Douglas T. Ross: Design

“Computer-aided design also is not automatic programming, although automatic programming techniques must necessarily play an important role in computer-aided design.”

Douglas T. Ross

Source: Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960), p. 2.

“The objective of the Computer-Aided Design Project is to evolve a machine systems which will permit the human designer and the computer to work together on creative design problems.”

Douglas T. Ross

Source: Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960), p. iii: Abstract.

Problem

“Automatic design has the computer do too much and the human do too little, whereas automatic programming has the human do too much and the computer do too little. Both techniques are important, but are not representative for what we wish to mean by computer-aided design.”

Douglas T. Ross

Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960)

“The assertion that a problem unstated is a problem unsolved seem to have escaped many builders… All too often, design and implementation begins before the real needs and system functions are fully known. The results are skyrocketing costs, missed scheduled, waste and duplication, disgruntled users and endless series of patches and repairs euphemistically called "systems maintenance"”

Douglas T. Ross

D.T. Ross and K.E. Schoman (1977) "Structured analysis for requirements definition" IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. Vol 3. (1) p. 6-15; as cited in: G. Agyekum-Mensah et al. (2012) "Adaption of structured analysis design techniques methodology for construction project planning".

Problem

“It is very difficult to define what is meant by computer-aided design since the complete definition is, in fact, the sum and substance of the total project effort which has only begun. It is much easier to describe, what is not computer-aided design as we mean it.”

Douglas T. Ross

Source: Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960), p. 1.

Effort

“This report summarizes the activities of the M. I. T. Computer-Aided Design (CAD) Project from 1 December 1959 through 3 May 1967 in the development of a generalized 'system of software systems' for generating specialized problem-solving systems using high-level language techniques and advanced computer graphics. Known as the AED Approach (for Automated Engineering Design) the Project results are applicable not only to mechanical design, as an extension of earlier development of the APT System for numerical control, but to arbitrary scientific, engineering, management, and production systems as well.”

Douglas T. Ross

D.T. Ross & John Erwin Ward (1968). Investigations in computer-aided design for numerically controlled production http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/755/FR-0351-19563962.pdf?sequence=1. Electronic Systems Laboratory, Electrical Engineering Dept., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. p. iii Abstract.

Problem

“Computer-aided design is not automatic design, although it must include many automatic design features. By automatic design we mean design procedures which are capable of being completely specified in a form which a computer can execute without human intervention.”

Douglas T. Ross

Source: Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960), p. 2.

“A lot of people are not familiar with the fact that when Lincoln Lab grew out of the Project Whirlwind (which were just names to me at that point) for the purpose of looking into radar air defense -- processing radar signals with the computer and then using radio controls to defend with fighters and so forth -- Whirlwind had been originally designed as an aircraft simulator for individual airplanes.”

Douglas T. Ross

Source: An Interview with Douglas T. Ross (1984), p. 22.

People

“From the computer application point of view the primary problem [of Computer-Aided Design] is not how to solve problems, but how to state them.”

Douglas T. Ross

Source: Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960), p. iii; Abstract.

Problem