The CAD centre, University of Strathclyde

Abstract

The CAD Centre was established in 1986 as a research and postgraduate unit now within the Department of Design Manufacture and Engineering Management.The aims of the centre are to develop the computing technology that supports a creative design partnership between man and machine, and to deliver the underlying technology, techniques and approaches to industry. The CAD Centre has an established track record in the fields of artificial intelligence and knowledge engineering applied at the early design stage. The centre has a long-term research goal to develop a fully integrated computing environment which supports design and its management based upon fundamental understanding and theories.Working towards this goal, in the mid-1980, the team originated and developed a long-term research strategy to realise a computer-based intelligent design assistant (IDA) which would be managed within an integrated design environment (IDE). As a significant step towards achieving this goal, the CAD Centre has coordinated a 4year (2001-05) European Commission 5th Framework research project termed VRShips-ROPAX (Life-Cycle Virtual Reality Ship Systems). As VRShips-ROPAX (VRS) coordinators, the CAD Centre is responsible for directing 36 partners in 14 European countries towards the generation of an integrated, virtual, computer-based, generic platform in the marine domain.The platform supports distributed working practice in design, product modelling, performance analysis, simulation and process management between one or a number of VRS partners and supports any application domain or ship type.The VRS project encapsulates many of the previously developed theories, models, approaches and systems of the CAD Centre. In addition, based on the success of VRS, an extension of this research into a number of additional application domains is currently being sought. © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2005.