Conference: Early-Career Researcher Travel Support for the 30th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering Conference May 15-17, 2023

This grant provides funding to assist participation of early career researchers in the CIRP Life Cycle Engineering Conference (LCE) to be held at Rutgers University May 15-17, 2023. The CIRP Life Cycle Engineering Conference is organized by the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP, nominally College International for Research on Production). The conference features presentations and discussions on topics such as sustainable design, eco-friendly manufacturing processes, end-of- life management, and product life cycle assessment. It brings together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world to share their insights and findings on LCE. The conference program includes keynote speeches from prominent experts in the field, as well as technical sessions featuring research papers and posters. The conference provides a valuable forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas, collaborate on projects, and stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the field. It is an important event for anyone involved in sustainable design and manufacturing, as well as those interested in reducing the environmental impact of products and processes. The theme of LCE 2023 is “Enabling Absolute Sustainability and the Circular Economy using Data and Insight”. It is important to engage early-career researchers (e.g., students, postdocs, and junior faculty members) in presenting, demonstrating, and developing creative and influential solutions for industrial sustainability and networking with international peers and leaders in the area of LCE. Funding will help support travel of early career researchers, especially those from underrepresented groups, to attend LCE 2023 and broaden participation across the United States. LCE 2023 will cover a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to, enabling technologies for the circular economy, big data, artificial intelligence/machine learning supported sustainable manufacturing, life cycle planning, management, sustainability assessment, and business model and policy development. The LCE conference aims to advance the state-of-the-art in data-driven LCE, contribute to the development of new knowledge, and facilitate the adoption of sustainable practices and technologies in industry and society. By bringing together researchers (including early-career researchers from the US), practitioners, and stakeholders from different fields, the LCE conference can provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and best practices. The conference also provides opportunities for networking, collaboration, and knowledge transfer among participants. LCE 2023 strives to showcase cutting-edge research done in the U.S., especially that of young U.S. researchers, to world-renowned experts. It is expected that a diverse group of over 270 participants will share their work through both paper and poster presentations, as well as keynotes and workshops. Travel support will help to bring up to 45 early-career researchers from U.S. institutions to the conference with priority given to researchers from underrepresented groups. All the conference papers will be published in Procedia CIRP (Elsevier). The conference will have sessions on teaching/learning where educators and students can discuss visions, approaches, and challenges. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.