A Global Knowledge Network for Environmentally Sound Product Development
The Concurrent Engineering Research Center (CERC) at West Virginia University, in collaboration with a number of universities in Europe and Asia, has launched an initiative to create a global knowledge network to facilitate world-wide sharing of information needed for developing environmentally sound products. Examples of such information are:processes for recycling, standards for products, laws and regulations, recommended manufacturing processes, materials, and so on.
This project called CERES (for the Roman goddess who was believed to protect the fruits of the Earth) will connect users with globally distributed knowledge bases using current network information infrastructures, such as Internet, and generic servers such as Gopher and WAIS. This should make it possible for any product developer in the world to explore models and information related to product/process/material/deployment alternatives that will have the least impact on the Environment.
It is envisioned that each country/region will create repositories of sharable knowledge that will be made available through the CERES Network. Proprietary knowledge on a pay-for-use basis may also be made available through CERES. This aspect will be explored in future with organizations such as the National Center for Manufacturing Science (NCMS-USA).
The CERES concept is based on the following assumptions:
1. There is global interest in sharing environmental knowledge and thus making it a global resource. 2. Knowledge exists in diverse forms and media. 3. Global information infrastructure is emerging rapidly. 4. Government mandates and incentives for producing environmentally sound products are rapidly evolving. 5. Recycling infrastructure development is becoming a high priority for many countries.
Specifically CERES will contain knowledge pertaining to:
1. disposability 2. recyclability 3.Material Substitution 4.Process Alternatives 5. Cost Models 6. Expert Systems 7. Animations/ Simulations 8. Expert Refferal networks 9. Advanced Research results 10. Case histories and other relevant information.
An initial prototype network will be created and demonstrated using the Collaboration Technology developed under the DARPA Initiative in Concurrent Engineering (DICE-USA). The prototype network will have nodes at the following universities and research centers:
1. Concurrent Engineering Research Center (USA) - COORDINATION 2. University of Ghent (Belgium) 3. Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) 4. University of ROMA II at Frascati (Italy) 5. Institute for Research in Productics and Logistics (France) 6. St. Petersburg Academy for Aerospace Technology (Russia) 7. Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology (Japan) 8. GINTIC Institute for Manufacturing (Singapore) 9. Cranfield Institute of Technology (UK)
The initial organizing committee for CERES includes:
Prof. R. Reddy, USA -- Chairman Prof. G. Vansteenkiste, Belgium Prof. E.J. Sol, The Netherlands Prof. G. Iazeolla, Italy Prof. S. Fukuda, Japan Mr. F. Perihirin, France Prof. A. Lukoshkin, Russia Prof. R. Yusupov, Russia Dr. S. Evans, UK Dr. D. Sng, Singapore
The first working meeting of the organizing committee (including present members and other interested persons) is scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C, USA around January, 1994. The project will be kicked off at an International Conference to be held on Lake Baikal (Russia) in the third week of July, 1994. An electronic journal, to be named <CERES Journal>, will itself be made available through the knowledge network.
The following committees of CERES are planned:
1. CERES Network Design Committee
2. CERES Knowledge Representation Committee
3. CERES Journal Committee
4. CERES Organizational Committee
In addition, several domain-specific committees will be formed later. If you are interested in participating in the development of the CERES concept please contact:
Professor Ramana Reddy Director Concurrent Engineering Research Center P.O. Box 6506 886 Chestnut Ridge Road Morgantown, WV 26506 USA
Phone: 304 293 7226 (Office) 304 594 1584 (Home) Fax 304 293 7541 E-mail: rar@cerc.wvu.edu