This grant provides funds for the conduct of an advisory workshop to assist in setting a research agenda for the Manufacturing Machines and Equipment research program. The objective of the workshop is to identify extant knowledge from disparate fields that can be integrated beneficially into the technology of manufacturing machines. The workshop will bring together about 35 participants from a wide range of disciplines, including materials science, economics, mathematics and others. It will be held in the fall of 2004, hosted at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The workshop participants will identify critical needs of manufacturing machines, and then develop plans for the integration of knowledge from other fields toward meeting these needs.
The outcome of the workshop will be a plan for increased collaboration between researchers in the field of manufacturing machines and other disciplines. It should foster more innovative research in the field, resulting ultimately in improved competitiveness across many areas of manufacturing.
