Recent advancements in information, wireless sensing, data analysis, and 3-D printing technologies are transforming manufacturing into a highly customized process, with a short time to market, and a competitive cost structure to sustain businesses in a highly globalized market. Central to this emerging paradigm is cybermanufacturing which is a critical technology that combines the above-mentioned recent advances in technologies to transform manufacturing into essentially a commoditized "cloud-based service". Likewise, it has the potential to evoke creativity of the general population to design and create personalized products. To that end, one of the key enablers of this paradigm is the recruitment and training of a new class of manufacturing workforce that can (1) combine engineering product design capabilities with information technology tools to convert ideas into components and (2) transform a wide range of precursor materials into products to meet advanced functional requirements by using cyber-enabled machine tools. However, many students, particularly those at predominantly undergraduate institutions (UGI) and minority-serving institutions (MSI), have not been exposed to advanced or cyber-based manufacturing research and education. This paper presents a case study of NSF-funded summer research experience for undergraduates (REU) site in cybermanufacturing. The paper describes the student recruitment process, demographic information of the most recent cohort, sample student projects, and other enrichment activities that were organized during the 10-week summer REU program. As a part of program evaluation, the participants were surveyed before and after the REU experience. The survey questions covered a wide range of topics including their scientific research knowledge and skills, career knowledge and interest, and professional skills. Survey results from 2018 cohort shows that REU experience was not only very helpful for students in deciding the manufacturing as their career path but it also improved their research competency.
Dr. Bimal Nepal is a Rader I Professor in the Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A&M University. His research interests include integration of supply chain management with new product development decisions, distributor service portfolio optimization.
http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-8553-4658
Texas A&M University
[biography]
Prabhakar Pagilla is a TEES Endowed Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996. His formal background and expertise are in the general areas of dynamic systems and control with applications in manufacturing and robotics. His research interests lie in modeling and control of roll-to-roll manufacturing systems; control of large-scale complex systems; robotics/mechatronics; and adaptive and robust control of nonlinear dynamic systems.
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