Collaborative Research: Proofing A Basic Systems Engineering Model Through Empirically-Based Cognitive Testing

University Of North Carolina At Charlotte, Charlotte NC

Investigators

Abstract

America's global leadership depends in part on its engineering and design capabilities in an increasingly competitive and complex environment. Trends have long been toward larger and more complicated systems. Systems engineering methodology is intended to address the complexity of today?s engineering challenges. Currently, there are only narrative theoretical models that cover the entirety of systems engineering. These models have proven difficult to test due to their discursive nature. This project addresses how such theoretical models can be tested against quantitative experimental results derived from studying engineers performing systems design. This will result in improved systems engineering models and used to contribute to America's global leadership. The results of this project form the basis of an increased scientific understanding of engineering systems design with direct implications for systems engineering practice and education. It will demonstrate a novel research technique that can be used to test other discursive theoretical models and will lay the foundation for the future testing of the education of systems engineers. Descriptive theoretical models that aim to capture and enhance engineering systems design have been suggested but not tested. The goal of this project is to apply the approach of converting a narrative theoretical model into a cognitively-based ontology with the aim of producing a representation that allows for quantitative representations and testing. This approach treats the discursive model as the articulation of a think-aloud protocol. This project is based on a newly developed technique of representing such descriptive theoretical models by translating them into the Function-Behavior-Structure (FBS) ontology, which serves as a common ontology, and then segmenting and coding the result as if it were a think-aloud protocol. The FBS ontology is a highly-grounded ontology that has been shown to be effective in representing the engineering design process. This then allows the theoretical model to be compared with results obtained by studying the design cognition of engineers designing using a think-aloud protocol segmented and coded using the FBS ontology. Since both the theoretical model and the experimental results are in the same form the theoretical model can now be tested for coherence with the experimental results. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.