Research
Current Projects
DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Following the spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the AFRICA-DESIGN@UM project explores questions such as: How can design contribute to sustainable development in the rapidly growing African countries? Who are the individuals and institutions that care about this contribution? What are research questions specific to Design Science? .... The Design Society is addressing these questions in its AFRICA-DESIGN Network Project. The UM team is focusing on some specific research and education projects, including applying system design optimization approaches to Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs), a concept originally developed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
COMPLEX SYSTEMS DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION
Coordination strategies in system design projects: Using qualitative thematic analysis from practitioners we identified two strategies used to facilitate coordination: authority-based is enabled by technical know-how and use of organizational authority; empathetic leadership includes interpersonal skills, leadership traits, and empathy. These complementary strategies enable individuals to coordinate complex design tasks.
System Design Thinking: We study the development and validation of a scale for measuring individual attitudes about systems engineering and design thinking. Thematic analysis of engineering and design literature is used to derive a Likert scale reflecting these attitudes. We use exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to test and confirm this two-factor thematic representation, resulting in a "Systems Engineering and Design Thinking Scale" measure of attitudes.
Modeling and optimization of Integrated Natural Resource Conservation and Development Projects. Integrated Natural Resource Conservation and Development (INRCD) Projects are efforts at worldwide locations to promote economic development of local communities consistent with the conservation of natural resources. We develop a system-level agriculture and energy model comprising engineering and economic models for crop, irrigation, and energy subsystem designs for a community in Central Uganda. The model architecture is modular allowing modifications for different system configurations and project locations.
Research Topics and Publications
We have studied a wide range of topics in design, design optimization, and design science broadly classified below. See the links to topics below and submenus in separate pages for relevant publications and further descriptions.
Our theoretical optimization work has been largely influenced by our understanding of the needs of practice and our contributions largely lie in the mathematical translation of these needs into a design optimization framework. A good example is the widely used Analytical Target Cascading (ATC), originally inspired by the system coordination needs in the automotive industry (also referred to as 'flow-down requirements') and initially transformed to a math problem by my late collaborator Nestor Michelena and myself. ATC, in turn, inspired many improvements in system coordination methods for MDO.
Our work in linking engineering design with marketing, psychology, art, and social science is an outgrowth of extensive collaborations with expert colleagues in these disciplines, notably through students' graduate work in the Design Science program.
Some occasional overview articles from keynotes and book chapters have been listed separately and may be useful as first readings
Systems Design and Product Development: Business and policy integration • Modularity and optimal design of product families • Sustainable design of products and systems
Product Design and Decision Making: Aesthetic and emotional design • Preference elicitation and modeling
Optimal Design Theory and Algorithms: Artificial intelligence in optimal design • Optimal configuration and topology design • Co-Design: Optimal design and optimal control • Monotonicity analysis • Multiobjective design optimization • Design under uncertainty
Application Domains in Systems and Product Design: Architectural design • Automotive systems, especially hybrid and electric powertrains • Electromagnetic systems, especially antennas • Manufacturing and design integration • Structural design
Publications relevant to these topics can be found in the submenus of this page. Classification of topics is somewhat ad hoc and there is some duplication of listed papers to assist in finding the most relevant work more easily.
A list of publications by year can be found on the publications page along with links to DOI's and publishers' pages. Any PDFs supplied here are only pre-prints and not the final publication of record.