This joint USA-China Workshop brings together a selected group of academic researchers and industrial experts from USA and China to discuss advanced machine tool technology. Held on the campus of the University of Southern California, this workshop comprises technical presentations and panel discussions. Topics of discussion include: (1) innovations in dynamic data analysis and modeling; (2) new understandings on sensor signals such as acoustic emission; (3) new process dynamics understandings; (4) signal processing techniques including multi-rate methods; (5) parallel manufacturing machine structures such as hexapod and its further improvements; (6) reconfigurable machines and open-architecture control; (7) networking and information technologies, including multimedia, the Intemet-based communication, and multi-agent systems; (8) capabilities for high speed machining of hard and heretofore "unmachinable" materials; and (9) novel processes for rapid prototyping. A one-day visit to Arizona State University and some industrial companies in the Phoenix, Arizona region is part of the workshop program. The activities arranged for the delegates from China also include their participation in the 1999 NSF Design and Manufacturing Grantees Conference, which is being held in Long Beach, California. Funded in part by China's National Science Foundation, this workshop provides a forum for the selected participants from the two countries to identify critical and emerging areas of machine tool research, to learn about the present state of machine tool industry, to discuss future R&D and business cooperation opportunities, and to establish networks useful to realization of these collaboration opportunities.
