MUSES: Research and Education in Integrated Assessment Methodologies for Product Design and Strategies

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of this Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE) for: Materials Use: Science, Engineering, & Society (MUSES) project is to establish a research framework for developing an assessment tool for product development that integrates engineering, economic, regulatory and environmental concerns. While the analytical elements exist for individual consideration of these concerns, environmental tools have seen little practical use in product development. This limited application derives from the absence of methods putting the environmental analyses into the appropriate engineering, economic and regulatory contexts so that consistent strategies can be devised. This project focuses on the automobive industry and the product & process development issues arising from the environmental challenges confronting these companies. The intention is to use this area as a testbed for developing general methods of tying environmental assessment with engineering, economic and regulatory analyses, forming an integrated product assessment tool. This effort also emphasizes two long-range educational objectives. One objective focuses on development of interdisciplinary, case-based courses to demonstrate the use of the design tools developed through the proposed research. The second educational objective is the development of the collaborative capabilities of faculty from disparate fields, including issues of faculty development in these areas. A key feature of the work is the formation of an interdisciplinary team that includes experts in the broad range of fields necessary to treat the multidisciplinary problem of refining the product development process in a large industrial firm. This planning project is expected to lead to fundamental research on design of alternative processes, systems, and product development structures that optimize the use of materials throughout their life cycles.