Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Engineering design'
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Robertson, Laura. "Engineering Design." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2015. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/781.
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LeBlanc, Andrew Roland. "Engineering design decomposition." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/16044.
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King, Toby. "Systematic medical engineering design." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.360635.
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Gunningham, F. G. C. "Aesthetics in engineering design." Thesis, Swansea University, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.637189.
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Bad design must be a contributor to the demise of British manufacturing but good designers are often lost to jobs in management or selling, where the rewards are greater. Further, it is often said that although Britain produces ingenious prototypes, other countries produce better products by paying greater attention to reliability, cost and aesthetics in detail design. The research investigates the place of aesthetics in engineering design in the UK, now and in the past. By surveys and interviews, the attempt was made to quantify the aesthetic content of product design and the reaction of the customer to this aesthetic content. The reaction of electrical engineering designers to the government's sponsoring of good design was sought; the aesthetic content of design in the National Curriculum for schools was explored; the evolution of some styles in the modelling and packaging of products was studied; some attempt was made to determine the economic benefits of considering aesthetics in design; and the greater opportunity that is provided by newer design methods to consider aesthetics has been studied. Few theories guide the designer in his search for aesthetics although all designers have looked for inspiration in nature (e.g. the golden ratio) and perhaps science (e.g. styles that have developed from streamlining). The pioneering giants of design gave high consideration to aesthetic but regretted that their crafted products could only be sold to wealthier customers. With the production methods available in the twentieth century, good aesthetic designs can be (but, only sometimes, are) offered to the general public. Great nineteenth century designers stressed the need for knowledge of the craft of manufacture to ensure the correct use of both materials and methods but modern materials and manufacturing methods develop so rapidly that the education of today's engineers must continue through their working lives.
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Hayes, John Paul. "Collaborating in engineering design." Thesis, University of Bath, 2010. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.527137.
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Collaborating in engineering design is taking place increasingly across technical disciplines, departments and organisations. When collaborating, participants confront issues about how to share understanding and foster aligned project expectations. A review of literature suggests there is limited research about the process of collaborating in engineering design and how collaborating is influenced by context. Collaborating is distinguished as a relational concept (involving at least two parties) that is a social process occurring in both pairs and a group. Studies currently focus on group effectiveness, one or two processes (e.g. communication), and either a group (e.g. a collaboration) or pairwise relations (e.g. inter-organisational relationships). A framework of relevant concepts was adopted from literature on collaboration practice to organise empirical data. Collaborating in engineering design is explored in sixty semi-structured interviews focusing on participants’ interaction and shared understanding (as pairs and groups) in their activities. This is complemented by observations of group meetings and project documentation. Empirical data is presented from four industry-based case studies classified by design type (adaptive or original) and design setting (intra or inter-organisational). Cross-case comparisons draw attention to an increase in ambiguity and uncertainty in combining tasks, roles, expertise and participants in original design type or inter-organisational cases. Findings from cross-case analysis highlight seven new conceptual categories. Four features (Opportunity, Dependence, Results, Adjustments) are used to present a dilemma that participants face which is more acute where organisational and knowledge boundaries are crossed. Three mechanisms (Familiarising, Associating, Regulating) describe how pairwise relations influence a group and individuals in collaborating. These show that through pairwise relations individuals recognise, establish and maintain expectations of how to collaborate in engineering design. This reveals that pairwise relations both help and hinder individuals and a group in how they adjust to foster aligned expectations of collaborating.
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Jreissati, Wadih J. (Wadih Joseph) 1980. "Counterterrorism civil engineering design." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29555.
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Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 51).
Because of the increasing concern about terrorist attacks, engineers have shown a substantial interest in making buildings safer for people. In order to come up with the most adequate design, experts have to carefully define the level of risk on the new structure, since people don't want to live in bunker-like buildings. Then, a good understanding of explosive devices will be a major help to keep the damage localized, preventing the overall collapse of the structure which can cause a lot more deaths than the explosion itself. The first and most important parameter is to secure the building's perimeter by increasing the standoff distance or by using security devices such as gates or even bollards around the building; careful site planning is essential and it costs a loss less when accounted for early in the design phase. Also, a wise choice of construction materials will mitigate blast effects; windows, doors, HVAC and firefighting systems should be designed to save lives and to not cause more injuries! Finally, the major driver for a successful blast protection is designing redundancies to carry the additional loads imposed by an explosion; structural members will therefore work as mediators for alternate load paths in the case of damage of their neighboring members.
by Wadih J. Jreissati.
M.Eng.
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Loomes, Martin James. "Software engineering curriculum design." Thesis, University of Surrey, 1991. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/844417/.
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Software engineering design is a vital component of modern industry, unfortunately, the processes involved are still poorly understood. This poses a major problem for teachers of the subject, who are under constant pressure to improve the quality of education, but are unsure how to bring this about, or even how to detect such improvement. This thesis attempts to start the process of clarifying what we mean by "software engineering design", and apply the insights gained to the activity of curriculum design. First, we establish a method for the research, by constructing a framework to constrain and guide the process of seeking new insights. This leads to a decidedly eclectic approach to the problem, as software engineering design is viewed, and reviewed, from a number of different perspectives. Next, these views are synthesised into a model of the software engineering design process, and new insights are sought to refine the model. The central theme of this model is the idea that the design process can be considered as a one of theory building. Finally, we bring this model into direct contact with the task of curriculum design, both in a general sense, and also by providing illustrations of some of the consequences of its use.
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Schütte, Simon. "Engineering emotional values in product design : Kansei engineering in development /." Linköping : Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Univ, 2005. http://www.ikp.liu.se/kansei.
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Evbuomwan, Nosayaba Francis Osa. "Design function deployment : a concurrent engineering design system." Thesis, City University London, 1994. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/7540/.
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The current state of activities in the design and manufacturing industry is marked by the various CAD/CAM/CAE systems which exist as islands of automation, and are used by engineers and designers in a non-integrated and ill-structured way. Thus the design problem is examined from separate and different perspectives, rather than as a whole. The goal of this research, is to develop a comprehensive, integrated and generic design system, that will ensure the realisation of concurrent engineering in practice. To this end, Design Function Deployment (DFD) has been developed. DFD enables the capture of customers' requirements, the establishment of design specifications and constraints in a solution neutral form, the generation of conceptual designs (architectures), the development of detailed designs layouts), the selection of materials and associated manufacturing processes and the development of suitable production plans. The generated design solutions are optimised against a composite set of multi-criteria (attributes) in a concurrent manner for key factors such as performance, robustness and cost as well as other life cycle issues (manufacture, assembly, serviceability, reliability, environment, etc) in order to choose the most satisfying design. DFD provides a recipe of design methods to support the designer or design team at any stage of the design process. The optimisation process involves the use of these supporting design tools (methods) encapsulated within it. DFD also provides an integrated product modelling environment which integrates both textual and geometric design information, and enables the capture of other design information related to design intent, rationale and history. The research that led to the evolution and development of DFD involved (a) a detailed investigation and research on Quality Function Deployment, QFD, a technique well suited for capturing and translating customer requirements into design specifications, (b) an extensive review of design philosophies, models, methods and systems and (c) an extensive investigation into concurrent engineering. The findings of this research has led to the development of the structure of the DFD system, which incorporates (1) a prescriptive design model, (2) a suite of design methods and (3) supporting knowledge/rulebases and databases, which are used for the generation of the design solution space and the optimal selection of the most satisfying design for subsequent implementation.
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Patel, Dipali Dhanji. "Design of experiment on electrical engineering design representations." Thesis, Montana State University, 2004. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2004/patel/PatelD0805.pdf.
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Fang, Xiaopeng. "Engineering design using genetic algorithms." [Ames, Iowa : Iowa State University], 2007.
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Ates, Aylin. "Design, manufacture and engineering management." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.501887.
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Ball, Linden John. "Cognitive processes in engineering design." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/674.
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The central aim of the current research programme was to gain an understanding of the cognitive processes involved in engineering design. Since little previous empirical research has investigated this domain, two major exploratory studies were undertaken here. Study One monitored seven final-year students tackling extended design projects. Diary and interview data were used to construct detailed design behaviour graphs that decomposed activities into structured representations reflecting the goals and subgoals that were pursued. Study Two involved individual observation (using video) of six professional engineers "thinking-aloud" as they tackled a small-scale design problem in a laboratory setting. A taxonomic scheme was developed to classify all verbal protocol units and other observable behaviours. In interpreting the data extensive use was made of theoretical concepts (e. g. schemas and mental models) deriving from current research on human problem solving and thinking. Evidence indicated that the engineers studied had many similar methods of working which could be described at a high level of abstraction in terms of a common "design schema". A central aspect of this schema was a problem reduction strategy which was used to break down complex design problems into more manageable subproblems. The data additionally revealed certain differences in design strategy between engineers' solution modelling activities and also showed up tendencies toward error and suboptimal performance. In this latter respect a particularly common tendency was for designers to "satisfice", that is to focus exclusively on initial solution concepts rather than comparing alternatives with the aim of optimising choices. The general implications of the present findings are discussed in relation to both the training of design skills and the development of intelligent computer systems to aid or automate the design process. A final, smaller scale of experimental study is also reported which investigated the possibility of improving design processes via subtle interventions aimed at imposing greater structure on design behaviours.
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Limin, Lin. "Concurrency in process engineering design." Thesis, University of Leeds, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.305517.
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Mahmoud, M. A. "Factory building : Design knowledge engineering." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.382426.
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Yao, Zhihui. "Constraint management for engineering design." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.627476.
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Lovatt, Andrew Mark. "Process selection in engineering design." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.624869.
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Owen, J. "Data management in engineering design." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2015. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/385838/.
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Engineering design involves the production of large volumes of data. These data are a sophisticated mix of high performance computational and experimental results, and must be managed, shared and distributed across worldwide networks. Given limited storage and networking bandwidth, but rapidly growing rates of data production, effective data management is becoming increasingly critical. Within the context of Airbus, a leading aerospace engineering company, this thesis bridges the gap between academia and industry in the management of engineering data. It explores the high performance computing (HPC) environment used in aerospace engineering design, about which little was previously known, and applies the findings to the specific problem of file system cleaning. The properties of Airbus HPC file systems show many similarities with other environments, such as workstations and academic or public HPC file systems, but there are also some notably unique characteristics. In this research study it was found that Airbusfile system volumes exhibit a greater disk usage by a smaller proportion of files than any other case, and a single file type accounts for 65% of the disk space but less than 1% of the files. The characteristics and retention requirements of this file type formed the basis of a new cleaning tool we have researched and deployed within Airbus that is cognizant of these properties, and yielded disk space savings of 21.1 TB (15.2%) and 37.5 TB (28.2%) over two cleaning studies, and may be able to extend the life of existing storage systems by up to 5.5 years. It was also noted that the financial value of the savings already made exceed the cost of this entire research programme. Furthermore, log files contain information about these key files, and further analysis reveals that direct associations can be made to infer valuable additional metadata about such files. These additional metadata were shown to be available for a significant proportion of the data, and could be used to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of future data management methods even further.
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Chen, Weng-Jen. "Manufacturing information for engineering design." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1998. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272428.
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Burge, Janet E. "Software Engineering Using design RATionale." Link to electronic thesis, 2005. http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/ETD/Available/etd-050205-085625/.
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Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- Worcester Polytechnic Institute.Keywords: software engineering; inference; knowledge representation; software maintenance; design rationale. Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-211).
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Macías, Anaya Néstor Alejandro 1971. "Engineering design leadtime drivers analysis." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/9431.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-74).
Leadtime is one of the most important performance metrics in the engineering design organization of General Motors' Truck Group. Because of the many variables that influence leadtime. It is not clear where efforts should be focused to improve leadtime. Quantitative models for the variables affecting leadtime were developed and by quantifying their relative impact on Overall during the key variables were identified. Key variables address time spent in design rework. time waiting for information/definition, time waiting for resources, and the base design time for a new vehicle program. The variables influencing leadtime are captured in an influence diagram. The influence diagram shows the relationships among the variables and is supported by quantitate models that can demonstrate design leadtime sensitivity to changes in the model's variables and parameters. In addition. the analysis provides qualitative insight which is useful for framing recommendations about specific improvement tasks or projects. The analysis of this thesis focused on leadtime delays. The variables related to the turnover of certain designers. to the tome waiting for information from design center (styling) and to the time waiting for information from suppliers are the key drivers of leadtime for the engineering systems on the critical path of a program. Moreover. the considerable variance that is observed in overall leadtime indicates that control of variability in the company's development processes will also lead to significant system improvements. A second part of this thesis includes an analysis of action plans 10 reduce restaffing delays.
by Néstor Alejandro Macías Anaya.
S.M.
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Bradley, Hugh D. "Aggregate process planning and manufacturing assessment for concurrent engineering." Thesis, Durham University, 1997. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4719/.
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The introduction of concurrent engineering has led to a need to perform product development tasks with reduced information detail. Decisions taken during the early design stages will have the greatest influence on the cost of manufacture. The manufacturing requirements for alternative design options should therefore be considered at this time. Existing tools for product manufacture assessment are either too detailed, requiring the results of detailed design information, or too abstract, unable to consider small changes in design configuration. There is a need for an intermediate level of assessment which will make use of additional design detail where available, whilst allowing assessment of early designs. This thesis develops the concept of aggregate process planning as a methodology for supporting concurrent engineering. A methodology for performing aggregate process planning of early product designs is presented. Process and resources alternatives are identified for each feature of the component and production plans are generated from these options. Alternative production plans are assessed in terms of cost, quality and production time. A computer based system (CESS, Concurrent Engineering Support System) has been developed to implement the proposed methodology. The system employs object oriented modelling techniques to represent designs, manufacturing resources and process planning knowledge. A product model suitable for the representation of component designs at varying levels of detail is presented. An aggregate process planning functionality has been developed to allow the generation of sets of alternative plans for a component in a given factory. Manufacturing cost is calculated from the cost of processing, set-ups, transport, material and quality. Processing times are calculated using process specific methods which are based on standard cutting data. Process quality cost is estimated from a statistical analysis of historical SPC data stored for similar operations performed in the factory, where available. The aggregate process planning functionality has been tested with example component designs drawn from industry.
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Francis, Kevin Campbell. "Origami-Based Design for Engineering Applications." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2013. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3998.
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Origami can be a powerful source of design inspiration in the creation of reconfigurable systems with unparalleled performance. This thesis provides fundamental tools for designers to employ as origami-based designs are pursued in their respective fields of expertise. The first chapter introduces origami and makes connections between origami and engineering design through a survey of engineered applications and characterizing the relationship between origami and compliant mechanisms. The second chapter evaluates the creasing of non-paper sheet materials, such as plastics and metals, to facilitate origami-based compliant mechanism design. Although it is anticipated that most origami-based design will result from surrogate folds (indirect methods of replacing the crease), it is valuable to provide information that may help in more direct approaches for origami-based design in materials other than paper. Planar sheets of homogeneous material are considered as they maintain the principles fundamental to origami (flat initial state, low cost, readily available). The reduced stiffness along the axis of the crease is an enabling characteristic of origami. Hence a metric based on the deformation of the crease compared to the deformation of the panels enables engineering materials to be evaluated based on their ability to achieve the "hinge-like" behavior observed in folded paper. Advantages of both high and low values of this metric are given. Testing results (hinge indexes, residual angles, localized hinge behavior and cyclic creasing to failure) are presented for various metals and polymers. This methodology and subsequent findings are provided to enable origami-based design of compliant mechanisms. The third chapter proposes a basic terminology for origami-based design and presents areas of considerations for cases where the final engineering design is directly related to a crease pattern. This framework for navigating from paper art to engineered products begins once the crease pattern has been selected for a given application. The four areas of consideration are discussed: 1) rigid foldability 2) crease characterization 3) material properties and dimensions and 4) manufacturing. Two examples are concurrently presented to illustrate these considerations: a backpack shell and a shroud for an adjustable C-Arm x-ray device used in hospitals. The final chapter provides concluding remarks on origami-based design.
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Bautista, AdriaÌn Espinosa. "A design intent information model to support engineering design." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.416170.
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Hansen, Martin. "A Friendly Product : A Kansei engineering study." Thesis, Tekniska Högskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, JTH, Industridesign, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-46316.
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This master thesis is about exploring the possibility to concisely and deliberately apply a feeling on a product medium. The report features the process and results of using the kansei engineering methodology to develop and evaluate a friendly vibrator (pleasure product). The thesis is performed at a master level in the program of Industrial Design at Jönköping University.
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Schütte, Simon. "Engineering Emotional Values in Product Design : Kansei Engineering in Development." Doctoral thesis, Linköpings universitet, Maskinkonstruktion, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-497.
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Feelings and impressions of a product are important for the decision of purchasing it or not. Designing attractive products therefore requires knowledge about the feelings and impressions the products evoke on the customer and the user. Integrating such affective values in product design requires the introduction of suitable methods into companies’ product design processes, methods which can capture and convert subjective and even unconscious feelings about a product into concrete design parameters. This is sometimes referred to as ‘Affective Engineering’. One methodology in this context is Kansei Engineering, which has been developed in Japan in order to design feelings into products. The aim of this thesis was twofold: Firstly, to improve understanding of the nature of products making emotional impact on the users and customers. Secondly, to identify and improve methods capable of grasping those affective values and translating them into concrete product design solutions. This thesis presents three empirical studies and two methodological papers, relating to warehouse trucks and laminate flooring. The first study was made on user impact of warehouse trucks in three different European countries. A second study dealt with affective values of rocker-switches in work vehicles, such as warehouse trucks. A third study on this truck type compared the old manoeuvring panel evaluated in the previous studies with a newly introduced manoeuvring panel in order to validate the impact of the design improvements made after the first study. Further, a conceptual model on Kansei Engineering methodology was proposed in a methods paper based on the experience from the studies performed in order to provide a structure for performing Kansei Engineering studies. The fifth paper had the purpose of validating and improving the proposed model using laminate flooring as research object. More structured ways of identifying design parameters and relevant product properties was given high priority in the improvement work of the methodology. A model for spanning the Space of Product Properties was presented and applied. This thesis also deals with other improvement areas in the methodology and proposed new developments, including the use of scales, experimental design and validation methods. In conclusion, Kansei Engineering is a concept and a methodology in strong development, a framework in which tools and methods are continuously developed, added and integrated.
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Dyas, Scott Patrick. "A unified theory of engineering design." Texas A&M University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/4777.
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A theoretical model of design, that is universal and has a scientific basis, was developed.
By doing so, it is believed that the practice of engineering design can be significantly
improved. A better system of modeling designs is the missing ingredient that needs to
be developed in order to improve the practice of design in the manner suggested above.
Existing methodologies were reviewed to examine the current state of engineering
design. This helped in developing a set of requirements for a new methodology. The
potential for a scientific methodology to improve the practice of engineering design is
also discussed. Developing a scientific theory of design, and showing that it meets these
requirements was done to satisfy the objective. The theory takes the form of a
conceptual model of design, which relates important aspects of the problem and the
solution to facilitate a truly top-down hierarchical approach. A few examples are given
to show how the methodology can be applied to real world design problems.
As a result, a theoretical framework for design was created as a part of this research
project. The new methodology, termed UTED (Unified Theory of Engineering Design),
addresses many important aspects of design which are overlooked by other
methodologies. A set of rules was developed, to guide the designer through the design,
and allow a more scientific process to be used. Making design more scientific
increases the likelihood of achieving a successful design. The primary conclusions are
that the development of a scientific theory of design can be created that makes design
processes faster and more efficient, and improves the quality of designs produced,
meaning there is a strong potential for such a methodology to have a positive impact on
the field of engineering design.
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Mueller, Karl G. "Life cycle assessment in engineering design." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/8049.
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Making correct design decisions during the early stages of the engineering design process is increasingly seen to be important, as changes during the later stage can be costly. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used as a method to evaluate the design from 'cradle to grave'. In concept design, decisions are made that have a most significant influence on the life cycle, but at this stage the lack of detail makes LCA very difficult if not impossible. This thesis introduces a method that enables an 'order-of-magnitude' life cycle assessment during the concept stage of the design process. This is achieved by modelling the life cycle inventory as a function of design parameters for complete product families used in engineering design. The hypothesis is that relatively few so-called life cycle parameters determine the largest part of the life cycle inventory. Furthermore, design parameters are related to life cycle parameters, which are mathematically modelled. Design parameters are chosen so that they can be estimated early during the design process. The models of the life cycle parameters are expressed in terms of upper and lower limits, summarising data from many product families. More detailed models describe the relationships of single product families. The method is suitable for software implementation, which will especially aid the handling of sensitivity analysis. Two case studies (sealed lead acid batteries, three-phase asynchronous motors) are used to illustrate how the life cycle parameters are related to the design parameters. An overall outline of how the method is implemented into the overall design process completes the thesis (evaluation of parallel and series configuration hybrid electric vehicle).
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Meewella, Christopher Chandrakumar. "Global optimisation algorithms for engineering design." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/11252.
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Leung, Victor Ka Lun. "Engineering design of nanofibre wound dressings." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/51553.
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This research aimed to develop a nanofibrous carrier design process for hydrophilic, small-molecule drugs for controlled wound healing. Kynurenine was used as representative example, as it presented challenges with its size and structure necessitating significant optimization to reach release target. The objective of the design is thus to facilitate controlled healing via addressing hypotheses on carrier material compatibility, release control through process or material modification, and fabrication of continuous structures.
The design process began with material selection, which identified poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as the candidate carrier. Experimental verification via drug-polymer interaction characterization suggested that kynurenine formed a solution with PVA, and was encapsulated within PVA nanofibres, implying drug release is diffusion-controlled. The characterization process provided more insightful understanding of drug release mechanism compared to data fitting to empirical models performed in existing literatures.
Release assays showed complete kynurenine release from PVA within five hours. In subsequent optimization studies, three methods to control release from nanofibres were proposed. First, material parameters such as molecular weight, electrospinning concentration and drug dosage were shown to be a suitable fine-control mechanism. The second method was matrix modification via heat treatment, which changed the burst release behavior, although drug entrapment was observed. The third method was a composite approach in which the drug-polymer system was encased in the more hydrophobic poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), which significantly reduced burst release, and extended the release period to over 120 hours.
Applicability of the PVA kynurenine carrier, planar dressings and braided sutures were explored, which could become useful for a variety of wounds. For planar dressings, the proposed design showed tensile properties within the range of various commercial dressing products and thus was considered robust for handling and application to open acute and chronic wounds. For sutures, process modification in 3D braiding was introduced to significantly increase tensile strength, which could help create robust wound closure devices for patients prone to scarring.
The outcomes of this study demonstrated customization of drug release and structural properties of wound dressing materials to suit various open wounds, to provide a platform for supporting the expanding therapeutic functionalities in next generation wound dressings.Applied Science, Faculty of
Materials Engineering, Department of
Graduate
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Neishabouri, Mohammad Ali. "Engineering design principles of neural fibres." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/41037.
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Our nervous system, like most information processing systems, faces 4 fundamental physical constraints. It has to transmit information quickly (1. time) and reliably (2. noise) while keeping its energy consumption (3. energy) and size/weight (4. spatial scale) at a minimum, to support the behaviourally determined fitness of the organism. These constraints are likely to enforce trade-offs to be made in the evolution of the nervous system. Taking this view, I investigated myelinated and unmyelinated axons across systems and species. I developed user interfaces and simulation methods for the Modigliani stochastic simulation software, and made a number of findings highlighted in the following. Myelinated axons make up the majority of long-range connections in CNS and PNS. I derived size-dependent relationships for metabolic costs of action potentials in myelinated axons. The high density of sodium channels at Nodes of Ranvier set lower limits on myelinated axons' outer diameter (0.3 μm), which is 3-fold that for unmyelinated axons. In contrast, thin, unmyelinated axons make up most of the local (cortical) connectivity. Using a variety of axon models and detailed models of synaptic calcium dynamics and vesicle release, I showed that the waveform of action potentials undergoes random changes whilst traveling along thin unmyelinated axons. These fluctuations translate into synaptic response variability. The diameter of unmyelinated axons sets energetic limits to signalling, and I derived diameter-dependent relationships for the maximum rate of burst and sustained firing. The latter depends on the density of pumps and metabolic cost of action potentials, but is counter intuitively independent of axon diameter. My findings provide insights and scaling-relationships that relate the 4 fundamental design constraints for wiring brains. They allow us to quantitatively predict structure-function relationships, and form a basis for principled treatments of nerve disorders. My findings provide insights and scaling-relationships that relate the 4 fundamental design constraints for wiring brains. They allow us to quantitatively predict structure-function rela- tionships, and form a basis for principled treatments of nerve disorders.
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Nymark, Maria, and Joelle Zhang. "Balancing HMI Design and Requirements Engineering." Thesis, KTH, Maskinkonstruktion (Inst.), 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-49695.
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En lyckad kravhanteringsprocess är A och O för en lyckad produktutveckling. Kravhantering består av aktiviteter som ska se till att det som utvecklas verkligen stämmer överrens med kunders krav och förväntningar. Kravhanteringsprocessen behöver ständigt ses över, för knappt en sjättedel av alla innovationer erbjudna av biltillverkare och leverantörer köps av kunder, och hela 40 procent av bilindustrins R&D utgifter går till projekt som misslyckas att uppfylla kunders önskemål (Oliver Wyman, 2007).Syftet med detta examensarbete är att analysera hur kravhantering balanserar utvecklingsprocessen för Human-Machine Interface (HMI) design på ett företag aktivt i transportindustrin. I denna rapport ska resultat, slutsatser och förslag på hur förbättringar skulle kunna ske presenteras.Vår analys baseras på litteraturforskning, externa intervjuer samt interna intervjuer med utvecklare och direktörer på studerat företag.Som resultatet av detta arbete presenteras iakttagelser på studerat företag och relevant forskning skriven i litteratur. Analysen från intervjuerna avslöjade tre utmaningar för företaget: (1) otillräcklig kvalitet på krav, (2) svårigheter i att finna alla dokumenterade krav som rör HMI design, och (3) indata i lösningar missas. Om detta inte tas itu med kan det resultera i ökade utvecklingskostnader för företaget och att slutgiltig HMI design innehåller brister. Som ytterligare resultat presenterar vi även två lösningsförslag. Det första är en kartläggningsansats för att förbättra samarbetet mellan utvecklingsteam för HMI design. Den andra syftar till att skapa en mekanism så att information sprids inom företaget.Vi anser att resultatet av detta examensarbete är en bra grund för framtida arbete. Syftet med de två lösningsförslagen är att skapa ett mer dynamiskt och balanserat samarbete mellan utvecklingsteam. Med effektiv kommunikation i detta tvärvetenskapliga utvecklande så finns stor potential för att skapa en lyckad och kunduppskattad HMI produkt.Practising Requirements Engineering is vital for R&D companies since it addresses activities needed to create the right customer- and organization oriented requirements and the follow up of these requirements. Constant improvement of Requirements Engineering is important as barely one sixth of all innovations offered by auto manufacturers are actually bought by the customers and close to 40 percent of R&D expenses in the automotive industry go to projects that fail because of weak customer acceptance (Oliver Wyman, 2007).Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to analyse how Requirements Engineering is balancing the Human Machine Interface design process. The objective is to present findings, conclusions and improvement proposals.The analysis is based on literature research, external interviews, and interviews and workshops with design teams and managers at studied company.As a result of this master thesis we present findings from studied company and from literature. Our interview analysis revealed three challenges that the studied company are facing; (1) inadequate quality of requirements, (2) difficulty to find all documented requirements regarding HMI, (3) missing input. Not addressing these challenges can result in increased development costs for the company, and inadequate HMI design solutions and HMI product. Furthermore, we present two improvement proposals that address presented challenges and their root causes. The first proposal is a mapping approach to create effective collaboration between development teams for HMI design, and the second proposal is to create a mechanism for information communication.We believe that the results presented in this master thesis report are a good foundation for future work. The purposes of the two presented improvement proposals are to create a more dynamic and balanced collaboration between teams. With effective communication for interdisciplinary development, the HMI product will achieve a high customer value and customer satisfaction.
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Gardam, Allan. "Characterisation of the engineering design process." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.337363.
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Plant, Alexander Victor Charles. "Standards in sustainable engineering and design." Thesis, Brunel University, 2012. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/6559.
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The financial and environmental costs associated with the manufacture and consumption of products may be reduced through design for efficient production, service life extension and post-consumer value recovery. In response to today’s need to design with consideration for the whole product life cycle, British Standards Institution (BSI) published BS 8887-1 (2006) Design for Manufacture, Assembly, Disassembly and End-of-life processing (MADE). Original research into the distribution and use of this first part of the MADE series is reported in this thesis. The organizations that accessed BS 8887-1 were categorised using their Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code. The results are presented graphically in multilevel charts using the hierarchical structure of the SIC system. The study found that the majority of standards users that purchased or downloaded BS 8887-1 were companies in the manufacturing sector and particularly electronics producers. Educational institutions also showed high levels of interest in the standard. For the first time, the use of BS 8887-1 in practice has been investigated. The purpose was to discover if, why and how it is being used and to identify examples of its application in design practice. This was accomplished through semi-structured interviews with design practitioners from both industry and academia, thus helping to explain the results of the earlier SIC study. The information gathered through the interviews shows how BS 8887-1 has informed the design process and how it has been used in combination with various design and management techniques e.g. Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP). These studies suggest that demand for the standard has been stimulated by the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation, especially the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive. Importantly, the use of BS 8887-1 has been found to be helpful in winning new business and reducing the costs associated with manufacture, product maintenance and waste management. Based on the result of the qualitative research, a new model of the use of standards in the New Product Development (NPD) process is presented. The research was proposed by the Chairman of the BSI technical committee responsible for the BS 8887 series. The beneficiaries are BSI, industry and academia, since the investigation has shown BS 8887-1 to be of value, and has informed the continuing development of this series of standards. The thesis concludes by arguing for BS 8887 to become the basis of an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard in order to reach a wider audience. It also identifies a need for the standard’s design requirements to be supported with additional supplementary interpretation expanding on, and adding detail to, the information in the standard itself. Influenced by this research, at the time of writing a new BSI working group was being formed to consider developing BS 8887 as an ISO standard. BSI had also begun the process of commissioning a handbook to assist designers in the practical application of BS 8887 in industrial design.
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Florida-James, Barry. "Version control in engineering design databases." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/720.
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This thesis is concerned with lifecycle data support for the design of large made to order products. These products have so many complex functions to perforrn that no one designer will have all of the relevant skills such as in structural design Z): or electrical engineering to produce a comprehensive design. This therefore leads to the utilisation of a team of designers who will not only fulfil logically different design roles but often work at different physical locations. In such a design environment there may be several local models, represented in local Z-- databasesT. hese databases may or may not support versioning either of the data or of the schema which evolves as the product design grows. The interfaces to these databases ID will be varied as they are intended to suit the local needs of the design aIgDe nt. This thesis proposes a model for version control in a desig4nn environment which does not alter the designers existing view. Cý tý A system of distributed co-operatinZg:, aZgD ents is presented whose goal is to manatDg e change and orgCaIDni se version sets in an enrgDin eering environment. The agents are designed for full lifecycle support and inter-operation across heterogeneous networks. The agent communication is based on CORBA but an extra messaging layer is developed which utilises a language built in VDM-SL (Vienna Development Method - Specification Language). A version model is presented in two ways informally based on the assumptions on a general design process and formally in VDM-SL. ZP tP In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the version model, two industrial case studies are presented. The first of these is a study of offshore process engineering. The second is a study of conceptual ship design.
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Holbrook, A. E. K. "Design assistance for complex engineering assemblies." Thesis, Cranfield University, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.303118.
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Elegba, T. H. O. "Improving organisation learning in engineering design." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2018. http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3028556/.
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The local content drive in the oil and gas industry by the Nigerian government has compelled organizations in the industry, including the companies in its engineering design sector, to focus on means of increasing their organizational learning capacity. But there are no sound practices in these companies to increase organizational learning. The problem studied was how to increase organizational learning in the design sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Most organisations nowadays have organizational learning as an important constituent of their strategic plans. In line with their espoused values, they have established learning departments headed by senior managers. Yet, the outcomes of learning activities are not encouraging, no thanks to the fact that not only are learning efforts inappropriate, they also often ignore the human socio-cognitive aspect that is essential for organization learning, alluding to the thinking that the process of how organisations learns is still unclear to them. The purpose of this research was to examine in detail the organizational learning experience of the engineers working in the engineering design sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry through a phenomenological diagnostic study and apply the implications from the findings in an action research to increase organizational learning capacity in the sector. The study explored and identified strategies that lead to increased organizational learning capacity. The findings revealed sub-optimum practices in the companies in the sector with regards to organizational learning-influencing constructs. Suggestions were made for improvement and some of these are being implemented and results are being assessed, too. For the phenomenological study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants, 10 of whom were employee engineers and the other 2 executives who were also engineers in their own right. Five themes emerged from the data: (1) The way we are, (2) You are on your own, (3) Facing one's business, (4) Coming together and (5) Lull in the industry. The vehicle for the action research intervention was a joint inter-organisational engineering design project. The recommendations for further research are in the areas of impact of company's age on organisational learning and similar study in the construction and power industries to advance the literature on organisational learning in Nigeria.
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Darlington, Mansur. "Cognition and the engineering design requirement." Thesis, University of Bath, 2002. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.250822.
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This thesis is concerned with the engineering design requirement and the process by which it is elicited, evolved and recorded. The purpose of the research reported in the work is to achieve a more complete understanding of the engineering design requirement, and to apply that understanding to the better support of designers during the design requirement capture phases of the design process. Two perspectives dominate the approach to the research. The first concerns the relation between the design process and human cognition. The research subject is seen as being fundamentally a product of the human mind and that such things as knowledge, language and meaning – the things commonly associated with cognition – are crucial to its proper understanding. The second perspective is informed by the view that the development of the design requirement can be seen as a knowledge-intensive process of communication. Thus, understanding communication between humans and some aspects of communication failure can assist in understanding and remedying failure in design requirement capture.
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Tseng, Tiffany. "Spatial-visual skills and engineering design." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54486.
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Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-50).
The purpose of this study was to determine whether students with strong spatial-visual skills tend to design more complex mechanisms for the undergraduate course Design and Manufacturing I. The Purdue Spatial Visualization Test was administered to 137 students enrolled in the course. Test scores were compared to student self-evaluations of experience with tasks associated with spatial reasoning such as building origami models and sketching. The complexity of 34 student robots was analyzed using metrics such as the percentage of moving components in the mechanism. Gender differences in scores on the spatial visualization test were significant, consistent with results of prior studies. A significant correlation between spatial reasoning and origami experience was found for male students tested. Most mechanism complexity criteria were not found to be significantly correlated with spatial-visual ability, although the correlation between the percentage of moving components and spatial test scores approached significance with a negative correlation. These results suggest that strong spatial-visual abilities may be used to simplify engineering design rather than increase its complexity.
by Tiffany Tseng.
S.B.
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Olguín, Olguín Daniel. "Sensor-based organizational design and engineering." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/67756.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-127).
We propose a sensor-based organizational design and engineering approach that combines behavioral sensor data with other sources of information such as e-mail, surveys, and performance data in order to design interventions aimed at improving organizational outcomes. The proposed system combines sensor measurements, pattern recognition algorithms, simulation and optimization techniques, social network analysis, and feedback mechanisms that aim at continuously monitoring and improving individual and group performance. We describe the system's general specifications and discuss several studies that we conducted in different organizations using the sociometric badge experimental sensing platform. We have deployed such system under naturalistic settings in more than ten organizations up to this date. We show that it is possible to automatically capture group dynamics, and analyze the relationship between organizational behaviors and both subjective and objective outcomes (such as job satisfaction, quality of group interaction, stress, productivity, and group performance). We propose the use of static and dynamic simulation models of group behavior captured by sensors, in order to optimize group configurations that maximize individual and group outcomes, both in terms of job quality characteristics and organizational performance.
by Daniel Olguín Olguín.
Ph.D.
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Japikse, Russell David. "Structuring and retrieving engineering design knowledge." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.614708.
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Aurisicchio, Marco. "Characterising information acquisition in engineering design." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.614130.
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Weston, Nicholas John. "Time estimation in mechanical engineering design." Thesis, Durham University, 1994. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1218/.
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This thesis describes investigations into the phenomenon of time estimation in mechanical engineering design. Time estimating in this context refers to estimating in advance the approximate duration of a new design project, for the purpose of preparing schedules. The thesis describes background to the estimation problem, including practical and theoretical aspects of design, design management and market conditions. The research presented is based on data gathered from industrial collaborators, therefore detailed descriptions of the collaborating firms are included. A quantitative study is described which demonstrates that current estimation techniques are not infallible; and that there can be a statistically significant link between the estimated and actual completion times. A process of grounded theorising, based on expert interviews, is presented. Models of the design estimation task were generated by this process, and are included. Differences were found in the models for the estimation of times in an Engineer to Order (ETO) environment, and estimation in a Volume Manufacturing environment. The models were corroborated firstly by checking if they could be recognised and endorsed by the experts from which they were generated, and. secondly by checking if they could be recognised and endorsed by an expert not involved in the original model generation. Correspondence was found to be good. A modified model of time estimation is presented, taking into account the findings of the corroboration exercise. Finally, an example of a simple tool for assisting the estimation process is included.
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Roan, Earl Taylor. "Early-stage engineering design : the designer, the object of design, and design context." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44916.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-90).
Much of design research has been focused on developing prescriptive design processes, however, proper description of the designer, the object of design, and the context may be lacking (Dorst, 2007). The present research adds insight concerning these three elements through observation of a creative design course with a diverse student composition. The layout of course was built around six very different early-stage design projects. A technique for characterizing and visualizing design projects and tasks is also introduced and used as a tool for describing the objects of design and project contexts. Collected data carried several important implications. One profound result was that no measure of designer experience was significantly correlated with general performance across all design projects. However, less experienced designers actually seemed to do better at more atypical projects, while experienced designers had the upper hand in solving more traditional problems. No other design-related skills correlated consistently with performance. Designers who were confident, however, tended to learn more and enjoy the projects, their teammates, and the teaching staff more. The results raise many important questions for designers, educators, and employers. The possibility that oft used measures of designer competence fail to accurately indicate capacity undermines current employment and matriculation methods. Educational institutions may consider reassessing the value of their curriculum. Budding designers may also question their approach to gaining design experience.
by Earl Taylor Roan.
S.M.
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Kumar, Pavan Prasanna. "Design process modeling towards an ontology of engineering design activities /." Connect to this title online, 2008. http://etd.lib.clemson.edu/documents/1219852457/.
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Padulo, Mattia. "Computational engineering design under uncertainty : an aircraft conceptual design perspective." Thesis, Cranfield University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1826/4462.
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Presented in this thesis is a novel methodology for aircraft design optimization in the presence of uncertainty, with emphasis on the conceptual design stage.
In the initial part of the thesis, the uncertainty typologies of interest for aircraft design are identied within a broader epistemological framework. The main implications for non-deterministic computational design are also outlined.
The focus is then restricted to uncertainties that can be modeled by probability theory. In this context, a methodology is developed to enhance robust design optimization (RDO). Firstly, the problem is formulated in order to relax, when required, the common RDO assumption about the normality of objectives and constraints. Secondly, starting from engineering considerations about the risk related with design unfeasibility, suitable estimates of tail conditional expectation are introduced in the set of robustness metrics.
The proposed formulation requires the estimation of mean and variance of objec¬tives and constraints. To calculate such moments, a novel uncertainty propaga¬tion technique is proposed, which achieves a favorable trade-obetween the ac-curacy of the estimates and the required computational cost. Peculiar features of the propagation technique are exploited to couple the propagation and the opti¬mization phases for the classes of gradient-based methods and the derivative-free pattern search methods. Also analyzed are the possible advantages achievable when the two types of algorithms are hybridized.
The usefulness of the proposed methodology for conceptual design optimization is demonstrated with the aid of two engineering design problems, concerning the sizing of passenger aircraft and the design of transonic airfoils.
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Nunez, Marco. "Design exploration for engineering design optimisation : an aircraft conceptual perspective." Thesis, Cranfield University, 2010. http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/6900.
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Most of the efforts in optimisation so far have been focused on the development of novel
or the improvement of existing numerical methods for an effective computation of
optimal solutions. Particular attention has been put on balancing multiple conflicting
objectives, handling the interaction between different disciplines, reducing computational
cost and managing uncertainty. Nonetheless, specific issues of this design methodology
still remain to be properly addressed. In this research, attention is concentrated on
advancing engineering optimisation as a tool for design exploration. The work is put in
the context of conceptual aircraft design.
The overall aim of the present research is to develop a methodology that allows the
designer to effectively conduct an exploration and analysis of alternative design solutions
via a set of methods that can be used separately or conjointly.
The initial part of the thesis introduces two novel methods for assisting the formulation of
an optimisation problem, which generally is assumed to be given a priori. Nonetheless,
the correctness of the optimisation statement, which is not addressed by established
optimisation methods, turns out to be decisive for the feasible design set determination.
The designer is thus provided with an adaptive formulation of functional and designvariable
constraints, which allows the exploration of further promising solutions initially
not contained in the feasible design set. Meaningless results or the loss of important
solutions can therefore be partially avoided.
In a second instance, attention is focused on the visualisation needs for design
exploration. A suitable visualisation methodology has been developed to make the large
multidimensional results of complex design optimisation procedures fully readable and
explanatory. This is achieved by integrating advanced visualisation techniques which provide the designer with diverse perspectives of the data under study and allow him/her
to conduct a number of analysis tasks on it, without the need to be an expert in numerical
optimisation methods.
Last, but not least, a methodology to address conceptual design change problems is
proposed. The decision-maker is enabled to formally state the new design requirements
and priorities introduced by the conceptual change via an adequate problem
reformulation. All the data previously collected can thus be re-used and exploited to drive
an effective exploration of alternative design solutions through design space regions of
interest.
The evaluation of the proposed methodologies has been carried out with a number of test
cases. Analytical examples have been used for the assessment of effectiveness, whereas
codes representative of aircraft sizing procedures have been adopted to evaluate the
methodologies functionality. A visualisation user interface prototype has also been
developed for demonstration and evaluation purposes.
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Conway, Alastair Peter. "Enhancing the design dialogue : a study of engineering design meetings." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2011. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=15651.
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Balasubramaniam, Karthikeyan. "A virtual engineering framework to support progressive interaction in engineering design." [Ames, Iowa : Iowa State University], 2007.
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Foster, Jason. "Understanding and Improving Undergraduate Engineering Education." Thesis, University of Waterloo, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/849.
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This thesis seeks to understand the past and present state of engineering education and to plot a course for its future evolution. This research is limited to engineering education as it has taken place in North American universities during the last half of the 20th century. Within this context, broad trends are described. The description is supplemented with a case study of a unique and innovative engineering programme. The trends and case study form the foundation of a synthesis, and alternative vision, for higher education and engineering education. The intended audience of this thesis includes those who teach, design curriculum, or administer engineering education programmes. The description of the current state of engineering education contains analyses of the state and of the gaps within it. Both of these analyses are based almost exclusively on publicly available documentation. The present state of engineering is drawn from accreditation criteria. Critiques of the current state and suggestions for future change are drawn from reports commissioned by groups affiliated with professional engineering. The discussions identify recurring themes and patterns. Unlike the analysis of the literature, the case study merges interview evidence and personal experience with the available documentation. The synthesis and visions continue the trend away from formal sources towards experiences and beliefs. Engineering education research is in its infancy and shows few signs of maturing. There is no documented, common framing of engineering education nor have there been any efforts in this regard. Few sources address broad issues and those that do lack theoretical rigour. The visions for engineering education are simple amalgams of visions for the profession and for general higher education. The Department of Systems Design Engineering has enjoyed great past successes because of its unique vision that combines the theories of systems, complexity, and design with the discipline of engineering. Its recent decay can be traced to its faculty having collectively lost this vision. The original vision for Systems Design Engineering holds promise as a means to reinvent and reinvigorate both the engineering profession and engineering education. For this renaissance to be successful a theoretically rigorous research programme assessing the past, present, and future of engineering and engineering education must be developed.