The need for collaboration between individual scientific fields increases with the wish for more global engineering optimizations and assessment requirements. Since areas of research become more and more fine-grained domains of there own, it is still very desirable to cooperate with other experts with more chance than ever to gain synergies when science is scattered as today. But this exchange of knowledge comes only into consideration if it can be used in a simple way with at most an moderate initial effort. To this end a framework is developed that lets scientists easily use knowledge of others without the need to understand their work and technology completely. Furthermore a generic common data format based on XML technology is developed for exchanging and storing data between different domain-specific applications. To support all implementers, a twofold abstraction layer was introduced to encapsulate their knowledge shielding it from the technical environment.
A toolbox for the assessment of engineering performance in a realistic aircraft design task is presented. Participants solve a multidisciplinary optimisation (MDO) task by means of a graphical user interface (GUI). The quantity and quality of visualisation may be systematically varied across experimental conditions. The GUI also allows tracking behavioural responses like cursor trajectories and clicks. Behavioural data together with evaluation of the generated aircraft design can help uncover details about the underlying decision making process. The design and the evaluation of the experimental toolbox are presented. Pilot studies with two novice and two advanced participants confirm and help improve the GUI functionality. The selection of the aircraft design task is based on a numerical analysis that helped to identify a 'sweet spot' where the task is not too easy nor too difficult.
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