Research Initiation:  A Knowledge-Based Methodology for     Composite Products Design
{'Code': '07030000', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'ENG', 'LongName': 'Directorate For Engineering'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'CMMI', 'LongName': 'Div Of Civil, Mechanical, & Manufact Inn'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Clifton Leach', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
This award is to support the design of composite objects                   and blends with desired properties is an important and diffi-                   cult process in the industry.  Industries are the key and                       emerging technological areas such as novel materials, specialty                 chemicals, biotechnology and pharmaceutical, etc. critically                    depend on accurate, efficient, innovative and rapid design of                   new products that satisfy functional and processing constraints                 in order to compete effectively in a changing international                     market.  This class of design problems encompasses a wide vari-                 ety of products such as polymeric composites and blends, cera-                  mics, alloys, drugs, solvents, paints and varnishes, etc., that                 amount to tens of billions of dollars in sales every year in the                United States alone.                                                                 In order to understand this design process and to develop                  a design methodology that can be formalized and automated, a                    knowledge-based framework will be developed.  This methodology                  approaches design as a constrained knowledge-guided search by                   modeling the design sub-space interactions as a hierarchy of                    operators that cause motion in the search space.  Knowledge                     represented in a hybrid form of frames, rules, and procedures.                  Flexible control of reasoning is facilitated by using a combina-                tion of weak methods, namely, generate-and-test and means-ends-                 analysis.  A blackboard architecture will be developed to imple-                ment this design methodology.  The methodology should lead to a                 design environment that will facilitate rapid exploration of                    preliminary design candidates.
{'FirstName': 'Venkat', 'LastName': 'Venkatasubramanian', 'PI_MID_INIT': None, 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Venkat Venkatasubramanian', 'EmailAddress': 'venkat@columbia.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000348638', 'StartDate': '08/15/1988', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'Columbia University', 'CityName': 'NEW YORK', 'ZipCode': '100277922', 'PhoneNumber': '2128546851', 'StreetAddress': '615 W 131ST ST', 'StreetAddress2': 'MC 8741', 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'New York', 'StateCode': 'NY', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '13', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'NY13', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'F4N1QNPB95M4', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': None}
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{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8807531.xml'}