ASME Design Automation Committee

The Design Automation Committee of ASME has one primary function, and that is to promote research and the dissemination of knowledge in the areas identified as dealing with Design Automation. They include topics in the broad areas listed below and other areas identified through new research.

Design Representation

CAD, virtual and physical prototyping, knowledge based systems, product data management

Design Optimization

Structural, topological, multi-disciplinary, heuristic and deterministic, under uncertainty

Design Evaluation

Modeling, simulation, approximation

Design Integration

Integration, decomposition, collaboration

Committee Structure. The Design Automation Committee is composed of persons actively publishing and conducting research in Design Automation. See Section 15 of this document for information about membership on the Committee. The Committee is governed by the Design Automation Executive Subcommittee, composed of the Chair, the Vice Chair and two members. Each member of this subcommittee sits for a 4 year term, and serves in each position for a 1 year period. The immediate past Chair of the Committee is an ex-officio member of the Executive Subcommittee for a period of one year. The immediate past Chair does not vote on Executive Subcommittee business except when necessary to break a tie. An Industrial Advisor also participates in the meetings of the Design Automation Executive Subcommittee. The duties of this position consist in strengthening industrial participation to solve more industry related problems, and envisioning future R&D needs
Committee Meetings. The Design Automation Committee meets every fall at the annual Design Automation Conference.
Nomination and Election to Executive Subcommittee. Prior to the annual meeting, candidates are nominated for election to the Executive Subcommittee. Any member of the Design Automation Committee may nominate a candidate. Nominations are to be made to the Committee Chair. Candidates are elected to the Executive Subcommittee by a majority vote of the current members of the Executive Subcommittee. The term of service begins after the annual meeting.
Prior to the annual meeting, candidates are nominated for election to the position of Industrial advisor. Any member of the Design Automation Committee may nominate a candidate. Nominations are to be made to the Committee Chair. Candidates are elected to the Executive Subcommittee by a majority vote of the current members of the Executive Subcommittee. The term of service begins after the annual meeting. The Industrial Advisor will have voting privileges and serve one two year term. The Industrial advisor cannot be elected member of the exec committee while serving.
Service in Office. Each member of the Executive Subcommittee serves for one year in each of the Committee offices, in the following order:
- Special Sessions Chair,
- Program Chair,
- Conference Chair (Committee Vice-Chair), and
- Committee Chair
Conference Chair. The Conference Chair is responsible for the organization of the annual conference. The conference organization involves the following tasks.
1. Promotion of the conference through the appropriate media. This includes the preparation and distribution of conference notices, calls for papers, conference programs, etc. Appropriate media include ASME Transactions Journals, Mechanical Engineering, Design Division Newsletter, and other publications that are of interest to the research community in Design Automation.
2. Development of invited sessions on topics of current or future interest. The Conference Chair may wish to appoint qualified individuals to arrange such sessions from time to time.
3. Selection of papers for presentation at the annual conference. All papers submitted for presentation at the annual conference will be subjected to peer review. This review process is separate from the review process for work submitted to the ASME Transactions Journal. Papers accepted for presentation at the annual conference must be technically correct, must be relevant to the themes of the conference, must be of current or archival interest, must not in any way have a commercial purpose, and must be written in a style appropriate for publication by ASME. Papers accepted for presentation at the annual conference will be published by ASME.
4. Arrangement for social functions at the annual conference. Each year there will be a conference luncheon. Other social functions may be held from time to time when appropriate.
5. Interaction with the ASME Meetings Manager at ASME headquarters in New York City.
6. Interaction with other committees who are actively planning annual conferences. Every effort should be made to cooperate with other groups in ASME who share common interests. At the time of this writing, the annual conference in odd numbered years is held in conjunction with the Biennial Vibrations Conference, the annual conference in even numbered years is held in conjunction with the Biennial Mechanisms Conference.
Program Chair. The Program Chair has the following responsibilities.
1. Acts as the liaison between the Committee and the Journal.
2. Maintains a data-base of reviewers which is to include persons who are known to be actively involved in research and/or scholarly activities in Design Automation. This database would normally be updated frequently during the Papers Review Chair’s term in office.
3. Serves as coordinator for the peer review of all papers that are to be considered for publication in the conference proceedings.
Special Sessions Chair. The Special Sessions chair will assist the Program Chair and Conference Chair in organizing special sessions. He/She will also coordinate with the International Paper Liaisons and the Industrial Advisor to broaden the reach of the DAC community and to widen the scope of the featured sessions
International Conference Liaisons. International Conference Liaisons, typically representing the Pacific Rim and Europe will coordinate the paper solicitation, submittal and review with authors in their respective regions of the world. They are selected by the Conference Chair with the consent of the Executive Sub-committee. They will work with the Special Sessions Chair to coordinate their activities with the Conference organizers.
Committee Vice Chair. The Committee Vice Chair who is also the Conference Chair will normally assist the Committee Chair in directing the activities of the Committee. The Committee Vice Chair will maintain the Design Automation Committee mailing list in cooperation with the ASME Meetings Manager. The Vice Chair will also keep the minutes at the annual meeting. The minutes will be sent to all members of the Committee within 90 days of the annual meeting.
Committee Chair. The Chair of the Committee will preside over meetings of the Committee and meetings of the Executive Subcommittes. The Chair will be the Committee’s representative to other governing bodies in ASME (such as the Design Division General Committee). The Chair will inform the Design Division whenever there is an impending change of officers (typically during September of each year). The Chair will recommend the Papers Review Chair to serve as Associate Editor for Design Automation for the Transactions Journal. The Recommendation is made to the Technical Editor of the Journal.
Immediate Past Chair. The Immediate Past Chair will serve as an ex-officio member of the Executive Subcommittee. The Immediate Past Chair will only vote on Executive Subcommittee business when there is a tie vote.
Executive Subcommittee Business. The Executive Subcommittee has two primary functions. The first function is to establish the agenda for the annual committee meeting at the fall conference. The second function is to elect a new member and an Industrial Advisor from the lists of nominees. (See 3. and 4. above).
1. Agenda for the Executive Subcommittee. The agenda for the Executive Subcommittee will be set by the Chair after consultation with all of the other members of the Executive Subcommittee. The agenda should be established and circulated to all of the Executive Subcommittee members at least two weeks before the annual Design Automation Conference.
2. Meetings of the Executive Subcommittee. The Executive Subcommittee will meet as soon as possible during the annual Design Automation Conference. The Chair and two of the other voting members shall constitute a quorum. Every effort will be made to assure the participation of all members of the Executive Subcommittee in all Executive Subcommittee business. At its annual meeting, the Executive Subcommittee will set the agenda for the annual Design Automation Committee Meeting by majority vote. The Executive Subcommittee will also elect one new member and an industrial advisor as outlined above in 3. and 4.
Design Automation Committee Business. The Design Automation Committee has one primary function, and that is to promote research and the dissemination of knowledge in the areas identified as dealing with Design Automation. The Committee carries out this function by conducting an annual meeting on Design Automation.
1. The Committee will meet on the second or third night of the annual conference. The date and location will be set by the Chair of the Committee in consultation with the ASME Meetings Manager. This information will be published in the Conference Program that is prepared by the ASME Meetings Manager.
2. Any issues to be decided will be done so by a majority vote of those present at the committee meeting.
3. At the annual committee meeting the agenda established by the Executive Subcommittee will be deliberated on.
4. On issues requiring a vote, the Chair will only cast a vote to break a tie.
5. At the annual committee meeting, each subcommittee will present a report of its activities.
Membership on the Design Automation Committee. The Design Automation Committee is composed of persons who are interested in Design Automation. Membership on the committee is attained by active participation at the conference and at the committee meeting. By default, those who actively participate become members of the committee.
Areas of Design Automation Research. The Committee wishes to promote theoretical and experimental research and industrial applications in the broad areas given below and other areas identified by new research:
- Design Representation
  - CAD, virtual and physical prototyping, knowledge based systems, product data management
- Design Optimization
  - Structural, topological, multi-disciplinary, heuristic and deterministic, under uncertainty
- Design Evaluation
  - Modeling, simulation, approximation
- Design Integration
  - Integration, decomposition, collaboration
Technical Subcommittees and Their Business. The Design Automation Committee Chair will appoint appropriate technical subcommittees. The purpose for such subcommittees will be to expedite the dissemination of knowledge in that subcommittee’s technical field. The Conference Chair will utilize the talents of the technical subcommittees in conducting the peer review process for the annual Design Automation Conference. Each Technical Subcommittee may recommend one paper to the Honors and Awards Subcommittee for consideration as the annual “Best Paper in Design Automation” award. See Section 20 below for additional information about this award.
Peer Review of Conference Presentations. Papers are submitted to the Program Chair for Review. The Conference assisted by the Program Chair will organize the papers into tentative sessions by topic. Papers that are to be considered for a particular session may be forwarded to a Technical Subcommittee Chair that is closely identified with the session topic. The Technical Subcommittee Chair will actually arrange for reviews of the papers. The Technical Subcommittee Chair will report back to the Conference Chair and/or Program Chair in a timely fashion. Each paper submitted for presentation will be reviewed by at least three qualified referees. Any paper that is presented and published at the conference must have received at least two favorable reviews. The peer review process will have four possible outcomes at this level.
1. The paper may be rejected as unsuitable for presentation at the annual conference.
2. The paper may be accepted for presentation at the annual conference after some revisions have been made.
3. The paper may be accepted for presentation at the annual conference without any revisions.
4. The paper may be accepted for presentation at the annual conference (with or without revisions) and further recommended for journal review by the Papers Review Chair for possible publication in the ASME Transactions Journal. Standard ASME Conference/Journal review forms will be used for the conference review.
Schedule of Review Activities. It is important that the review process be conducted in a timely fashion. Accordingly, the following schedule is recommended.
1. Papers should be submitted to the Program Chair for distribution to the Technical Subcommittee Chair and other referees before the deadline set by the conference chairs in the conference announcement.
2. Referees and subcommittee Chairs should inform the Program Chair of their recommendations by the deadline set by the Program Chair in coordination with the other conference chairs and ASME.
3. The Program Chair should make final decisions and report to each communicating author by the date published in the conference announcement.
4. The communicating authors must return the author prepared final drafts incorporating any required revisions to ASME by the date specified in the conference announcement.
5. The Program Chair should send any manuscripts that are to be reviewed for inclusion in the ASME Transactions Journal to the Journal Technical Editor.
6. The Conference Chair must have the complete program ready for submission to the ASME Meetings Manager by the deadline set by ASME.
Honors and Awards. The Chair shall appoint members to serve on the Honors and Awards Subcommittee. The membership of this subcommittee shall include the Immediate Past Chair, the Vice Chair, and one or more other members of the Committee. The Design Automation Committee makes two regular Committee-level awards after positive recommendation by the Honors and Awards Subcommittee.

The two awards, their purpose and their frequency are:
1. “Best Paper in Design Automation” award is a Committee-level award given annually at the IDETC. The purpose of the award is to recognize excellence in a paper that is presented at that year’s conference. Each Technical Subcommittee (see Section 17. Technical Subcommittees and their Business) can forward one paper each year to the Honors and Awards Subcommittee for consideration as a possible recipient of this award. Nominations should be submitted 2 months before the conference starting date. Nominations must be communicated to the Chair of the Honors and Awards Subcommittee by the Technical Subcommittee Chair. Any member of a Technical Subcommittee can suggest a possible nomination to the Chair of that Technical Subcommittee.
2. Design Automation Award is given from time to time, but never more than once each year, to recognize sustained meritorious contribution to research in Design Automation. This award will only be given after the recommendation of 75% of the members of the Honors and Awards Technical Subcommittee. Nominations for this award can be made by any member of ASME. The nomination package should include specific details of the nominee’s contributions to the area of Design Automation, and a critical explanation of why these contributions are significant enough to warrant the award. A curriculum vitae should also be included for the nominee along with appropriate letters of recommendation from other researchers in the nominee’s field.
3. Design Automation Young Investigator Award is a Committee-level award given from time to time, but never more than once each year, to recognize an outstanding young investigator who is making noteworthy contributions to research in Design Automation. This award will only be given after the recommendation of 75% of the members of the Honors and Awards Technical Subcommittee. Nominations for this award can be made by any member of ASME. The nomination package should include specific details of the nominee’s contributions to the area of Design Automation, and a critical explanation of why these contributions are significant enough to warrant the award. A curriculum vitae should also be included for the nominee along with appropriate letters of recommendation from other researchers in the nominee’s field.
Revision of This Operating Manual. This manual can be revised by a two thirds majority vote of the members of the Design Automation Committee. Suggested revisions should be forwarded to the Chair of the Committee. Once each year or whenever there are suggested revisions (whichever is less frequent), the Chair will forward all suggested revisions to all of the members of the Committee for their consideration. Suggested revisions will be discussed and voted on by the DAC participants who were present at the last annual meeting.

INTRODUCTION