This workshop award is to support international travel for participation of 7 US faculty at the International Workshop on Sustainable Manufacturing to be held in Shanghai, China October 12 - 15, 2005. The purpose of the workshop is to advance the sharing of knowledge in the emerging area of environmentally benign design and manufacturing (EBDM). This area has significant broad societal impact in reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing processes and the total life cycle of materials use through remanufacturing opportunities. This also has global significance as consumption demand increases in Asia, Europe, and the US and the opportunity to prevent pollution has high potential in improving resource use.
The workshop will focus on two strategic areas - how to attain sustainable products and sustainable enterprises. Sessions will address advanced and emerging technologies, strategic and tactical systems research, and specific domain applications issues. This fits well with the directions supported by programs in the Division of Design, Manufacture, and Innovation with the EBDM thrust.
The expected outcomes include a prioritized set of recommendations on future research activities and potential international collaborations to address the complex issues of Sustainable Manufacturing. It is also expected that educational opportunities will emerge from this workshop, both in establishing collaborative projects including travel for students and in curricular modules for engineering design, enterprise systems, and materials processing through total life-cycle management.
