Contact Information

Research Interests

My interests center around the decisions that designers make in a design process. Broadly, I am interested in  organizing and/or sequencing the many decisions in a design process, and making design decisions under risk and uncertainty.  Specific topics that interest me include decision-based design, utility theory in design, information economics, and modeling and simulation in design.

Currently, I am investigating the trade-off between the product utility and the design process utility.  I am using techniques from decision theory to compare sequences of design concept analyses.  These techniques can be used to determine if it is preferred to spend more of the design phase resources to improve the performance of the product.

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., and Paredis, C. J. J., 2009, "A Process-Centric Problem Formulation for Decision-Based Design," ASME 2009 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, San Diego, California, USA. Paper Number: DETC2009-87421
  
• 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.