Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. James R. Simpson, Florida State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Mar. 2, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 1996. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: James R. Simpson, Florida State University, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 16, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 99 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis presents research into the possibility of developing a computerised system that can evaluate the aesthetics and engineering aspects of solid shapes. One of the research areas is also to include such an evaluation system into an existing evolutionary CAD system which utilizes the Genetic Algorithms (GAs) technology. An extensive literature survey has been carried out to better understand and clarify the vagueness and subjectivity of the concept of aesthetics, which leads to the work of defining and quantifying a set of aesthetic parameters. This research achieves its novelty in aiming to assist designers in evaluating the aesthetics and functional aspects of designs early in the conceptual design stage, and its inclusion into an evolutionary CAD system. The field of Computer Aided Design (CAD) lacks the aesthetics aspect of the design, which is very crucial in evaluating designs especially considering the trend towards virtual prototypes replacing physical prototypes. This research has managed to suggest, define and quantify a set of aesthetic and functional elements or parameters, which will be the basis of solid shape evaluation. This achievement will help designers in determining the fulfilment of design targets, where the designers will have a full control to determine the priority of each evaluation element in the developed system. In achieving this, computer software including a programming language package and CAD software are involved, which eventually led to the development of a prototype system called Computer Aided Aesthetics and Functions Evaluation (CAAFE). An evolutionary CAD system called Evolutionary Form Design (EFD), which utilizes GAs, has been available for few years now. It evolves shapes for quick and creative suggestions, however it lacks the automated evaluation and aesthetics aspects of the design. This research has worked into the integrating of CAAFE into EFD, which led to a system that could evolve objects based on a selected and weighed aesthetic and functional elements. Finally, surveys from users have also been presented in this thesis to offer improvement to the scoring system within the CAAFE system.

A method is described for the computer-aided layout of printed wiring boards. The type of board considered is a single sided board containing discrete components. The required input for the layout algorithm is coded from the relevant circuit diagram, together with a description of the component dimensions. This information is then stored within the computer in a data structure. The circuit components and their interconnections are represented by a set of nodes and branches. The principles of graph theory are used to construct an abstract model of the layout. A number of the nodes and branches of the circuit are first used in the construction of a planar graph. A method is then described for inserting the remaining branches into the graph to form a "pseudo planar graph". This represents a set of components and conductor paths which can be laid out on a single sided board without intersections. The number of conductor crossings is thus minimised before the actual layout commences. An algorithm is then described for automatically constructing a board layout from the pseudo planar graph. The relative interconnections are already known so the placement of components and routing of conductor paths can proceed simultaneously. The layout is therefore constructed in a series of logical steps working across from one edge of the board to the other. This approach contrasts with the more usual methods of layout in which components are placed first, followed by a search for conductor routes. The layout algorithm is also provided with facilities for man-machine interaction by means of a graphical display and light pen. Interaction allows the user to alter the positions of components during the construction of the layout. Thus the skill and experience of the user can be combined with the speed and accuracy of the automatic algorithm. Interaction also enables special conditions to be incorporated into the layout which would otherwise entail considerable programming effort. Three different circuits are used to test the layout algorithm. The results are shown for layouts constructed both automatically and by the use of interaction. One layout is also compared with a manually-produced layout of the same circuit. The results show that a feasible method has been developed for the layout of printed wiring boards by computer. Comparable results are produced in considerably less time than normal layout methods.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-232). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR45965

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 195-204). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Computing the similarity of two strings or sequences is one of the most important fundamental in computer field, and it has been widely studied for several decades. In the last decade, it gained the researchers' attentions again because of the improvements of the hardware computation ability and the presence of huge amount of data in biotechnology. In this dissertation, we pay attention to computing the edit distance between two sequences where the block-edit operations are involved in addition to the character-edit operations. Previous researches show that this problem is NP-hard if recursive block moves are allowed. Since we are interested in solving the editing problems by the polynomial-time optimization algorithms, we consider the simplified version of the edit distance problem. We first focus on the longest common subsequence (LCS) of run-length encoded (RLE) strings, where the runs can be seen as a class of simplified blocks. Then, we apply constraints to the problem, i.e. to find the constrained LCS (CLCS) of RLE strings. Besides, we show that the problems which involve block-edit operations can still be solved by the polynomial-time optimization algorithms if some restrictions are applied. Let X and Y be two sequences of lengths n and m, respectively. Also, let N and M, be the numbers of runs in the corresponding RLE forms of X and Y, respectively. In this dissertation, first, we propose a simple algorithm for computing the LCS of X and Y in O(NM + min{ p_1, p_2 }) time, where p_1 and p_2 denote the numbers of elements in the bottom and right boundaries of the matched blocks, respectively. This new algorithm improves the previously known time bound O(min{nM, Nm}) and outperforms the time bounds O(NM log NM) or O((N+M+q) log (N+M+q)) for some cases, where q denotes the number of matched blocks. Next, we give an efficient algorithm for solving the CLCS problem, which is to find a common subsequences Z of X and Y such that a given constrained sequence P is a subsequence of Z and the length of Z is maximized. Suppose X, Y and P are all in RLE format, and the lengths of X, Y and P are n, m and r, respectively. Let N, M and R be the numbers of runs in X, Y, and P, respectively. We show that by RLE, the CLCS problem can be solved in O(NMr + min{q_1 r + q_4, q_2 r + q_5 }) time, where q_1 and q_2 denote the numbers of elements in the south and east boundaries of the partially matched blocks on the first layer, respectively, and q_4 and q_5 denote the numbers of elements of the west and north pillars in the bottom boundaries of all fully matched cuboids in the DP lattice, respectively. When the input strings have good compression ratios, our work obviously outperforms the previously known DP algorithms and the Hunt-Szymanski-like algorithms. Finally, we consider variations of the block edit distance problem that involve character insertions, character deletions, block copies and block deletions, for two given sequences X and Y. In this dissertation, three variations are defined with different measuring functions, which are P(EIS, C), P(EI, L) and P(EI, N). Then we show that with some preprocessing, the minimum block edit distances of these three variations can be obtained by dynamic programming in O(nm), O(nm log m) and O(nm^2) time, respectively, where n and m are the lengths of X and Y.

This thesis analyzes the changing design and planning strategies in the contemporary urban design area. The rapid improvements during the 20th century in complexity sciences and computer technologies have directly affected all the branches of design. In architecture, as in urban design, generative models, evolutionary design attitudes and computer based simulation tools have taken a significant role during the last few decades. In urban design, emerged in a period starting form the second half of the century, non-determinist, dynamic and self-organized design attitudes depending on naturalistic models have emerged as an alternative to determinist, static and reductionist approaches based on linear solutions. In this study, it is aimed to define and evaluate these emerging contemporary approaches with respect to their antecedents and precedents. The study also searches for the conceptual and technical developments and background which support this process. With an analysis of case studies, the paradigm shift is examined in practice. The study intends to clarify whether contemporary urban design approaches, especially naturalistic models could be an alternative to deterministic stances.

Multiobjective optimization system of exhaust manifold shapes including initial design has been developed. Space of possible solutions is explored by an evolutionary algorithm. Evaluation of exhaust drains shape comes  from drains length and sum of arc angles. Drains mustn't interfere in surrounding parts. System is tested on set of input data originated from practice. Further, performance of proposed evolutionary algorithm is evaluated.