摘要: In this paper, we address the demanding task of developing intelligent systems equipped with machine creativity that can perform design tasks automatically. The main challenge is how to model human beings' creativity mathematically and mimic such creativity computationally. We propose a ``synthesis reasoning model" as the underlying mechanism to simulate human beings' creative thinking when they are handling design tasks. We present the theory of the synthesis reasoning model, and the detailed procedure of designing an intelligent system based on the model. We offer a case study of an intelligent Chinese calligraphy generation system which we have developed. Based on implementation experiences of the calligraphy generation system as well as a few other systems for solving real-world problems, we suggest a generic methodology for constructing intelligent systems using the synthesis reasoning model.