Collaborative engineering

- a new, emerging paradigm of engineering work
based on Internet

ISThmus2000

Poznan, 11-13 April 2000

Adam Pawlak

Institute of Electronics, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice &

Institute of Electron Technology, Warszawa

  • Abstract: New paradigms of engineering are becoming feasible due to a progress in information and communication technologies. The emerging new methods for product design and development, often called collaborative engineering, integrate widely distributed engineers for virtual collaboration. This highly innovative way of work is central to the vision of a working environment in the Information Society. Internet can constitute a backbone of this collaborative environment, and if supported by appropriate infrastructures, services and tools, it can radically speed up collaboration over wide distances.

    The presentation shortly presents an influence of new technologies on the engineering work. Attributes of work and products, like: reusability and IP value are discussed. New tools for electronic system design that transform electronic engineering into a global, distributed activity are overviewed. Based on these first examples, we envision a virtual collaborative engineering environment. In this context, the notions of: collaborative infrastructure, executable workflow, tool integration, remote tool invocation, will be explained. Appropriate standards are required in order to bring global engineering collaboration into practice. We shall identify and shortly present them.

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    Keywords: information society, Internet-based collaborative engineering, engineering networks, tools over the Internet, virtual design environments, digital engineering libraries, pan-European collaboration, standards.