Design Engineering Research

Design is the area of engineering which most distinguishes it from the sciences. Our research focuses on understanding and improving the process of design in order to facilitate the creation of new products and technologies.

With nine active faculty, the Design Engineering Lab is one of the largest academic mechanical engineering design research lab in the United States. The particular areas of strong research within the lab include:

• Design of energy systems,
• Design theories and methods for fostering innovation,
• Applied numerical optimization and artificial intelligence,
• Analysis of complex systems,
• Sustainable product design,
• Approaches to understanding and managing uncertainty, risk, and failure,
• Industrial design,
• Design of rehabilitation systems,
• Design of energy systems for the developing world, and
• Computer aided design and design automation.

In addition to these topics, the design faculty work closely with other researchers throughout the university. Current interdisciplinary research projects involve robotics, industrial engineering, material science, thermal-fluids, and advanced manufacturing.

Other than research, graduate students learn the gamut of design, from managing a large team of engineers to statistical analysis techniques. Some courses focus on computational methods; others involve local industries so that graduates have a range of experience and skills to build the next generation of high tech machines.

While the lab is more of an organization than a location, we are centered in the northeastern end of OSU's campus in Dearborn, Rogers, Batcheller, and Covell – with an epicenter in Dearborn 100.

Research Areas

• Design automation, computational geometry, design theory, graph theory, numerical optimization, and artificial intelligence
• Multi-disciplinary design theory and methods to optimize human well-being and overall system performance; human subject data collection and virtual simulations
• Computational optimization algorithms, design automation, computational design tools for energy systems, wind farm systems optimization, wave energy systems optimization, and sustainable product design
• Decision-based design, robust design optimization, optimization under uncertainty, complex system design
• Design theory and methodology, applied product and process design, distributed global design and manufacturing, marine renewable energy
• Design theories and methodologies including product architectures, functional representations, automated conceptual design techniques, biologically inspired design, and innovation strategies for new product design
• Complex system design, model-based design, and risk, reliability and failure analysis