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Engineering Research Centers
| Article
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10404 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
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12 / 1986 |
2,132 Words |
| Author
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David I. Lewin
David I. Lewin writes on science, technology, and medicine
from Washington, D.C. |
..as I look back on five years of administration science policy, these centers are our single most important initiative. This is not just a program: this is an incipient revolution. These six centers [established in 1985] are like beneficial viruses infecting the universities involved. They are the advance guard of an emerging new culture on those campuses, one that is problem-focused rather than discipline-focused, and one that recognizes the legitimacy of industrial research perspectives.
George A. Keyworth II, former science advisor to the U.S. president, The Bridge, spring 1986.
As you enter the factory, you look around for human operators. You see raw materials enter the factory at one end and a finished product loaded at the other end. But you don't see people. You see machines--robots--pouring liquids into molds and drilling and tooling components to micro-millimeter-precise tolerances. Then the robots assemble these components into finished products, and package, label, and ship them.
An industrial assembly process that once employed hundreds of workers is being managed by one or two human technicians who supervise the entire operation from their control panels.
This vision is not fantasy. It is becoming reality.
Robots, of course, do not take coffee breaks, go on strike or vacation, nor are they subject to the interpersonal dynamics of human factory workers. They do, however, require maintenance, repairs, and skilled technicians to oversee them.
Driven by international competition, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has established new Engineering Research Centers with the mission of assuring that the United States will retain its traditional leadership in building high-quality products at competitive prices. The results of these efforts are expected to yield obvious benefits to consumers in higher living standards.
Now in its second year, the Engineering Research Centers program strives to improve engineering research and education.
NSF currently funds eleven Engineering Research Centers at fourteen universities in fields as diverse as manufacturing, construction and biotechnology. Each center receives several million dollars over a
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