The World Technologies Evaluation Center (WTEC) will organize a meta-study for advanced manufacturing including a workshop to develop a research agenda for the comprehensive manufacturing, service and design research communities. This outcomes from this meta-workshop can be characterized as a synthesis of findings, recommendations, and overarching conclusions based on a series of more than ten studies of advanced manufacturing topics. This study will be conducted for the National Science Foundation and other agencies. The main objectives of the workshop are to provide guidance to the research community on what the highest priority needs are for research in advanced manufacturing, to build a multidisciplinary community of researchers who will address those needs, and to provide community guidance to help shape future NSF programmatic directions in this area. WTEC will recruit distinguished experts from the previous workshops and studies to conduct this activity. The workshop chair(s) will be responsible for substantive guidance and leadership of the public workshop. WTEC will provide support for workshop logistics (e.g., travel support for participants, meetings facilities, workshop handouts, etc.) and for editing, production, and dissemination of the workshop final report.
Intellectual merit: Many of the workshop speakers have served as chairs or experts of WTEC international assessment panels in various aspects of advanced manufacturing. They are recognized as leaders in the field. Other experts in the field will also be invited to present papers and otherwise participate in the workshop. WTEC has demonstrated its intellectual merit by successfully organizing over 60 such evaluation projects. Broader impacts: The research agenda developed by the workshop will contribute to guiding the nation's research program in this topic of national interest for globally competitive US manufacturing.
