Formal Engineering Design Synthesis

The development of a new design is often thought of as a fundamentally human, creative act. However, emerging research has demonstrated that aspects of design synthesis can be formalized. First steps in this direction were taken in the early 1960s when systematic techniques were introduced to guide engineers in producing high-quality designs. By the mid-1980s these methods had evolved from their informal (guideline-like) origins to more formal (computable) methods. In recent years, highly automated design synthesis techniques have emerged. This timely book reviews the state-of-the-art in formal design synthesis methods. It also provides an in-depth exploration of several representative projects in formal design synthesis and examines future directions in computational design synthesis research. Written by internationally renowned experts in engineering and architectural design, it covers topics at the cutting edge of engineering design, and will appeal to designers, researchers and engineering graduate students.