Andy Dong

Text Analysis for Constructing Design Representations

An emerging model in concurrent product design and manufacturing is the federation of workgroups across traditional functional “silos.” Along with the benefits of this concurrency comes the complexity of sharing and accessing design information. The primary challenge in sharing design information across functional workgroups lies in reducing the complex expressions of associations between design elements. Collaborative design systems have addressed this problem from the perspective of formalizing a shared ontology or product model. We share the perspective that the design model and ontology are an expression of the “meaning” of the design and provide a means by which information sharing in design may be achieved. However, in many design cases, formalizing an ontology before the design begins, establishing the knowledge sharing agreements or mapping out the design hierarchy is potentially more expensive than the design itself. This paper introduces a technique for inducing a representation of the design based upon the syntactic patterns contained in the corpus of design documents. The association between the design and the representation for the design is captured by basing the representation on terminological patterns in the design text. In the first stage, we create a “dictionary” of noun-phrases found in the text corpus based upon a measurement of the content carrying power of the phrase. In the second stage, we cluster the words to discover inter-term dependencies and build a Bayesian belief network which describes a conceptual hierarchy specific to the domain of the design. We integrate the design document learning system with an agent-based collaborative design system for fetching design information based on the “smart drawings” paradigm.

Concept formation as knowledge accumulation: A computational linguistics study

Language plays at least two roles in design. First, language serves as representations of ideas and concepts through linguistic behaviors that represent the structure of thought during the design process. Second, language also performs actions and creates states of affairs. Based on these two perspectives on language use in design, we apply the computational linguistics tools of latent semantic analysis and lexical chain analysis to characterize how design teams engage in concept formation as the accumulation of knowledge represented by lexicalized concepts. The accumulation is described in a data structure comprised by a set of links between elemental lexicalized concepts. The folding together of these two perspectives on language use in design with the information processing theories of the mind afforded by the computational linguistics tools applied creates a new means to evaluate concept formation in design teams. The method suggests that analysis at a linguistic level can characterize concept formation even where process-oriented critiques were limited in their ability to uncover a formal design method that could explain the phenomenon.

Design principles for the information architecture of a SMET education digital library

This implementation paper introduces principles for the informationarchitecture of an educational digital library, principles that address the distinction between designing digital libraries for education and designing digital libraries for information retrieval in general. Design is a key element of any successful product. Good designers and their designs, put technology into the hands of the user, making the products focus comprehensible and tangible through design. As straightforward as this may appear, the design of learning technologies is often masked by the enabling technology. In fact, they often lack an explicitly stated instructional design methodology. While the technologies are important hurdles to overcome, we advocate learning systems that empower education-driven \ experiences rather than technology-driven experiences. This work describes a concept for a digital library for science, mathematics, engineering and technology education (SMETE), a library with an information architecture designed to meet learners and educators needs. Utilizing a constructivist model of learning, the authors present practical approaches to implementing the information architecture and its technology underpinnings. The authors propose the specifications for the information architecture and a visual design of a digital library for communicating learning to the audience. The design methodology indicates that a scenario-driven design technique sensitive to the contextual nature of learning offers a useful framework for tailoring technologies that help empower, not hinder, the educational sector.

Towards Computational Tools for Supporting the Reflective Team

The content of engineering design documentation, beyond capturing the details of the design, communicates the shared knowledge integration of the design team. In this research, we present a method to analyze design documentation for levels of shared understanding and team cohesiveness in design teams by applying the computational tools of latent semantic analysis and natural language processing. We study the design documentation from students in a multidisciplinary, graduate-level product design and development course. The results show promise in measuring cohesiveness and shared understanding in design teams by analyzing their documentation and correlating metrics of effective communication to the likelihood of successful outcomes of the design team.

Managing by E-Mail: What E-mail Can Do for Engineering Project Management

E-mails are, rightly or wrongly, a staple of the information and communication technology for managing work and collaborative activities. This paper examines the value of the content of e-mail at a project level rather than at the often-studied level of the individual user. The dataset consists of e-mails authored by an engineering team associated with a large, complex, long term, systems integration project, typical of the aerospace, marine, and defense sectors. The research applied a qualitative content analysis methodology to classify the content (what the e-mail contains) and purpose (why the e-mail was sent) of the e-mail in the dataset. The results of the content analysis were compared and contrasted with secondary evidence from interviews and project documentation to enable a time-phased analysis. The findings show that classifying e-mail content by the categories of management, information, and problem-solving transactions revealed signatures that align with project phases and, more importantly, problems encountered. Finally, we found that the purpose of e-mail is not necessarily consistent with the designated job role or responsibility of the sender or recipient. This paper contributes to empirical data on the relation between communication and project performance and the changing nature of e-mail communication throughout the lifecycle of a project. The findings point to a new way to leverage e-mail content to “manage by e-mail”.

Organizing and managing personal electronic files: A mechanical engineer's perspective

This article deals with the organization and management of the computer files handled by mechanical engineers on their personal computers. In engineering organizations, a wide variety of electronic files (documents) are necessary to support both business processes and the activities of design and manufacture. Whilst a large number of files and hence information is formally archived, a significant amount of additional information and knowledge resides in electronic files on personal computers. The widespread use of these personal information stores means that all information is retained. However, its reuse is problematic for all but the individual as a result of the naming and organization of the files. To begin to address this issue, a study of the use and current practices for managing personal electronic files is described. The study considers the fundamental classes of files handled by engineers and analyses the organization of these files across the personal computers of 40 participants. The study involves a questionnaire and an electronic audit. The results of these qualitative and quantitative elements are used to elicit an understanding of the practices and requirements of engineers for managing personal electronic files. A potential scheme for naming and organizing personal electronic files is discussed as one possible way to satisfy these requirements. The aim of the scheme is to balance the personal nature of data storage with the need for personal records to be shared with others to support knowledge reuse in engineering organizations. Although this article is concerned with mechanical engineers, the issues dealt with are relevant to knowledge-based industries and, in particular, teams of knowledge workers.

QUANTIFYING COHERENT THINKING IN DESIGN: A COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS APPROACH

Design team conversations reveal their thinking patterns and behaviour because participants must communicate their thoughts to others through verbal communication. This article describes a method based on latent semantic analysis for measuring the coherence of their communication in a conversation mode and how this measurement also reveals patterns of interrelations between an individuals ideas and the groups ideas. While similar studies have been done on design documentation, it was unclear whether computational techniques that have been applied to communication in text could be successfully applied to communication in a conversational mode. Transcripts of four engineering/product design teams communicating in a synchronous, conversational mode during a design session were studied. Based on the empirical results and the proposition that a teams verbal communication offers a fairly direct path to their thinking processes, the article proposes the link between coherent conversations and coherent thinking.

The Policy of Design: A Capabilities Approach

ION Develop aptitude for analysis and contextualization of design work at multiple levels of abstraction, from low-level functional, behavioral, and structural aspects to higher-order aspects such as systems integration, lifecycle maintenance and operations, and disposal. EVALUATION Be able to engage in a critical evaluation of the implications of the design work on matters such as the welfare of the community, the health of the environment, and economic viability. The welfare of the community includes individual concerns such as cognitive and physical ergonomics and universal design. PARTICIPATION Be part of, and collaborate with, others in the design process; from early project defi nition stages, through to conceptual design, concept testing, prototype development, prototype testing, prototype review, full-scale implementation, and fi nal project delivery and validation. The formation of a shared understanding of all aspects of design work is paramount. AUTHORITY Have the power and right to enact a design work rather than token “paper studies.” Have the authority to commission reports and information. Have the authority to select and set criteria and requirements for design work. Table 1

Spectral Characterization of Hierarchical Modularity in Product Architectures

Despite the importance of the architectural modularity of products and systems, existing modularity metrics or algorithms do not account for overlapping and hierarchically embedded modules. This paper presents a graph theoretic spectral approach to characterize the degree of modular hierarchical-overlapping organization in the architecture of products and complex engineered systems. It is shown that the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of a product architecture graph can reveal layers of hidden modular or hierarchical modular organization that are not immediately visible in the predefined architectural description. We use the approach to analyze and discuss several design, management, and system resilience implications for complex engineered systems.

Development of design collaboration skills

This paper aims to advance our conceptual understanding of design collaboration, a domain-specific subset of collaboration skills that emphasises knowledge-sharing and knowledge-integration processes. This paper explores how design collaboration skills develop along with design expertise across three stages of experience. First-year bachelor students, master students, and design professionals took part in a design game to investigate their design collaboration skills. We assessed their design collaboration skills by analysing their sessions for the degree and quality of knowledge sharing and integration using a reflective practice analysis and an interpretative analysis of their conversation. It was found that the first-year bachelor students and the professionals outperformed the master students in terms of collaborative design performance. In finding this nonlinear relationship, we highlight the need to distinguish between design expertise and design collaboration skills and to treat them as independent concepts when assessing design team performance. Finally, through an interpretive analysis, we developed a typology of design collaboration approaches at the three stages of experience.