The objective of this proposal is to realize a circular economic system for manufacturing of soft electronics where a coordinated set of sustainable manufacturing processes and a select group of novel biodegradable and reusable materials are seamlessly integrated. It is anticipated that all components of the device can be either biodegraded or recycled/reused, and the project will explore different end-of-life pathways from both technical, economic, and environmental perspectives (e.g., through life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis). Our team has faculty members from mechanical engineering, chemistry, chemical engineering, Industrial Engineering, and sustainable engineering, allowing us to propose a hybrid approach from material design/synthesis all the way to device manufacturing.

CESMII, the Smart Manufacturing Institute, has developed a Smart Manufacturing Platform��������������� for setting up and operating data contextualization, visualization, analytics, model comparison, and control. The standards for this Platform��������������� are being developed with CESMII������������������s members across the industry. CESMII now has asked NC State to create a Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center (SMIC) to deploy, develop, and demonstrate the Smart Manufacturing Platform���������������. Technical design of the implementation would be by a separate contract with Avid Solutions, a systems integrator in Morrisville, NC. The requested budget for Year 2020 Quarter 1 is the first step to establish NCSU as a SMIC and to connect NCSU������������������s strategic manufacturing testbed assets to CESMII������������������s SM Platform���������������.

The overarching goal of this project is to fabricate large-area, high-resolution, stretchable pressure sensor arrays for e-skin at low cost by integrating organic semiconductors, AgNW conductors, and elastomers. The devices will be fabricated using several scalable nanomanufacturing techniques including gravure printing, transfer printing, and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing.

The objective of this proposal is to investigate a super-resolution (single micron-scale) electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) 3D printing process of melted thermoplastic polymers to achieve rapid manufacturing of customized military parts with limited material and manufacturing resources. The proposed process will overcome resolution barrier of most existing additive manufacturing approaches, and enable high precision production of complex part for austere environments with limited manufacturing infrastructure. This research is beneficial to additive manufacturing by significantly improving the accuracy and surface finish, and reducing the time and cost in post-processing, which will enable in-the-field rapid manufacturing of high precision military parts.

This project will develop the fundamental understanding and manufacturing science needed to transition this vapor-phase fiber surface modification technology from small-batch scale to a fully continuous manufacturing prototype.

The objective of this research is to investigate a low-cost high-speed tunable nanofabrication approach using sharp cantilever tips with the help of ultrasonic vibration. The controllable ultrasonic vibration of the tip enables tunable fabrication of features across a wide dimensional range with high efficiency. The proposed research will develop empirical models for the analysis of nanomachining process and its performance specifications (cutting force, form error, etc) with respect to process factors. This research will incorporate process development, processing modeling, and manufacturing system into a new framework that enables high-rate tunable fabrication of 2D and 3D nanoscale features.

The objective of this research is to investigate a reliability-driven process-optimization methodology that streamlines the nanowire growth process for the mass production of high impact nanowire-based products, such as flexible electronics and nanoresonators, which demand high process yield and product reliability. The multidisciplinary team [University of Tennessee ? UT (Lead institution), North Carolina State University - NCSU, and University of Michigan ? UM] will incorporate nanowire (NW) defect modeling, nanomechanical characterization, and reliability prediction via accelerated testing (AT) into a new framework to enable the application-centric defect reduction for scalable nanomanufacturing. The fundamental questions to be answered are: (1) How to systematically establish the relationship between the process variables and the generation rates of different NW defects? (2) How to expedite the reliability prediction for NW-based devices and use the achieved reliability information to perform the application-centric defect reduction through the manipulation of the NW growth process? Specifically, we will (1) study the generation mechanisms of NW defects, and investigate appropriate stochastic models that link the generations and distributions of different defects to the NW growth-process variables; (2) develop a statistical fracture model for NWs with various defects under mechanical loading; (3) explore an advanced AT methodology and optimize the NW growth process by the design-of-experiment methods; and (4) conduct validation studies by developing two medium-sized (at least 10 cm × 10 cm) benchmark devices (i.e., flexible electronic devices and nanoresonators) based on the proposed methodology, and demonstrate their desired reliability performance.

The Goal of this project is to develop an undergraduate nanotechnology laboratory in the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU) that will provide undergraduate students with hands-on experience in nanoscale science and engineering. A focused theme of this NUE project is the integration of nanotechnology with microsystem technology, i.e., bottom-up meeting top-down. It will bridge the "pillars" of nanotechnology ? nanomaterials, nanofabrication, nanoscale characterization and nanodevices. This NUE project will develop a new laboratory course for engineering undergraduate students. This lab course will have an emphasis on size-dependent properties at the nanoscale, which is critical as new properties enable new applications. In addition to the new lab course, selected lab modules will be integrated to existing nanotechnology courses on campus. A new pedagogical approach that features active and inductive learning to culture and inspire creativity of undergraduate students will be adopted. Special efforts will be undertaken to attract minority and underrepresented groups to pursue engineering and science degrees. Overall this program will encourage more US students to pursue graduate study related to nanotechnology and to train a workforce for the emerging nanotechnology industry.

This project is focused on the initial bridging of two currently separate research domains one of regenerative medicine and one of manufacturing engineering. The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) is one of the leading research institutes in developing methods for growing replacement tissue and organs for human implantation. WFIRM and North Carolina State University's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (NCSU-DISE) seek to accelerate the translation from experimentally oriented production to commercially economical tissue and organ transplants. These two very different research partners will collaborate on initial research to transform experimental laboratory processes into the industrial processes necessary to enable economic production of regenerative medical products. The focus in this initial effort will be to translate the recipes and protocols used in the early production of regenerative tissue and organs into manufacturing engineering terms. The major result of this early bridging research will be translating the biology and medical requirements that have been developed at WFIRM for one specific organ into the kinds of engineering process definitions and resource requirements needed to develop full scale manufacturing. Formal engineering models that will explicitly define the resource requirements for the bio-reactors used to produce tissue and organs will be developed. Process models characterizing the transformations that take place outside as well as within the bio-reactors will also be developed. The intent of the formal model development is not simply to chart the current methods used to produce regenerative products but rather to define the basic transformations that take place as well as to try to identify early constraints on the resources and process methods used in their manufacture. These process models will then become a key resource in developing manufacturing system model of efficient production systems for regenerative products. Broader Impact: The impact of this far reaching. To cite Dan Barrett from Inside Higher ED (January 5, 2011), Advances in medicine and biotechnology -- from the sequencing of the human genome to the development of small chips to detect cancer in the bloodstream -- were driven largely by scientists coming together from diverse disciplines to work on common problems. But a blue ribbon panel said here Tuesday that these advances also signify something larger: the creation of a new model -- dubbed "convergence" -- in which engineering and physical sciences, among other disciplines, join forces with the life sciences. This project provides early convergence of regenerative medicine and manufacturing engineering, and establishes a foundation for a much more ambitious research agenda. Intellectual Merit: This proposal focuses on a critical health care issue facing the aging American population ? that is the critical problem of diseased tissue and organs that every year result in extraordinary medical expenditures, and that take thousands of lives. The merit of the research is bridging two very disparate disciplines so that major inroads into the development of economically practical and safe organ transplants can be made possible. This work will not resolve this problem but will provide the impetus and necessary knowledge base for further research.

The project addresses the production of a new type of product ? the manufacture of human tissue and organs. The project consists of groups of domain experts at Wake Forest's Institute of Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) and North Carolina State University's (NCSU's) College of Engineering that have come together to work collaboratively to assess, document and understand the current state-of-the-art for manufacturing regenerative medicine products. The primary focus of the proposed research is to use the knowledge base developed at WFIRM to define production requirements for the creation of tissue and organs and use those requirements to define and organize production systems that can produce living products safely, efficiently and affordably. The production system requirements will include: flow patterns, product requirements, process requirements (including FDA) and inventory and materials requirements. These components will be analyzed so that new system concepts for volume manufacture of tissues can be proposed. The manufacturing system design must be scalable to produce lots of size one efficiently and with appropriate quality and traceability in a cost effective manner while understanding the inventory and supply chain of this industry. The project will also address technological development requirements and other manufacturing system tools necessary for successfully achieving this vision.