project
Project Topic Proposal: Managing the Design Process in Architecture
02/01/12 18:57 Filed in: 481
This is a proposal by Brent Griffis, a graduate student in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. It could also be the basis for a Senior project or Master’s thesis.
Greetings,
My name is Brent Griffis and I am a graduate student in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.
My research is focused on managing the design process. It is my opinion that the overall design process can be broken up into many different but interconnected activities. Then after analyzing each activity, and weighting them, we can look at the links/dependencies between them and begin to optimize the design process through logic and mathematical models. In doing this, we will be able to identify the critical stages and activities of the design process, and begin to understand the sensitivity of the decision making path to various activities as well as begin to eliminate unnecessary design iterations. Essentially, I want to organize the design process in such a way that it maximizes the possibility of successfully completing the process in the most efficient way possible before the project even begins. I will be creating a set of “guidelines” or a theory that one should follow in order to successfully manage the design process. Then I will actually apply the theory to a couple of different projects and see how it works. I feel that the computer can be useful in this optimization approach. In my limited research of expert systems and constraint programming, I feel that my research is set up perfectly for utilizing the capabilities of these programming techniques. Also, I feel this is a great opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary manner to solve problems that can be applicable to all forms of design; rather it be buildings, software, machines, etc. They are all designed based on the logical completion of different interconnected activities. This description of my research is quite basic, and I feel that if anyone is interested in working with me on this project once you learn more of the specifics, it will hopefully peak your interest further and fit even better into the realm of expert systems and constraint programming than depicted here.
Since at many points during the design process, we as designers must design under uncertainty, the second portion of my guidelines will be focused on how to make design decisions under uncertainty. Again using mathematical models and statistical analysis to provide us with different levels of certainty and answers when there is a lack of information available. I feel that the computer can be helpful in analyzing and computing different levels of uncertainty during a multi-criteria design process. I feel that my abilities in using MATLAB are enough to tackle this portion of the project, but if you would be interested in this portion as well I am open to working with you on it. Thank you for you time, and I look forward to speaking with you in the future.
Regards,
Brent
Brent Griffis
Graduate Student, Researcher
Architecture Department
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo
brentgriffis@hotmail.com (408) 489-3229
Greetings,
My name is Brent Griffis and I am a graduate student in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.
My research is focused on managing the design process. It is my opinion that the overall design process can be broken up into many different but interconnected activities. Then after analyzing each activity, and weighting them, we can look at the links/dependencies between them and begin to optimize the design process through logic and mathematical models. In doing this, we will be able to identify the critical stages and activities of the design process, and begin to understand the sensitivity of the decision making path to various activities as well as begin to eliminate unnecessary design iterations. Essentially, I want to organize the design process in such a way that it maximizes the possibility of successfully completing the process in the most efficient way possible before the project even begins. I will be creating a set of “guidelines” or a theory that one should follow in order to successfully manage the design process. Then I will actually apply the theory to a couple of different projects and see how it works. I feel that the computer can be useful in this optimization approach. In my limited research of expert systems and constraint programming, I feel that my research is set up perfectly for utilizing the capabilities of these programming techniques. Also, I feel this is a great opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary manner to solve problems that can be applicable to all forms of design; rather it be buildings, software, machines, etc. They are all designed based on the logical completion of different interconnected activities. This description of my research is quite basic, and I feel that if anyone is interested in working with me on this project once you learn more of the specifics, it will hopefully peak your interest further and fit even better into the realm of expert systems and constraint programming than depicted here.
Since at many points during the design process, we as designers must design under uncertainty, the second portion of my guidelines will be focused on how to make design decisions under uncertainty. Again using mathematical models and statistical analysis to provide us with different levels of certainty and answers when there is a lack of information available. I feel that the computer can be helpful in analyzing and computing different levels of uncertainty during a multi-criteria design process. I feel that my abilities in using MATLAB are enough to tackle this portion of the project, but if you would be interested in this portion as well I am open to working with you on it. Thank you for you time, and I look forward to speaking with you in the future.
Regards,
Brent
Brent Griffis
Graduate Student, Researcher
Architecture Department
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo
brentgriffis@hotmail.com (408) 489-3229
0 Comments
Class Feedback
06/03/12 17:15 Filed in: 481
Please use the Web form at https://spreadsheets1.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGR4NTJ0bl92TnF2bUJmWU5zdzdtdnc6MA for feedback on course content, lectures, tools like Blackboard and TRAC Wiki, and a few more aspects.
Team Member Feedback
06/03/12 16:59 Filed in: 481
Similar to what we did a few weeks ago, I’m using a Web form at https://spreadsheets1.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGtVSkZMUXZfWnRldTZ0UVBkakZlNVE6MA to collect feedback on the collaboration and work distribution in your team. This time, however, the feedback will be taken into account for the grade on the project part of the class; it contributes 20% of the project grade. I normally take the average of the scores submitted by the team members (including your self-evaluation), although I reserve the right to adjust this if I have evidence that the score does not reflect the actual performance of the team member.
Final Project Presentations Feedback
06/03/12 17:08 Filed in: 481
Please use the Web form at https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHNiTDhfZHczTHowRklfQmJXX2p4R2c6MA for feedback on the final project presentations
Project Description and TRAC Wikis Available
06/01/12 20:02 Filed in: 481
You can find the project description on the class Web page now. We also have a number of TRAC Wikis available; if your team already has decided on a topic, let me know and I’ll give you access to the Wiki.
Additional Project Topic Proposals
05/01/11 12:24 Filed in: 481
If you have additional project ideas, please post them here as comments. If possible, they should
- involve outside customers
- incorporate knowledge-centric activities.
- involve outside customers
- incorporate knowledge-centric activities.
Project Topic Proposal: iFixit Recommender System
28/12/11 18:11 Filed in: 481
The ifixit Web site offers instructions for repairs of all kinds of devices, and has recently been expanded to allow the submission of user-generated instructions. The company, co-funded by a CSC alumnus, is interested in adding a recommendation facility that would offer user suggestions such as other devices or repairs they may be interested in, or parts and tools that are suitable for the repair. They currently have recommendations for the latter, but they are not very sophisticated.
Project Topic Proposal: Computers and Knowledge Educational Resources
27/12/11 11:46 Filed in: 481
The goal of this project is to provide educational resources for a course similar to this one, but intended for participants without a strong computer background.
Project Topic Proposal: Visualization of Ontologies and RDF Graphs
27/12/11 11:46 Filed in: 481
The underlying data structures for ontologies and RDF (Resource Data Framework) structures are graphs. While graphs in principle are well suited for visualization purposes, there are several challenges for these particular structures. Ontologies frequently have a multitude of relationships (links in the graph), and it is impractical to display all of them simultaneously. RDF graphs frequently are huge, and can’t be displayed in their entirety. In both cases, however, there are underlying principles that humans intuitively utilize to arrange the nodes in both a visually pleasing and easy to comprehend manner (although it may be very difficult or impossible to achieve both). The objective of this project is to examine existing visualization methods for ontologies and RDF graph, and identify their advantages and shortcomings. On the other side, there are packages available for displaying generic graphs. Our hope is that a combination of insights from the existing visualization tools with advanced graph display packages, together with heuristics that reflect organizational principles for ontologies and RDF graphs will result in better visualization tools. Ideally, a prototype of such an ontology visualization tool would be integrated with the Protégé ontology development environment.
Project Topic Discussions
27/12/11 11:46 Filed in: 481
I just realized that we could use the Comments feature of these pages for additional project proposals and discussions of the topic I mentioned yesterday. So I’m going to create a new entry for each topic. Please add a comment if the topic sounds interesting to you (this does not constitute a commitment to actually select it), or if you have questions.
I’ll also create another entry for additional project ideas. If you have one, add it there as a comment.
I’ll also create another entry for additional project ideas. If you have one, add it there as a comment.