Affiliations: Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering
Department, Information Technology and Engineering School, George Mason
University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA. E-mail: tarcisze@gmu.edu | Department of Mathematics, George Mason University,
Fairfax, VA 22030, USA. E-mail: tsauer@gmu.edu | Systems Engineering and Operations Research
Department, Information Technology and Engineering School, George Mason
University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA. E-mail: dschum@gmu.edu
Note: [] Corresponding author
Abstract: Recent developments in a number of areas including information
technology, complexity science, chaos theory, and evolutionary computation
converge to suggest ways in which engineering design concepts might be
generated. In this paper, a new understanding of this process, called
"conceptual designing", is proposed in the context of chaos. The paper
distinguishes between traditional and evolutionary designing and claims that
the latter one may exhibit chaotic behavior. A general overview of chaos theory
is also provided with several examples of chaos in evolutionary designing.
Finally, a synthesis of conceptual designing and modern methods of chaos theory
is suggested as a major research direction. The paper contains also an overview
of initial results and conclusions with suggestions for future research.
