Abstract Through a strategic learning process, prototypes unveil design directions. We provide a review of prototyping methods for novice designers to study and pedagogical practice for capstone design course faculty to juxtapose. Stanford University's ME310 graduate-level project-based learning course introduces students to various prototyping design techniques, such as Needfinding and Benchmarking, and prototyping methods, such as the Critical Experience Prototype, Critical Function Prototype, Dark Horse Prototype, Part-X is Finished, Funky System Prototype, and Functional System Prototype.

The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the issues, challenges and questions facing universities and colleges as they consider the use of technology in the support of teaching and learning. The issues are difficult in that they require balanced consideration of questions such as:What types of technologies improve learning ?Which faculty members will adopt and experiment with technologies? How will this impact the reward system ?Which technologies can we afford? What are the hidden costs?Most of these questions remain unanswered.We begin by giving examples of the types of learning technologies that universities are exploring and adopting. We proceed to enumerate some of the reasons for this adoption, and then discuss the various groups who should be asking probing questions about the effectiveness of these technologies. Some of the characteristics of an evaluation plan that would address these various questions are then proposed. We conclude with several emerging models for such an evaluation plan.

In a recent survey of robotics in rehabilitative human service, Stanger et al. (1994) re-established the central role of task assessment in defining technical R&D priorities. Among their key findings, and central to the thesis of this paper, is the re-affirmation that engineers and scientists, intent on being helpful, must first assess just who is being served, where they are, what they are trying to do and who is going to pay for it. Moreover, the cost associated with an integral socio-technical framework that addresses user needs for interaction, support and maintenance after the initial installation is the real driver toward adoption of robotics technology over equivalent human service.

The concept of an electronic or digital engineering design notebook used by designers to capture information for reuse and sharing is becoming reality in many different flavors. Our development of pens (Personal Electronic Notebook with Sharing) responds to observed designers' needs for a lightweight tool that is facile enough to compete with paper notebooks in functionality. Each time informal design notes are entered in pens, a project information web automatically grows. As it grows, selections can be incrementally shared with collaborators over the Internet's World-Wide Web (WWW). In an era where both network security concerns and distributed collaboration demands are growing together, pens has the capability for information sharing that is independent of security firewalls. To evaluate the utility of the pens notebook concept, a prototype was developed and used by 14 mechanical engineering design teams, many of which were composed of geographically distributed team members.

Integrated product and process development is accomplished by multidisciplinary teams. To support the team approach we have developed ICM, the Interdisciplinary Communication Medium. It accommodates and integrates many perspectives within a design and manufacturing enterprise. The ICM prototype integrates a shared graphic modeling environment and network-based services. The graphics include 3D models of evolving designs, and network-based services include knowledge-based reasoning tools that critique the performance of the proposed device. ICM implements an iterative communication cycle in which team members: (1) propose form models in a shared graphic modeling environment, (2) interpret the shared graphic models as semantic discipline models, (3) gather information by using the discipline models to customize their search for additional discipline information, (4) critique the discipline models to derive behavior and compare it to function, (5) explain the results to other members of the team, and (6) route change notifications for proposed changes.

Computer-based design evolution capture in a multi-disciplinary project environment remains a difficult problem. This paper de scribes VisionManager, a prototype for design evolution capture, visualization, and reuse in support of multi-disciplinary collaborative team work Based on our research experience, our hypothesis is that one of the key factors in reducing life-cycle cost is improved communica tion, coordination and cooperation among team members. VisionManager accommodates and integrates many perspectives within a design and manufacturing enterprise It allows team members to: (1) augment shared graphic design models with the team members' design in tents, interests, and responsibilities, (2) capture versions at different levels of granularity, such as, feature, discipline perspective, and proj ect level, (3) create private, public, and consensus versions in a hierarchical archive, (4) infer shared interests and route change notifica tions with regard to a modified feature or perspective, (5) visualize the design evolution of features, discipline perspectives, and the overall project based on captured semantics, and (6) reuse previous alternatives VisionManager is distinguished from the state-of-the-art file- based document management systems and proposes a model-based and content-based approach for design evolution capture, visualiza tion, and reuse.

In robot applications where the consequences of system failure are unbearable, fault tolerance is mandatory. Fault tolerant robots continue to function correctly despite component failures. Fault tolerant robots can be designed using the Helenic architecture. This architecture uses non-homogeneous functional modular redundancy and a democratic dynamic weighted voting algorithm for redundancy management to achieve fault tolerance. The benefits offered are increased reliability, maintainability, common mode failure resistance, and significant cost reductions. To demonstrate the fault tolerance capabilities of this system architecture, a 5 wheel omnidirectional mobile robot with sensors, computing elements and actuators was designed and simulated. Simulation results verify the robot's ability to continue 'correct' operation despite internal subsystem failures.

The SHARE project seeks to apply information technologies in helping design teams gather, organize, reaccess, and communicate both informal and formal design information to establish a `shared understanding' of the design and design process. The paper presents the visions of SHARE, along with the research and strategies undertaken to build an infrastructure toward its realization. A preliminary prototype environment is being used by designers working on a variety of industry sponsored design projects. This testbed continues to inform and guide the development of NoteMail, MovieMail, and Xshare, as well other components of the next generation SHARE environment that will help distributed design teams work together more effectively

It is desirable to expose and observe the implications of design decisions early in conceptual stages of design when the cost of design changes are relatively inexpensive. However, few quantitative design details are available at the conceptual design stages rendering traditional design analysis techniques ineffective. Using qualitative information, failure mode and effect recognition (FMER) analysis can expose many possible failure modes. In addition, it lays the foundation for the quantitative failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) employed in the later stages of design. In performing FMER for a given design, system functionality and interactions between all subcomponents become better understood. The objectives, goals, and assumptions of the design become explicitly documented in the analysis. FMER design verification is based on first principles, geometric relationships, and general information about the components. This qualitative analysis can reveal critical failures due to overconstrained objects, under-constrained motions, conflicting information, and unrecognized assumptions. The designer quickly recognizes short comings of a design and is thus better able to make revisions. The designer specifies more details, making the transition from conceptual design to detailed design. Moving from qualitative to more quantitative analysis, more thorough design validations can be performed as detailed information becomes available. The effectiveness of FMER as an early design analysis tool was demonstrated. Failure modes and effects recognition (FMER) analysis was performed on the base-line (kinematic mount concept) design of the tertiary mirror assembly (TMA) of the space infra-red telescope facility (SIRTF). The findings presented here are not intended to be critiques of the design. But they did serve to identify areas of concern to the designer.