The Innovation Cycle of Engineering Design Teams: Computational Modeling Using Situated Social Cognitive Agents

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Engineering innovation is one of the foundations of wealth generation. Innovation increasingly occurs through the activities of engineering design teams rather than through individuals. The objective of this research is to develop computational models of the innovation cycle of engineering design teams that allow for the study of the effects of varying parameters on improving innovation across development cycles. A computational model is used since it is very difficult and prohibitively expensive to study the effects of varying team parameters that might improve innovation in engineering design teams directly within organizations. Given the exigencies of the day-to-day activities of organizations it may not be possible to vary team parameters. Members of teams are modeled computationally and are provided with the ability to change and develop experience based on their interactions with other team members, social media interactions outside the team and feedback from the consumption behavior of consumers of their products. Consumers are also modeled computationally and develop experience based on their interactions with products produced by design teams and their social media interactions with other consumers. The results of this research project include a computational laboratory where parameters that have the potential to affect innovation performance can be studied. With this computational laboratory it will be possible to test strategies that are claimed to improve innovation over multiple cycles of product development. By running a range of experiments it will be possible to identify interventions that improve the innovation cycles of engineering design teams.