During the early 1970’s, there was a flurry of interest in artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, it was a bubble. Nevertheless, a Sabbatical in 1971 enabled me to pursue the idea of “artificial intelligence applied to engineering design’ at the GE Research Labs in Schenectady, N.Y. There I met Dr. Mel Simmons, a brilliant scientist who also took an interest in the subject.

The collaboration led to about a hundred research papers, establishment of the “Design Automation Laboratory” at UMass-Amherst, generous funding from a consortium of industrial firms as well as the National Science Foundation, and a dynamic group of bright, creative graduate students.

Engineering designers are talented practitioners; just look at the products, machines, and vehicles of wondrous kinds they design. They are not, however, reflective practitioners. Ask them to explain how they do what they do, and they say they ‘just do it.’ Frustrated by this, our research goal became to discover how they do it so that engineering design can be learned and taught. We set out to teach computers to do design and thereby learn for ourselves how design is done.

I’ve selected 47 papers to list here. A complete list can be obtained by contacting me.

Selected Engineering Education Publications

“Beyond Graphics and Numerical Processing: The Computer in Our Future,” UPCAEDM-86, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, August, 1986.

“Engineering Design Science: New Goals for Education,” Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 113, No. 3, February, 1991.

Selected Design Management Publications

“Quality Is Not Accidental – It’s Designed,” New York Times Sunday Business Section, June 26, 1988 (with M.R. Duffey).

“The Neglect of Engineering Design,” California Management Review, Berkeley, CA, Winter, 1990 (with M.R. Duffey).

Selected Research Publications

“An Architecture for Application of Artificial Intelligence to Design,” Proceedings, 21st ACM/EEE Design Automation Conference, Albuquerque, NM, June 25-27, 1984 (with M.K. Simmons and P.R. Cohen).

“Computers that Design: Expert Systems for Mechanical Engineers,” Computers in Mechanical Engineering, November, 1984 (with M.K. Simmons).

“Expert Systems in a CAD Environment: Injection Molding Part Design as an Example,” Proceedings, 1985 ASME Computers in Engineering Conference, Boston, MA, August 4-8, 1985 (with M. Vaghul, G.E. Zinsmeister and M.K. Simmons).

“Reasoning about Quantitative Methods in Engineering Design,” Workshop on Coupling Symbolic and Numerical Computing in Expert Systems, Bellevue, WA, August 27-29, 1985 (with M.K. Simmons).

“Expert Systems for Mechanical Design: A Program of Research,” ASME Paper Number 85-DET-78, ASME Design Automation Conference, Cincinnati, OH, September 10-13, 1985 (with M.K. Simmons).

“Knowledge Representation in Mechanical Design Systems: Issues and Examples,” SAE Technical Paper Series 860335, SAE International Conference, Detroit, MI, February 24-27, 1986 (with C.D. Jones, E.H. Nielsen, S.L. Luby and E.C. Libardi).

“Designing with Features: Design and Analysis of Extrusions as an Example,” ASME Paper Number 86-DE-4, Spring National Design Engineering Conference, Chicago, IL, March 24-27, 1986 (with E.C. Libardi and M.K. Simmons).

“Dominic I: Progress Towards Domain Independence in Design by Iterative Redesign,” Proceedings, 1986 ASME Computers in Engineering Conference, Chicago, IL, July 20-24, 1986 (with E.C. Libardi and M.K. Simmons).

“Designing with Features: Creating and Using a Features Data Base for Evaluation of Manufacturability of Castings,” Proceedings, 1986 ASME Computers in Engineering Conference, Chicago, IL, July 20-24, 1986 (with S.C. Luby and M.K. Simmons).

“GERES” A Knowledge Based Material Selection Program For Injection Molded Resins,” Proceedings, 1986 ASME Computers In Engineering Conference, Chicago, Il, July 20-24, 1986 (with E.H. Nielsen and M.K. Simmons).

“Artificial Intelligence and Design: A Mechanical Engineering View,” Proceedings, Fifth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-86), Philadelphia, PA, August 11-15, 1986.

“Dominic: A Domain-Independent Program for Mechanical Engineering Design,” Artificial Intelligence in Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1986 (with A.E. Howe, P.R. Cohen and M.K. Simmons).

“Iterative Respecification Management: A Model for Problem-Solving Networks in Mechanical Design,” Proceedings, ASME Computers in Engineering Conference, New York, NY, August 9-13, 1987 (with R.J. Verrilli, K.L. Meunier and M.K. Simmons).

“Research in Designing with Features,” IFIC WG 5.2 Workshop on Intelligent CAD, Cambridge, MA, October 6-7, 1987 (with J.J. Cunningham and M.K. Simmons).

“Dominic II: More Progress Towards Domain Independent Design by Iterative Redesign,” ASME Proceedings, Intelligent and Integrated Manufacturing Analysis and Synthesis, ASME PED-Vol. 25, Boston, MA, December 13-18, 1987 (with M. Orelup and M.K. Simmons).

“Computer Environments for the Design of Mechanical Assemblies: A Research Review,” Engineering with Computers, Vol. 3, New York, NY, 1988, pp. 121-136 (with E.C. Libardi and M.K. Simmons).

“Designing with Features: Building Manufacturing Knowledge into More Intelligent CAD Systems,” Proceedings, ASME Manufacturing International ’88, Atlanta, GA, April 17-20, 1988.

“Designing with Features: The Origin of Features,” Proceedings, ASME Computers in Engineering Conference, San Francisco, CA, July 31-August 3, 1988 (with J.J. Cunningham).

“A Proposed Taxonomy of Mechanical Design Problems,” Proceedings, ASME Computers in Engineering Conference, San Francisco, CA, July 31-August 3, 1988 (with M.R. Duffey, R.K. Irani, K.L. Meunier and M.F. Orelup).

“Dominic II: Meta-Level Control in Iterative Redesign,” Proceedings, Seventh National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-88), St. Paul, MN, August 23-26, 1988 (with M.F. Orelup, P.R. Cohen and M.K. Simmons).

“On Research Methodology Towards a Scientific Theory of Engineering Design,” Artificial Intelligence in Engineering, Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, (AI EDAM), Vol. 1, No. 3, 1988.

“Computer-Based Models of Mechanical Design Processes: A Summary of Current Research,” Proceedings, AI in Design Workshop, (AAAI-88), St. Paul, MN, August 24, 1988 (with M.F. Orelup).

“Automated Injection Mold Gating Design System,” Annual Technical Conference of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE 47th ANTEC), New York, May 1-4, 1989 (with R.K. Irani and B.H. Kim).

“Integrating CAE, Features, and Iterative Redesign to Automate the Design of Injection Molds,” ASME computers in Engineering Conference, Anaheim, CA, July 30-August 2, 1989 (with R.K. Irani and B.H. Kim).

“Extending the Iterative Model to Configuration Design: Sheet Metal Brackets as an Example,” ASME Design Theory and Methodology Conference, Montreal, Canada, September, 1989 (with R.V. Welch).

“Unresolved Research Issues in Development of Design-with-Features Systems,” Proceedings of the 1988 IFIP/NSF/RPI Workshop on Geometric Modeling, January, 1989 (with E.C. Libardi and E.H. Nielsen).

“Computer-Based Models of Design Processes: The Evaluation of Designs for Redesign,” NSF Engineering Design Research Conference, Amherst, MA, June, 1989 (with M. Guenette, R.K. Irani, E.H. Nielsen, M.F. Orelup and R.V. Welch).

“A Review of Research in Mechanical Engineering Design. Part I: Descriptive, Prescriptive, and Computer-Based Models of Design Processes,” Research in Engineering Design, Springer-Verlag, New York, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1989 (with S. Finger).

“A Review of Research in Mechanical Engineering Design. Part II: Representations, Analysis, and Design for the Life Cycle,” Research in Engineering Design, Springer-Verlag, NY, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1989 (with S. Finger).

“Automated Design of the Feed System of Injection Molds,” ASME Manufacturing International Conference, Atlanta, GA, March 25-28, 1990 (with R.K. Irani).

“Configuration Design by Iterative Redesign: Sheet Metal Brackets as an Example,” Journal of Engineering Design, D.F. Sheldon (ed.), Carfax Publishing Company, U.K., December, 1990 (with R.V. Welch).

“Features of the Next Generation of CAD Systems,” Proceedings, 23rd ISATA Conference, Vienna, Austria, Vol. 2, December, 1990 (with E.H. Nielsen and D.W. Rosen).

“Computer-Based Design Process Models and Feature-Based Design Object Representations: A Research Progress Report,” Proceedings of the 1991 NSDF Design and Manufacturing Systems Grantees Conference, Austin, TX, January 9-11, 1991 (with E.H. Nielsen, M.F. Orelup and R.V. Welch).

“A Review and Critique of the National Research Council Draft Report Entitled ‘Improving Engineering Design’,” Proceedings of the Design Productivity Institute and International Conf, Honolulu, HI, February 3-9, 1991.

“Capturing and Using Designer Intent in a Design-with-Features System,” Proceedings of the ASME Design Theory and Methodology Conference, Miami, FL, September 22-25, 1991 (with E.H. Nielsen and G.E. Zinsmeister).

“Conceptual Design of Mechanical Systems,” Proceedings of the ASME Design Theory and Methodology Conference, Miami, FL, September 22-25, 1991 (with R.V. Welch).

“Languages for Feature Based Design and Manufacturability Evaluation,” International Journal of Systems Automation: Research and Applications, 1992 (with D.W. Rosen).

“An Automatic Process Planner for Cold Extrusion of Components,” Proc. of NARMC XX, 1992 (with Q. Sun).

“Features and Algorithms for Tooling Cost Evaluation in Injection Molding and Die Casting,” Proceedings of the ASME Computers in Engineering Conference, San Francisco, CA, August 2-6, 1992 (with D.W. Rosen, C. Poli and X. Dong). (This paper won the Best Paper Award.)

“Representing Function, Behavior and Structure during Conceptual Design,” Proceedings of the ASME Design Theory and Methodology Conference, Scottsdale, AZ, September 13-16, 1992 (with R.V. Welch).

“Cold Extrusion Sequence Design and Comparison,” 4th International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, Beijing, China, September, 1993.

“Designing Mechanical Components with Features: Representing the Form and Intent of In-Progress Designs for Automated Modification and Evaluation,” ASME Journal of Mechanical Design (with E.H. Nielsen).

“Comparative Study of Three Methods for Achieving Robust Designs: Optimization, Taguchi, and Dominic,” ASME Design Theory and Methodology Conference (with M.F. Orelup).

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