PROJECT TITLE: Augmenting a Commercial Spreadsheet to Support Design, Analysis, and Optimization
TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The use of software has substantially supplanted hand calculations in engineering. This has undeniably improved accuracy, completeness, and efficiency, but the reliance on software may cause the unwary engineer to lose a sense of which input parameters and assumptions drive the important outputs of the calculation. This lack of knowledge hampers optimization efforts and may hide errors. Perturbation techniques have been developed to alleviate these problems in large codes. These techniques allow the rapid calculation of the change in selected outputs of a model with respect to the input parameters. Another use is to identify the most important parts of a model. Many if not most typical engineering problems are addressed, not with large codes, but with spreadsheets. Creare proposes to develop an "add-in" to a commercial spreadsheet that will automatically apply these techniques to the model with no additional effort required by the user. This will foster a deeper understanding of the model and will improve the effectiveness of optimization efforts. Given the widespread popularity of spreadsheets for design and analysis, the development of the spreadsheet add-in offers substantial and immediate benefits for NASA and other engineering organizations.
POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
Spreadsheets are ubiquitous at NASA, NASA contractors, and in the commercial world in general. Engineers and other users of spreadsheets will benefit from increased understanding of the robustness of their models and of the sensitivity of the key outputs to changes in input parameters and assumptions.
NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Marc A. Kenton
Creare Incorporated
P.O. Box 71, Etna Road
Hanover , NH 03755-0071
NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR
Creare Incorporated
P.O. Box 71, Etna Road
Hanover , NH 03755-0071