EEC-9526413 Elsayed This award provides funding for a planning meeting to establish an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Quality and Reliability Engineering Research jointly between Rutgers University and Arizona State University. The Center will have two locations, the first is the Industrial Engineering Department of Rutgers University and the second is the Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering (IMSE) of Arizona State University. It will supported by local/national industries, Rutgers University, Arizona State University, and government and state agencies. The mission of the Center is to conduct research and develop models of evaluating system performance and improve quality and reliability of commercial products and military systems. The Center's goal is to provide timely, high-quality and cost-effective research, development, training, seminars and workshops, and analysis in the quality and reliability areas. The Center has the necessary elements for success: 1) With increasing competition and emphasis on the quality of products and reliability perceived by the customers, there is need for research that will lead to a strong foundation to support improved quality and reliability of commercial products and military systems, 2) There is a strong interest from local and national industry in the quality and reliability engineering areas, 3) The Center utilizes the existing strength in quality and reliability engineering and probabilistic modeling of the faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Rutgers University and the faculty of the Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering at Arizona State University, 4) The Center provides cost effective research and development opportunities for small companies and subdivisions of large organizations, and 5) The Center provides exposure and training for graduate industrial engineering students in the area of quality and reliability engineering. This planning meeting will study the feasibility in establishing an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Quality and Reliability Engineering. The goal of the proposed Center is to conduct research and develop models for evaluating system performance and improve quality and reliability of commercial and military productq. Currently, four companies have expressed interests in supporting the proposed research activities. A planning meeting has been planned in January 1996 to develop a better research plan with invited companies. This effort has been coordinated with Dr. Pius Egbelu, Program Director of the Operations Research and Production Systems Program in the Division of Design, Manufacture, and Industrial Innovation.
