Simulation-Based Optimal System Design

In today's highly competitive market environments, engineering systems must be optimized if they are to succeed in accomplishing objectives while satisfying constraints. In addition, development lead times must be reduced to ensure timely reaction to changing market needs. Thus, a good understanding of the computational tools used for simulation-based optimal system design is critical for supporting the engineering decision-making process.

Date: May 27-28, 2013
Time: 9:00AM-5:00PM
Location: 688 Sherbrooke Street West
Fee: $895 CAD plus applicable taxes

Course Description

Drawing on current research and best-practice methodologies illustrated by case studies, this workshop provides a comprehensive and rigorous introduction to simulation‐based numerical design optimization of engineering systems and to decomposition‐based optimal system design principles.

Objectives

 At the end of this workshop the participants should be able to:

• Understand and utilize fundamental terminology and principles;
• Formulate well-defined design optimization problems;
• Design experiments and build data-based surrogate models for efficient optimization;
• Select appropriate numerical algorithms (both gradient-based and derivative-free) for solving a variety of classes of problems;
• Address challenges related to modeling and simulation, multi-objective problems, multi-disciplinary analysis and uncertainty quantification;
• Use optimization for requirements flow-down and design of platform-based product families.

Topics Covered

• Engineering systems
• Simulation-based design
• Design of experiments
• Surrogate modeling
• Numerical optimization
• Multi-objective optimization
• Multi-disciplinary design optimization
• Decomposition and coordination methods
• Design under uncertainty
• Product development
• Analytical Target Cascading
• Commonality and design of product families

Who Should Attend

Design engineers; systems engineers; mechanical, aerospace and electrical engineers; R&D engineers; practitioners; product development engineers; team leaders, and program managers.

Lecturer

Dr. Michael Kokkolaras is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University. He joined McGill after spending 12 years at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he held research faculty appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Transportation Research Institute. He has a Diploma in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Munich and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University. His research interests include multidisciplinary optimization, simulation-based engineering design, uncertainty quantification, decomposition and coordination methods, modeling and validation, systems of systems, product families and optimization applications in engineering. He has co-authored 38 articles in archival journals, 48 papers in conference proceedings, and 4 book chapters. He is a member of ASME (active within the Design Automation Committee) and serves as Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. He is also a senior member of the AIAA (serving on the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Technical Committee).