Visual Design Steering as an Aid in Complex System Decision Making

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The objective of this research is to develop visualization-based decision support tools that can be used effectively in collaborative design environments to make multiobjective decisions under uncertainty and to enable rapid trade-off decisions in the context of rapid virtual prototyping. Methods to model and visually represent the uncertainty involved with multidimensional and multiobjective design problems will be developed. Because many collaborative design problems are driven by limited resources, tools for effective rapid virtual prototyping will be developed. Quantitative and qualitative models of coupling relationships on component and system level objectives will be developed in order to better asses tradeoffs between resources such as time, money, and quality. Data mining techniques will be used to efficiently condense and filter relevant decision making information. Lastly, these techniques and tools will be implemented in web-based decision steering tools to allow collaborating designers to visualize design spaces, products, and tradeoff information simultaneously.If successful, the benefits of this research will include a foundation for the use of scientific visualization to make tradeoff decisions in collaborative product design environments. Further, the benefits will also include establishing the efficacy of using visualization-based tools to support various forms of decision making (multiattribute, with limited resources, collaborative, or under uncertainty). This foundation and subsequent tools have the potential to impact not only the engineering sector, but any scientific field where decision making is of paramount importance.