The New Engineering Research Centers Purposes, Goals, and Expectations (1986) / Chapter Skim
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3: The Centers as a Reality-Plans, Mechanisms, and Interactions
3: The Centers as a Reality-Plans, Mechanisms, and Interactions
Pages 59-136
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III The Centers as a Reality Plans, Mechanisms, and Interactions
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In addition, I will describe the planned industrial collaboration program, international program, information dissemination plans, and other aspects of the center. The Research Theme and Its Significance The theme of research conducted at the SRC is to promote basic research in the implications and applications of the three types of technology (VLSI, CAE, and AI)
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, in microelectronics (VLSI circuits development, availability of computer-aided design tools for special-purpose designs) , and in computer-aided engineering (enhanced interactive graphics, powerful work stations, distributed operating systems, and data bases)
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has attracted a great deal of publicity as the key to the health of the United States' economy and industry. Second, an information explosion has encompassed the widespread use of computing and communication equipment (including office automation, personal computers, mobile telephone networks, distributed computing systems, sophisticated telephone networks, satellite communications, video discs, video processors, fiber optics channels, and optical storage)
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This consideration was an important factor in the development of our plans for the SRC. Educational Needs The Systems Research Center aims at the establishment of a strong advanced research and educational program in the above areas.
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The SRC will provide the fertilized ground for development of the major thrusts emanating from these early works, which are: · optimization-based design in chemical process control · perturbation analysis and AI modeling in manufacturing systems · symbolic computation and VLSI architectures for the design of realtime non-Gaussian detectors · design of a VLSI DFT processor · vision sensors and feedback in robotic manipulators. The research program implementation selected for the SRC was influenced by three factors.
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In addition, we shall attempt to integrate reliability and safety considerations into the design software and work stations. Telecommunications There are two major thrusts here.
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The disciplines include: chemical process modeling, polymers, bioreactors, chemical reactors, aerodynamics, flight controllers, robotic manipulators, vision, sensor design, signal processing, communication networks, information theory, coding, optimization, control systems design, stochastic control, detection and estimation, algorithmic complexity, algorithm architecture, VLSI array design, optimization-based CAD, numerical linear algebra, numerical mathematics, rule-based expert systems, knowledge-based expert systems, computer algebra, stochastic processes, queueing systems, manufacturing, and mechanical machining.
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. fundamental theoretical advances are needed to catch up with the speed and power of microelectronics." The impact of VLSI technology on signal processing and automatic control systems is emerging as very influential.
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Think, for example, of the task facing a chemical engineer who is trying to describe a complex industrial chemical process, starting from simple, elemental chemical reaction equations. His final goal is to design a process controller.
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We plan to utilize, in a timely manner, powerful educational tools such as video discs, video tapes, personal computers, and work stations. The recently initiated university-wide drive for such an environment will accelerate and support this effort.
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The Center will organize an advanced-level retraining program for practicing engineers from industry, government, and other institutions. In addition, cooperative programs will be established with industrial affiliates that will provide summer employment to students at government or industrial research laboratories.
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Our strategy for developing a strong industrial collaboration program is based on the building of strong technical ties with industrial research engineers. The collaboration between the two universities, and the unique characteristics of their respective regions, offer distinct advantages to the SRC.
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The University of Maryland has committed 12 new faculty positions, 10,000 square feet of new space, $1 million in operating funds, $1 million in dedicated equipment, and another $1.6 million in shared equipment. Harvard University has committed two new faculty positions, 1,550 square feet of new space, and computer networking.
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Indeed, we hope to develop CAD tools that will be able to produce special-purpose software and hardware implementations utilizing very advanced, albeit expensive, technology. Without a sophisticated analytical/computational foundation, the advisability of such designs is questionable.
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BARASH, and JAMES J SOLD ERG SUMMARY The focus of Purdue University's new Engineering Research Center is on intelligent manufacturing systems a phrase intended to describe the next generation of automated design/manufacturing systems.
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The relationships and functions of contributing entities will be described in later sections of this paper. FOCUS OF THE CENTER The new Center will focus on intelligent manufacturing systems.
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Beginning in the l950s numerically controlled machines and electronic process controls began to take over some of the low-level supervisory burden from people. Starting in the 1970s and continuing today, the emphasis has been on flexibility (i.e., the ability to adjust to changing requirements)
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The Center will conduct research, education, and technology transfer activities to facilitate expeditious progress toward the goal of greater control, flexibility, and integration. Research Focus What would an intelligent manufacturing system entail?
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Our focus on intelligent manufacturing systems requires a new emphasis on the information aspects of the system. Information engineering is similar to automation engineering in its objective to improve the direct manufacturing functions; but it is distinctly different in its emphasis on logic, procedures, organization, and software instead of equipment.
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80 PLANS AND PROGRAMS OF THE EXISTING CENTERS ~ :'N Information Engineering Plan and Control Design Process Automation Engineering \ > FIGURE 3 Elements and interactions in the intelligent manufacturing system. would needlessly undermine it.
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Some likely research areas are: · computer-integrated system for product design/analysis · data-base system for CAD/CAM integration · automatic intelligent process planning and production preparation · "virtual manufacturing" software for intelligent manufacturing
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In concert with the research program and with the more directed technology transfer program to be described later, our Center will explore fresh approaches to providing the human resources that will be needed in the future. It will do this through a combination of traditional and nontraditional educational programs.
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The Center will offer to qualified students the opportunity to become Summer Undergraduate Research Interns (SURIs)
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Mechanisms The new Center for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems will offer two levels of industrial participation. The existing CIDMAC program will become a part of the ERC, and will be expanded to include more member companies.
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Indeed, it is part of the mission of the Center to actively disseminate its results so as to improve the competitiveness of American manufacturing industry.
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The educational program now under way will produce graduate and undergraduate students who will be familiar with the needs of industry, and who will be capable of designing and building automation systems. UCSB, located about 100 miles north of Los Angeles and 250 miles south of Silicon Valley, is geographically well situated to become a major research focus for California's high-technology industries.
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robotic systems for material transfer, (2) robotic systems for process control, and (3)
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88 PLANS AND PROGRAMS OF THE EXISTING CENTERS ROBOT INSTALLATIONS U.S. 0 JAPAN 45,000 32,000 7,000 .~ 1982 1 0,000 1983 1 4,000 1984 FIGURE 1 Application of robots in Japanese industry compared to application in U.S.
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manufacturing and on cost reduction. Research focused on real applications does not, however, deny the importance of pertinent basic underlying principles.
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Project design and execution occur at the Center. Industrial participation includes the company's assigning engineers to work with the Center.
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FACILITIES The university has leased an Engineering Centers building at the edge of campus. The Center for Robotic Systems in Microelectronics will occupy 14,000 square feet of this space.
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The Center will stress undergraduate education. It has already established a one-year, seniorlevel complete curriculum for robotic systems specialization.
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This Center is intended to provide cross-disciplinary engineering research and training to support national needs in the commercial aircraft and aerospace industries, the ground transportation industry, the electronics industry, and other consumer products industries. The initial impetus for a national emphasis on composite materials came from the need for new materials to meet the extreme and exacting requirements of the aerospace programs of the 1960s.
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The interaction between design and manufacturing science in composite materials requires the careful integration of the first two programs, while the remaining three programs will form the cross-disciplinary foundation of the Center. The affiliate program of Rutgers University will allow for extension of the research to encompass ceramic matrix composites, in addition to polymeric and metallic systems.
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Computed design science research involves the integration of not only materials models, but also processing and manufacturing science models. In this way the computer-aided design research will permit the simultaneous design of material microstructure and external geometries.
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Materials Durability The Materials Durability program is directed at the rational design of composite materials to prevent premature failure. Primary thrusts of the research are, first, to define microscopic failure detail experimentally and thus produce microscopic failure models; and second, to develop quantitative computer models relating microscopic detail to macroscopic failure.
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The benefits to the two universities will be substantial in that the University of Delaware expertise in composite materials will be combined with that of Rutgers University in ceramics; thus, the overall program will be expanded to add the important class of ceramics to those of polymers and metals. ACADEMIC PROGRAM Embedded in the educational program of the College of Engineering, the new Center will involve undergraduate students, beginning in the sophomore year, in participation as undergraduate research assistants.
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Finally, the educational program will provide for the continuing education of both engineering practitioners and young entrants to the field from other professions through short courses and specially prepared text materials. INDUSTRIAL INTERACTION Industrial participation in the Center for Composites Manufacturing Science and Engineering will have a pervasive influence upon the program.
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The Center for Composites Manufacturing Science and Engineering will expend approximately $4 million from 1985 to 1990 in the development of facilities to support the research program. The renovation of more than 6,000 square feet in Newark Hall will provide for new laboratories: a Nondestructive Evaluation and Quality Assurance Laboratory, a VAX 11-785 Computing Facility, a Publications Production Laboratory, and the first phase of the Composites Manufacturing Science Laboratory (CMSL)
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At the same time we are developing work stations designed to access a network such as MAGNET, thus providing an interactive multimedia environment with real-time voice and video as well as data and graphics. Our microelectronics and electrooptical devices group has begun development of some novel electrooptical devices.
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Industry will be closely involved: appointments will be made to an industrial advisory board; new adjunct positions will be created; an industrial visitors program will be established; and short courses for industry will be developed.
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funded by government. We believe that the Engineering Center for Telecommunications Research, established at Columbia through a major grant of the National Science Foundation, meets these requirements.
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Although the goals of the research are specific, focusing on integrated telecommunication networks of the future, the implications are broad and include the exploration of new directions in man/machine communication and in auditory and visual perception, as well as new means of organizing information services. In order to carry out these research activities most effectively the Center is organized into four major activity areas: systems and new concepts · VLSI circuits and architectures for telecommunications · microelectronics and electrooptical devices · analytical studies.
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MAGNET: An Example of Current Research Activity In beginning our studies of integrated networks we are implementing a highly flexible network test bed called MAGNET. MAGNET is a local area network of our own design capable of supporting integrated services such as data, facsimile, graphics, voice, and video communications.
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Many of the major industrial telecommunications and related research laboratories are in close proximity to Columbia. These include, among others, Bell Laboratories, Bell Communications Research, IBM, RCA, ITT, and Philips Laboratories.
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This board will be expected to provide advice and suggestions as to research direction, industrial involvement, and educational activities. It will also participate in the annual technical review of Center activities by attending research overviews, and by providing names of outstanding engineers and scientists to serve as peer reviewers of annual proposals for research support prepared by Center researchers.
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To overcome this barrier to process and product development, engineering research and training must be accelerated at a rate commensurate with progress in the life sciences. It is the intention of the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
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Collaborations with other universities and institutes are also envisioned. STRUCTURE, MANAGEMENT, AND PLANNING OF THE CENTER The overall structure of the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center is shown in Figure 1.
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The functions of the different committees should be explained. The Policy Committee consists of the dean of the School of Engineering and the dean of the School of Science, along with the three department heads (Chemical Engineering, Biology, and Applied Biological Sciences)
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This committee will also act as the formal link between the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center and the industrial sector, as represented in the advisory and liaison programs. Lastly, this committee will be responsible for relations and interactions with MIT's Interdisciplinary Biotechnology Program, as well as for the student and industrial intern activities of the Center.
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. School _| Biochemical Engineering | l Labs I _1 Interdepartmental l I Biotechnology Program | Visiting Scientists and Engineers Postdoctoral and _ _ Special Summer Program Industrial Focal Topic Series | Industrial Interns ~ Degree Program Center for Advanced Engineering Study FIGURE 2 Overview of educational programs.
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We plan, in the future, to introduce new courses especially addressing advanced principles in biotechnology process engineering, to be presented either singly or jointly with cross-dis ciplinary relevancy. In the Department of Applied Biological Sciences, active M.S.
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Many of the Center's faculty teach these courses, and several of the offered courses are already within the scope of the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center. They include, for example, a special summer course (now in its twenty-fifth year)
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All of these programs can be readily implemented in the future under the auspices of the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center. RESEARCH PROGRAMS Overview and Rationale Discoveries in molecular biology especially in the development of genetic engineering have not only catalyzed interest in biotechnology, but have also provided the scientific basis for a new branch of the biochemical process industry.
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Members of this class range from hormones Genetics andBiore actor Molecular ~ Design and Bio °9YOperi Itions Cell-Line_ Downstream Development _~ Processing Biochemical Process Systems Engineering FIGURE 3 MIT Biotechnology Process Engineering Research programs.
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The specific problems to be addressed by the Center include: · production of specific proteins by animal cells -vectors for high-level expression -control of RNA processing and translation -active expression in stationary cells (bioreactor) modifications of recombinant derived proteins -post-translational events to control protein modifications -inter- and intrachain disulfide bonds -specific cleavages and additions genetic approach controlling protein excretion in yeast · fundamental understanding of protein misfolding -monoclonal antibodies to probe proper folding domain -variants with better protein folding ability (downstream processing)
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to develop fundamental engineering principles for large-scale cell culture, including bioreactor design, scale-up, and operation for animal cells and protein-secreting microorganisms; and (2) to develop strategies and designs which maximize productivity and minimize cost.
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Close collaboration between biologists and engineers and interaction with industry will be increasingly necessary to solve new problems today and in the future. Specific areas of Center research in downstream processing are: cross-flow membrane filtration recovery of insoluble, intracellular proteins kinetic approach to adsorption chromatography · affinity escort chromatography · high-performance liquid chromatography · immunoadsorption chromatography · extraction in biphasic aqueous systems · protein recovery with reversed micelles · integration of downstream processing.
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Biochemical Process Systems Engineering The proposed research in this area has been designed in such a way as to achieve the following objectives: (1) use of the fundamental scientific insights developed in the foregoing research efforts to provide systematic engineering approaches and tools for the analysis, synthesis, evaluation, optimization, and control of complete biochemical process flowsheets; and (2)
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120 PLANS AND PROGRAMS OF THE EXISTING CENTERS SUMMARY These four generic areas of research represent a major commitment of intellectual effort to the Biotechnology Process Engineering Center. The research and educational programs, coupled with industrial participation, should result in continuous leadership for the United States in biotechnology manufacturing.
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Although this might be obvious, there could be a temptation to emphasize research and to neglect education. By education I include the whole spectrum from undergraduate education, and perhaps even pre-undergraduate studies, through graduate education to continuing education.
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These are usually held annually, but at the beginning of a program holding such meetings twice a year often proves beneficial. Topics for an Engineering Research Center directors' meeting might include: a report of progress in implementing the Center; the status of industry participation; recruitment plans and discussion of problems associated with building research teams; discussion of education projects aimed at both graduate and undergraduate students; and a range of subjects dealing with the administration of the Centers.
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Computer Networking In addition to management meetings and periodic visits by our technical teams, we want to explore the options for computer networking and for taking advantage of the availability of supercomputers through the Foundation's Advanced Scientific Computing program. Through computer networks the Centers can benefit from the advantages of electronic mail, electronic bulletin boards, exchange of graphic data, and other capabilities offered by such networks.
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Efforts to increase the availability and accessibility of supercomputers to engineers may be familiar to many. I believe that computer networks that provide the user with a wide menu of information transfer alternatives, plus access to a supercomputer, can dramatically enhance the engineering research and education potential in the United States.
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Such a network would probably have to employ powerful work stations at the user's site, coupled via NSF NET to supercomputer centers. The potential of NSF NET is great, and it will be a key long-term consideration as we explore options for the Engineering Research Centers.
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5. What are the best techniques or mechanisms to use in determining potential users of Center research and educational program results?
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All of us- Center management, the NSF, industrial participants, and others who seek to take advantage of the research and educational potential of the Centers must use common sense unsparingly. For example, a prime purpose of the Engineering Research Centers is to develop fundamental knowledge that will give U.S.
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128 INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGE AMONG THE CENTERS I believe that Charles Kettering would be a strong supporter and salesman for the ERC concept. The story is told that at one point Kettering had a difficult time getting the production people to accept a fast-drying paint which, he knew, would greatly accelerate the manufacturing of automobiles.
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How many good researchers are bad teachers? In this day of faculty evaluation by students and tenure procedures that evaluate teaching ability, there are not many.
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Industrial researchers are much more constrained. · Engineering technology is progressing at a very fast rate, both in academe and in industry.
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It is also an objective of the ERCs that the industry people assigned to them provide a two-way connection to industrial activities, moving campus research results to industry and industrial nonproprietary results to the campus. There is little doubt that ERCs will expedite this two-way communication.
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However, it completely ignores the more than 200 engineering schools that mainly educate undergraduates and that need help perhaps even more than the comparative handful of research institutions. It is a fact that schools that award 14 or fewer Ph.D.s a year award close to half the nation's B.S.
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JERRIER A HADDAD 133 also leaves untouched the different costs of state-supported and independent schools.
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A National Science Foundation program comes quite close to what I have just described. The program, called Research in Undergraduate Institutions, is only a year or two old, and it seems to be successful in many regards.
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3. About 200 engineering colleges are predominately undergraduate institutions that produce half the B.S.s in engineering annually.
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Since an ERC cannot be expected to stimulate this type of interaction outside its technical area, special efforts should be made to introduce the industry people to other elements of the engineering college. Taken together, these points say that the ERCs represent an idea whose time has come.
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