The Engineering Design Research Center: some lessons from its history

Large problems require the coordinated efforts of many researchers. Funding agencies are ill equipped to provide this coordination. Instead, they outsource it to centers in universities. These centers vary considerably in longevity and size. One of them is at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1984, NSF issued a request for proposals for engineering research centers to address cross-disciplinary problems of national importance. The Design Research Centre (DRC) submitted a proposal to expand its activities. The proposal was rejected. But a modified version, resubmitted the next year, was approved, and the expanded version of the DRC was called the Engineering Design Research Center (EDRC). The author traces and comments on its history.