The needs of engineers in their interaction with engineering databases are very different from those of their counterparts in the business world. Business database management system interfaces typically provide only a single mode of textual communication, usually a structured query language. However, in an ideal engineering database interface, an engineer would be able to define constraints, give examples, point at parts of pictures, and (sometimes) use several modes of communication simultaneously. This research develops a plan for exploring the needs of engineers with respect to database access and developing a conceptual design for a multi-modal engineering database interface to satisfy those needs. The conceptual design will include the formal definition of an engineering query language and will describe the methodology for representing database requests in multiple modes (e.g., graphics, engineering query language, natural language, examples, etc.). A prototype system will be implemented on an engineering workstation computer (DEC MicroVAX II) to demonstrate the feasibility of the conceptual design using a sample database of structural engineering information.
