Conference Proposal: Early-Career Researcher Travel Support for 26th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering Conference May 7-9, 2019

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

In this Life Cycle Engineering Conference (LCE), researchers, educators, and policy makers will meet and explore engineering and technical solutions to address sustainable development challenges. The Environmental and Ecological Engineering (EEE) Department at Purdue University will host this conference in May 2019. The theme of LCE 2019 is "Advancing Industrial Sustainability". The conference will have significant participation from students, postdocs, and junior faculty members. It is critical to engage young researchers in developing creative and disruptive solutions for industrial sustainability. Funding will support travel of early career researchers, especially those from underrepresented groups, from across the United States to attend LCE 2019. Solutions to the complex industrial sustainability challenges can only be developed via inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. With participation of natural scientists, engineers, social scientists, industry representatives, and policy makers, it is anticipated that LCE 2019 will provide an excellent forum for participants to share their findings and opinions which in turn contributes to enhance the holistic understanding of these challenges. LCE 2019 will also serve as a dynamic venue to promote the generation and cross pollination of ideas and for stakeholders to define the critical next steps and research agenda in the area of life cycle engineering. It is anticipated that LCE 2019 will address key knowledge gaps and broaden participation of the industrial sustainability community. Although the U.S. industrial sustainability community has grown very fast in the past decade, the research communities in EU and Japan are still larger with leaders in many areas. LCE 2019 strives to showcase cutting-edge research done in the U.S., especially those of young researchers, to world renowned experts. It is expected that a diverse group of over 250 participants will share their work through both paper and poster presentations, as well as formal and informal discussions. With the NSF travel support, it will be possible to bring up to 65 early career researchers from U.S. institutes to the conference and priority will be given to researchers from underrepresented groups. All the conference papers will be published in Procedia CIRP (Elsevier). The conference will include sessions on teaching/learning where educators and students can discuss visions, approaches, and challenges. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.