22nd Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing (GCSM)
The Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing (ISM) at the University of Kentucky is proud to have played a significant role in the recent 22nd Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing (GCSM), one of the premier and longest-running conferences dedicated to advancing sustainable manufacturing research, education, and industry engagement, held September 23-25, 2026 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
As a Gold Sponsor, ISM was honored to support an event that aligns closely with our mission of advancing sustainable manufacturing through research, innovation, education, and industry collaboration.
We are especially proud of the outstanding contributions made by our faculty, students, and leadership:
🔹 Prof. I.S. Jawahir, ISM Founder and Director Emeritus, served as Honorary Chair of the conference and delivered a keynote presentation, sharing his vision and leadership in sustainable manufacturing and also talked on education and workforce development needs for sustainable manufacturing.
🔹 Prof. Fazleena Badurdeen, ISM Director and an International Chair of the conference, also played a major role, including presenting, facilitating an interactive activity for sustainability hotspots analysis and moderating a panel discussion on sustainable manufacturing and business growth as part of the industry day.
We are equally proud of our students, who represented ISM with excellence by presenting their latest research:
🔹Ashik Chowdhury & Mahela Prasanna Prasanna – Design for Emotional Durability: A Structured Framework and Agentic AI-based Tool for Product Use-Life Extension
🔹Nimesh Madhawa Fernando – A Quantitative Sustainability Assessment of Laser Powder Bed Fusion and Additive Friction Stir Deposition
- A Process-Integrated Value Chain Sustainability Framework for Upcycling Polypropylene Feedstocks in Fused Deposition Modeling
🔹Junwon Ko – Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities Towards Increasing Recovery of Semiconductor Chip-Bearing Components and Subassemblies at End-of-Use
🔹Mahela Prasanna – Development of a Structured Framework for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing Sustainability Assessment
🔹Md. Shad Bin Salam – Cold Spray additive manufacturing using end of life dust-collector–recovered metal powder for circular manufacturing
Their presentations showcased the breadth and quality of research (conducted in collaboration with all their co-authors) being conducted at ISM across topics that contribute to a more sustainable future.
A special note of appreciation goes to the entire GCSM organizing committee, whose dedication, professionalism, and countless hours of work made this year's conference an extraordinary success.