Gordon Kurtenbach
Autodesk Research
Goal Directed Design and the Future of Making

It is clear that 3D printing is changing the way we make things by allowing more people to make things, and allowing the creation of things that were previously impossible to make. Furthermore, what can be 3D printed is rapidly expanding — from new high performance materials based on material science breakthroughs to electronics and living biology. Essentially we are headed towards a future of "programmable matter" — where matter can be fully described, understood, and controlled digitally by computers. As matter becomes a more fully computable entity, this raises the potential of "Goal Directed Design". Today traditional CAD tools are used to mainly document a design and analyze if it "will work". Designers input a design model and evaluate it to see if it will function as required. At Autodesk we are researching the reverse process — "goal directed design" where designers input the design requirements and the computer generates designs and searches them for designs that meet the requirements. The key to this approach is the computer's ability to optimize against a vast array design requirements and constraints, potentially finding superior designs beyond the capabilities of the human designer. Goal directed design in combination with "programmable matter" potentially allows new levels of design performance and complexity to be reached. In this talk, I will describe the potential role of Goal Directed Design the future of making and how we are moving towards of future where computation will massively enhance design processes.

Dr. Gordon Kurtenbach is the Head of Research at Autodesk where he oversees a large range of research including human-computer interaction, graphics and simulation, environment and ergonomics, high performance computing, and CAD for bio/nano-technology. Dr. Kurtenbach has published numerous research papers and holds over forty patents in the field of human-computer interaction. His work on gesture based interfaces, specifically "marking menus" has been highly influential in HCI research and practice. In 2005, he received that UIST Lasting Impact Award for his early work on issues combining gestures and manipulation. Prior to Autodesk, Gordon was the head of the interactive graphics research group at Alias which researched advanced technologies for products such as Maya, AliasStudio, SketchBook and PortfolioWall. Prior to Alias, Gordon was a researcher at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center working on pen based user interfaces for wall-sized display systems. Before Xerox, Gordon was a member of Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group researching gesture-based input techniques for graphical user interfaces.