THE INTERACTIVE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS INSTRUCTOR AND HELPER

IN ITS THIRTY YEARS OF EXISTENCE, FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS HAS BECOME AN INDISPENSABLE TOOL OF ENGINEERING. BECAUSE OF ITS WIDE APPLICABILITY, THE PRESENT LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF THIS COMPLEX METHOD AMONG U.S. ENGINEERS IS COSTLY TO OUR ECONOMY AND TO THE COMPETITIVE POSITION OF OUR NATION. THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROPOSED PROJECT ISAIAH (THE INTERACTIVESTRUCTURAL ANALYSIS INSTRUCTOR AND HELPER) IS TO UTILIZE MODERN HYPERMEDIA TECHNOLOGY TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOP AN INTERACTIVE FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS KNOWLEDGE BASE ON A MICROCOMPUTER LASER DISK TO PROVIDE: (1) ENGINEERING STUDENTS WITH "HANDS-ON" EXPERIENCE COMBINEDWITH INTERACTIVE INSTRUCTION AND (2) PRACTICING ENGINEERS WITH INTERACTIVE ASSISTANCE DURING PRE-PROCESSING AND POST-PROCESSING, TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSES AND THE RESULTING QUALITY OF U.S. ENGINEERING. AS A FIRST STEP TOWARD THIS GOAL (TO BE REALIZED IN PRIVATELY-FUNDED PHASE III), A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT PROTOTYPE FRAME ANALYSIS ASSISTANT ON A MICROCOMPUTER DISKETTE WILL BE FORMULATED AND TESTED IN PHASE I TO: (1) VERIFY THE FEASIBILITY OF THE HYPERMEDIA APPROACH, AND (2) TEST ITS EFFECTIVENESS WITH ENGINEERING STUDENTS AND PRACTITIONERS. WITH NON-FEDERAL FUNDS, AN INTERIM INTERACTIVE FRAME ANALYSIS KNOWLEDGE BASE WILL BE DEVELOPED IN PHASE I.5.