Convergent Manufacturing for Design and Manufacturing Future Farms Addressing Food Security
Interdisciplinary Areas: | Others |
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Project Description
The candidate will be responsible for performing discovery and translational engineering research to push the frontier of future farms for national and global societal impact. This area will address food security to the growing population, develop an ample supply of nutritious fresh food, reducing the impact of climate change on agriculture production, and bring fresh food production close to communities. The research integrated educational impact will be at the convergence of disciplines including bio-inspired designs, lightweight materials, urban manufacturing, food science, and digital agriculture engineering and horticulture among others. This research involves the utilization of frugal engineering principles (reuse, repurpose, recombine and rapidity) to design, build, test, and implement urban- and rural production using a scalable micro-factory model.
The candidate will have an opportunity to interact with collaborators in academia, government, and business. In addition, the candidate will be able to advise, train and mentor undergraduate and graduate students in related projects.
Specific opportunities to learn include- planning and executing a strategic plan of research, including defining objectives, determining experimental requirements, and identifying long-term goals for the research area; developing and implementing new test facilities and new experimental methods; technical writing including research publications and grant proposals; and mentoring graduate/undergraduate students.
Start Date
Spring 2022
Postdoctoral Qualifications
The candidate must have completed his Ph.D. no later than December 2021. Preferred qualifications include previous experience in the area of biological and agricultural engineering for food science, horticulture, agriculture production, and related areas. Candidates with prior experience in areas of hydroponics, student farms, design science, industrial engineering are encouraged to apply.
Co-Advisors
1) Ajay P. Malshe, amalshe@purdue.edu
School of Mechanical Engineering
R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ME/People/ptProfile?resource_id=232598
2) Krishna Nemali, knemali@purdue.edu
Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Assistant Professor Controlled Environment Agriculture
https://ag.purdue.edu/hla/Pages/profile.aspx?strAlias=knemali&intDirDeptID=16
Bibliography
https://www.sciendo.com/article/10.1515/jlecol-2017-0016
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2020.05.003
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-014-0273-y.pdf
https://www.nae.edu/251160/A-Case-for-Frugal-Engineering-and-Related-Manufacturing-for-Social-Equity
https://www.urbanvine.co/blog/vertical-farming