SGER: Optimal Design Lexicon, and Construction of ObjectiveFunctions

9615306梅萨克这是探索性研究的一小笔赠款，用于检查工程设计文献中语言的使用情况。工程设计未能明确地成为一门工程学科，部分原因是缺乏明确的交流词典，该领域的研究人员一直不愿创建词典。事实上，当前语言在设计中的使用包含了对一些关键字的广泛的不同定义。在少数情况下，同一研究人员在一篇论文中重复使用了一个词，每次的定义都有很大的不同。由这笔赠款资助的研究将调查设计文献，并提供和出版对该领域至关重要的词语的定义集合。人们希望，通过提供工程设计领域的关键词语清单以及不同研究人员为它们分配的不同定义，工程设计研究界将更清楚地了解这种混乱局面造成的混乱。这一努力可以构成对话的基础，从而促进实地研究人员之间的更好交流，并随后提高实地研究的效率。语言本身的清晰也可以带来更好的设计教育和改进的设计工具。所有这些因素都有助于美国工业的成功。

9615306 Messac This is a Small Grant for Exploratory Research to examine the use of language in the engineering design literature. Engineering design has failed to emerge clearly as an engineering discipline in part because it has been impeded by a lack of a clear lexicon for communication, and researchers in the field have been reluctant to create a lexicon. Indeed, the current use of language in design encompasses a broad range of disparate definitions for some key words. In a few cases, the same researcher has used a word repeatedly in a single paper, each time with a substantially different definition. The research funded under this grant will survey the design literature and provide and publish a collection of definitions for words that are key to the field. It is hoped that, by providing a list of words key to the field of engineering design together with the disparate definitions assigned to them by different researchers, the engineering design research community will obtain a clearer view of the confusion created by this chaotic situation. This effort could form the basis of a dialog that will result in better communication among researchers in the field and subsequently improve the efficacy of research in the field. Clarity of language in itself can also lead to better design education and improved design tools. All of these factors contribute to the success of American industry.