Workshop: Defining the Opportunities and Challenges for Research in Materials and Manufacturing for Extreme Affordability (RIMMEA); Muncie, Indiana; January 20-21, 2011

Ball State University, Muncie IN

Investigators

Abstract

The grant provides funding for a workshop on Research in Materials and Manufacturing for Extreme Affordability (RIMMEA) that will bring together experts from architecture, design, engineering and science from around the world. The two-day workshop is a partnership between Ball State University, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and IEEE (financial support), to be hosted in Muncie, Indiana in January 2011. The workshop will focus on research opportunities range from application of advanced manufacturing and logistics technologies to deliver extremely affordable temporary and long term housing solutions that are also culturally rooted to the role of extremely affordable materials and manufacturing solutions for disaster relief and defense. BoP problems spanning architecture, industrial design, engineering, logistics, and strategy will be explored. In addition to implementing the workshop and conducting an outcomes assessment of the learning that occurred among participants, the workshop will lead to the identification of important RIMMEA questions that are best addressed by employing integrated and systems approaches; development of priorities and assessment criteria for determining scientific maturity and merit of the topics; establishment of a research community for the further development of a RIMMEA program; and a report that provides NSF with a basis for requesting additional national resources for RIMMEA. The workshop will promote diversity among US and international attendees, impact more than thirty researchers, and directly impact billions of people at the BoP. With the involvement of organizations with worldwide networks such as ASME, Engineers without Borders, IEEE, OperationUSA, and The Honeybee Network, dissemination of learning from the workshop can be high.