Person:

Craig, James I.

Permanent Link

https://hdl.handle.net/1853/71180

Associated Organization(s)

Organizational Unit

Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Capturing Corporate Philosophy: The Future of IT

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2000-02) Hale, Mark A. ; Daberkow, Debora Daniela ; DeLaurentis, Daniel A. ; Mavris, Dimitri N. ; Schrage, Daniel P. ; Craig, James I.

Context is proposed as a mechanism for organizing Information Technology practices in the future through its role in interpretation. An enterprise organization model based on decision-flow is presented here that is applicable to a variety of domains. It contains elements that mark the information content with respect to a full consideration of its environment. These elements are, in order of increasing superiority, data, information, knowledge, judgement, and philosophy. There are four marked stages where contextual derivation occurs among these elements, including definition, refinement, improvement, and realization. Discovery occurs during the derivation of context and it is at this time that higher-level processes influence subordinate processes. For this reason, it is believed that corporate philosophy can be infused explicitly throughout enterprise practices. The resulting organizational model can be used by an enterprise to strategically allocate resources and maintain competitive advantage.
A Lean-Server Approach to Enabling Collaboration Using Advanced Design Methods

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999-09) Hale, Mark A. ; Craig, James I. ; Mavris, Dimitri N.

The design framework research community utilizes the internet as a facilitator for collaborative activities. The internet provides a platform independent interface and geographic distribution. Information can be easily represented to the end-user using the HyperText Markup Language and can be coded in a reasonable timeframe. A shortcoming of exploiting this technology further is the reliance on existing Web servers to interface with analysis tools and design services. In this case, interactive components require auxiliary processes (called CGI scripts) to be started by the server that are used in an inefficient manner. This model does not provide the user-oriented capability required by standalone applications. Java offers improvements in client-side processing but a server bottleneck still exists. A novel approach using lean-servers is introduced as an alternative method for providing an efficient server-side computing model. In this case, internet requests are brokered directly by the design application by providing a gateway to the application? programming interface using a HyperText Transfer Protocol compliant layer. This allows requests to be managed directly by the application rather than requiring auxiliary services. Step-by-step directions for implementing this approach using a case study of an existing design framework are given in this paper. A prototype system, called the Systems Programming Architecture for Collaborative Engineering, is described as one scenario for implementing the lean-server technology. Usability of the approach is demonstrated through a Design of Experiments example that is representative of modern design methods. This example also demonstrates collaboration because it executes asynchronously with multi-user intervention at any time during the process. In hindsight, the lean-server approach is an enabling technology for collaborative design and focuses future research direction on the establishment of collaborative design practices.
Techniques for Integrating Computer Programs into Design Architectures

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996-09) Hale, Mark A. ; Craig, James I.

The benefits of using modular computer architectures for multi-disciplinary design are being explored by industry, government, and academia. These architectures are being validated through a considerable number of in-house and team demonstration projects. Based on experiences to date, a generic computing design architecture consists of the following components: process management, a common product data model, an analysis toolkit, a problem-independent computing backplane, and integration mechanisms. The latter is concerned with the addition of services to computer resources in an analysis toolkit, called wrapping, and is discussed in this paper. Wrapping allows for the collaborative use of resources within a computer architecture. Strategies and consequences of integrating resources from executables to source code are outlined. Benefits associated with using software agents to assist designers in integrating and using software resources in design computing architectures are highlighted.
DREAMS and IMAGE: A Model and Computer Implementation for Concurrent, Life-Cycle Design of Complex Systems

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996-06) Hale, Mark A. ; Craig, James I. ; Mistree, Farrokh ; Schrage, Daniel P.

Computing architectures are being assembled that extend concurrent engineering practices by providing more efficient execution and collaboration on distributed, heterogeneous computing networks. Built on the successes of initial architectures, requirements for a next-generation design computing infrastructure can be developed. These requirements concentrate on those needed by a designer in decision-making processes from product conception to recycling and can be categorized in two areas: design process and design information management. A designer both designs and executes design processes throughout design time to achieve better product and process capabilities while expending fewer resources. In order to accomplish this, information, or more appropriately design knowledge, needs to be adequately managed during product and process decomposition as well as recomposition. A foundation has been laid that captures these requirements in a design architecture called DREAMS (Developing Robust Engineering Analysis Models and Specifications). In addition, a computing infrastructure, called IMAGE (Intelligent Multidisciplinary Aircraft Generation Environment), is being developed that satisfies design requirements defined in DREAMS and incorporates enabling computational technologies.
On the Development of a Computing Infrastructure that Facilitates IPPD from a Decision-Based Perspective

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995-09) Hale, Mark A. ; Craig, James I. ; Mistree, Farrokh ; Schrage, Daniel P.

Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) embodies the simultaneous application of both system and quality engineering methods throughout iterative design processes. The use of IPPD results in the time-conscious, cost-saving development of engineering systems. A computing infrastructure called IMAGE is designed to implement IPPD from a decision-based perspective. IMAGE has four components: designer activities, available assets, agent collaboration, and a computing architecture. IMAGE captures a designer's activities through a timeline partitioning scheme, problem formulation and solution, and comprehensive information management. To support these activities, IMAGE incorporates design resources through the use of agents. Agents are a critical computational enabling technology that provide accountable mechanisms for resource collaboration in an integrated computing environment.
Implementing an IPPD Environment from a Decision-Based Design Perspective

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995-05) Hale, Mark A. ; Schrage, Daniel P. ; Mistree, Farrokh ; Craig, James I.

Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) embodies the simultaneous application of both system and quality engineering methods throughout an iterative design process. The use of IPPD results in the time-conscious, cost-saving development of engineering systems. Georgia Tech has proposed the development of an Integrated Design Engineering Simulator that will merge Integrated Product and Process Development with interdisciplinary analysis techniques and state-of-the-art computational technologies. To implement IPPD, a Decision-Based Design perspective is encapsulated in an approach that focuses on the role of the human designer in product development. The approach has two parts and is outlined in this paper. First, an architecture, called DREAMS, is being developed that facilitates design from a decision-based perspective. Second, a supporting computing infrastructure, called IMAGE, is being designed. The current status of development is given and future directions are outlined.
Use of Agents to Implement an Integrated Computing Environment

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995-03) Hale, Mark A. ; Craig, James I.

Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) embodies the simultaneous application of both system and quality engineering methods throughout an iterative design process. The use of IPPD results in the time-conscious, cost-saving development of engineering systems. To implement IPPD, a Decision-Based Design perspective is encapsulated in an approach that focuses on the role of the human designer in product development. The approach has two parts and is outlined in this paper. First, an architecture, called DREAMS, is being developed that facilitates design from a decision-based perspective. Second, a supporting computing infrastructure, called IMAGE, is being designed. Agents are used to implement the overall infrastructure on the computer. Successful agent utilization requires that they be made of three components: the resource, the model, and the wrap. Current work is focused on the development of generalized agent schemes and associated demonstration projects. When in place, the technology independent computing infrastructure will aid the designer in systematically generating knowledge used to facilitate decision-making.
IMAGE: A Design Integration Framework Applied to the High Speed Civil Transport

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1994-12) Hale, Mark A. ; Craig, James I.

Effective design of the High Speed Civil Transport requires the systematic application of design resources throughout a product's life-cycle. Information obtained from the use of these resources is used for the decision-making processes of Concurrent Engineering. Integrated computing environments facilitate the acquisition, organization, and use of required information. State-of- the-art computing technologies provide the basis for the Intelligent Multi-disciplinary Aircraft Generation Environment (IMAGE) described in this paper. IMAGE builds upon existing agent technologies by adding a new component called a model. With the addition of a model, the agent can provide accountable resource utilization in the presence of increasing design fidelity. The development of a zeroth-order agent is used to illustrate agent fundamentals. Using a CATIA?based agent from previous work, a High Speed Civil Transport visualization system linking CATIA, FLOPS, and ASTROS will be shown. These examples illustrate the important role of the agent technologies used to implement IMAGE, and together they demonstrate that IMAGE can provide an integrated computing environment for the design of the High Speed Civil Transport.
Preliminary Development of Agent Technologies for a Design Integration Framework

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1994-09) Hale, Mark A. ; Craig, James I.

Effective design of modern systems requires the systematic application of design resources throughout a product's life-cycle. Information obtained from the use of these resources is used for the decision-making processes of Concurrent Engineering. Integrated computing environments facilitate the acquisition, organization and use of required information. State-of-the-art computing technologies provide the basis for an Intelligent Multi-disciplinary Aircraft Generation Environment (IMAGE) described in this paper. IMAGE builds upon existing agent technologies by adding a new component called a model. With the addition of a model, the agent can provide accountable resource utilization in the presence of increasing design fidelity. Agent fundamentals are illustrated with a zeroth-order agent example. A CATIA?based agent is described to demonstrates that agent technologies can be scaled to include large and complex proprietary resources. Likewise, multi-proprietary resource systems are demonstrated with an aircraft component modeling system integrating CATIA and ORACLE?and with a High Speed Civil Transport visualization system linking CATIA, FLOPS, and ASTROS. These examples illustrate the important role of the agent technologies used to implement IMAGE, and together they demonstrate that IMAGE can provide an integrated computing environment for the design of open engineering systems.