Integrating Knowledge Capture and Knowledge Reuse in the Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

PROPOSAL NO.: 0230698PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Hale, RichardINSTITUTION NAME: University of Kansas Center for Research IncTITLE: Integrating Knowledge Capture and Knowledge Reuse in the Engineering Undergraduate CurriculumAbstractEngineering problem solving consistently uses models in various forms (mental, physical,analytic, computational) and relies on expert inputs from multiple disciplines (manufacturing, supportability, cost, loads, structural performance, etc.). Such modeling involves first mapping from the actual physical system to a suitable abstraction that can be manipulated to yield results that are then mapped back on the physical system to predict or describe its behavior. A serious obstacle to productivity in engineering design is the lack of information technology (IT) to support exchange and reuse of knowledge at a higher level of abstraction than shared databases. In particular, the engineering knowledge base includes models and programs for analysis of complex physical systems, but these models and programs are not sharable. Engineering disciplines are actively pursuing a standard for knowledge representation that can be viewed, understood and maintained by humans and which can be interpreted by computers. As such, there is a need for emerging engineers with skills in knowledge-based systems and the practiceof capturing knowledge from disparate "experts." The Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Kansas (KUAE) proposes to incorporate state-of-the-art knowledge-based development tools into the curriculum, and to facilitate shared use of these tools by providing suitable indexing, retrieval, and visualization mechanisms. Such tools will formalize the KUAE desire to introduce a system-level design approach, and will serve to decompartmentalize courses in specific disciplines. Exercising these tools in design and implementation of an aerospace vehicle will expose students to a design project more reflective of the commercial world, and will introduce the importance of knowledge integration across a commercial enterprise.