Hello,
One of the cornerstones of design automation and optimisation is to be able
to find the minima and minimum of an uber aesthetic/cost mathematical
function dependent on a very large number of multi-dimensional functions
representing the relationships between the different characteristics of a
design (combinatorial optimisation problems).
Like AI and Machine Learning the most common mathematical approaches used
in Design software are currently are much as some of us on this list were
developing in the 1970s. Faster computers and improved mathematical tricks
in the algorithms have made them more accessible and more powerful, but
they have much the same limits.
We see the current simpler forms of such approaches in , e.g. Adobe Indesign
and Photoshop in automated front metric adjustment and image enhancement.
In cameras we see them in automatically reshaping faces to make them more
beautiful.
Many of the current design optimisation methods were made commercially
available by companies such as ANSYS in the mid-80s (https://www.ansys.com).
A recent example using Autodesk products is the generation of an optimised
instance of an award winning cover for a vehicle ecu by Denso (the text
mistakenly describes it as the ecu itself, but it is only the cover) -
https://www.autodesk.com/redshift/engine-control/?utm_source=Marketo&utm_med
ium=Email&utm_campaign=Redshift%20newsletter%20Weekly-2018-10-25T11:00:00.00
0-07:00%20&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnpGaVpqRTNOamRsWWpneSIsInQiOiJcL3FRd24zOEVtMVwvY
0JSTTROdGpBUWc3MW1vYzhHUWMxVmhzYlptSkRsM1ZiR3ZuTzVWSHorWjJiaFQrZkJHK0tad0hCd
DBUOVRSRWdOelczRmVjMVwvaThmNmxTNFF5NGUxYnpHVWlWMnJyekZLbjRvNXNSbUhqVnlJV05sQ
zJnMzQ5RXZnbmVFU0hEUm13c1ZhankxaWc9PSJ9
Crucially, however, the benefit to designers in all areas of design of this
fully automated generation and optimisation of design solutions has been
limited by computer power and speed.
Recently, researchers at Tohoku University in Japan have developed an
algorithm that enables a quantum computer to better find optimised solutions
to the kinds of combinatorial optimisation problems of interest in design.
This will help address that limitation and make such deign generation and
optimisation approaches available more widely and for more complex design
tasks. More details are available at
https://www.tohoku.ac.jp/en/press/algorithm_quantum_computing.html
New developments in this and related areas of automated design and
optimisation offer the opportunity for useful new kinds of Design PhDs of
high value - particularly in applying such methods to increasing the
automation of more complex creativity aspects of the work of human designers
in the Art and Design fields.
This is another example of the need for polymathic design researchers who
are skilled in one or more Art and Design fields as well as post-graduate
level skills in mathematics and computing.
Best wishes,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love,
School of Design and Built Environment, Curtin University, Western Australia
CEO, Design Out Crime and CPTED Centre
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
+61 (0)4 3497 5848
ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
==
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