Customer survey data is critical to supporting customer preference modeling in engineering design. We present a framework of information retrieval and survey design to ensure the collection of quality customer survey data for analyzing customers’ preferences in their consideration-then-choice decision-making and the related social impact. The utility of our approach is demonstrated through the survey design for customers in the vacuum cleaner market. Based on the data, we performed descriptive analysis and network-based modeling to understand customers’ preferences in consideration and choice.

Humans perceive through various sensory impressions, including the five senses. Not only the number of different stimuli in everyday life increase, but also the degree of assessment of urgent and irrelevant information. But online it is not possible for the customer to physically perceive and assess the haptics of a product. This paper focus on the questions if it is possible for humans to perceive and identify surface properties without using their sense of touch and if humans can judge and classify the haptics of a textile materials via digital channels through a purely visual perception?

Systems engineering (SE) is a general methodological approach that includes all relevant activities to design, develop and verify a system. This work was based on the need to enhance the integration of the customer needs into the design phases of SE. A joint methodology was proposed integrating the SE approach with the Design Thinking (DT). An analysis was conducted as part of a case study proposed by IBM Corporation for the development of a security system for a building. The results confirm that the insertion of the DT in the SE has a significant impact on the generation of concept solutions.

The automotive community has found to design and test autonomous systems, traditional CAE tools are not enough. The number of sensors and controls involved makes it very difficult to predict all the possible scenarios and system reactions to them. An approach to provide input to all the sensors and control systems is to use gaming engines. They are used “headless”, and in other cases with multiple users in the environment. In this paper we will highlight one case on how they are changing how the Army designs, tests, and sets requirements for autonomous ground systems.