CS 540 - Artificial Intelligence in Design

*** Offered next in AY 08-09 ***

Prereqs | Textbook | Goals | Weekly | Project | Grade

Instructor:

Prof. David C. Brown

Information:

Course Content

2006 Schedule

References (not all may be used)

Spring 2006 Class list

Before the first class please read:

• the web-based paper Intelligent Computer-Aided Design

and also:

• The Introduction from Tong & Sriram's book "Artificial Intelligence in Engineering Design".
• Stahovich on "AI for Design".
• (both available asap after the start of A term on paper from the AIDG mailbox in the CS Dept. main office).

Introduction:

The role of AI in Engineering applications is steadily increasing. Systems are being used for diagnosis and trouble shooting, design, intelligent control, planning, and a wide variety of other expert applications. AI will play an increasing role in the integration of information technology into Engineering systems. The NSF indicates that there are many Research Opportunities in Engineering Design.

This course will examine some of the AI-based work being done currently, and in the recent past, on design problem-solving. The domains will be Electrical Engineering design, Mechanical Engineering design, Civil Engineering design, and Software design (i.e., automatic programming).

The main goal of the course is obtain a deeper understanding of what design is, and how AI might be used to support it and study it.

This course will be of particular interest to those people wanting to prepare for research in design problem-solving or those building design applications. It will also be of interest to those studying CAD, CAE, CAM, and other computational methods of support for Engineering, as well as those interested in AI applications.

Graduate students from departments other than Computer Science are welcome provided they have some CS background. Past classes have included graduate students from Mechanical Engineering, Fire Protection Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Manufacturing, Civil Engineering, and Computer Science, as well as people from Industry.

The course will be run in seminar style with readings of current literature and with student presentations. There will be several papers to read each week. There are no programming assignments.

Prior knowledge of Artificial Intelligence would be a distinct advantage. AI course preparation is strongly suggested, and should only be waived after consulting with the instructor.

Those without an AI background should study an introductory AI text, such as Winston or Russell & Norvig, to learn about Search and Knowledge Representations.

Prerequisites:

CS534 - Artificial Intelligence.

Textbook:

There is no textbook. We will be using the survey articles from the AI in Design special issues:

• IEEE Expert/Intelligent Systems & Their Applications, Vol. 12, No.2, March-April 1997
• IEEE Expert/Intelligent Systems & Their Applications, Vol. 12, No.3, May-June 1997
  (Note that these are available in PDF via any WPI computer at: March-April 1997, and May-June 1997.)

as well as other selected readings.

Goals:

To survey some of the literature, and to answer the following questions:

• What are the issues in the application of AI to Design?
• How do we define "design"?
• How do we characterize:
  • types of design?
  • types of design systems?
• How do we critically read a paper about a design system?
• What are the strengths and limitations of approaches to design?
• Why is it part of AI and why is it worth studying?
• Who are some of the "key players" in the field?
• Which are the influential systems?
• How can these systems be compared?
• What are some of the current research areas?

Weekly:

During the course each member of the class will make at least one presentation, by themselves or with another person (depending on class size). Each presentation will be of a design system, and based on readings from the literature. I will provide you with a folder containing the papers. If you can find more that's great -- just make a copy for me. Treat each folder and all the papers in it with extreme care!

You should expect a Presentation to last (at least) 30 minutes. I will try to provide the folder for the research that you are to present, 2 weeks in advance, so that everyone gets the same amount of time to prepare. You can use powerpoint, or overheads. Just let me know in advance so that I can arrange for appropriate equipment.

Each week there will be a handout of papers in order to prepare you for the following week's presentations. You must read all the papers each week. You will all be expected to answer questions about them in class.

At the start of each class I will collect from everyone a short (no more than 1 page) critical review (Critique) of each class handout you've read about the system(s) to be discussed on that day.

You will be expected to actively participate in class by asking and answering questions.

Ongoing Project:

The ongoing project for the course is to write a "profile" that consists of a set of logically grouped questions that if asked of a design system would reveal enough information about it to allow it to be compared with all other AI-based design systems.

Here is an example of such a profile (postscript) (pdf) for Expert Systems in general.

From the questions asked, their organization, and from the sample answers you should make clear what your view is of how to characterize design systems, and what the different types of domain-independent and domain-dependent design activity might be.

I want to you develop your profile as a web page throughout the semester. Send me an email containing the URL early in the course. Gradually add questions to the profile and refine it each week. Every week you must send me an email listing the questions that were added (or refined) in your profile. Please do this on the Thursday or Friday after each class.

Final Project:

The final project for the course is to use the profile that you've developed during the course to help you describe, categorize and evaluate/critique a journal article that you select. When you select a journal article please let me know which it is and why you have selected it. This can be done at any time during the semester. Earlier is better.

The article that you pick must come from Vol.18 (2004) or Vol.19 (2005) of the AI EDAM journal. These papers can be accessed as PDF files online via any WPI computer, as WPI has a subscription. See:

http://journals.cambridge.org/journal_AIEDAM

The journal is also available in hard copy in the WPI Library.

At the end of the course, submit on paper:

• A copy of the journal article;
• Your profile;
• Your profile applied to the journal article ( < 10 pp approx.).

Grade:

The grade will be based on my evaluation of class participation, the presentation(s), the weekly work, and the final project. The presentation(s) will be evaluated by technical accuracy, presentation style and quality, and degree of insight.

Additional Information:

1995 NSF Strategic Planning Workshop for Engineering Design, Position Paper

NSF Report on Research Opportunities in Engineering Design, April 1996.

NSF Report - ED2030: Strategic Plan for Engineering Design, March 2004 (pdf).

Books about AI in Design

DCB's Design-related Definitions

WPI Artificial Intelligence in Design Group

AI in Design Webliography

"Let's Examine the Definitions of the Terms We Use in Engineering Design Research"

AI EDAM journal

http://www.cs.wpi.edu/Research/aidg/CS540/aid.html