Exploring innovative uses of economical and environmentally-friendly materials. Considering life-cycle product costs for near zero environmental impact, including green design and manufacturing, design for no assembly and green building construction methods.  Partnering with industry leaders looking for long-term environmentally and economically sustainable options.

Improving the process of taking a concept and making it into a reality (i.e., taking raw materials and processing them to create a product).  Developing and increasing the understanding of diverse applications for innovative manufacturing products, processes and building fabrication systems (e.g., additive manufacturing, lithography, materials handling systems).

Rebuilding a vibrant manufacturing economy by bringing high-quality, customizable products to market faster. SMART works with local industry in exploring the design of multi-functional and smart materials, automation and cyber-empathic design for improving the interactive processes.

Including materials (e.g., polymers, metals, ceramics, or composites) design in the design of a product.  Using customized materials to achieve product performance, rather than just selecting from an existing catalog of a materials and then designing the geometry.

Acquiring and fusing heterogeneous information into useful knowledge for effective decision-making in design, fabrication and building assembly processes (e.g., factory and construction site situational awareness, supply-chain management, computer-aided design and engineering, industrial internet/IoT, lean manufacturing, construction site automation).

Merging human cognitive capability with automation’s reliability and robustness to enhance workforce performance and safety (e.g., co-robotics, supervisory control).  This thrust also includes socioeconomic and sociotechnical impacts of advanced design and manufacturing.

In addition to research, SMART seeks to create and strengthen partnerships with industry and community organizations to identify and address authentic, impactful sustainable manufacturing issues.

Achieving the vision of sustainable manufacturing will impact both current and future workers.  As a result, SMART is also interested in novel, interdisciplinary and problem-focused learning approaches for all types of learners (e.g., K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and workforce development).