The PREM Lab is a consortium of universities and industries located primarily on the Pacific Rim. The primary mission of the PREM Lab has been, and will continue to be, the investigation of mechanics problems associated with electro-mechanical devices, such as electric motors and actuators; and the transfer of technology from the research environment into the industrial environment. Many of the problems associated with the design of electric motors and actuators are common across different companies and industries. The ability to design such devices that are low cost and high performance, with low noise and vibration, is often critical to the success of a product in the current business environment. But it is typically very difficult to find engineers who are knowledgeable in the design of electro-mechanical devices. Such expertise is rarely taught anymore in universities, especially those on the Pacific Rim. Yet, the Pacific Rim is the heart of production of products such as consumer electronics, disk drives, and industrial robots. The consolidation and subsequent distribution of resources and knowledge offered by the PREM Lab offers an efficient means for aiding the development of motors and actuators in modern products.

The PREM Lab is centered around the Electro-Mechanical Design Laboratories at two universities: The University of California, Berkeley, USA, and Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. Over the past several years, both of these universities have developed substantial expertise in both research and education in the design of electro-mechanical devices, and the solution of primarily mechanical type problems associated with these devices. Typically, the type of problems includes finding cost effective means of reducing mechanical noise and vibration with little or no sacrifice in drive torque, and development of new and innovative designs in motors and actuators . The PREM Lab is be co-directed by Prof. Dennis K. Lieu in the West and by Prof. Gunhee Jang in the Far East. The combined facilities at UC Berkeley and Hanyang University offer an impressive array of technical expertise, analytical capacity, and experimental equipment for use by projects conducted at the PREM Lab. In addition to the directors and visiting fellows, the main researchers and assistants at these facilities are primarily doctoral graduate students, international in origin, who are among the finest of their kind in the world.

The PREM Lab is currently in an expansion phase. The organizers of PREM feel strongly that an expansion in the number of member companies is in order to more effectively serve the industry by expanding the breath and depth of its projects. An increased research effort, and its results, would generate more benefit to each of the PREM member companies. The increased effort would also generate interest in government agencies such as NSF and KOSEF which sponsor research efforts in science and engineering, thus providing even more cost effective research effort to the member companies. A strong industrial support base is usually a precursor to significant government support of research.