Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is organizing the 5th Global Symposium On Sustainable Product Development and Life Cycle Engineering to be held in Rochester NY, September 18-21, 2007. This symposium is a follow-up to the São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil Workshop, October 2006, the Workshop in Shanghai Conference at the Jiao Tong University, October 2005, the Berlin Conference in the Production Technology Center (PTZ), September 2004 and the Environmentally Benign Manufacturing (EBM) workshop held in Birmingham, Alabama, in January 2003. This symposium brings together leading global researchers and practitioners to provide a forum for information sharing, collaboration opportunities, stakeholders dialogue on a subject of tremendous importance to our nation. The themes for this symposium is on the production of alternative energy systems, integration challenges in achieving sustainable production systems, and international collaboration in this field. While most conferences focus on the energy technology itself, this conference will specifically address the sustainability of the systems and processes that go into the production of alternative energy sources as well as life cycle impacts. The broad utilization of a technology such as fuel cells cannot be realized unless these issues are addressed. The symposium will also address the topic of Integration in Sustainable Systems and Sustainable Processes for Production of Alternative Energy Systems as seen by industry, university, research, governmental, and independent institutions.
The symposium will also focus on integration challenges in achieving sustainable production systems. While progress has been made in many areas related to sustainable production, integration challenges in addressing the social, economic, and environmental aspects continue to represent a major obstacle to organizations. The symposium will provide a forum to discuss and explore ideas focused on addressing the integration challenges and assess the existing gaps. This will provide researchers an opportunity to identify the research and collaboration opportunities related to this challenge. The symposium will bring together leaders from the US, Japan, China, Brazil, Germany to establish strategic direction and collaboration both for current and future engineers.
