Patent ID: 6968517

Claim:
A method of interactively performing design optimization using an optimizer, the optimizer having a generation algorithm and an objective function, the method comprising: generating a set of design candidates by applying the generation algorithm to a set of initial design candidates; evaluating the set of design candidates by applying the objective function to the set of design candidates to generate an objective function value for each of the set of design candidates; selecting from the set of design candidates a preferred set of design candidates based on the objective function value for each of the set of design candidates; providing an indication of a current state of the optimizer in a user-readable format; updating the current state of the optimizer according to a user input if the user input is received in response to the indication of the current state of the optimizer; defining the preferred set of design candidates as the set of initial design candidates; and iteratively repeating the steps of generating, evaluating, selecting, providing, updating, and defining until a stopping criterion is satisfied, wherein updating the current state of the optimizer comprises at least one of: adding a user design candidate to the set of design candidates; adjusting one or more biases for the design problem definition; adjusting the generation algorithm; adjusting the objective function; and adjusting the stopping criterion.