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Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Janet K. Allen, Committee Member ; David McDowell, Committee Member ; Jye-Chyi Lu, Committee Member ; Jitesh Panchal, Committee Member ; Farrokh Mistree, Committee Chair.

This thesis compares two methods for studying the problem-solving processes of mechanical design engineers. The first method, verbal protocol analysis, was applied by L. Stauffer to construct a problem-solving model of mechanical design. The second method, timing analysis, measures the time intervals separating drawing or speaking actions during the design process. Timing analyisis was applied by the author to the verbal/video design data collected by Stauffer. This thesis demonstrates that the two methods are statistically related, and hence, that employing two different study techniques enhances the reliability of both methods. The two methods have complementary strengths: protocol analysis reveals the content of the design process, while timing analysis is much more complete. Hence, a combination of protocol and timing analysis provides a stronger measure of the design process than either method alone. / Graduation date: 1992

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture; and, (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1978. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 82-84. / M.Arch / M.S.

The development and induction in-service of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) systems in a variety of civil, paramilitary and military roles have proven valuable on high-risk missions. These UAVs based on fixed wing configuration concept have demonstrated their operational effectiveness in recent operations. New UAVs based on rotary wing configuration concept have received major attention worldwide, with major resources committed for its research and development. In this thesis, the design process of a rotary-wing aircraft was re-visualised from an unmanned perspective to address the requirements of rotary-wing UAVs - Vertical Take-off UAVs (VTUAV). It investigates the conventional helicopter design methodology for application in UAV design. It further develops a modified design process for VTUAV addressing the requirements of unmanned missions by providing remote command-and-control capabilities. The modified design methodology is automated to address the complex design evaluations and optimisation process. An illustration of the automated design process developed for VTUAVs is provided through a series of inputs of the requirements and specifications, resulting in an output of a proposed VTUAV design configuration for

Software architecture provides a high-level framework for a software system, and plays an important role in achieving functional and non-functional requirements. Since the year 2004, software architecture has been considered as a set of architectural design decisions (ADDs). However, software architecture is implicit and evolves as the software development process moves forward. The implicitness together with continuous evolution leads to many problems such as architecture drift and erosion as well as high cost reconstruction. Without capturing and managing ADDs, most of existing architectural knowledge evaporates, and reusing and evolving architecture can be difficult. These problems are even more serious in global software development (GSD). This dissertation presents a novel methodology for capturing ADDs during the architecting process and managing the evolution of ADDs to reduce architectural knowledge evaporation. This methodology explicitly documents ADDs using a scenario-based approach, which covers three views of a software architecture, to record architectural knowledge, and incorporates evolution-centered characteristics to manage ADD evolution for reducing architectural knowledge evaporation. Furthermore, the dissertation presents ADD management in the context of GSD to analyze typical ADD management paradigms, and to offer insights on, techniques on, and support for sharing and coordinating ADDs in a GSD setting. This dissertation focuses on both the documentation and the evolution needs for ADDs in localized and global software development. / text

Software architecture is considered as a set of architectural design decisions. Capturing and representing architectural design decisions during the architecting process is necessary for reducing architectural knowledge evaporation. Moreover, managing the evolution of architectural design decisions helps to maintain consistency between requirements and the deployed system. In this thesis, we create the Triple View Model (TVM) as a general architecture framework for documenting architectural design decisions. The TVM clarifies the notion of architectural design decisions in three different views and covers key features of the architecting process. Based on the TVM, we propose a scenario-based methodology (SceMethod) to manage the documentation and the evolution of architectural design decisions. We also conduct a case study on an industrial project to validate the applicability and the effectiveness of the TVM and the SceMethod. The results show they provide complete documentation on architectural design decisions for creating a system architecture, and well support architecture evolution with changing requirements. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / Eastman, Chuck, Committee Member ; Paredis, Chris, Committee Co-Chair ; Allen, Janet, Committee Member ; Rosen, David, Committee Member ; Tsui, Kwok, Committee Member ; McDowell, David, Committee Member ; Mistree, Farrokh, Committee Chair. Includes bibliographical references.

The increased use of advanced composites in aerospace manufacturing has led to the development of new production processes and technology. The implementation of advanced composites manufacturing technology is poorly served by traditional cost accounting methods, which distort costs by using inappropriate volume-based allocations of overhead. Activity-based costing has emerged as a methodology which provides more accurate allocation of costs to products or activities by their usage of company resources. Better designs may also be produced if designers could evaluate the cost implications of their choices early in the design process. This research describes a methodology whereby companies can improve product cost estimation at the conceptual design phase, using intelligent searching and arrangement of existing accounting data to enable designers to access the activity cost information more readily. The concept has considerable scope for application in industry because it will allow companies to make better use of information that is already being recorded in their information systems, by providing it in a form which will enable designers to make better informed decisions during the design process. The design decision support framework is illustrated by applying it to a typical problem in aerospace composites manufacturing. Feasibility of the approach is demonstrated using a prototype software model of the Design Decision Support System, implemented using commercially available software. / Ph. D.

Post-occupancy evaluations represent an important missed opportunity. While POEs are often used to inform design guides, and to support facility management, they are seldom used to support design decision-making. While there are several technical, methodological, and cultural impediments to the ongoing use of POE results in design, characteristics of POE data and data structure is an important, and often overlooked, impediment. Some evaluators have attempted to resolve this problem by involving actively as consultants in design teams or involving users, such as Placemaking or Process Architecture. Recent advances in conceptual data modeling provide another strategy to interface POE findings and design decision-making. This thesis uses EXPRESS modeling language to develop a conceptual data structure for POE data, and integrate POE data with as-built building descriptions. While this effort has the potential to develop an improved way to structure POE data and make it more useful, it is also an extension of ISO-STEP. This study develops a data structure based on post-occupancy evaluations of state and federal trial courtrooms conducted by the researcher. Thirty-one courtrooms were evaluated, resulting in usable data from 93 courtroom users in 26 courtrooms. An EXPRESS-G schema was developed and was translated into a relational database for holding data and running queries. The investigator illustrated a range of query-generated outcomes to support decision-making during design and design review. Such outcomes include exploring existing courtrooms, comprehending the types of design decisions implemented across federal and state courtrooms, identifying design decisions that have been rated favorably or otherwise by courtroom users, rating design decisions based on evaluation data from existing courtrooms, and predicting a designed environments supportiveness to task performance. Further, multivariate analysis of the POE data provides the first scientific investigation of courtrooms as work settings. Finally, eight key performance indicators of courtrooms were developed based on the POE data.