This award provides partial support for an innovative educational and research collaboration in manufacturing engineering between the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the universities of Baden- Wurttemberg, West Germany. (These include Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Esslingen and the Technical Academy of Esslingen.) The project coordinators are Dr. James E. A. John, Dean, College of Engineering, University of Massachusetts, and Karl-Heinz Kammerlohr of the Ministry of Science and Art of Baden-Wurttemberg. The initial major objective of their collaborative program is to develop and produce a series of prototype videotape courses in manufacturing engineering. These will be postgraduate level courses, intended primarily for use by practicing engineers in industry. Over time, the partner institutions also expect to identify and implement a number of cooperative research projects in this field. The participating institutions bring complementary strengths to their joint effort. West Germany has impressive manufacturing engineering research programs in the areas of machine tools, automation, and robotics. U.S. strength lies with the application and use of computers in manufacturing, especially integration of design and manufacturing. Manufacturing engineering education in the U.S. is only beginning to develop, whereas in West Germany it is already well established with many excellent university programs that have produced a large number of PhD level graduates. The Technical Academy at Esslingen is the primary provider of technical continuing education in West Germany. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has been a leader in the production of and use of video courses in the U.S., and is the leading supplier of coursework to the National Technological University network. To take advantage of these complementary strengths, the courses will focus initially on topics of U.S. technical expertise, such as control technologies and computer integrated manufacturing. Benefits of this collaborative arrangement include 1) promotion of international cooperation in an area critical to U.S. industry, 2) increasing U.S. capacity for gathering and disseminating international research and educational developments in this area of engineering, and 3) strengthening U.S. research and educational programs in manufacturing engineering by making them more responsive to international developments.
