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Green Collaboration
Joint Faculty Appoinment in Design and Sustainable Manufacturing
Together, the Colleges of Engineering and Design have a history – of working cooperatively on projects that involve principles applicable to both disciplines. The Center for Manufacturing and the School of Architecture, both units within those colleges, have collaborated several times in the past few years. A majority of these projects have been in the field of sustainability, linking a designers method for “seeing and inventing” the world with the emerging issues of energy efficiency and resource renewability important to an industrial engineer. These “art-to-part” projects include the Deep-Space Time Probe, Resonance House, and the 2006 Acadia Conference. The most recent collaboration is the 2009 Solar Decathlon where the University of Kentucky is one of twenty universities from around the world who will design and build a solar house to stand on the Mall in Washington D.C. this fall.
A strategic goal at the University of Kentucky is to increase the amount of cross-disciplinary collaboration between campus units, enhancing the effectiveness of research and development, interdisciplinary studies, and inter-professional training. The field of sustainability is collaborative by its very nature, encompassing design, social, political, manufacturing, economical, and ecological elements. To this end funding has been made available for cross-disciplinary activities throughout UK.
Now, the Center for Manufacturing and the School of Architecture are very pleased to announce the creation of a new faculty position in design for sustainable manufacturing that will be a joint appointment to the two departments. Tenured in the College of Design, this faculty member will have an office and lab in the Center for Manufacturing, teaching courses and conducting research in design for sustainable manufacturing that includes students in both architecture and manufacturing. He or she will also work closely with faculty already actively involved in sustainable manufacturing and design in the areas of research and curriculum development. Appropriately, the search committee will be comprised of faculty from both areas, including Dr. IS Jawahir of the center, and Drura Parrish of Architecture.
Bruce Walcott, Associate Dean in Engineering and Gregory Luhan, Associate Dean for Research in Design have worked together on proposals for many projects that led in part to the creation of this new position. “Among the immediate benefits,” according to Luhan, “is the generation of innovative and funded research that supports the ongoing efforts of the departments while increasing the possibilities for greater collaboration.” Each department will be able to leverage expertise and resources already available at UK while building the capacity to acquire new tools for applied research.
“The new faculty member will help propel trans-disciplinary initiatives in sustainable manufacturing,” says Dr. Walcott. Design issues in buildings and architectural structures translate easily to more traditional manufacturing venues. Both manufacturing and design must collaborate in a transformation, starting yesterday, to encompass the principles of sustainability. This faculty position is a big step in the right direction and an academic adventure leading in a new direction for both units.
For more information:
Contact:
Professor Gregory Luhan
Phone 859.257.6568
Or
Dr. Bruce Walcott
Phone 859.257.1182
Other links of interest:
Center for Manufacturing
College of Design
College of Engineering
School of Architecture
UK Solar Decathlon Entry
2009 Solar Decathlon Competition
other center news
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