Learning for design reuse

Over the past decade "design assistance", that is, where the computer is viewed as an Intelligent Design Assistant (IDA), has emerged in knowledge based design support and has formed the basic research strategy for the CAD Cantre, University of Strathclyde, since the mid-1980s. Within this philosophy, an IDA would act as a colleague to a designer, providing guidance, learning from past experiences, carrying out semi- and fully-automated tasks, explaining its reasoning and in essence complementing the designer's own natural skills, and thus leaving the ultimate decision-making, control, and responsibility with the designer.The ability to learn and evolve has been recognized as one of the key components of an IDA for it to fully support the designer's activities. Consequently, we have been directing our research effort on two main fronts, formalizing our understanding and developing models of learning and reuse in design, and building appropriate models of learing and reuse in design, and building appropriate software tools to step toward the concept of IDA.