Dr. Vimal Viswanathan

Vimal Viswanathan is an assistant professor at Tuskegee University. He previously served as a post-doctoral research associate in IDREEM Lab after completing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University in 2012, where he was also an IDREEM Lab member. Vimal completed his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, India in 2005. Vimal then worked as a structural design engineer for offshore platforms in Larsen & Toubro Limited, Surat, India for 3 years. He joined Texas A&M University for the Masters program in Fall 2008 and is working in the IDREEM lab from October 2008 onwards. He completed his Masters in Mechanical Engineering in December 2010. Vimal's research interests include innovation and creativity in engineering idea generation process with a focus on the effects of various representations in design cognition. He has co-authored over twenty conference papers and eight journal papers.

For more details, visit his personal website here.

PhD Dissertation

Cognitive Effects of Physical Models in Engineering Idea Generation

Master's Thesis

Physical Models in the Idea Generation Process

Graduation

Fall 2012

First Position after IDREEM

Tuskegee University, Assistant Professor

Publications:

Refereed Journal Papers:

1. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., " The Role of Sunk Cost in Engineering Idea Generation: An Experimental Investigation", ASME Transactions: Journal of Mechanical Design 135(12), pp. 121002, DOI: 10.1115/1.4025290.

2. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2013, "Design Fixation and its Mitigation: a Study on the Role of Expertise", ASME Transactions: Journal of Mechanical Design, 135 (5), pp. 051008, DOI: 10.1115/1.4024123.

3. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2012, "Physical Models and Design Thinking: A Study of Functionality, Novelty and Variety of Ideas", ASME Transactions: Journal of Mechanical Design, 134(9), pp. 091004, DOI: 10.1115/1.4007148.

4. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2013, “Examining Design Fixation in Engineering Idea Generation: The Role of Example Modality,” International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, 1(2), pp. 109-129.

5. Linsey, J., and Viswanathan, V., 2010, “Innovation Skills for Tomorrow’s Sustainable Designers,” International Journal of Engineering Education, 26(2), pp. 451-461.

6. Naim, A., English, K., Lewis, K., Schmidt, S., Viswanathan, V., Linsey, J., McAdams, D., Bishop, B., Campbell, M., Poppa, K, Stone, R.B., and Orsborn, S., 2010, “Impacting Designer Creativity through IT-Enabled Concept Generation.” ASME Transactions, Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering (JCISE) Special Issue on Knowledge-Based Design, 10(3), DOI: 031007.

7. Viswanathan, V., Atilola, O., Esposito, N. and Linsey, J., “A Study on the Role of Physical Models in the Mitigation of Design Fixation,” Journal of Engineering Design (Revised & in review).

8. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., “Spanning the Complexity Chasm: A Research Approach to Move from Simple to Complex Engineering Systems,” Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing (AI EDAM) Special Issue on Design of Complex Engineered Systems (In review).

Book Chapter:

1. Linsey, J., Viswanathan, V., 2013, “Overcoming Cognitive Challenges in Bio-inspired Design and Analogy”, in A. Goel, D.A. McAdams. and R.B. Stone (Eds.) Biologically Inspired Design: Computational Methods and Tools, Springer, New York, pp. 221-244.

Refereed Conference Papers:

1. Viswanathan, V., Ngo, P., Turner, C., and Linsey, J., 2013, “Innovation in Graduate Projects: Learning to Identify Critical Functions,” ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Oklahoma City, OK.

2. Camburn, B., Dunlap, B., Kuhr, R., Viswanathan, V., Linsey, J., Jensen, D., Crawford, R., Otto, K., and Wood, K., 2013, “Methods for Prototyping Strategies in Engineering Design: Framework and Experimental Assessment,” ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences, Portland, OR.

3. Ngo, P., Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2013, “Principles of Analogy Usage in Design-by-Analogy: A Pilot Study,” ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences, Portland, OR.

4. Lucero, B., Viswanathan, V., Linsey, J., and Turner, C., 2013, “MetaAnalogy through Performance Specification,” ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences, Portland, OR.

5. Viswanathan, V. and Linsey, J., 2013, “Training Future Designers: A Study on the Role of Physical Models,” ASEE Annual Conference 2013, Atlanta, GA.

6. Camburn, B., Dunlap, B., Kuhr, R., Viswanathan, V., Linsey, J., Jensen, D., Crawford, R., Otto, K., and Wood, K., 2013, “Connecting Design Problem Characteristics to Prototyping Choices to Form a Prototyping Strategy,” ASEE Annual Conference 2013, Atlanta, GA.

7. Viswanathan, V. and Linsey, J. 2013, “Mitigation of Design Fixation in Engineering Idea Generation: A Study on the Role of Defixation Instructions,” International Conference on Research into Design, Chennai, India.

8. Viswanathan, V. and Linsey, J., 2012, “Physical Modeling in Design Projects: Development and Testing of a New Design Method,” ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Seattle, WA.

9. Viswanathan, V. and Linsey, J., 2012, “Physical Examples in Engineering Idea Generation: An Experimental Investigation,” International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC2012), Glasgow, UK.

10. Viswanathan, V. and Linsey, J., 2012, “A Study on the Role of Expertise in Design Fixation and its Mitigation”, 2012 ASME IDETC – Design Theory and Methodology Conference, Chicago, IL.

11. Atilola, O., Viswanathan, V. and Linsey, J., 2012, “A Study on the Representation of Examples in Learning Engineering Concepts”, 2012 ASME IDETC – Design Education Conference, Chicago, IL.

12. Viswanathan, V., Esposito, N. and Linsey, J., 2012, “Training Tomorrow’s Designers: a Study on Design Fixation”, ASEE Annual Conference 2012, San Antonio, TX.

13. Viswanathan, V. and Linsey J., 2012, “Build to Learn: Effective Strategies to Train Tomorrow’s Designers”, ASEE Annual Conference 2012, San Antonio, TX.

14. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2011, "Understanding Physical Models in Design Cognition: A Triangulation of Qualitative and Laboratory Studies", ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Rapid City, SD.

15. Osterman, C., Viswanathan, V. and Linsey, J., "Teaching Capstone Design: The Influence of Problem Complexity", ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Rapid City, SD.

16. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2011, "Design Fixation in Physical Modeling: An Investigation on the Role of Sunk Cost", ASME IDETC-Design Theory and Methodology Conference, Washington, DC.

17. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2011, “Understanding Fixation: A Study on the Role of Expertise” International Conference on Engineering Design, Kobenhavn, Denmark.

18. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2011, "Physical Models and Design Cognition: Triangulating Controlled Lab Studies with Industrial Case Studies", International Conference on Research into Design, Bangalore, India.

19. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J. , 2010, “Work in Progress – Understanding Design Fixation: A Sunk Cost Perspective on Innovation,” ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Washington, D.C.

20. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2010, “Physical Models in the Idea Generation Process: Hindrance or Help?” Proceedings of the 2010 ASME IDETC-Design Theory and Methodology Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

21. Linsey, J., Viswanathan, V., Gadwal, A., 2010, “The influence of design problem complexity on the attainment of design skills and student perceptions,” IEEE EDUCON 2010, Madrid, Spain.

22. Viswanathan, V., and Linsey, J., 2009, “Enhancing Student Innovation: Physical Models in the Idea Generation Process,” ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, San Antonio, TX.

Contact: v.viswanathan@gatech.edu