Proposal Number: CBET-0742677; CBET-0742693; CBET-0742698; CBET-0742791 Principal Investigator: Stone, Robert; Bryant Arnold, Cari R.; Tumer, Irem Y.; Campbell, Matthew I. Affiliation: University of Missouri Rolla; Pennsylvania State University - University Park; Oregon State University; University of Texas at Austin Proposal Title: Collaborative Research: VOICED - A Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design
The research objective of this award is to create an engineering virtual organization that addresses the challenges of synthesizing innovative conceptual designs of engineered products and systems through the reuse of existing design knowledge in a cyber repository. Analogous to the proliferation of open source computer code, which allows individuals and organizations to collaboratively develop software, the Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design (VOICED) is focused on fostering and gathering product information to help individuals, students, and industries create better and more competitive products. This approach to conceptual design allows geographically dispersed organizations to draw from and contribute to a shared set of prior design knowledge that supports a more thorough investigation of concept alternatives given diverse customer requirements.
If successful, the results of this research will improve our ability to create unique, innovative new products and processes. The ability to share ideas and solutions in a cyber repository will lead to new product and system configurations that would not be envisioned without this shared knowledge base. Ultimately, the project will provide the capability to quickly generate ? automatically or manually ? alternative concepts, thus shortening the development cycle. Finally, VOICED will create a forum for educators to share and exchange design course material, improve upon existing courses, and receive input from industry practitioners on design education.
