MChESS

Maryland Center of Excellence for Sustainment Sciences

Vision

Become the “Go-To” Center for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the defense industrial base, non-DoD government agencies and others for conducting interdisciplinary research (both applied and basic) on real world sustainment problems, and creating an interdisciplinary sustainment educated workforce. This Center will develop technologies, processes, policy and workforce for improving the practice of sustainment, with a focus on integrating data analytics with design, systems engineering, manufacturing, logistics, acquisition and use.

This Center is a “think tank” and research engine that drives the transition from today’s transactional sustainment culture to tomorrow’s strategic capability and portfolio management that focuses on mission success.

This is the first research-oriented program that pulls together all aspects of the global sustainment picture and combines theory with applied research and education to address sustainment problems.

MChESS

SUSTAINMENT

Maintenance, support, and upgrade practices that maintain or improve the performance of a system and maximize the availability of goods and services while minimizing their cost and footprint or, more simply, the capacity of a system to endure.

Defining Sustainment for Engineered Systems

Center Activities

The Center is comprised of members from industry, government, non-profit, and academia that engage in: Research, Education, Outreach, and Policy.

  • Research Initiatives: Execution of projects that enable the successful deployment and management of safety-, mission-, and infrastructure-critical systems. More >>
  • Education (Workforce Development Programs and Engagement): Prepare interdisciplinary students at all levels for careers in the sustainment field. Development of System Sustainment Policy, Engineering and Business graduate degrees and certificates; an internship program with the Center’s members; and insertion of sustainment awareness and appreciation into the broader engineering, public policy and business curricula. More >>
  • Outreach: Engage the community (public, private, and non-profit sectors) to influence sustainment policy by forming advisory boards, standards participation, symposia, and more designed to influence sustainment science acceptance and understanding. More >>
  • Policy: Engage with relevant stakeholders to evaluate, inform, influence and implement sustainment policy.

CENTER SCOPE

  • Governance: legislation, policy, and regulation
  • Availability: reliability, maintainability, system health management, resilience, cybersecurity, survivability
  • Systems Engineering: legacy systems, life-cycle cost
  • Acquisition: procurement, acquisition strategy and policy, contract engineering
  • Logistics: supply-chain aging/management, supply-chain security, obsolescence, counterfeits
  • Human and Workforce Factors: critical skills loss
  • Data: preservation, policy/contract related access

Research

MChESS has performed research in the following sustainment areas:

Center Organization

The management of the MChESS is comprise of leads from Engineering, Public Policy and Business. There will also be an external Steering Committee that will represent the community at-large.

Members/Partners will have an opportunity to access all of the services that the Center provides and be active participants in a network of thought leaders, practitioners, and students dedicated to making strategic sustainment a reality

partners

An interdisciplinary team at the University of Maryland, all with strong grounding in the sustainment field, has been assembled from the Colleges of Engineering, Public Policy and Business, including:

Center for Public Policy and Private EnterpriseRobert H. Smith School of Business

Engagement Structure

The Center engages in sponsored research aligned with stakeholders needs.  Organizations sponsoring research with the University of Maryland through MChESS will be considered Research Members of the Center.

  • Research Members
    -  Influence the Research Agenda
    -  Access to Student Interns
    -  Member Researchers Hosted at the University of Maryland
    -  Annual Member Meeting
  • Education and Student Engagement
    - Training and certificate programs
    - Symposiums and workshops
    -  Insertion of content into UMD educational programs
    -  Clearinghouse for student opportunities in sustainment

A Steering Committee consisting of industry thought leaders and sustainment researchers in logistics, maintenance, policy development and policy implementation guides the Center’s activities.

contact

Peter Sandborn
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Maryland
(301) 405-3167
sandborn@umd.edu

Bill Lucyshyn
Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise
School of Public Policy
University of Maryland
(301) 405-8257
lucysyn@umd.edu

MChESS

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