A Socio-Technical System for the Support of the Management and Control of Engineering Design Projects.

1998 ◽  
pp. 113-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Jagodzinski ◽  
R. Parsons ◽  
C. Burningham ◽  
J. Evans ◽  
F. Reid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Technical System ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
And Control

On research methodology towards a scientific theory of engineering design

1987 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Dixon
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Computational Approach ◽  
Institutional Variables ◽  
Guided Search ◽  
Design Theories ◽  
Descriptive Theories ◽  
And Control

The goal of this paper is to raise awareness and generate discussion about research methodology in engineering design. Design researchers are viewed as a single communicating community searching for scientific theories of engineering design; that is, theories that can be tested by formal methods of hypothesis testing. In the paper, the scientific method for validating theories is reviewed, and the need for operational definitions and for experiments to identify variables and meaningful abstractions is stressed. The development of a design problem taxonomy is advocated. Generating theories is viewed as guided search. Three types of design theories are described: prescriptive, cognitive descriptive, and computational. It is argued that to seek prescriptions is premature and that, unless the human and institutional variables are reduced to knowledge and control, cognitive descriptive theories will be impossibly complex. A case is made for a computational approach, though it also shown that computational and cognitive research approaches can be mutually supportive.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Problem Formulation and Ideation Skills Learned Throughout an Engineering Design Course

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Dinar ◽  
Yong-Seok Park ◽  
Jami J. Shah
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Objective Assessment ◽  
Problem Formulation ◽  
Engineering Product ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Final Project ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Long Course

Conventional syllabi of engineering design courses either do not pay enough attention to conceptual design skills, or they lack an objective assessment of those skills to show students’ progress. During a semester-long course of advanced engineering product design, we assigned three major design projects to twenty five students. For each project we asked them to formulate the problems in the Problem Formulator web-based testbed. In addition, we collected sketches for all three design problems, feasibility analyses for the last two, and a working prototype for the final project. We report the students’ problem formulation and ideation in terms of a set of nine problem formulation characteristics and ASU’s ideation effectiveness metrics respectively. We discuss the limitations that the choice of the design problems caused, and how the progress of a class of students during a semester-long design course resulted in a convergence in sets of metrics that we have defined to characterize problem formulation and ideation. We also review the results of students of a similar course which we reported last year in order to find common trends.

AGENTS for cooperating expert systems in concurrent engineering design

1993 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guo Q. Huang ◽  
John A. Brandon
Keyword(s):  
Expert Systems ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Concurrent Engineering ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Computer Tools ◽  
System A ◽  
And Control ◽  
Domain Independent

A main theme of concurrent engineering is the effective communication between relevant disciplines. Any computer tools for concurrent engineering must provide sufficient constructs and strategies for this purpose. This paper describes the AGENTS system, a domain-independent general-purpose Object-Oriented Prolog language for cooperating expert systems in concurrent engineering design. Emphasis is placed on demonstrating the use of the AGENTS constructs for distributed knowledge representation and the cooperation strategies for communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, and control. A simple case study is presented to illustrate the balance between simplicity and flexibility.

How to Recognize an Immutable Mobile When You Find One

2012 ◽  
pp. 92-106
Author(s):  
Fernando Abreu Gonçalves ◽  
José Figueiredo
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Project Design ◽  
Engineering Design Process ◽  
Constructive Process ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Actor Networks

Research involved with Actor-Network Theory (ANT) application in engineering domains often crosses through its fundamentals. In fact, exploring trends that envisage ANT as a paradigm that can prove valid in the engineering design field, researchers sometimes enrol in discussions that drive them to its roots. Obligatory Passage Points (OPP) and Immutable Mobiles (IM) are two of the fundamental concepts that need to be revisited. These concepts are critical to understanding innovation in Actor-Networks, especially for the part of IMs. In the pursuit of that understanding, the authors opt to entangle ANT and engineering design and explore a framework based on Programs of Action where actors are represented as taxonomies of competences. These actors are hybrids but, when human, they are mainly engineers engaged in the scope planning and resource management in engineering design projects or processes. This article exercises and develops a constructive process towards a methodology to approach innovation in engineering design. This research is useful for the first stages of the project design process and, in a broader way, to the full cycle of the engineering design process.

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