Major Collaborative Proposal: Understanding the Creative Design Process: A Novel Cognitive Model based on Behavioral Experiments in Circuit Design and Architecture

该项目计划开发一个认知模型，帮助理解、仿真和提高概念性电子电路设计的创造力。对电路设计中的创造力的洞察是通过新颖的行为实验获得的，这些实验研究了创造力的一个主要引擎，即在三个不同的领域内和跨三个不同领域：模拟电路设计、体系结构和一般领域产生具有新兴特征的概念组合。该工作研究了设计任务的约束和重复迭代对解的创造力的影响。电路设计和体系结构中的行为实验将按照为一般领域制定的指导方针进行建模。电路设计中的实验将在设计新的电子电路时研究相加和非相加的概念组合，例如现代跨导运算放大器。例如，建筑学实验将研究具有可移动开口的人行天桥的设计。在实验的基础上，将开发一个认知模型，用于生成具有涌现特征的迭代新颖的概念组合。这项工作的动机是电子电路设计是一项昂贵的活动，只有少数专家才能接触到。可以说，没有任何方法可以提高电路设计的创造力。这是一个重要的限制，因为电子电路在医疗保健、环境监测、基础设施管理、电信和许多其他领域都是必不可少的。这项研究有望带来新的、以创造力为导向、生产率更高的设计方法。所获得的洞察力也可以构成发明新电路的原始计算机辅助设计工具的基础，这种能力远远超出了现有工具所执行的任务。关于如何产生和利用新的概念组合的观点可以用来开发电气工程、建筑和计算机科学的新教学方法。这项工作由SBE在CreativeIT计划内提供资金。

The project plans to develop a cognitive model that helps understand, emulate and enhance creativity in conceptual electronic circuit design. Insight into creativity in circuit design is gained from novel behavioral experiments that investigate one main engine of creativity, that of generating conceptual combinations with emergent features, within and across three different areas: analog circuit design, architecture, and general domain. The work studies the impact of constraints and repeated iterations of the design task on the creativity of the solutions. Behavioral experiments in circuit design and architecture will be modeled after the guidelines developed for the general domain. Experiments in circuit design will study additive and non-additive conceptual combinations when designing new electronic circuits, such as modern operational transconductor amplifiers. Experiments in architecture will study, for example, the design of pedestrian bridges with a movable opening. Based on experiments, a cognitive model will be developed for generating iteratively novel conceptual combinations with emergent features. The work is motivated by electronic circuit design being an expensive activity, accessible only to a small group of experts. There are arguably no methods to improve creativity in circuit design. This is an important limitation as electronic circuits are essential in healthcare, environmental monitoring, infrastructure management, telecommunication, and many other areas. The research is expected to lead to new, creativity-oriented design methodologies of superior productivity. The gained insights can also form the basis of original computer-aided design tools that invent novel circuits, a capability far beyond the tasks performed by current tools. The perspective on how novel conceptual combinations are generated and utilized can be used to develop new methods of instruction in electrical engineering, architecture and computer science.This work is funded by SBE within the CreativeIT Program.