Defense of Dissertation Announcement

Title:Interactive Analogical Retrieval: Practice, Theory and Technology

Date & Time: Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 9:00am - 11:30am EDT

Location: Technology Square Research Building (TSRB) Room 223

Committee:

• Dr. Ashok K. Goel, School of Interactive Computing (Advisor)

• Dr. Janet Kolodner, School of Interactive Computing

• Dr. Nancy Nersessian, School of Interactive Computing

• Dr. Jeannette Yen, School of Biology

• Dr. Mary Lou Maher, Department of Software and Information Systems, University of North Carolina Charlotte

Abstract:
Analogy is ubiquitous in human thinking, in diverse areas that range from practical problem solving to scientific reasoning to literary embellishment. One of the important questions related to understanding analogy is what happens when source analogues are not a priori encoded in the long-term memory of the analogist. One possibility is that the analogist obtains them through interaction with the external (socio, cultural, and material) environment. In this research, I investigate this ill-understood cognitive phenomenon of interactive analogical retrieval in the context of biologically inspired design practice. Biologically inspired design uses analogies to biological systems to develop solutions for engineering problems. But this approach first involves finding biological systems that can be emulated in order to address the target design challenge. Because designers (typically engineers) who are unfamiliar with the domain of biological systems rely on their external environment to obtain sources of inspiration, this context provides an excellent opportunity to study the phenomenon of interactive analogical retrieval.

With the emergence of World Wide Web, it has become a common practice among designers engaged in biologically inspired design to go online in order to find their biological sources of inspiration. However, in spite of having online access to vast amounts of biological information, designers often struggle to find their biological sources of inspiration using the online approach. Understanding and developing online information environments to support the task of bio-inspiration seeking is an important research issue for biologically inspired design community, but unfortunately, at the moment our theoretical foundations for it are inadequately developed. A theory of interactive analogical retrieval can provide one such theoretical foundation.

In this research, I conducted two in situ studies to understand the challenges associated with the task of online bio-inspiration seeking as well as how people cope with its complexities. Grounded in this fieldwork, I developed a cognitive theory of interactive analogical retrieval that explains the online bio-inspiration seeking process. I then applied this theory to identify the causes behind the observed challenges and to propose hypotheses for mitigating those causes and aiding the process of online bio-inspiration seeking. I then used these hypotheses as design guidelines to develop Biologue, an online information environment to help engineers find biology articles that contain biological sources of inspiration relevant to their design problems. I then conducted a series of pilot evaluation studies using Biologue to validate the theoretical claims it embodies.

The contributions of this research include (1) in situ studies of online bio-inspiration seeking phenomenon; (2) a theory of interactive analogical retrieval that explains the cognitive basis of this phenomenon; (3) the application of the theory to develop Biologue, an online information environment to support designers engaged in this phenomenon; (4) the evaluation of Biologue under lab conditions and through its deployment; (5) recommendations for the design of future online information environments for facilitating the task of online bio-inspiration seeking.