Crowdsourcing for Engineering Systems Design: Theoretical and Experimental Studies

该奖项的研究目标是确定众包竞赛的设计如何影响其在工程系统设计中的结果。目标将通过从竞赛理论扩展博弈论模型，并基于行为博弈论进行实验室实验来实现。研究活动包括：a)分析不同比赛设计选项对个人、预定义团队和自组织团队结果的影响；b)比较分析博弈论模型的预测与实验环境下观察到的选手行为。总体预期结果包括理论框架和实验室实验，以促进比赛设计。具体结果包括考虑工程系统设计独特方面的非合作众包竞赛，以及实验室实验，以确定理论模型的局限性并指导进一步的理论发展。本研究的结果有望使系统工程师和管理人员通过考虑不同的比赛设计选项及其对结果的潜在影响，系统地设计众包比赛，这是一个新的和不断增长的产品设计场所。拟议的研究将推动涉及战略决策的工程设计的艺术状态，其中只使用了博弈的分析模型。研究成果已被纳入研究生和本科课程。这些活动旨在促进工程设计和实验经济学研究人员之间的合作，并为研究生提供更广泛的接触机会。作为该项目的一部分，实验室实验、软件工具和生成的数据正在通过普渡大学研究存储库（PURR）、期刊出版物和会议报告进行传播。

The research objective of this award is to establish how the design of a crowdsourcing tournament affects its outcomes in engineering systems design. The objective will be achieved by extending game-theoretic models from contest theory, and performing lab experiments based on behavioral game theory. The research activities include a) analyzing the effects of different tournament design options on the outcomes for individuals, pre-defined teams, and self-organized teams, b) comparing the predictions from analytical game theoretic models with observed contestant behaviors within experimental settings. The overall expected outcome include a theoretical framework and lab experiments to facilitate tournament design. Specific outcomes include non-cooperative games of crowdsourcing tournaments considering unique aspects of engineering systems design, and lab experiments to identify the limits of theoretical models and to guide further theoretical developments.The results of this research hold promise to enable systems engineers and managers to systematically design crowdsourcing tournaments, a new and growing venue for product design, by considering different tournament design options and their potential impacts on the outcomes. The proposed research will advance the state of the art in engineering design involving strategic decisions, where only analytical models of games have been used. The outcomes of the research are being integrated into graduate and undergraduate courses. The activities are fostering collaboration among researchers in engineering design and experimental economics, and providing broader exposure to the graduate students. The lab experiments, software tools, and data generated as a part of this project are being disseminated through Purdue University Research Repository (PURR), journal publications and conference presentations.