Design assignments neither emphasized nor required the use of CAD techniques, as the experiment was designed to measure the students' acceptance of and adaptation to the use of CAD tools. The objective was to "teach" design in the traditional sense of a design studio, while making the computer an integral part of the setting in which the student learned designing and problem solving.

Measurements were made of (1) time for the "fundamentals" learning curve, (2) time for a "basic competence" learning curve, (3) hours utilized by categories of type of use, (4) hours utilized by equipment and software type, and (5) progress in design ability as evaluated by the traditional jury review methods.

Efforts in the area of CAD development are undertaken within the "computers in architecture" emphasis area in the PhD program at this university and are targeted at resolution of the CAD interface problems. This happens in both the teaching and research programs. Initially, the communication problems between the building design team and the building systems software are being approached through a PhD-level course in software development for building design problems. In this context, the non-graphical aspects of CAD are being addressed through the development of user friendly, tutorial- type software. Longer range research objectives are directed at the special three-way interfaces between the (1) Design Team, (2) Graphics Handler, and (3) Analytical Engine, and the linkages of these to the Common Data Base.