e-Design Public - Innovating IT-Enabled Design

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Center for e-Design

The Center for e-Design is a joint research coalition comprised of seven universities working closely with numerous businesses and government organizations. The coalition was established to create new design paradigms and electronic design tools that will assist in generating high quality products and systems at a reduced cost while also reducing the time associated with designing complex engineered products and systems. The research efforts of the Center for e-Design support the basic premise that information is the lifeblood of an enterprise and that collaboration is what seamlessly integrates.

Industry Problems, Needs and Challenges

Prior research has shown that approximately 70 percent of a product’s life-cycle costs are committed in the design phase, particularly during the conceptual design stage. The manufacturing industry faces market pressures of mass customization and rapid delivery. For manufacturers of engineered products and systems, the ability to deliver products to the market in a faster, cheaper and more efficient manner is vital. Meeting this important goal requires advancements to be made in design technology which are key to gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage. Research efforts of this Center are designed to develop solutions to industry problems and challenges, such as:

• Working in a new paradigm in design of engineered products
• Having interoperability among heterogeneous systems
• Establishing customer-oriented and supplier communication
• Achieving collaboration among all stakeholders
• Managing remote and distributed design via Internet
• Taking products from concept to form
• Solving direct design constraint imposition
• Resolving multidisciplinary constraints
• Establishing scalable, flexible, and efficient design platforms
• Reconciling virtual product prototyping with physical laws realization

Application Areas

The Center for e-Design is a design facilitator. It uses the Internet and special software platforms to manipulate a common design in cyberspace and in unison, allowing multiple partners to interact in the design process. Therefore, research in the Center is oriented to those applications areas where large size and complex projects are being developed, involving multiple partners as well as locations. Some application areas for the Center include:

• Aerospace
• Automotive
• Medical
• Nautical
• Consumer products

Collectively, these areas encompass the gamut of engineering challenges faced by high-tech U.S. companies competing in a global economy.