Collaborative Research: Measuring Information Content of the Artifacts of Early Design

这个合作研究项目的目标是测量早期设计中使用的不同构件的信息含量，无论设计是如何描述的，并研究工程设计早期阶段信息的增长或不确定性的减少。在设计中产生和使用各种类型的信息，每一种信息都可以用不同的形式来表达，例如图片、文本、符号或动画。正在开发一种通用的设计表示法，以将任何类型的设计信息转换为中性形式。其次，正在创建度量标准来测量基于这种中性表示的构件的信息内容，以及量化设计的信息内容的工具。在较早的项目中开发的模型将用于验证信息度量，方法是通过实验测量不同设计中的信息(由度量衡量)如何减少设计的不确定性。如果成功，这项研究将改变工程设计项目控制和评估的方法。由于信息在决策中是可衡量的，可以建立计算机工具和正式方法，根据使用的信息和作出的决定来衡量设计项目的进展，而不是今天使用的更间接的衡量标准，如耗时或花费的资金。这项研究将激发对设计团队“知识状态”的理解和测量的新研究。通过测量知识状态的方法，可以量化设计者在整个设计项目中获得的知识，这可能导致评估设计团队在项目之间保留和重用知识的能力的新工具和方法，以及客观地评估学生设计团队的学习曲线。这项研究的结果将被整合到德克萨斯州立大学和俄勒冈州立大学与设计相关的课程中，以提高学生对“边做边学”的欣赏，并让他们更好地感受工程设计决策的复杂性。

The objective of this collaborative research project is to measure the information content of different artifacts used in early design no matter how the design is described, and also to study the growth of information, or reduction of uncertainty, in the early stages of engineering design. Information of various types is produced and used in design, and each may be expressed in different forms, such as pictures, text, symbols, or animation. A general design representation is being developed to translate any type of design information into a neutral form. Second, metrics are being created to measure the information content of artifacts based on this neutral representation, along with tools to quantify the information content of designs. Models developed on an earlier project will be used to validate the information metrics by experimentally measuring how information within different designs, as measured by the metrics, can reduce design uncertainty. If successful, this research will transform the methods for control and evaluation of engineering design projects. With information measurable in the context of decisions, computer tools and formal methods could be built to measure the progress of design projects in terms of the information used and decisions made, rather than the more indirect metrics used today, such as time elapsed or money spent. This research will stimulate new research into the understanding and measurement of the "state of knowledge" of a design team. By having a way to measure knowledge state, it could be possible to quantify the designer's knowledge gain throughout a design project, which could lead to new tools and methods for evaluating a design team's capability in retaining and reusing knowledge between projects, and for objectively assessing the learning curves of student design teams. The findings of this research will be integrated into design-related courses at both Texas State University and Oregon State University in order to improve students' appreciation for "learning by doing" and give them a better feel for the complexity of decision-making in engineering design.