News
Deadline: April 1, 2019; Blue Sky Competition Call for Papers
January 23, 2019 | Categories: Opportunities
Abstracts should be submitted by April 1, 2019
The third annual David Dornfeld Manufacturing Vision Award and Blue Sky Competition, funded by the National Science Foundation, will be held during the 2019 SME 47th North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC) and ASME Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC), June 10-14, 2019 in Erie, PA.
The goal of this annual competition is to influence the future of manufacturing research and education in the United States through new visionary ideas of the future. Such visionary ideas are often described as “radical”, “outrageous”, “transformational”, “unconventional”, “convergent”, and “breakthrough”. Presentations should pose grand challenges to be addressed by pursuing the manufacturing research vision, describing the intersections between disparate disciplines necessary to advance that vision. Topical areas should extend beyond the scope of single investigator and show potential for transformative impact in areas of interest to federal agencies.
It is likely that team efforts will be needed to formulate such ideas. Therefore, interdisciplinary collaborations are encouraged, including disciplines outside of engineering.
Abstracts should be submitted by April 1, 2019 to Professor ZJ Pei at zjpei@tamu.edu. Each abstract should be up to one page in length, including the title. This one-page abstract should not include names of submitters and their affiliations. Such information should be included in the email.
Abstracts (without information of submitters) will be judged by a selection committee consisting of members from government and industry covering a broad range of manufacturing interests. About six abstracts will be selected to make oral presentations on Wednesday, June 12, 2019, during the NAMRC/MSEC conference in Erie, PA. Transportation, lodging (up to 2 nights), and conference registration expenses of selected speakers will be reimbursed through Texas A&M University.
The top presentation, determined by the selection committee, will receive the SME Dornfeld Manufacturing Vision Award to recognize outstanding vision and leadership. If appropriate, the winner will be encouraged to organize a workshop on their topic in the near future.
After the conference, SME will post links to presentation slides, so that the ideas can be disseminated broadly to the manufacturing community. Submitting an abstract for the competition requires that the submitters agree to publish their presentation slides through the SME website. Abstracts and presentations from the last two years of competition have been posted here.
People who are interested in submitting abstracts to the competition are strongly encouraged to talk to Professors Brian Paul (brian.paul@oregonstate.edu), Z.J. Pei (zjpei@tamu.edu) or Scott Smith (kssmith@uncc.edu) who will not be serving on the selection committee. It is the intent of the organizers to provide feedback and insight to abstract submitters in an effort to put forward the strongest ideas for advancing manufacturing research in the United States.