History of CISR

Mission | History of CISR | Current Status

After approximately two years of planning, which included industry, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and CMU, the Center began operations in May 1985 with support from eleven companies and NSF. The planning stage included visits to a number of steel companies and planning meetings with the industry, NSF and CMU faculty. The Center grew significantly in terms of industrial numbers and in 1997 there were about 25 industrial members. The Center currently receives no funding from NSF and is considered a self-sufficient center. During the past fifteen years CISR has received significant funding from other sources, such as AISI for research on smelting reduction, the Department of Energy, and smaller individual grants from NSF and individual steel companies.

A major and successful development was the internationalization of the Center in about 1990. At that time, the Advisory Board invited BHP and Hoogovens to join the Center. The success of this initiative has resulted in seven overseas companies becoming active valuable members of CISR.

In the past fifteen years the Center has greatly improved its interactions with its member companies by developing project selection criteria, by improved communication, and by more frequent contacts between Center personnel and its industry partners. Progress reports are now on line for faster and more complete communication. A unique feature of CISR is the “mini meeting” focusing on industrial problems with presentations from industrial members. Often from these meetings new projects are developed.

Sridhar Seetharaman joined CMU and CISR as a tenure track faculty. Professor Seetharaman has an excellent background receiving his Ph.D. from MIT and doing post doctoral work at Imperial College London and CMU. He currently has several CISR projects and grants from outside sources.

CISR, like the industry it serves, is going through a critical stage and has many challenges. Currently there are approximately sixteen industrial members. Whereas the membership has declined the core companies with strong technical capabilities still belong. In addition, total funding has remained relatively constant due to government funding of a significant number of projects.