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Request for Proposals on Educational Modules for Sustainable Manufacturing

Recently, the NSF has funded a project titled: *Sustainable Manufacturing
Advances in Research and Technology (SMART) Coordination Network*. The
funding has been provided through the *NSF Research Coordination
Networks-Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability
(RCN-SEES) *track.
A primary objective of the project is to bridge the gap between the
academic knowledge discovery and industrial technology innovation for
sustainable manufacturing. Various research, educational, and outreach
activities are underway. In the area of education, the project will
generate a number of case study educational modules for sustainable
engineering education that should be widely adoptable for
undergraduate/graduate education and professional training in industries.
Proposals are solicited from educators to develop *modules on sustainable
manufacturing case studies (SMCSs).*  An SMCS comprises both an
interactive, graphically-oriented case study with supporting materials
(e.g., data, models, simulations) that help the instructor and the student
learn about some aspect of sustainable manufacturing design. A typical SMCS
will have the following structure:
• Introduction and Background, describing the physical system represented
by the case study and its importance. This includes basic concepts such as
the relevant properties that appear as inputs or outputs of the
manufacturing system.
• Engineering Principles and Models, providing a thorough overview of the
fundamental principles and engineering models that exist, which may be
applied to describe the process trade-offs.
• Problems, relevant to the case study and suitable for an instructor to
assign as homework activities, focused on the connection between the
sustainability and the manufacturing process.
• Design activity, which exposes the student to the use of an engineering
model in a design setting. The activity would have the student use the
model to develop a design related to the targeted systems and which meets
sustainability metrics.
The SMCSs will be disseminated to the academic community and will be
published using *CACHE (Computer Aids in Chemical Engineering)* resources
(e.g., http://cache.org/teaching-resources-center).

It is expected that *four SMCSs will be developed annually*. *An honorarium
of $4,000* will be provided to the developer(s) of each SMCS.

Interested educators should *email a 3-page proposal (in pdf format) to
[log in to unmask]*. The proposal should include the following:
• Proposal title, list of developers, affiliation, and contact information
• Introduction: giving a brief background, motivation for the SMCS, and
relevance to sustainable manufacturing
• Problem statement: describing the scope of the problem/case study to be
addressed
• Approach: highlighting the engineering principles to be used in
constructing the SMCS
• Deliverables and timeline: describing format of the SMCS and associated
materials
• Assessment plan

The *deadline for the proposals is November 15, 2012*. Selected proposals
are to start on November 30, 2012 and are the deliverables are expected by
May 1, 2013.

We look forward to hearing from you!
PI: Yinlun *Huang *(Wayne State University)
Co-PIs: Cliff I. *Davidson* (Syracuse University), Mario R. *Eden* (Auburn
University), Thomas F. *Edgar* (University of Texas), and Mahmoud M. *
El-Halwagi* (Texas A&M University)