Engineering Informatics

Computers are ubiquitous throughout all life-cycle stages of
engineering, from conceptual design to manufacturing maintenance,
repair and replacement. It is essential for all engineers to
be aware of the knowledge behind computer-based tools and
techniques they are likely to encounter. The computational
technology, which allows engineers to carry out design, modelling,
visualisation, manufacturing, construction and management of
products and infrastructure is known as Computer-Aided Engineering
(CAE).

Engineering Informatics: Fundamentals of Computer-Aided
Engineering, 2nd Edition provides the foundation knowledge of
computing that is essential for all engineers. This knowledge is
independent of hardware and software characteristics and thus, it
is expected to remain valid throughout an engineering career. This
Second Edition is enhanced with treatment of new areas such as
network science and the computational complexity of distributed
systems.

Key features:

• Provides extensive coverage of almost all aspects of
  Computer-Aided Engineering, outlining general concepts such as
  fundamental logic, definition of engineering tasks and
  computational complexity

• Every chapter revised and expanded following more than ten
  years of experience teaching courses on the basis of the first
  edition

• Covers numerous representation frameworks and reasoning
  strategies

• Considers the benefits of increased computational power,
  parallel computing and cloud computing

• Offers many practical engineering examples and exercises, with
  lecture notes available for many of the topics/chapters from the
  ASCE Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology,
  Global Centre of Excellence in Computing
  (www.asceglobalcenter.org), providing a valuable resource for
  lecturers.

• Accompanied by a website hosting updates and solutions

Engineering Informatics: Fundamentals of Computer-Aided
Engineering, 2nd Edition provides essential knowledge on
computing theory in engineering contexts for students, researchers
and practising engineers.

Autorentext

Benny Raphael, National University of Singapore, Singapore Benny Raphael is an Assistant Professor in the School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore. His main areas of research include Computer-aided engineering, Optimization and Machine learning. **Ian Smith, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

Ian Smith is Professor and Head of the Applied Computing and Mechanics Laboratory within the Civil Engineering Institute in the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering at EPFL. He has also been active in consulting related to monitoring structures, applications of information technology, structural design, evaluation and repair of existing structures and accident analysis in Europe, North America and Japan. He was elected to the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences in 2004 and received the Computing in Civil Engineering Award from the Amercian Society of Civil Engineers in 2005. HE is Editor of the"Journal of Advanced Engineering Informatics", and Associate Editor of "Journal of Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design Analysis and Manufacturing".

Klappentext

Computers are ubiquitous throughout all life-cycle stages of engineering, from conceptual design to manufacturing maintenance, repair and replacement. It is essential for all engineers to be aware of the knowledge behind computer-based tools and techniques they are likely to encounter. The computational technology, which allows engineers to carry out design, modelling, visualisation, manufacturing, construction and management of products and infrastructure is known as Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE).

Engineering Informatics: Fundamentals of Computer-Aided Engineering, 2nd Edition provides the foundation knowledge of computing that is essential for all engineers. This knowledge is independent of hardware and software characteristics and thus, it is expected to remain valid throughout an engineering career. This Second Edition is enhanced with treatment of new areas such as network science and the computational complexity of distributed systems.

Key features:

• Provides extensive coverage of almost all aspects of Computer-Aided Engineering, outlining general concepts such as fundamental logic, definition of engineering tasks and computational complexity
• Every chapter revised and expanded following more than ten years of experience teaching courses on the basis of the first edition
• Covers numerous representation frameworks and reasoning strategies
• Considers the benefits of increased computational power, parallel computing and cloud computing
• Offers many practical engineering examples and exercises, with lecture notes available for many of the topics/chapters from the ASCE Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology, Global Centre of Excellence in Computing (www.asceglobalcenter.org), providing a valuable resource for lecturers.
• Accompanied by a website hosting updates and solutions
  Engineering Informatics: Fundamentals of Computer-Aided Engineering, 2nd Edition provides essential knowledge on computing theory in engineering contexts for students, researchers and practising engineers.

Inhalt
Foreword to the First Edition xiii Preface to the First Edition xvii

Preface to the Second Edition xxi

1 Fundamental Logic and the Definition of Engineering Tasks 1

1.1 Three Types of Inference 1

1.2 Engineering Tasks 3

1.3 A Model of Information and Tasks 5

1.4 Another Task Definition 8

1.5 The Five Orders of Ignorance 9

1.6 Summary 9

Exercises 10

References 10

2 Algorithms and Complexity 11

2.1 Algorithms and Execution Time of Programs 12

2.1.1 Program Execution Time versus Task Size 12

2.2 'Big Oh' Notation 14

2.2.1 Definition of the Big Oh Notation 15

2.2.2 Big Oh and Tightness of Bound 16

2.2.3 Classification of Functions 20

2.2.4 Examples 21

2.2.5 Tractability and Algorithm Optimality 30

2.3 Practical Methods for Determining the Complexity of Algorithms 30

2.4 P, NP and NP-Completeness 34

2.4.1 ZeroOne Integer Programming (ZOIP) Problem 35

2.4.2 Classes of NP-Complete Problems 36

2.5 Summary 37

Exercises 37

Reference 40

Further Reading 40

3 Data Structures 41

3.1 Introduction 41

3.2 Definitions 42

3.3 Derived Data Types 42

3.3.1 Examples of Derived Data Types 43

3.3.2 User-Defined Data Types 45

3.4 Abstract Data Types 46

3.4.1 Linked Lists 47

3.4.2 Graphs 50

3.4.3 Trees 52

3.4.4 Stacks 56

3.4.5 Queues 60

3.5 An Example: Conceptual Structural Design of Buildings 63

3.6 Network Science 70

3.6.1 Types of Networks 71

3.7 Hashing 73

3.8 Summary 74

Exercises 74

Further Reading 79

4 Object Representation and Reasoning 81

4.1 Introduction 81

4.2 Grouping Data and Methods 82

4.3 Definitions and Basic Concepts 83

4.3.1 Classes and Objects 83

4.3.2 Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) 84

4.3.3 Messages 84

4.4 Important Characteristics of Objects 84

4.4.1 Encapsulation of Data and Methods 84

4.4.2 Message-Passing Mechanism 85

4.4.3 Abstraction Hierarchy 86

4.4.4 Secondary Features of Object Representation 88

4.4.5 Decomposition versus Abstraction 89

4.5 Applications Outside Programming 90

4.5.1 Knowledge Representation 91

4.5.2 User Interfaces 91

4.5.3 Off-the-Shelf Components 91

4.5.4 Product Models 91

4.6 An Object-Oriented Design Methodology 93

4.6.1 Single versus Multiple Inheritance 93

4.6.2 Message-Passing Architecture 94

4.7 Summary 95

Exercises 95

References 101

Further Reading 101

5 Database Concepts 103

5.1 Introduction 103

5.2 Basic Concepts 104

5.2.1 Initial Definitions 104

5.2.2 E…