Conference summary and challenges for FOCAPD-2004 and beyond

This paper is broken down into three topical areas: 1) A summary of the conference proceedings, 2) a more detailed discussion of the omissions of existing research and challenges for the future, and 3) a discussion of how future technologies, and particularly increased computer speeds, may impact design. Rather than summarizing the conference by discussing the papers in the order in which they were presented, an attempt is made to put them into a perspective of the totality of process development problems with the hope of identifying topics that were not addressed in this conference and that have received little attention in the literature. This makes it apparent where additional research is needed and what are some of the challenges for the future. In addition, a broader challenge of extending design to include creating new value for a company is presented. Finally, the possible future of design research is discussed in terms of disruptive technologies and enabling technologies; consideration is given to the impact of far greater computer speeds.