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Discovery in Design: People-centred
Computational Issues
An EPSRC 'Designing for the 21st Century' Cluster
The objective of the cluster is to
identify primary research aspects concerning the development of
people-centred computational conceptual design environments that
engender concept and knowledge discovery across diverse design domains.
Current computer-aided design tools support the later, well defined stages of design where the design product is physical, tangible, and comprehensible. However, more abstract concept formulation and development is poorly supported, especially where uncertainty is an inherent characteristic. Furthermore, computer-aided design is domain specific. There is little or no exploitation of cross-domain experience. This cluster will identify research issues that have the potential to redress both these imbalances.
Cluster activities concern the identification of people-centred issues relating to computational aspects that include:
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concept representation and simulation;
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design space search and exploration;
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data mining and processing;
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computationally intelligent systems;
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machine-based enabling and bridging technologies;
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information visualization and presentation.
Complementary investigation of areas of human-computer interaction and cognitive aspects include:
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assimilation of information relating to multi-variate and multi-criteria relationships;
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knowledge extraction and knowledge capture;
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subjective solution evaluation;
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implicit learning and tacit knowledge.
The utility of established and emerging
computational intelligence, enabling computational technologies and
people-centred issues is under investigation across a diverse set of
design domains to not only identify synergies, but also to separate and
distill peculiarities. New collaborations across engineering design,
compound and drug design, software engineering design, biosensor and
material design and graphical design is providing a basis for study.
Initial cluster membership ensures both specific expertise in each of
these areas with some members currently active across several. Views and
approaches from practitioners and researchers that are not normally
considered in the same time-frame and context are thus being
investigated.
The strength of this cluster therefore lies in the collaboration
of seemingly disparate cognitive disciplines that require a common core
expertise to aid discovery. We intend to identify mutually symbiotic
design environments that create new potential interfaces for capturing
and enabling discovery and innovation.