Artificial intelligence research for engineering design

Have you ever thought about what a pity it is when a senior engineer with 40 years of problem-solving experience retires? Have you ever thought about what a loss it is when a senior teacher with 40 years of teaching experience retires? Imagine what we could do for humanity if we find a way to somehow preserve their experience, expertise, and intelligence automatically before these incredible treasures are taken to the graveyard...

Heat map visualizations of different patterns of design task transition

Funded by the National Science Foundation, I have been working on the research and development of artificial intelligence (AI) for engineering design for a number of years and have been developing the Visual Process Analytics for visualizing and analyzing engineering design process data. This exciting intersection among AI (basically everything about how intelligence can be realized), engineering (basically a generative and creative discipline), and cognitive science (basically everything about how humans acquire intelligence) is full of tremendous challenges, but it also creates unprecedented opportunities that constantly entice and enlighten me.

I have recently written a short article to explain my research to the lay people (mostly educators, but the implications are not limited only to education). Check it out at http://energy.concord.org/~xie/papers/aired.pdf