Workshop: Design of Large-scale Complex Systems; Fort Worth, Texas; September 12, 2010

该奖项的目的是进行为期一天的研讨会，旨在调查大型复杂系统（如飞机，航天器或汽车）的设计是否应该采用将需求分配给每个组件设计团队的过程，或者是一个向下流动的过程。 需求分配的一个相关例子是汽车变速器，其制造成本低于700美元，持续超过200，000英里，并以大于99%的效率将动力传输到车轮。 相比之下，目标函数将联合收割机成本、寿命和效率结合到评分函数中，并要求设计者以尽可能高的分数制造变速器。 该目标函数符合许多工程设计理论所青睐的优化方法。 然而，需求分配是系统工程手册中提出的标准，也是整个行业使用的过程。 这两种方法非常不同，应该导致非常不同的结果。 哪个更好？ 该奖项将资助一个研讨会，该研讨会将汇集系统工程，工程设计和工程优化方面的世界级专家，首次讨论和比较每种方法的优缺点。 研讨会的结果将是一个研究议程，旨在大大推进大型复杂系统的设计状态。今天，大型复杂系统的设计往往会超出计划，通常是几年，超过开发和制造预算（国防部和NASA平均约50%）。 由于成本和进度失控，系统经常在开发多年后被取消。 初步研究表明，这些延迟和超支中的大多数，每年高达数百亿美元的损失，可以通过降低目标函数来避免，以便在工程中更好地使用优化。 2010年2月，美国国家科学基金会举办了一个关于系统工程基本问题的研讨会，将需求与目标函数确定为当今系统工程最关键领域中最重要的研究问题。 因此，本次研讨会将对这两种方法进行批判性比较，并提出一个研究议程，以制定最佳流程并将其付诸实践。 研究结果将通过演讲、会议论文和期刊文章传播。

The objective of this award will be to conduct a one day workshop with the aim of investigating whether the design of large complex systems, such as aircraft, spacecraft, or automobiles, should employ a process that allocates requirements down to each component design team, or a process that flows down objective functions. A relevant example of requirements allocation would be an automobile transmission that is required to cost less than $700 to manufacture, last more than 200,000 miles, and transmit power to the wheels with an efficiency greater than 99%. In contrast, an objective function would combine cost, life and efficiency into a scoring function and ask designers to make a transmission with the highest possible score. The objective function fits into an optimization approach which is favored by many theories of engineering design. However, requirements allocation is the standard presented in systems engineering manuals and is the process used throughout industry. The two approaches are very different, and should lead to very different outcomes. Which is better? This award will fund a workshop which will bring together world class experts in systems engineering, engineering design, and engineering optimization to discuss and compare the advantages and disadvantages of each method for the first time. Resulting from the workshop will be a research agenda aimed at significantly advancing the state of design of large-scale complex systems.Today, designs of large complex systems tend to overrun schedules, often by years, exceeding development and manufacturing budgets (by an average of about 50% in the Department of Defense and NASA). Systems are often cancelled after years of development because cost and schedule are out of control. Preliminary research suggests that most of these delays and overruns, amounting to tens of billions of dollars in losses per year, could be prevented by flowing down objective functions to enable better use of optimization in engineering. A National Science Foundation workshop in February 2010 on fundamental issues in systems engineering identified requirements versus objective functions as the most important research question in the most critical area in systems engineering today. Therefore, this workshop will critically compare the two approaches and recommend an agenda of research to develop the best process and bring it into practice. The results will be disseminated through presentations, conference papers, and journal articles.