This award provides support to offset the costs for 26 students and postdocs to attend the 19th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE 2012) at the University of California, Berkeley, California, May 23-25, 2012. The conference is a forum to share ideas about different aspects of life cycle engineering as it applies to manufacturing processes and systems and to discuss recent and future trends in these areas. The students and postdocs who are provided with funding through this proposal will attend technical presentations given by leading international experts. There will be additional opportunities to interact and network more informally with peers and senior researchers during breaks and meals. The strong international character and interdisciplinary of this conference will foster new ideas and better understanding of worldwide challenges in the future development of sustainability, manufacturing science and engineering. A selection committee from the Life Cycle Engineering Scientific Committee will identify students and postdocs to receive funding based upon the following criteria: presenting a paper, his or her research statement, underrepresented status, and degree sought.
The students and postdocs that attend LCE 2012 will have the opportunity to display, discuss, exchange, and develop research ideas and collaborative projects in the area of Life Cycle Engineering. Through this experience they will sharpen both their technical skills and their communication skills, which will be valuable in their future careers, international or interdisciplinary projects. The new perspectives attending students and postdocs gain will help enable them to employ their talents and knowledge to drive U.S. efforts for competitive and sustainable manufacturing. Additionally, because much of the research is industry-focused, American industry will ultimately benefit from the new knowledge and the expertise gained by the students and postdocs; therefore, advancing the national prosperity and welfare.
The purpose of this funding was to provide opportunities to students and postdocs at U.S. institutions to attend the 19th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE 2012) in Berkeley, California from 23-25 May 2012. This support enabled 12 students to travel to the Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) conference and present, and 16 additional students to attend the LCE conference and associated events. Life cycle engineering considers the environmental and social impacts associated with products from the beginning of their "life" in raw materials extraction, to manufacture, use, and their end of "life" with disposal, recycling or reuse. The LCE conference is a forum to learn about different aspects of life cycle engineering as it applies to manufacturing processes and systems and to discuss recent and future trends in these areas. Life cycle engineering is an interdisciplinary field at its core -contributions made to this field also are valued in fields such as: engineering, design, business, biology, and computer science. 174 participants from 23 countries attended the conference in total. 103 technical papers and 5 keynotes from academia and industry were presented. The students and postdocs who were provided with funding through this proposal attended technical presentations given by leading international experts. Between sessions, during breaks and evening events there were additional opportunities to interact with peer and senior researchers. This interaction allowed the students and postdocs to further their understanding of the material covered in more informal settings and strengthen their professional networks. The papers the participants presented are a demonstration of their efforts to hone their communication skills. Authoring or co-authoring a paper facilitates the development of written communication skills; namely communicating the results of their research efforts. Presenting the work encourages students to find meaningful ways to communicate their results verbally and visually. The new perspectives attending students and postdocs gained will help enable them to employ their talents and knowledge to drive U.S. efforts for competitive and sustainable manufacturing. The conference proceedings are available from Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg (ISBN 978-3-642-29068-8) and through Springerlink.
