Engineering Design and Systems Engineering

The Engineering Design and Systems Engineering (EDSE) program supports fundamental research that advances design science and/or systems science through the creation of new knowledge about the design of engineered artifacts. Engineered artifacts include, but are not limited to, devices, products, processes, platforms, materials, organizations, systems, and systems of systems. The program focuses on design as a system, in which designers, the artifacts they create, the methods they use to create them, and the environment in which this occurs are all subject to rigorous scientific inquiry, along with the interactions among these elements.

The EDSE program strongly encourages proposals that embrace the multidisciplinary nature of design and supports well-defined collaborations of experts in design science and/or systems science with experts in other domains, including (but not limited to) the social, behavioral, computational, and natural (biological and physical) sciences. Competitive proposals will be firmly grounded in theory, will demonstrate the potential of the proposed work to improve design, and will include a plan to rigorously assess the performance and effectiveness of the proposed research methods across all domains involved.

In particular, the EDSE program supports fundamental contributions in areas that include but are not limited to design representation; design optimization; design validation; mechanism design; robotics and intelligent system design; design of engineered materials systems; design cognition; design collaboration; data science and artificial intelligence in design; design in under-resourced communities; immersive design; and design at extreme scales and in extreme environments.

Prospective investigators are encouraged to discuss their research ideas with the Program Director in advance of proposal preparation and submission.