9624353 Gao This CAREER award will investigate the research issues associated with "smart" bearings that embed and integrate transducers and microelectronics for data processing for diagnostics and predictive maintenance. The educational plan will produce globally oriented engineers that understand competitive pressures and have experienced cross-disciplinary teaming. The research plan starts with quantifying bearing failure signatures, considers microelectronics and miniaturization of sensors and data processing into a prototype smart bearing, and bench scale and cooperative industrial experiments for optimization reliability. The educational program has components of percolate outreach through the University of Massachusetts-Amherst's K-12 Outreach Committee, and undergraduate course in mechatronic system design, and a graduate course on random data analysis and measurement. The impact of this innovative research plan is that it is a key component of predictive maintenance, with implications for productivity, availability and most importantly, safety, of manufacturing machines and transportation systems. The educational plan will enable the students to think critically and communicate better in a team environment, making the nations human resources more competitive in a global environment.
