Smart Fusion Material Research Cluster (SFMRC) is to stimulate the research, education, and practice by advancing science, technology, and policy in the areas of the computational material design and manufacturing.
The mission of the proposed research cluster is to investigate coupled interactions among science, technology, socio-techno-economic (the socio-techno-economic approach is to understand material design/manufacturing as an ecological system where individual, technology, infrastructure, and social environment intersect with each other), public and environmental policy in material discovery through collaborations with intra-KBOR members and innovation campus, and to train students and industry professionals for empowering future workforce.
The long-term research and education goals are to promote fundamental knowledge of material design and manufacturing using novel data analytics, computational approach, and diagnostic tools, and socio-techno-economic approaches. The short term research objective is (a) to promote the fundamental knowledge of convoluted relations in material-process-microstructure-mechanical properties for the smart fusion material discovery by developing new data analytic, diagnostics, computational simulation tools for the technological advancements, and (b) understand socio-techno-economic relations for facilitating the commercialization of the developed materials. The education objective is to facilitate implementation of the best practice, evidence-based learning/teaching strategies and to investigate the research question: How does a student-centered, project-based pedagogical approach under interdisciplinary education/training substantively improve student learning in an inclusive and equitable learning environment toward the STEM education with creative entrepreneurial mindset, i.e., Edison Incubating Education? The STEM animation module will be used in iSTEM Certificate classes for student-centered innovative learning. In preparation, white paper, Edison Incubating Education via STEM-based animations.