WikiLink: an encyclopedia-based semantic network for design innovation
This work addresses the need for more comprehensive semantic networks in data-driven design innovation, though it is incremental by building on existing methods with a new data source and combined weighting.
The authors tackled the problem of limited data sources and relationship types in semantic networks for design innovation by constructing WikiLink, a Wikipedia-based network that fuses statistical and semantic weights, and developed four algorithms for idea generation. Evaluation showed high coverage of terms and relationships, and case studies demonstrated its effectiveness as a tool for conceptual design innovation.
Data-driven design and innovation is a process to reuse and provide valuable and useful information. However, existing semantic networks for design innovation is built on data source restricted to technological and scientific information. Besides, existing studies build the edges of a semantic network only on either statistical or semantic relationships, which is less likely to make full use of the benefits from both types of relationships and discover implicit knowledge for design innovation. Therefore, we constructed WikiLink, a semantic network based on Wikipedia. Combined weight which fuses both the statistic and semantic weights between concepts is introduced in WikiLink, and four algorithms are developed for inspiring new ideas. Evaluation experiments are undertaken and results show that the network is characterised by high coverage of terms, relationships and disciplines, which proves the network's effectiveness and usefulness. Then a demonstration and case study results indicate that WikiLink can serve as an idea generation tool for innovation in conceptual design. The source code of WikiLink and the backend data are provided open-source for more users to explore and build on.