Janis Terpenny - US grants

Engineering - Other (59)
As decision-makers, engineers must be knowledgeable and competent in multiple aspects of design. Engineering is more than a problem solving activity focusing on simply the expected performance of designed artifacts. Consideration must also be given to the economic consequences of design decisions on life-cycle issues. A major challenge to undergraduate engineering education is to increase student competency in the economic elements that are such a critical part of the engineering process. To succeed, the fundamentals of economics needs to be introduced early and reinforced throughout the undergraduate program.
The objective of this project is to conduct an experiment to determine whether a virtual classroom environment is improving proficiency in the economic principles of engineering design. As envisioned, the virtual classroom is providing the basic introduction to economics for engineers. Also, it serve as a continuing resource for undergraduates and for practicing professionals. Farther reaching, this research is an integral part of a longer-term and broader vision to build an undergraduate program for selected core courses in the engineering curriculum. It is anticipated that through computer-based learning methods utilized at the undergraduate level, higher quality core engineering courses can be offered to more students in a very cost-effective manner.
This project is a collaborative effort. At the conclusion of this research, an electronic version of the course will be made available via the Internet and will include modularized course notes, software, materials for testing/assessment, and industrial case studies. The Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) themes directly addressed by this research include faculty development, diversity, and integration of technology in education.

0001347
Gao
The objective of this project is to develop a new design course sequence in the broad area of Assistive Technology for undergraduate students in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst. A two-semester design course entitled "Senior Design Projects to Aid the Disabled" is to be developed and integrated within the established undergraduate curriculum of the Department.

Through close collaborations with the Lemelson Assistive Technology Development Center (LATDC) at Hampshire College and Adaptive Design Services (ADS) under the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation (DMR), the new design course sequence is to apply rigorous analytical and computer simulation approaches to specific design problems originated by disabled clients. The output of each design project will be a prototype of a functional mechanical and/or electromechanical device that satisfies the specific need of an individual client. The new course will strengthen the existing undergraduate curriculum by introducing mechanical and industrial engineering students to a new area of great social importance. It further enhances the Department's effort in promoting its newly identified research thrust area in assistive technology and biomedical engineering.

This award provides funding for the research and development of a function-based representation to support concept modeling and solution synthesis in early design. The approach will focus on contributing to the standards currently under development at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for function representation and knowledge interoperability. The representation of semantics, meaning of design intent, in a modeling and synthesis environment is a challenging problem. As envisioned, the representation will include knowledge that is fuzzy (difficult to quantify but reflects engineering expertise and preference) and computable knowledge (based on scientific and engineering principles). Through close collaborations with industry partners, Pratt and Whitney and Telaxis Communications, the research will address issues that are not only fundamentally challenging, but also responsive to and informed by the needs of industry. Example problems from jet engine and telecommunication design will inform, validate, and demonstrate the research and development of the function-based representation.

If successful, the generalized representation will provide the foundation needed for the exchange of design rationale, design preferences, and knowledge for modeling and design optimization currently not available in today's design systems. This project is the first step in the research needed for the development of an integrated design environment and the nation's next generation of design systems, wherein customers, designers, suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors work collaboratively in a distributed and integrated environment. The results of this work will provide the needed representation and foundation for such an environment.

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of Pittsburgh are jointly planning to establish an NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) for e-Design and Realization of Engineered Products and Systems. The Center's mission is to serve as a center of excellence in IT enabled design and realization of discrete manufactured products by envisioning where information is the lifeblood of an enterprise and collaboration is the hallmark that seamlessly integrates design, development, testing, manufacturing and servicing of products around the world.

The proposed Center, a fusion of expertise and resources from the already successful Center for e-Product Design & Realization at the University of Pittsburgh and the Center for Manufacturing Productivity at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is a joint effort to achieve synergy in the development of the enabling technologies to support the new project development paradigm. The proposed I/UCRC would leverage the existing talent faculty from complementary engineering disciplines, infrastructure and experience of each university.

The University of Pittsburgh and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have joined to establish an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) for e-Design and Realization of Engineered Products and Systems. The Center will serve as a center of excellence in IT enabled design and realization of discrete manufactured products by envisioning that information is the lifeblood of an enterprise and collaboration is the hallmark that seamlessly integrated design, development, testing, manufacturing, and servicing of products around the world.

This grant provides funding to investigate an information management infrastructure to support the planning and development of families of engineered products and systems for mass customization. The research will be conducted by a multi-university team comprised of faculty from the Pennsylvania State University, Bucknell University, the University of Missouri-Rolla, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The research will address three information technology challenges that include an information management infrastructure, a graphical modeling environment, and an agent-based synthesis framework to support product family planning and customization. First, a generalized information management infrastructure will be developed to facilitate capturing information regarding component sharing and reuse within a family of products. Next, a graphical modeling environment will be created to facilitate product family planning and construction, requirements specification, and customer preference capture. Finally, an agent-based synthesis framework will be developed to help configure platform concepts and customized variants within a product family. The research will be conducted in collaboration with industrial and government partners that include Pratt & Whitney, General Motors, Apprentice Systems, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The results of this research will expand the utilization of information technology across engineering by developing a novel approach for managing design information related to product family planning for mass customization. The work will extend current representation and interoperability standards for product design repositories. The theoretical foundations developed for product family planning and information management will provide the basic framework for the development of an experimental prototype graphical modeling environment to test the validity of the proposed representation and agent-based synthesis methods. This modeling environment will also contribute to the development of integrated and interactive solution procedures for product family planning and synthesis. The project also has an educational component to it. The grant will foster undergraduate and graduate student exchanges between the four universities that are involved in this research, and projects based on the proposed research will be integrated within six undergraduate and six graduate courses at the four universities. Technology transfer will also occur with the industrial partners involved in the research.

This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER)/Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI)/Collaborative Research project is to explore how industry and academia can collaborate to determine how multiple sources of resources can be combined to impact proactive obsolescence of electronic parts through forecasting and management. One of the most significant problems facing many "high-tech" sustainment-dominated systems is technology obsolescence, and no technology typifies the problem more clearly than electronic part obsolescence. It is expected that substantial savings in resources are possible if methods of forecasting through obsolescence-driven life cycle planning of products were developed and applied.
This project will involve three high risk, high impact activities:
1) Forecasting electronic part obsolescence by predicting the date of discontinuance under uncertainty of social, political, economic, and environmental factors.
2) Determine the best mitigation approach upon obsolescence, and
3) Manage the redesign of systems based upon the forecast.

The broader impact is the expectation that longer term cost avoidance can be a more significant driver in economic decision-making if the forecasting lowers the uncertainty and risk. This is a high risk activity because of the inherent complexity is integrating across social and technological models for a sector such as the electronics sector.

An Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers planning meeting has been awarded to determine the feasibility of Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) to join the existing Center for e-Design. The research proposed at VPI will be to research and develop method tools that support the realization of a new design paradigm that can be used to develop new engineered products and systems. This new paradigm will allow design and product realization to be customer driven in a collaborative e-design environment and support transparent analysis, as well as virtual simulation and prototyping. The research that is proposed will also encompass considerations pertaining to the life cycle of the product or system under development.

This action adds Virginia Polytechnic Institute to the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for e-Design and Realization of Engineered Products and Systems as a research site. The University will develop a set of coordinated tools and practices that support conceptual design and system/product requirements specification, as well as the development of a conceptual model that can be used to support iterative conceptual design.

The existing Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) for Friction Stir Processing at the University of Missouri-Rolla, and the I/UCRC for E-Design at Virginia Polytechnic Institute have joined to do a collaborative research project designed to bring Friction Stir Process (FSP) to the design community. The project will provide a unifying tool to the product designer to synthesize solutions by bringing in discrete and distributed pieces of knowledge about function, form, shape, size, materials, manufacturing processes, tooling, life cycle cost, testing, and quality. The creation of the FSP case repository will be the first of its kind and it is anticipated to be very helpful for researchers and practitioners in the field that are considering using FSP.

Psychology - Cognitive (73)

In this collaborative project, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Kansas State, and Virginia Tech are conducting research on case reuse when learning to solve problems in diverse science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Students often attempt to solve problems by applying the lessons learned from previous problem cases. However, they frequently fail to reuse examples appropriately because their retrieval is based on a comparison of the surface features of the problem cases being studied, not their structural features. In order to facilitate the transfer of learning from problems based on structural features, this project is conducting iterative, design-based research on case reuse. This includes testing strategies and materials for enhancing problem-solving instruction in diverse STEM disciplines; developing scalable comprehensive methods for assessing different dimensions of problem-solving performance; creating and testing web-based learning environments for engaging problem solving; and disseminating and implementing these pedagogical innovations in STEM classrooms at four different institutions.

Approximately 3,000 undergraduate students in physics, electrical engineering, and engineering courses at our universities are participating in the project. The project evaluation uses multiple approaches, and draws on both qualitative and quantitative methods, including questionnaires, interviews, evaluator site visit field notes, classroom observation notes, and institutional and course documents. Collectively these methods allow us to measure the effectiveness of problem sets and problem-solving assessment strategies developed in the project, and to compare student outcomes between the experimental and control groups. Materials developed by the project will be made available to undergraduate STEM educators, both as documents and in web-based learning environments that guide implementation of the project's strategies and other materials at other undergraduate institutions. In this way, our research on case reuse will have an impact on the teaching of problem solving across the nation.

This Small Grant for Exploratory Research proposes to investigate the potential for enhancing communication in interdisciplinary design teams through the fundamental understanding of communication ontologies and linguistics between team members. This is a high risk, high potential research activity that brings together faculty with expertise in linguistics, materials science and engineering, english, and industrial engineering, with two industry partners - Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems and Goodyear. The risk involves the research into integrating linguistic discourse analysis with "speech acts" codification for the engineering design process. While such linguistic research has been used effectively in other domains, this is a new attempt to capture the interactions (face-to-face, written and verbal) to be mined from the design team process.

The high potential is the significance of the "ontology" tool proposed for conceptual design, where communication patterns modeling and early investigations into optimization methods to determine best scenarios could lead to a theory-based software for all engineering design.

The broader impacts also include the interactions with the industries; where Goodyear will support the effort by proving access to design groups, direct participation in interviews and surveys, and validation feedback for the preliminary models. Raytheon will do the same.

This CI-TEAM Implementation Project will deploy a collaborative online learning laboratory that utilizes a shared set of cyberinfrastructure-based repositories, design tools, and teaching materials to support educational initiatives and outreach rooted in engineering dissection. The collaboratory will support both physical and virtual dissection of engineered products and systems in 41 engineering, computer science (CS), and information sciences and technology (IST) courses at 9 different universities: Penn State, Bucknell University, Drexel University, Virginia Tech, Northwestern University, University of Missouri-Rolla, University at Buffalo, Sweet Briar College, and Norfolk State University. The project involves 32 faculty at these universities from 12 different disciplines in engineering, engineering education, computer science, information sciences and technology, education, and psychology. The collaboratory will leverage several ongoing cyberinfrastructure-related activities to deliver sustainable learning and workforce development for current and future generations of educators and engineers in multiple disciplines as well as computer scientists and those involved with information sciences and technology.

The results of this collaborative implementation project will establish a unique closed-loop application of cyberinfrastructure that combines not only engineering and CS/IST in CI-related activities but also examines the implications of the availability of the proposed collaboratory. The project will have significant and broad impact, as more than 12,000 engineering and CS/IST students will participate in the collaboratory. As part of the project, the educational impact and CI competency of the 12,000 participating engineering and CS/IST students, including user adoption of the materials available through the collaboratory, will be assessed. The project will also foster the inclusion of diverse groups of people and organizations in cyberinfrastructure activities by working with two outreach partners: Sweet Briar College, an all women's college, and Norfolk State University, an Historically Black University. Targeted recruiting plans for REU students along with existing K-12 partnerships and future RETs will further increase the participation of underrepresented groups to promote a diverse CI-savvy workforce. To promote long-term sustainability of the collaboratory, an engineering dissection textbook based on the educational materials that will be developed, a national training workshop for engineering and CS/IST educators will be organized, and a national supercomputing center will help provide long-term storage and security of the repository data.

The purpose engineering education project is to conduct a mixed methods research study to identify factors that lead to successful interdisciplinary collaborations, and to determine how to bring those factors into undergraduate engineering curricula in ways that more effectively prepare students for interdisciplinary work. Using a Concurrent Triangulation Design, the PIS will gather and synthesize data from three sources: industry professionals, university faculty, and engineering undergraduates. In doing so, they plan to address three major areas identified by the NSF-funded Engineering Education Research Colloquies: 1) "Engineering Thinking, Knowledge, and Competencies," 2) "Learning to Engineer," and 3) "Engineering Assessment Methodologies." Concurrent Triangulation Design, allows the research team to compare the opinions and experiences of various groups (engineers, faculty, students and their non-engineering collaborators) and to represent each while reducing bias. At least one educational intervention will be administered and assessed.

They will focus on collaborations in which participants from multiple disciplines benefit not only from the products of teamwork, but also from the process. In such teams, team-members work together in a way that moves beyond simple division of labor, learn from working in other disciplines, and generate integrative ideas and solutions. Variability in the kinds of models based on different disciplinary configurations is anticipated, and the goal is to find transferable concepts that contribute to a unified theoretical model of interdisciplinary collaboration that can later be applied to a wide range of educational settings.

The results from this project will illuminate factors such as a) attitudes and meta-knowledge, b) strategies for soliciting and exchanging information, c) approaches to collective decision-making and problem solving, and d) peripherals such as corporate cultures, physical space, and management styles. The PIs will collect, analyze and integrate quantitative and qualitative data from practicing engineers, engineering faculty members and undergraduates to develop a clear picture of learning objectives and outcomes for successful interdisciplinary design teaming.

Abstract for Proposal number 0948057 "Effective Negotiation Skills":

The goal of this workshop on Effective Negotiation Skills is to begin the development of a community within the American Society of Mechanical Engineers that supports and mentors researchers from underrepresented groups. The workshop is designed to provide faculty members and graduate students with professional development activities and to give them the opportunity to make connections with an international network of supportive researchers in their field. This workshop will be the inaugural event of the committee on the Broadening Participation committee of the ASME. The goal of the Broadening Participation committee is to develop, implement and oversee new and existing activities aimed at broadening the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in the activities of Design Engineering Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Participants will spend ½ of the workshop focused on developing negotiation skills led by Academic Professionals who are offering this negotiation skills workshop to groups across the country. They are well known for their long term involvement with the COACh workshops for women faculty sponsored by the AIChE and supported by NSF and NIH. The other ½ of the workshop will be led by the organizing committee with a focus on networking activities intended to foster a variety of long-term relationships including: 1) research collaborations, 2) mentoring, and 3) an affinity group built around common interests/concerns associated with the challenges for underrepresented groups in the ASME DED community. This is a very good proposal for the underrepresented groups in the engineering community. They will develop crucial skills and will become better connected within the engineering design community earlier in their career. The amount of support for this proposal is a reduced amount of $ 29,049.


Omnia El-Hakim, Ph.D.-Program Director
For Diversity and Outreach
National Science Foundation
Directorate for Engineering
4201 Wilson Blvd., Suite 505N
Arlington, VA 22230
Tel: (703) 292- 2149
Fax: (703) 292- 9013
E-Mail: oelhakim@nsf.gov

The research objective of this award is to investigate two novel research approaches to understanding and managing technology obsolescence challenges: (1) a knowledge representation scheme and management system that can facilitate information sharing and collaboration for obsolescence management and mitigation efforts between existing tools and across different organizations; and (2) fundamental principles, teachable methods, and guidelines for designing product architectures that can evolve with changing requirements, enabling proactive obsolescence management across the entire product life cycle. Fast moving technologies have caused commercial high-tech components to have shortened procurement life cycles, rendering them obsolete quickly. The impact and pervasiveness of obsolescence problems are growing. Existing work focuses on reactively managing obsolescence, i.e., minimizing the cost of resolving the problem after it has occurred, however, reactive management is very expensive and inefficient. Proactive and strategic obsolescence management have many potential advantages, but are poorly understood in theory, and poorly addressed in practice. Deliverables include a standard obsolescence ontology within a software system that domain experts can use to share and annotate information in their fields, demonstration and validation of fundamental principles on a wide range of product design problems, documentation of research results, engineering student education, and engineering research experiences for underprivileged undergraduate students.

If successful, the results of this research will overcome limitations in existing design methods that do not adequately consider obsolescence issues. This research will provide a platform for the exploration and understanding of interactions among the elements of product design and sensitivities to obsolescence. Designers will have the tools they need to manage the issue of obsolescence and design products to enable proactive obsolescence management. The results of this research will be disseminated to provide an opportunity to create cost-effective, and environmental friendly products at faster pace. Graduate and undergraduate engineering students will benefit through classroom instruction and involvement in the research. The education and outreach activities of this effort will help promote interest for engineering from underrepresented groups.

1160985 Iowa State University; Janis Terpenny

This proposal seeks support for Iowa State University (ISU) to join the NSF IUCRC Center for e-Design as a full university member research site. The Center for e-design is currently comprised of Virginia Tech (lead), Carnegie Mellon University, Brigham Young University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Central Florida, and the University of Buffalo.

Iowa State University has faculty and student researchers working in areas that are synergistic with the mission and vision of the existing Center for e-Design. The addition of Iowa State strengthens the presence of the center and its role as a significant national resource capable of the following results: 1) inclusion of a multi-disciplinary viewpoint needed to ensure the development of a new paradigm of excellence in the design of engineered products and/or systems; 2) realization of conceptual modeling tools aimed at reducing design cycle time and ensuring maximum achievement of design goals for human use; 3) realization of an environment for economic and supply chain design optimization; 4) establishment of a critical mass of expertise focused on the development of an e-Design modeling and simulation software platform and virtual prototyping tools, as well as strategies for achieving simulation based acquisition.

The proposed effort will contribute significantly to the successful development and preparation of graduate and undergraduate students. Results of this research effort will be integrated into the educational curriculum to enrich the student learning experiences in design, modeling and simulation, decision analysis, rapid prototyping, manufacturing, and simulation based acquisition courses. Students associated with the Center for e-Design will receive exceptional career development opportunities, as well as training in the ethical conduct of research. The addition of Iowa State University to the Center contributes to the diversity of the Center, with the leadership team and 25% of participating faculty being women, typically underrepresented in engineering. The PI and other ISU faculty plan to continue their long history of recruiting women and minority graduate and undergraduate students. Research and educational findings will be disseminated nationally and have significant broader impact through industrial collaboration and technology transfer.

The proposed planning activity seeks to establish a new Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) site at Iowa State University of the existing Center for e-Design. The center currently involves six universities -Virginia Tech as lead, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Central Florida, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Buffalo, and Brigham Young University. The specific needs within the Center to be met by Iowa State University are focused in the following areas: 1) information technology strategies and optimization of products and systems, 2) design education and training, 3) early stage design theories and methodologies, 4) robotics and sensor integration, 5) materials, manufacturing and design, and 6) design for sustainability.

The proposed new site, in combination with the existing center plans to build innovation capacity by developing methods and tools that support the realization of new virtual simulation and design paradigms for development of new engineered products and systems. The outcomes from the center have the potential to broadly impact the public and private sectors through impact on manufacturing. The site plans to have a significant impact on students via a broad range of mechanism from curriculum to design experiences. The PI and other Iowa State faculty have a documented history of recruiting women and minority graduate and undergraduate students. Research and educational findings will be disseminated nationally and have significant broader impact through industrial collaboration and technology transfer.

The Center for e-Design (CED) is an NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) that works with its member organizations to research and advance solutions to complex problems associated with the innovation, design, production, distribution, and sustainment of innovative and high quality products and systems, that minimize costs and are responsive to the rapidly changing marketplace. Concurrent design of products and supporting processes; improved integration and collaboration among people, tools, and information; process improvements; knowledge capture and reuse; and automated/assisted decision-making are just some of the strategies employed. The Center for e-Design has research sites in place at six universities (Iowa State University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Buffalo, Brigham Young University, Oregon State University, and Wayne State University). This project adds The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), a seventh university, to the research sites in the Center. Penn State brings expertise from a diverse interdisciplinary team of researchers from several departments, colleges, university centers and institutes. The primary contribution of the Penn State team will include the following areas: crowd-based design, big data analytics, design theory and innovation, collaborative design, design optimization, additive manufacturing, smart manufacturing, and model-based enterprise.

The Center for e-Design's activities are organized around three major efforts which deliver value to its industry/government partners: 1) Fundamental Research focuses on creating tools, methods, and technologies to address industry relevant needs in e-tools-enabled product development and realization including enabling information infrastructure; conceptual design tools; multidisciplinary constraint management and optimization; and virtual prototyping and simulation; 2) Research Test Bed focuses on integration of interdisciplinary research activities to validate developed tools, methods, and technologies and establish a common framework for multiple applications while fostering collaboration between academic and industry research projects; and 3) Engineering Education and Technology Transfer, which focuses on educating a new cadre of engineers and scientists proficient in e-design and rapidly transferring research results into usable applications for industry and government.