The Integrated Design Research & Engineering for Advanced Manufacturing (iDREAM) project is an agile, reconfigurable and highly transdisciplinary platform for various modes of advanced manufacturing. iDREAM builds on the advanced manufacturing ecosystem that already exists at Drexel to leverage transdisciplinary collaborations across the university and promote its shared network of research excellence to strengthen our national leadership in this area. With internal seed funding through the Office of the Provost’s Drexel Areas of Research Excellence (DARE) strategic initiative, new research topics will emerge and this ecosystem will grow.

Comprised of two distinct yet overlapping entities—a core collaborative infrastructure to address functional problems related to functional fabrics and a project-based collaborative network to address, solve and bring real world solutions to innovative products development, iDREAM will build a diverse research portfolio and become a platform for advanced manufacturing of smart textiles.

iDREAM at Drexel is creating a world-class learning and research environment that will explore the fundamental challenges of advanced manufacturing through  cross-disciplinary teamwork, building on the seminal work of the Shima Seiki Haute Tech Lab (HTL).