Division of Informatics
Forrest Hill & 80 South Bridge

Research Paper #499
Title:	Design is Intelligent Behaviour, but what'S the Formalism
Authors:	Smithers,T; Troxell,W
Date:	1990
Presented:	Accepted for Publication In The Journal Of Ai For Engineering Design, Analysis, And Manufacturing, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1990
Keywords:
Abstract:	We present a methodology for studying and understanding the process of design, and ultimately for developing a computational theory of design. In particular, we set out the role of formalization in such an investigation. We do this by first presenting the background to and development of computational search as a widely adopted problem solving paradigm in AI research. We then suggest why computational search provides an inadequate characterisation of the design process and propose, as an alternative, that design is an exploration process. By developing certain ideas first put forward by Simon we seek to explain why this view is taken and how it forms a central part of our AI in Design research program, and how we hope to (eventually) develop a computational theory of design. The radically incomplete nature of this work necessarily prevents from answering the question posed by our title, but it provides a good focus for our efforts.
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Division of InformaticsForrest Hill & 80 South Bridge