Title:

Unpacking Design through Behavior, Cognition, and Computation

Speaker:

Dr. Kosa Goucher-Lambert

Affiliation:

University of California, Berkeley, Mechanical Engineering

When:

Friday, October 4, 2019 at 10:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

MRDC Building, Room 3515

Host:

Kate Fu
kfu@me.gatech.edu
404-385-3810

Abstract

This talk describes a series of complementary studies investigating engineering design decision-making regarding both users and designers. First, user decision-making will be discussed. This work centers on the development of a utility-based preference-modeling framework that was used to determine how product preferences vary in response to real-time calculated environmental impact values. Results from this work will then be compared to a related neuroimaging study to demonstrate how brain activity can enhance behavioral results. The second part of this talk will focus on designer decision-making, using an analogical reasoning and concept development framework. Here, a crowdsourcing method to gather and mine useful analogical stimuli will be introduced. Next, the talk will focus on how these stimuli, in combination with neuroimaging data, help uncover the cognitive states of analogical reasoning during design ideation. The talk will conclude with a brief overview of ongoing projects as well as a vision for how these diverse approaches can be combined to answer (difficult) open questions in the design research community.

Biography

Kosa Goucher-Lambert is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an Affiliate Faculty member in the Jacobs Institute of Design Innovation and the Berkeley Institute of Design. Kosa received his B.A (2011) in Physics from Occidental College, and his M.S. (2014) and Ph.D. (2017) in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. His primary research interests focus on understanding decision-making processes in engineering design using a combination of mathematical analyses, computational modeling, human cognitive studies, and neuroimaging approaches. Kosa was a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2014 ASME IDETC Design Theory and Methodology Best Paper Award, 2015, 2017, and 2019 International Conference on Engineering Design Reviewers Favorite Award, and 2019 Excellence in Design Science Award. Kosa primarily teaches courses on integrated product development, with an emphasis on complex socio-technical challenges.