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.”
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| 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!”
