design-research-problems 0.1.0

A compendium of canonical design research problems

design-research-problems

design-research-problems is a compact library and compendium of design research problems. It packages canonical research prompts, optimization benchmarks, and discrete grammar-style problems behind a small, typed Python API.

Overview

The initial release centers on three seed problem families:

• Text problems for human-subjects studies and prompt packets
• Optimization problems with typed bounds and lazy SciPy-backed solving
• Grammar problems that describe discrete design actions and optional evaluation adapters

The first catalog includes:

• peanut_sheller_fu2010 for text-based design research
• pill_capsule_min_area for constrained continuous optimization
• planar_truss_span for a discrete topology grammar backed by trussme

Quickstart

Requires Python 3.12+. Install from PyPI with:

pip install design-research-problems

Install the optional optimization solver support with:

pip install "design-research-problems[opt]"

Install the optional trussme grammar support with:

pip install "design-research-problems[grammar]"

Then inspect the catalog directly from the installed package:

python3 -c "from design_research_problems import list_problems; print(list_problems())"

For local development, reproducible installs are pinned to Python 3.12.12 in .python-version:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
make dev
make ci

Docs

See the published documentation for the guide and reference layout. Build them locally with:

make docs

Contributing

Contribution guidelines live in CONTRIBUTING.md.