Seminar by Prof. S.K. Gupta from the University of Maryland

Prof. S.K. Gupta

Mechanical Engineering Department and Institute for Systems Research
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742

Abstract:

Existing software systems for mechanical design only store the final design, and all intermediate information generated during the design process is lost. This intermediate information, however, is quite valuable in understanding the thought process through which the initial requirements are transformed into the final design. The loss of information prevents efficient utilization of previous design information in subsequent design projects. Even if some design information is archived, existing software systems do not provide an efficient content-based search tools to search through the archived information.

This seminar will provide an overview of the Design Navigator system that is being developed to address the following three needs for the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Indian Head. First, it captures all the relevant information being generated during the design process in a computer-interpretable form. This eliminates information loss from the design process. Second, it builds fully interconnected information models. Thus ensuring full connectivity between requirements and specifications to various parts and assemblies in the design. Third, it offers multiple modes of searching and retrieving design information in an intuitive and convenient manner. By supporting functionality-based queries, geometry-based queries, and visual navigation of the product database, the Design Navigator system offers maximum flexibility and power to the designers to meet their diverse information retrieval needs.

By preventing the information loss and being able to efficiently locate the relevant information, the Design Navigator system is expected to improve product development process in the following ways. First, it eliminates the need to explore those alternatives that were considered before and discarded. Second, it facilitates design reuse. Third, it helps in making new designers productive quickly.

Biography:

Dr. Satyandra K. Gupta is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department and the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland. Prior to joining the University of Maryland, he was a Research Scientist in the Robotics Institute and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Manufacturing in the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Gupta received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1994. Dr. Gupta is a member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). He has authored or co-authored more than one hundred articles in journal, conference proceedings, and book chapters. He has served as Exhibit Chair in 2000 ASME's Design Engineering Technical Conference Program Chair in 2002 ASME Design for Manufacturing Conference, and Conference Chair in 2003 ASME Design for Manufacturing Conference.

Dr. Gupta has won many honors and awards for his academic excellence and his research contribution to design and manufacturing automation area. Awards received by Dr. Gupta include a Best Paper Award in ASME's International Conference on Computers in Engineering in 1994, a Best Paper Award in ASME's Design for Manufacturing Conference in 1999, ONR's Young Investigator Award in 2000, SME's Robert W. Galvin Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 2001, NSF's CAREER Award in 2001, and Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers (PECASE) in 2001.