'U' receives grant for new engineering research center

The National Science Foundation has awarded the University $12 million to create the Center for Reconfigurable Machining Systems. The center is one of four new Engineering Research Centers to be started by the NSF.

The center will also receive $10 million from 31 industrial partners and $6.2 million from the College of Engineering and Office of the Vice President for Research.

"The successful initiation of this Engineering Research Center is the result of an unusual level of collaboration between industry, federal government and universities," said Homer Neal, vice president for research, in a written statement. "The ERC represents a bold approach to industry-university collaboration, intended to meet the challenge of bringing knowledge from 'science' to 'market.' This NSF award and extensive industry participation will make this center a leader in extending our knowledge in engineering, business and basic science and applying it to the manufacturing process."

The research center will be the only one of its kind in the country and will be one of 25 NSF Engineering Research Centers nationwide.

Approximately 80 faculty and students will study a new manufacturing concept called Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems. In such a system, hardware and software are developed as modules that can be rearranged and upgraded quickly and easily to reduce time for new product development and changeovers between products, said Yoram Koren, a professor of engineering at the University.

"Traditional manufacturing systems incorporate new technology and new products by periodically building new production systems and discarding the old," Koren said. "The vision of a reconfigurable system is a living factory that evolves over time as new technology and products are introduced."

"Initial work at the center will focus on machining processes for use in automotive, aerospace and heavy equipment manufacturing," said manufacturing professor A. Galip Ulsoy, center deputy director. "In later research, we will expand RMS principles to other manufacturing processes, such as assembly and welding."

In addition to the research center, an educational program will be jointly developed by the Greenfield Educational Coalition in Manufacturing Engineering, the College of Engineering's Program in Manufacturing and the Tauber Manufacturing Institute.