Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

Catalog description

This course presents a rigorous, quantitative multidisciplinary design methodology that incorporates the creative side of the design process. Through a topic of your choice, learn how to use multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) to create advanced and complex engineering systems that must be competitive in performance and life-cycle value. Multidisciplinary design aspects appear frequently during the conceptual and preliminary design of complex new systems and products, where different disciplines (e.g. structures, aerodynamics, controls, optics, costing, manufacturing, environmental science, marketing, etc.) have to be tightly coupled in order to arrive at a competitive solution. This course is designed to be fundamentally different from most traditional university optimization courses which focus mainly on the mathematics and algorithms for search. Focus will be equally strong on all three aspects of the problem: (i) the multidisciplinary character of engineering systems, (ii) design of these complex systems, and (iii) tools for optimization. Students will demonstrate mastery of the subject by working in small teams on a term project to apply the multidisciplinary design optimization principles to design and optimize an engineering system of their choice.