Engineering Design (ED)

The summary for the Engineering Design (ED) grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Science Foundation, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Engineering Design (ED): Basic research in Engineering Design is needed to advance our understanding of the fundamentals of the product realization process. One of the challenges to the research community is to create the necessary connections between the principles of design theory and the practice of design across the broad spectrum of engineered products through the creation of new tools and methods. The focus of the program is on a holistic view of design, where the total system, life-cycle context recognizes the need for advanced understanding of the identification and definition of preferences, analysis of alternatives, effective accommodation of uncertainty in decision-making, and the relationship between data and knowledge in a digitally-supported process. Another challenge is to continue developing the basic pillars supporting design theory, creating the framework for comprehensive models starting with a clear, concise, and full statement of the purpose of the system, synthesizing and integrating across the expertise necessary for the conceptual design phase, establishing the methods and measures by which the models can be validated. Research is also necessary in the realm of "design for" capabilities, where science and engineering are brought to bear on the specific task of developing tools appropriate to a particular domain of application in design space. Current examples such as design for the environment and design for manufacturability are advancing along specific tracks, but research is needed to emphasis convergence across the pertinent domains. Looking towards the future of design methods and tools, the importance of the interface between computational capacity and human wants and experiences must be emphasized. The role of information technologies, automation and visualization, learning technologies and systems will be an increasingly important aspect of effective design practice.