A survey to evaluate how non designers perceive aesthetic properties of styling features

World-wide market competition and the need to create products that better satisfy the market expectations require a more comprehensive involvement of the customer in the product definition loop. Therefore, it is crucial to provide customers with very easy-to-use shape definition and modification tools, allowing them to verify and evaluate possible shape alternatives without requiring specific knowledge on geometric modeling. A set of aesthetic properties guiding the shape characterization and appraisal have been identified together with measures for their evaluation and shape modeling methods for their direct modification. Since these properties have been indicated by stylists, no guarantee exists that they are usable in a context directly involving customers in the product definition loop. To verify the extent to which the terms indicating the properties, their meaning and their measures are significant and understandable by non-expert designer people we carried out a survey. This paper describes the methodology adopted and the outcomes of this survey

GIS and urban design

Although urban planning has used computer models and information systems sincethe 1950s and architectural practice has recently restructured to the use of computeraideddesign (CAD) and computer drafting software, urban design has hardly beentouched by the digital world. This is about to change as very fine scale spatial datarelevant to such design becomes routinely available, as 2dimensional GIS(geographic information systems) become linked to 3dimensional CAD packages,and as other kinds of photorealistic media are increasingly being fused with thesesoftware. In this chapter, we present the role of GIS in urban design, outlining whatcurrent desktop software is capable of and showing how various new techniques canbe developed which make such software highly suitable as basis for urban design.We first outline the nature of urban design and then present ideas about how varioussoftware might form a tool kit to aid its process. We then look in turn at: utilisingstandard mapping capabilities within GIS relevant to urban design; buildingfunctional extensions to GIS which measure local scale accessibility; providingsketch planning capability in GIS and linking 2-d to 3-d visualisations using low costnet-enabled CAD browsers. We finally conclude with some speculations on thefuture of GIS for urban design across networks whereby a wide range of participantsmight engage in the design process digitally but remotely

AI and OR in management of operations: history and trends

The last decade has seen a considerable growth in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for operations management with the aim of finding solutions to problems that are increasing in complexity and scale. This paper begins by setting the context for the survey through a historical perspective of OR and AI. An extensive survey of applications of AI techniques for operations management, covering a total of over 1200 papers published from 1995 to 2004 is then presented. The survey utilizes Elsevier's ScienceDirect database as a source. Hence, the survey may not cover all the relevant journals but includes a sufficiently wide range of publications to make it representative of the research in the field. The papers are categorized into four areas of operations management: (a) design, (b) scheduling, (c) process planning and control and (d) quality, maintenance and fault diagnosis. Each of the four areas is categorized in terms of the AI techniques used: genetic algorithms, case-based reasoning, knowledge-based systems, fuzzy logic and hybrid techniques. The trends over the last decade are identified, discussed with respect to expected trends and directions for future work suggested

Lessons Learned from a 10-Year Collaboration between Engineering and Industrial Design Students in Capstone Design Projects

Engineers and industrial designers have different approaches to problem solving. Both place heavy emphasis on identification of customer needs, manufacturing methods, and prototyping. Industrial designers focus on aesthetics, ergonomics, ease of use, and the user’s experience. They tend to be more visual and more concerned with the interaction between users and products. Engineers focus on functionality, performance requirements, analytical modeling, and design verification and validation. They tend to be more analytical and more concerned with the design of internal components and product performance. Engineers and industrial designers often work together on project teams in industry. Collaboration between the two groups on senior capstone design projects can teach each to respect and value the unique contributions each brings to the project team, result in improved design solutions, and help prepare students for future collaboration in industry. Student feedback and lessons learned by faculty and students from a ten-year collaboration between engineering and industrial design students from Marquette University and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, respectively, are presented. Students learned to communicate with people in other disciplines, appreciate the complementary skills of each discipline, and value different approaches to problem solving

The interaction of lean and building information modeling in construction

Lean construction and Building Information Modeling are quite different initiatives, but both are having profound impacts on the construction industry. A rigorous analysis of the myriad specific interactions between them indicates that a synergy exists which, if properly understood in theoretical terms, can be exploited to improve construction processes beyond the degree to which it might be improved by application of either of these paradigms independently. Using a matrix that juxtaposes BIM functionalities with prescriptive lean construction principles, fifty-six interactions have been identified, all but four of which represent constructive interaction. Although evidence for the majority of these has been found, the matrix is not considered complete, but rather a framework for research to explore the degree of validity of the interactions. Construction executives, managers, designers and developers of IT systems for construction can also benefit from the framework as an aid to recognizing the potential synergies when planning their lean and BIM adoption strategies

Integration between Creativity and Engineering in Industrial Design

The objective of the paper is to illustrate which are the key issues today in the industrial design workflow, paying particular attention to the most creative part of the workflow, highlighting those nodes which still make hard the styling activities and giving a brief survey of the researches aimed at smoothing the transfer of the design intent along the whole design cycle and at providing tools even more adhering at the mentality of creative people. Based on the experience gained working in two different European projects, through the collaboration with industrial designers in the automotive and the household supplies fields, a general industrial design workflow will be depicted, highlighting the main differences between the automotive and non-automotive sectors; the problems still present in the design activity will be also illustrated. The paper includes short surveys, in relation to the aesthetic design, in matter of research activities aimed at - identifying the links between shape characteristics of a product and the transmitted emotions - better supporting, in a digital way, the 2D sketching phase and the automatic interpretation and transfer of the 2D sketches into a 3D surface model - improving the 3D Modeling phase