The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award is to construct an integrated quantitative model of engineering design tradeoffs, consumer choice behavior, market competition, and regulation in the automotive industry to predict the impact of energy and environmental policy on vehicle design. The research approach involves simulation of vehicle performance and emissions to quantify technical tradeoffs of alternative technologies and econometric modeling of consumer choice to predict market responses to vehicle attributes. Optimization methods and game theory will be used to identify the most profitable set of vehicle designs in a competitive marketplace under alternative regulation constraints and incentives. This research will result in a quantitative foundation for understanding the influence of policy and market interactions on the design decisions of profit-seeking firms ? enabling integrated assessment to support design engineers, managers and policymakers in informed decision-making.
If successful, the results of this research will build a foundation for strategic planning in automotive design and support policymakers in avoiding negative and unintended consequences. Long term, the program will lay a foundation for a broad study of engineering design in the context of consumer choice, competition and public policy in a variety of domains. Educational initiatives will engage a broad range of K-12, undergraduate and graduate students in exploring the impact of consumer preference, green design, and public policy on decision-making. Interdisciplinary student interactions between analysis courses and design courses will provide students with enhanced design education. These initiatives aim to produce graduates who will enter the workforce with an understanding of how to consider technical, market and regulatory factors when making decisions in our increasingly-interdependent world.
