This award supports a three-year collaborative research and education program between the Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS) and counterpart centers/laboratories in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Australia. IMS is an NSF multi-campus Industry/University Cooperative Research Center between the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. The Center is focused on web-enabled technologies and predictive intelligence to enable products and manufacturing systems to achieve near-zero-downtime performance. IMS is developing a Web-enabled Manufacturing, Maintenance and Service Education, Training and Research Program in partnership with government, industry, and international institutions. Through the international center-to-center projects supported by this award, IMS will advance a) a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and highly collaborative research agenda, b) a cross-university educational curricula, c) virtual student research teams, and d) global educational experiences for American students. A critical element of the program will be the placement of U.S. undergraduate and graduate students in internships in the foreign partner laboratories to collaborate on research projects that are an integral part of the IMS research agenda.
The new benchmark for competitive manufacturing companies is a paradigm shift to web-enabled engineering focused on e-intelligence for integrated product design, manufacturing and service. These transformations require a new breed of leaders, engineers and scientists who are internationally astute and knowledgeable in technical, social, economical and cultural issues in a global environment.
