Conceptual design environments-research directions and issues

The conventional use of computers in support of engineering design has been directed at those steps and tasks which can be described in terms of procedures and calculations. The reasons for this have been that these tasks are associated with the routine and labour-intensive stages of design, and that the tasks have matched closely with procedural calculation-based models of computing. This emphasis has focused attention on aspects of detailed design and performance prediction, with the earlier stages being neglected and almost ignored. However, early design requires creativity and innovation and involves conceptualisation and synthesis. It is here that there is the greatest synergy between design researchers and AI researchers. On the one hand, design researchers are seeking an improved understanding of design and are working on better ways of representing and using, within the computer system, all the knowledge and expertise which is known to exist at this stage of design. On the other hand, AI researchers are driven to develop improved computational models of human intelligence and find that design provides a challenging and productive domain for such studies