June 25-29, 2007     Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa     Honolulu, Hawaii

Programmable Graphics Processors in Computer Aided Design

Thomas R. Kurfess, Clemson University

Advances in graphics card technology and processing power are proceeding at an astounding pace driven by the demands of the computer gaming market. Computer-aided design applications stand to reap a wealth of benefits from these advances. This tutorial discusses the recent advances in consumer graphics card technology such as programmable shaders and 3D texturing and how these new features are applicable to computer-aided design applications.

Data Mining for Knowledge-Driven Design

Andrew Kusiak, The University of Iowa

Design is becoming increasingly data and knowledge dependent. Data-mining algorithms transform the data accumulated in corporate databases into useful design knowledge. The emerging knowledge-driven designs are optimized for variety of criteria, including product complexity reduction, mass customization, and product innovation. The tutorial introduces basic concepts from data mining and its application knowledge-driven design.

Reverse Engineering of Reliefs

Ralph R. Martin, Cardiff University

Design reliefs are widely used for purposes such as branding packaging and decorating porcelain. Often there is a requirement to re-use an existing relief, requiring methods of reverse engineering reliefs.  This tutorial will consider the steps needed to segment a relief from its background, model the underlying surface it lies upon, and represent it in a way which allows its reapplication to a new surface.

Towards Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing at the Nanoscale

Aristides A. G. Requicha, University of Southern California

Design and manufacturing at any spatial scale are, and should be, inextricably intertwined. At the nanoscale, manufacturing processes are currently a major limitation on what can be designed and built. This talk will discuss nanoscale fabrication techniques and their implications for design. Examples of both conventional techniques, such as lithography, and unconventional ones, such as

robotic self-assembly, will be presented.

A Survey of Computer-Aided Tolerance Analysis Methods for Design

Jami J. Shah, Arizona State University

There are several commercial software tools for tolerance analysis, and many companies have developed their own in-house tools. Many of these systems are not consistent with ISO/ANSI/ASME standards, and in most cases even give incorrect results. This tutorial will look at the major approaches for both worst case analysis and statistical analysis. We will see that some methods work only for 1D. For 2D and 3D analysis either linearization or Monte Carlo simulation is used.

A Metaknowledge Approach to Facilitate Knowledge Sharing in the Global Product Development Process, James Gao, University of Greenwich

Widespread adoption of the multi-functional stage-gate product development model and the emergence of the global product development have conspired to create various knowledge sharing problems. Three such knowledge problem categories were identified by the authors in an exploratory study at a multinational heating systems manufacturer. This paper presents the recent developments to an ontology-based knowledge sharing tool intended to tackle these problems and describes an industry-based case study intended to illustrate how the tool may be used in practice.