This paper presents the conceptual framework behind the Design Computing Unit's knowledgebased design research. It commences with a brief overview before introducing the role of experience in design. The conceptual schema 'prototypes' is introduced and described within a framework of design as transforming required or expected functions to structure descriptions. Current projects related to thi...

Presents a case study illustrating practical management and quality issues which have underpinned the transition of a Master of Education course from a traditional to a distance learning format. The background and development of the course are described, including the rationale for, personal experience and some consequences of, “translating” traditional teaching into text-based materials. A sum...

This paper examines the future roles of knowledge-based systems in the design process. It commences with a brief review of computer-aided design and knowledge-based systems prior to examining the present and future roles of knowledge-based systems in design under the headings of: design analysis/formulation; design synthesis; and design evaluation. The paper concludes with a discussion on desig...

Many fire evacuation models have been proposed in recent years to better simulate such as an emergency situation. However most of them do not respect a recommendation of fire evacuation experts regarding the fact that evacuees should follow the boundaries of obstacles or wall to find the exits when their visibility is limited by smoke. This paper presents an agent-based evacuation model with Sm...

We discuss the usage of deductive systems for representing general design knowledge, and attribute models, which are a kind of constraint networks, for representing implementation knowledge of design objects. This combination of two precisely described (formalized) knowledge systems enables us to represent both kinds of design knowledge and is suu-ciently constructive to be used in developing C...

Platform-based design faces an essential tension: it wants to reuse previous designs to leverage IP; but new designs must necessarily include work that is not complete or well-characterized. Synthesis and analysis methods are therefore important elements in platform-based design methodologies. This paper describes two aspects of this problem. First, we consider the first-generation dilemma, in ...

A main issue in collaborative learning is providing support and monitoring both the individual learners and the group activities. In this sense, there is a variety of functions that might be accomplished by a collaborative learning support system. Some examples are: knowledge diagnosis and evaluation, group and individual feedback, student and group modelling, and so on. LeCS (Learning from Cas...

The RBC collaboration has performed simulations with domain wall fermions (DWF) and the DBW2 gauge action and presented results for weak matrix elements. This report focuses on the chiral condensate 〈ψ̄ψ〉 and exploits nonperturbative renormalization calculations to get physical values for both quenched and dynamical fermions. The simulation details are given the Table 1. Two lattice volumes are ...

This paper discusses concurrent design process of large complicated systems toward the establishment of formal fundamentals that are necessary in the development of agent-based distributed design systems. Under the assumption that an artifact is modeled with a set of lumped mass systems and that the number of variables is fairly huge, the necessity of hierarchical and horizontal decomposition o...

Conspiracy theories cover topics from politicians to world events. Frequently, proponents of conspiracies hold these beliefs strongly despite available evidence that may challenge or disprove them. Therefore, conspiratorial reasoning has often been described as illegitimate or flawed. In the paper, we explore the possibility of growing a rational (Bayesian) conspiracy theorist through an Agent-...