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Design Space Decomposition Using Concept Maps, David E. Robbins

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Decomposition of engineering design spaces has been performed primarily through statistical and system identification techniques. However, no approach has yet attempted to capture the semantics of a design through decomposition. This thesis presents graphical techniques for capturing the semantics of a design by developing an information architecture through design space decomposition using concept maps. In particular, concept maps are used to begin identifying the top layers of the information architecture of a problem, which has the dual effects of performing an initial decomposition of the design space and refining the parameters that will define more detailed design spaces for further …