This award is to conduct the annual NSF Design and Manufacturing Grantees Conference. The conference will involve researchers from the Division of Design and Manufacturing Systems and the Division of Engineering Education and Centers, both located within the Directorate for Engineering, and the Division of Information, Robots and Intelligent Systems, located within the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. The conference ensures that the individual researchers are informed about the ongoing activities of their colleagues. An elimination of duplication of their efforts may be achieved and a degree of cooperation may result from this activity. An overall improvement of efficiency of the research activity could be expected. In addition, the conference program organization allows for ample time to discuss manufacturing research in detail with the collective research community at the meeting, with feedback to and input from the National Science Foundation. Finally personal contacts between the grantees and program directors in the Divisions should contribute to clarifying many current issues in their work. The aims of the conference are to enhance communication between researchers, encourage joint research, promote synergism, and develop networks for technical interchange. Attendees to the conference gain an early access to the information disseminated.
