there was insufficient time for proposing institutions to gain strong industrial support. I suspect that indications of industrial support will be much stronger and better substantiated in the FY 1986 proposals.
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Still another factor that eventually influenced decisions was the leadership quality of the Center director. The perceived ability of the leadership
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In addition, the Center director must be able to devote a major portion of his or her time to directing Center activities. ERC MANAGEMENT ISSUES "Systems Aspects" Both the 1985 and 1986 announcements suggest that an ERC should "emphasize the systems aspects of engineering to help educate students in synthesizing, integrating, and managing engineering systems." This feature of the Centers results from the concern expressed by industrial employers that young engineers are not prepared to deal with complex engineering systems found in practice.
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and the Center directors are preparing a list of progress indicators. These include items such as the names of graduate students at Centers, a list of Center publications, new courses attributed to the Center, and the amount and type of industrial support.
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Regarding the high cost of preparing a proposal in the light of the relatively low probability of success, one questioner asked whether NSF had considered simplifying the process, perhaps by means of a pre-proposal screening stage. NSF officials responded that no change is envisioned for the near future, but stressed the importance of the proposal preparation process to the university itself for clarifying its concepts and goals governing research.
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Certain points in the ERC program announcement were clarified, such as the reference to "rebuilding the base of engineering education." NSF officials reiterated the need to relate engineering education to engineering practice, to codify that aspect of engineering knowledge for transmittal to students, and to help universities establish a science base in this area. The importance of this work for improving international competitiveness was clarified.
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