Clemson Research in Engineering Design and Optimization (CREDO)

Graduate Research Assistantships (2005)

The Clemson Research in Engineering Design and Optimization Laboratory (CREDO), co-directed by Prof. Georges Fadel and Prof. Joshua D. Summers, has funding for three highly competitive Graduate Research Assistantship positions (PhD, full financial support) in the areas of configuration design and virtual reality starting in Fall 2005. These positions are annually renewable based upon satisfactory performance. Preference will be given to US national students pursuing a Ph.D. These positions require significant software development, and as such applicants will be required to demonstrate adequate programming skills. Qualified and interested individuals should contact the project leaders directly.

Configuration Design

Configuration design, and within that packaging optimization, corresponds to finding a suitable placement for a set of objects within a given space while satisfying spatial constraints and meeting performance objectives. Three-dimensional packaging has been given increasing attention where numerous applications exist in engineering fields such as the automotive industry (underhood configuration design), aerospace (satellite configuration), and naval architecture (conceptual and layout design). In order to solve problems of increasing complexity (due to number, size, shape, and interdependency) in the industrial context, our group has the ambition to significantly advance packaging capability by tackling some of the inhibiting issues.

Research topic 1: Understand and compare (through intrinsic analysis and extrinsic experimentation) various geometric representations (CSG, B-Rep, STL, voxel-based, Implicit Solid Modeling) and related CAD capabilities for: (1) shell extraction of detailed 3D CAD models, (2) granularity control, and (3) collision detection.
Research topic 2: Develop (based upon established protocols) and implement (through software engineering) heuristic strategies in the optimization process in order to gain computational time.

Virtual Reality

The concept of collaborative design has emerged both as an effect of globalization and as a prospective tool for enabling this new engineering design approach. One prospective tool to enhance synchronous distributed collaborative design through a shared interface is CoVR, a collaborative virtual reality system underdevelopment in our research laboratories. This system is heterogeneous operating in a shared environment of Windows, Linux, and SGI, extendable to include multiple platforms simultaneously. Specific research activities within this project will include further development of the system to include interfacing with commercial CAD systems and partner VR environments across the US and Europe. The researcher will be tasked with developing appropriate justification for extending VR to a collaborative environment based upon collaborative design theory. Finally, explorations in possible applications of augmented reality in engineering design will be encouraged.

Background

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University (http://www.ces.clemson.edu/me) is a leader in automotive-related research and systems integration. Funded research activities and close contact with industry maintain the department at the cutting edge in various fields including mechanical and manufacturing systems, engineering mechanics, and thermo/fluid sciences. The Department has established a Direct Ph.D. program for exceptional undergraduate students. Additional information on the research projects may be found at the lab websites (CREDO) and (Automation in Design).

Project Leaders

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joshua D. Summers
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
250 Fluor Daniel EIB
Clemson, SC 29631-0921
(864) 656-3295
joshua.summers@ces.clemson.edu

Dr. Vincent Blouin
Lead Researcher of CREDO Lab
240 Fluor Daniel EIB
Clemson, SC 29634-0921
(864) 656-7198
vblouin@clemson.edu

This webpage was last updated: September 15, 2004
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