Motlow Smyrna Faculty Spotlight: Khalid Tantawi

Interview By Charles Whiting

Motlow Buzz Editor-in-Chief

        A team led by Motlow Smyrna Mechatronics Professor Khalid Tantawi has been awarded a $545,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a 36-month project at Motlow State Community College called “Smart Manufacturing for America’s Revolutionizing Technological Transformation.” Motlow will serve as a national hub to train “Smart Manufacturing” to mechatronics and advanced manufacturing educators across the nation. Khalid said the grant will have a career- and life-changing impact on students and the next generations in the advanced manufacturing fields.

Question: Explain how you developed a successful grant proposal for the Motlow Mechatronics Program. When did you start, and what were the various steps you had to take?

Answer: “I started working with a team of researchers from Tennessee Technological University led by Dr. Ismail Fidan in June of 2017 on developing a grant proposal that addresses the needs in a newly developed manufacturing paradigm called ‘Smart Manufacturing.’ As with all scientific projects, the first step was to research about the potentials, recent developments, advances, needs and potential shortcomings in the field of focus. Over the course of the next few months, I concentrated my efforts on gathering information that highlighted the need and essence of ‘Smart Manufacturing’ and the recent developments in it. The guidance and input provided by Dr. Fidan, a well-known and an established researcher in the manufacturing field, was vital for the success of our bid for funding."

Question: Who worked with you on the project?

Answer: “In today’s world, the interaction of a large number of fields of science, and different technologies makes it almost impossible for experts in one field to conduct research alone. As the project proposal progressed, it became clear there was the necessity to include collaborators in this project who have experience in specific technologies. For example, to address the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, we needed expertise in the field of computer networks. So our team grew to a four-member team that includes two collaborators from Tennessee Technological University (Dr. Ismail Fidan and Dr. Yunbo Zhang) and one from Tunxis Community College (Dr. Karen Birch), with myself as the team leader from Motlow State Community College.”

Khalid Tantawi celebrates with Motlow President Dr. Michael Torrence

Question: Where did you submit your proposal?

Answer: “One factor that needed to be considered in the early development stage was to identify a funding agency and a program to submit the proposed project to. The National Science Foundation, which offers many funding opportunities for undergraduate research, is a typical choice.”

Question: Who assisted you in the development of this proposal?

Answer: “The collaborators on this project include Dr. Ismail Fidan, who leads the team from Tennessee Technological University (TTU); Dr. Karen Birch from Tunxis Community College in Connecticut; Dr. Yunbo Zhang (TTU); and Dr. George Chitiyo from TTU, who serves as the independent evaluator. I should also give credit to the administrative staff at Motlow College, in particular Dr. Michael Torrence for his great support, as well as Ms. Hilda Tunstill, Mr. Jay Turney, Ms. Melody Edmonds, and Mr. Fred Rascoe for their support and assistance in providing a large number of documents to NSF and in helping to develop a policy that was made specifically for this award.”

Question: When will the grant monies be available, and what will they be used for?

Answer: “Immediately after the federal grant is awarded, the grant money will be available on a reimbursement basis. The money will be used to fund the different project activities, internships for two students, a project coordinator at Motlow College every year, and the hiring of a graduate student in TTU.”

Question: How does it feel to know you played an important role in the awarding of this grant?

Answer: “In a previous proposal that I submitted for a different project, the proposal was declined for many overwhelming reasons that were given by the reviewing panel. One challenge was to not let the failed proposal discourage me, but look at it as an opportunity to learn from the mistakes. At the same time, the administrative information processing that was needed to submit the proposal, as well as the large number of supporting documents that needed to be completed by the college administration in order to fulfill the NSF requirements, made me feel under pressure. I didn’t want to be wasting my time and college resources on grant proposals that would end up failing to get funded. All of that made me determined to get the project accepted for funding. It is a great feeling when your hard work pays off.”

Question: What is the Mechatronics Program, and why is it important?

Answer: “Mechatronics blends the fields of mechanical, electrical and computer engineering technologies into one. It evolved as an answer to the demand for individuals who are trained for today’s manufacturing, in which machines are automated and computerized to achieve flexibility.”

Question: How will this grant impact the mechatronics and advanced manufacturing programs?

Answer: “To understand the impact of this grant, let’s look at the most recent advances in manufacturing. The concentration of engineering efforts is shifting from those based on the slow and tedious pure analytical studies, to those based on feedback of performance data directly from the end-users. For example, now we can see jet engines that are connected to the internet to send performance data back to the manufacturers. The data achieved in this way from a month into the end-users can take several years to achieve by pure research. In other words, the efforts are now concentrating on the feedback portion rather than the feedforward portion of the manufacturing loop. Similarly, the same thing can be said about feedback from scanning drones in a manufacturing plant, vision systems, and other large data-collection technologies. This IoT technology, in addition to other technologies, constitute ‘Smart Manufacturing.’ For a manufacturer to optimally use these technologies, it needs to have trained technicians ready to deal with them. The goal of this grant is to prepare the next generation of technicians on utilizing these technologies to be ready for the upcoming manufacturing revolution.”

Question: Do you consider winning the grant one of your greatest achievements? If so, why?

Answer: “The ultimate achievement of the grant is measured by the amount of positive impact that it will have on the students and the next generations in the advanced manufacturing fields. If that outcome is met, then it is certainly one of my greatest achievements, but I like to believe that the greatest achievements are yet to come!”