Contact Information

Research Interests

My interests center around the decisions that designers make in a design process. I am interested in creating methods and tools for (1) identifying the decisions that must be made in a design process, (2) organizing and/or sequencing the many decisions in a design process, and (3) making design decisions under risk and uncertainty.

In my Masters thesis, I investigated the trade-offs involved in deciding between material selection and material design in the context of product design.  My thesis and presentation can be found below.

Publications

Conference Papers

• Thompson, S. C., Young, N., Thiets, R., Groshans, T. M. and Paredis, C. J. J. (2007). "Modeling and Simulation in the Design of a Lunar Rover Suspension with Extensibility to Martian Applications." AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference and Exhibit, Hilton Head Island, SC. AIAA, Paper No. AIAA-2007-6624. [presentation]
  
• Muchnick, H., S. C. Thompson, E. Samadiani, J. K. Allen, Y. Joshi and F. Mistree, 2006, "Exploring the Advantages of Materials Design in a Product Design Process," IDETC/CIE 2006, Philadelphia, PA. Paper Number: DETC2006-99492.
  
• Thompson, S. C., H. Muchnick, H.-J. Choi, D. McDowell, J. K. Allen and F. Mistree, 2006, "Robust Materials Design of Blast Resistant Panels," AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference, Portsmouth, VA. Paper Number: AIAA 2006-7005. [presentation]
  
  

Master of Science Thesis

• Thompson, S. C., 2007, Material Design vs Material Selection: A Trade-off Between Design Freedom and Design Simplicity, M.S. Thesis, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. [thesis] [presentation]

Class Reports

 Other Information

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Fall 2005 - Fall 2008.  You can find my application essays here.
• SRL Lab Manager, Spring & Summer 2007
• Link to my non-research related page.