Products and services to ensure a high standard of living worldwide are linked to the use of natural resources, which are limited and not evenly distributed. The use of these resources is also linked to environmental impact over all stages of a product life cycle from material extraction, transport and manufacturing through usage to the end-of-life. Future engineering solutions will have the potential to address above global challenges by providing products, services and processes taking into account local capabilities and constraints to achieve an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable society.
The joint research group contributes to this vision with an one-stop, cradle to cradle development of technologies and knowledge in a multidisciplinary and international environment. Both cooperation partners are leading research groups in these areas for many years and will engage in a collaborative research group in order to develop appropriate concepts to encounter global challenges. Therefore, the following goals are being pursued to establish a Joint German-Australian Research Group:
Ranked 47th in the world, Member of the „Group of Eight" of the leading universities in Australia, in the top 10 universities in the Asian-Pacific area with 40.000 students. The Life Cycle Engineering & Management Research Group within the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering has developed expertise in the area of life cycle engineering such as economic and ecological modeling, analysis and planning of redistribution and recycling strategies, technological evaluation of products over the whole life cycle and, more recently, the analysis of energy and eco-efficiency of product and production processes.
Professor Dr. Sami Kara is currently the Director of Postgraduate Research at the Faculty of Engineering. He is the founder and academic-in-charge of the Sustainable Manufacturing & Life Cycle Engineering Research Group in the University of New South Wales (SMLCE@UNSW). He is also the technical leader and the member of Scientific Advisory Committee of Cooperative Research Centre for Advance Manufacturing (AMCRC). He has successfully completed more than 12 large projects, mainly industry-driven in the area of Reuse and Recycling of products, Energy and Eco-efficiency of product and processes, Life Cycle Assessment and Costing with various applications such as nanotechnologies, composite materials and aircraft components. Recently he has been elected as the chairman of the CIRP Scientific Technical Committee on Life Cycle Engineering (STC LCE/A). Prof. Kara is a member of Institute of Engineers Australia and the elected fellow of the International Academy of Production Engineering (CIRP).