It was proposed to provide partial support for an interdisciplinary, international workshop on "Control and particle processes Conference" in Santa Barbara, at the end of January 1993. The meeting will bring together researchers from universities, industry and government, with the focus on the in- process measurements and control systems for manufacturing processes involving particles. This topic is relevant in chemical, mining and mineral processing. For instance, about 80% of the products manufactured in chemical plant at DuPont use particle technology. The margins of improvement by process control, in both product quality and reliability in operation, are significant. The proposed meeting will extend the research interests on particle process control of the group with areas of interest including chemical processes. The participants is truly international. NSF funds will partially support only professors and graduate students from the U. S. (20 participants with $500 support per person), while the funds for the industrial and overseas participants will come from industry and Engineering Foundation. The workshop covers four research areas: reactor control systems, particle processing, instrumentation, and modeling and control strategies. The research focus of this proposal is at the intersection of two division in engineering, "Chemical and Thermal Systems" and "Design and Manufacturing Systems", which will co-shear the workshop expenses.
