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The sympoisum was held to describe the roots and future plans of the Engineering Research Center's (ERC's) concept and program. The first section of this symposium compilation describes the national goals that the ERCs represent. The second section presents the point of view of the National Science Foundation on the ERCs--the concept behind them, their goals, selection criteria, and mechanisms for support. The next section provides the plans and programs of the six existing centers: (1) Systems Research Center; (2) Center for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems; (3) Center for Robotic Systems in Microelectronics; (4) Center for Composites Manufacturing Science and Engineering; (5) Engineering Center for Telecommunications; and (6) Biotechnology Process Engineering Center. Two of the presentations were on exchange methods among the centers and the relationship between engineering education and research. The last section details a look at the future of U.S. industry and engineering. Papers outline the roles that centers can play in aiding and stimulating mature industries, growth industries, and emerging industries. (Author/YP)
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Surveying the dynamic field of engineering research, Directions in Engineering Research first presents an overview of the status of engineering research today. It then examines research and needs in a variety of areas: bioengineering; construction and structural design; energy, mineralogy, and the environment; information science and computers; manufacturing; materials; and transportation. Specific areas of current research opportunity are discussed in detail, including complex system software, advanced engineered materials, manufacturing systems integration, bioreactors, construction robotics, biomedical engineering, hazardous material control, computer-aided design, and manufacturing modeling and simulation. The authors' recommendations call for funding stability for engineering research programs; modern equipment and facilities; adequate coordination between researchers; increased support for high-risk, high-return, single-investor projects; recruiting of new talent and fostering of multidisciplinary research; and enhanced industry support. Innovative ways to improve the transfer of discoveries from the laboratory to the factory are also presented.
The future security, economic growth, and competitiveness of the United States depend on its capacity to innovate. Major sources of innovative capacity are the new knowledge and trained students generated by U.S. research universities. However, many of the complex technical and societal problems the United States faces cannot be addressed by the traditional model of individual university research groups headed by a single principal investigator. Instead, they can only be solved if researchers from multiple institutions and with diverse expertise combine their efforts. The National Science Foundation (NSF), among other federal agencies, began to explore the potential of such center-scale rese...