EEN: a pen-based electronic notebook for unintrusive acquisition of engineering design knowledge

Capturing design information and decisions is critical to supporting the re-use of designs and coordination in engineering teams. Most of this information is currently not recorded at all. In this paper, we focus on the role of electronic engineering notebooks in the capture, storage and dissemination of design information and decisions, and on their role in integrating and managing design decisions and processes. We propose EEN (Electronic Engineering Notebook) as a tool for assisting engineers in information-related tasks, and ultimately leading to the replacement of traditional paper engineering notebooks. This paper presents the requirements, design and implementation of EEN, as well as initial experimental results.