 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2012. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement |
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page R1
The New Engineering
Research Centers
Purposes (3OC1IS, and
Expeclations
Cross-Disciplinary Engineenng Research Committee
Commission on Engineenng and Technical Systems
National Research Council
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C. 1986
OCR for page R2
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS 2101 Constitution Ave., NW Washington, DC 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board
of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National
Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The
members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences
and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures
approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of
Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916
to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of
furthering knowledge and of advising the federal government. The Council operates in accordance
with general policies determined by the Academy under the authority of its congressional charter
of 1863, which establishes the Academy as a private, nonprofit, self-governing membership
corporation. The Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Acad-
emy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in the conduct of their services to
the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. It is administered
jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. The National Academy of Engineering
and the Institute of Medicine were established in 1964 and 1970, respectively, under the charter
of the National Academy of Sciences.
This activity was supported by the National Science Foundation under cooperative agreement
No. ENG-850505 1 between the Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences. The opinions,
findings, and conclusions or recommendations are those of the committee and the speakers and
do not-necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 85-51808
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER 0-309-03598-8
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, November 1985
Second Printing, October 1987
OCR for page R3
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY ENGINEERING
RESEARCH COMMITTEE
SEYMOUR L. BLUM, Vice-President, Charles River Associates, Inc.
(Chairman)
ROBERT R. POSSUM, Dean, School of Engineenng and Applied Science,
Southern Methodist University
JAMES F. LARDNER, Vice President, Component Group, Deere &
Company
Staff
KERSTIN B. POLLACK, Executive Secretary
COURTLAND S. LEWIS, Consultant
VERNA J. BOWEN, Administrative Assistant
DELPHINE D. GLAZE, Administrative Secretary
PATRICIA WHOLEY, Fiscal Assistant
. . .
OCR for page R4
OCR for page R5
Preface
In the fall of 1983 a small group of engineers met with George Keyworth
II, the President's Science Adviser and Director of the Office of Science and
Technology Policy. The stated purpose of the meeting was to present to Dr.
Keyworth a briefing on the need for advances in research on the use of
computers in design and manufacturing. The briefing had been prepared under
the auspices of a National Research Council committee, of which the late
George Low was chairman.
As the meeting progressed, however, its focus shifted from the overt subject
of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) to
a single theme that lay in the background, hidden between the lines of the
report. That underlying theme was the need for integration of the engineering
endeavor. It was a subject that had cropped up here and there, more and more
often over the previous three or four years, in studies and pronouncements
about engineering research and education. The topic was usually alluded to
as though in passing, with an air that "this is important, but hard to grasp."
References to it were especially frequent whenever concerns about our de-
clining overall competitiveness in technology-intensive, manufacturing-ori-
ented industries were being discussed.
The need for integration has many facets, and can be expressed in many
ways: the integration of engineering research and development, of design and
manufacturing; the closer interplay of universities and industry; the greater
exposure of engineering students to practical, hands-on, apprenticeship as-
pects of education. One particularly important element identified is the need
for a new, crosscutting approach to complex engineering research problems-
often expressed by the key words cross-disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and
v
OCR for page R6
V1
PREFACE
multidisciplinary. The traditional disciplines alone are not always suited to
the complex nature of modern engineering discovery. Systems is another key
term, referring not just to systems engineering, but to the need for attention
to the systems aspects of the engineering enterprise and its products, and for
optimizing the overall process by considering every element, looking for trade-
offs, incorporating diverse kinds of expertise, taking the broadest possible
view.
These concerns had been latent there, but not addressed. For one thing,
they were elusive, hard to define. There was no real knowledge base to support
any rigorous discussion or definition of the problems or, for that matter, what
was at stake. The ideas seemed likely to challenge the structure and function
of the engineering research establishment. Cross-disciplinary research and
university-industry partnership were concepts that augured major change with-
out any guarantee of commensurate return. But by the fall of 1983 the un-
dercurrent of interest in this theme had reached a point of critical mass in the
minds of those concerned with the nation's technological competitiveness.
So it was that the group in Dr. Keyworth's office began to discuss these
ideas with a sense of growing excitement. Dr. Low in particular catalyzed a
shared vision of the kind of engineering education that is needed if this kind
of integration were to be achieved in the universities and in industry. A second
meeting was arranged to discuss what might be done. As a result of that
meeting, the National Science Foundation (NSF) became involved with a new
agenda to create university-based cross-disciplinary research centers that would
be closely attuned to the perceived real engineering needs of the nation.
In December 1983 the NSF asked the National Academy of Engineering
to conduct a brief study of the engineering research center concept, aimed at
formulating guidelines for the centers' mission, organization, operation, and
funding. The results of that study were transmitted in February 1984, and by
April 1984 the first NSF program announcement for the Engineering Research
Centers (ERCs) was issued.
The response was enormous: 142 proposals were received from more than
100 universities for research in a wide range of fields. After an exhaustive
review, awards for six Engineering Research Centers (involving a total of 8
universities) were announced in early April 1985. The papers presented here
were delivered at a symposium held later that month at the National Academy
of Sciences to introduce the new Centers to the engineering community at
large.
NSF's expressed purpose in supporting these Centers is to provide cross-
disciplinary research opportunities for faculty and students, to provide fun-
damental knowledge that will contribute to the solution of important national
problems, and to prepare engineering graduates who possess the diversity and
quality of education needed by U.S. industry. As Dr. Keyworth pointed out
OCR for page R7
PREFACE
V11
in remarks following his speech on the first day of the symposium, "The
ERCs are the real gem of all the new programs that are receiving so much
emphasis in fundamental research and the training of talent today. This 'in-
stitute' concept . . . is something that is long overdue in this country, and I
think it is going to become big."
We concur wholeheartedly with that assessment. The ERCs are the right
step at the right time; they will inject into engineering new values and new
approaches that are sorely needed. It behooves all of those involved in the
engineering enterprise in the United States to ensure that this gem is highly
polished, and that the sparkle and promise of this new beginning are not
permitted to fade.
Symposium Steering Group
SEYMOUR L. BEUM, Chairman
ROBERT R. POSSUM
JAMES F. LARDNER
OCR for page R8
OCR for page R9
Contents
Summary
Introduction .........
H. Guyford Stever
~ The National Goal
Improving the U.S. Position in International Industnal
Competitiveness ..............................................
George A. Keyworth I!
Engineenng Research and International Competitiveness
Roland W. Schmitt
Science and Engineenng: A Continuum ..........................
Erich Bloch
~ Genesis of the Engineering Research Centers
The Concept and Goals of the Engineenng Research
Centers ...........................................................
Nam P. Sub
1X
...... 11
....... 19
28
... 37
OCR for page R10
x
The Criteria Used in Selecting the First Centers
Eric A. Walker
Nurturing the Engineering Research Centers
Lewis G. Mayfield
CONTENTS
44
............... ~-
..................... 51
Ill The Centers as a Reality Plans, Mechanisms, and
Interactions
PLANS AND PROGRAMS OF THE EXISTING CENTERS
Systems Research Center
John S. Baras
Center for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems
King-Sun Fu, David C. Anderson, Moshe M.
Barash, and James ]. Solberg
Center for Robotic Systems in Microelectronics
Susan Hackwood
(:enter for Composites Manufacturing Science and
Engineering 93
R. Byron Pipes
Engineering Center for Telecommunications
Research
Mischa Schwartz
......... 75
........... 86
Biotechnology Process Engineering Center
Daniel I. C. Wang
Methods for Ensuring Information and Technology
Exchange Among the Centers
Car! W. Hall
........ 100
................. 107
..................................... 121
New Factors in the Relationship Between Engineering
Education and Research .......................................
Jerrier A. Haddad
..... 129
OCR for page R11
CONTENTS
IV The Future- Challenges and Expectations
Challenges of a Technologically Competitive World: A
Vision of the Year 2000 .................................
James Brian Quinn
Goals and Needs of U.S. industry in a Technologically
Competitive World ...........................
Arden L. Bement, Jr.
A Mature but Rejuvenating Industry: Expectations
Regarding the Engineering Research Centers .............
W. Dale Compton
X1
.......... 139
...................... 161
....... 172
A Growth Industry: Expectations Regarding the
Engineering Research Centers 176
Larry W. Sumney
Biotechnology and the Healthcare industry: Expectations
for Engineering Research
Stephen W. Drew
Challenges for Government
Ham P. Suh
Implications and Challenges for Industry
lames F. Lardner
Challenges for Academe
H. Guyford Stever
Biographies ......................................................
....... I82
.............. 187
......................... 190
...... 194
... 199
OCR for page R12
OCR for page R13
The New Engineering
Research Centers
Purposes, Goals, and
Expeclations
SYMPOSIUM
Washington, D.C., April 29-30, 1985
OCR for page R14
