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White Paper-1 UCLA SYMPOSIUM ON DESIGN AND COMPUTATION A WHITE PAPER 1 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ SHAPE COMPUTATION at the University of California, Los Angeles A WHITE PAPER EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The UCLA Symposium on Design and Computation was convened by the Vice- Chancellor for Academic Affairs with the purpose of reviewing UCLA’s achievements in this field, of examining the prospects for interdisciplinary collaborations, and of making recommendations as to how such studies might best be accommodated on campus and promoted. The Symposium Chair was Professor Lionel March. The Symposium was charged with the preparation of a WHITE PAPER on Design and Computation at UCLA. • the Symposium reviewed UCLA’s leadership in this field over twenty-five years of research, teaching and practice, and the relationship of this work to developments in the field at other research and teaching institutions nationally and internationally; • the Symposium delineated the field of Design and Computation and agreed on a ‘vocabulary’ to forward the discussion. Some examples were proferred. It was generally agreed that the thrust of the work was methodological and related to ‘shape computation’ as applied analytically to promote the understanding of both natural phenomena and artifacts, and synthetically in the shaping of new products in a variety of markets; • the Symposium examined related methodologies in spatial analysis, and in configurational, or combinatorial synthesis, by way of comparison; • the Symposium divided itself into seven expert groups: an academic overview group, two groups focussed on theoretical developments and computer implementations, and four groups concerned with past applications and future potential - archaeology, geography and urban planning, architecture and design, engineering design. Separate reports were received from these expert groups; • the Symposium had the benefit of individual inputs from areas in the National Science Foundation related to computing and molecular biology which extended the discussion; • the Symposium discussed both research opportunities and the need for advanced pedagogical activities which would give leverage to the UCLA SYMPOSIUM ON DESIGN AND COMPUTATION A WHITE PAPER 2 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ methodology among teachers and instructors. Both Summer Institutes and a Web Site were projected for the purposes of dissemination; • the Symposium was concerned about teaching. The pattern that was promoted was a filter-down one from post-doctoral, through a doctoral program and graduate studies, to its eventual inclusion in an undergraduate curriculum; • the Symposium excited intellectual and scholarly enthusiasm for the enterprise and a consensus was reached concerning recommendations with the following intention: to capitalize on UCLA’s twenty-five year intellectual investment in a creative and synergistic methodology - ‘shape computation’ - of proven relevance to the design arts, of growing interest in engineering design, and of potential application in the social and natural sciences. It is to be hoped that UCLA will grasp the timely opportunity outlined in this WHITE PAPER. Members of the UCLA Symposium on Design and Computation give their enthusiastic support to the initiative. When implemented, it will revitalize a scholarly tradition which has been uniquely associated with UCLA, will encourage its development as an intellectual force across disciplines and will provide for the formation of an international center of academic excellence in ‘shape computation’. RECOMMENDATIONS Members of the UCLA Symposium on Design and Computation reached a broad consensus around the following points: • UCLA’s leadership in this field over twenty-five years of research, teaching and practice is acknowledged through citations and direct influence on scholars at important research and teaching institutions nationally and internationally; • UCLA should establish a postdoctoral and doctoral program in an appropriate scholarly context within its academic structure to reclaim the national and international high-ground in the field of ‘shape computation’; • UCLA should move proactively to integrate interdisciplinary activities across the campus through the formation of a center of excellence in the field; • NSF, DARPA and other funding agencies should be approached for priming such a center, especially in regard to the implementation of computer systems, and in fostering interdisciplinary work across traditional lines; • UCLA should examine, with urgency, the need to recruit faculty, to appoint a Director and support staff, and to provide space and facilities for a center in the field. UCLA SYMPOSIUM ON DESIGN AND COMPUTATION A WHITE PAPER 3 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ COMMISSION In a letter to Lionel March, dated March 21, 1997, Dr. Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, Vice- Chancellor for Academic Affairs, wrote: ‘I suggest a major goal for the Symposium should be to prepare a report on the status of the field which would be sent to me as anchor for future planning. I believe this is an achievable goal in the context of the interdisciplinary interactions you have proposed. I would also hope that we can begin to develop a new vocabulary which will help to illuminate the potential applications of the methodology beyond its current niche. ... As part of your report, I also would propose that you dedicate some attention to considering an appropriate institutional environment as well as the resource requirements for your appropriately ambitious research and teaching agenda.’1 The UCLA Symposium on Design and Computation was held at the Embassy Suites Resort, Mandalay Beach, Oxnard, California, from Thursday, May 22 to Saturday, May 24, 1997.2 Some thirty participants were invited, of whom twenty-six attended, covering expertise in the following areas: anthropology, archaeology, architectural design and computation, civil and environmental engineering design, computer science, design architectonics, mathematical economics, geographical information systems, linguistics, pattern analysis, mechanical engineering design and manufacturing, physics and astrophysics, cognitive psychology, urban and regional planning, visual studies. In addition, two managers from the National Science Foundation made contributions in the areas of information, robotics and intelligent systems, and in biological infrastructure.3 This WHITE PAPER on the prospects for Design and Computation at UCLA is based on a draft report by Lionel March which was presented to participants as a framework for small working group discussions at the Symposium in the expectation that improvements would be made and new information added. That expectation was amply fulfilled. For convenience, many of the technical references were assembled in the READER especially prepared for the Symposium, although the working groups also drew attention to other materials relevant to their areas of interest. A full bibliography is appended to this WHITE PAPER.4 1 See Appendix I for the COMMISSIONING LETTER. 2 See Appendix II for the PROSPECTUS. 3 See Appendix III for the PARTICIPANTS. 4 See Appendix IV for the BIBLIOGRAPHY. UCLA SYMPOSIUM ON DESIGN AND COMPUTATION A WHITE PAPER 4 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ SHAPE COMPUTATION at the University of California, Los Angeles A WHITE PAPER INTRODUCTION 1 Design and Computation is quintessentially about ‘creativity’. Creativity, writes the Nobel Laureate, Herbert A. Simon (1977), has always been surrounded by dense mists of romanticism and downright knownothingism. Even well-informed persons, who do not believe that the stork brings new babies, and who are prepared to accept an empirical account of biological creation, sometimes baulk at naturalistic explanations of the creation of ideas. It appears that the human mind is the final citadel of vitalism. 2 March (1983b), as Rector of the Royal College of Art, London, echoes this remark in his essay ‘To grasp creativity’, but he evokes the language analogy Generative grammars provide the necessary theoretical foundation for design studies, as they do language theory. The sceptic may go far along this path but hesitate over the ‘imponderables’ of design. Granting that formal and functional aspects of design may be subject to grammatical rules, the sceptic may nevertheless wish to claim immunity for the aesthetic dimension. This is the final stand of the spontaneous heart against the scheming mind. 3 The aesthetic dimension is audaciously tackled in Algorithmic Aesthetics by Stiny and Gips (1978), the prize-winning book published following their dissertations in UCLA’s Department of System Science and Stanford’s AI Laboratory, respectively. They write ‘We believe the algorithmic approach to aesthetics taken in this study is important for two reasons. First, the postulated structure for criticism algorithms and design algorithms provides a common framework in which a number of central issues in aesthetics, which traditionally are treated separately, can be investigated uniformly and can be related. Second, just the attempt to represent aesthetic ideas or specific approaches to understanding and evaluating ... in terms of algorithms is salutary. Algorithmic representations require an explicit awareness of underlying assumptions and details that may remain
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