Marketing and design intersections: an applied project for ICMD 2018 - international conference on marketing and design

Challenging the transdisciplinary issues in marketing and design reveals the unexplored parts between different subjects. Exploring the combinations and possible unity of decisive factors in each topic could reveal new possibilities, practices and result in unique discoveries. In each small detail there are different points of view according to perspective of observer. While any task is recognized by determined viewpoint, it’s suggested for association with several patterns. Otherwise, changing the aspect of discipline, the conclusions could suffer some revision and in between of two different areas the result could transform into the innovation. Over all the appealing design, ability for personalisation, as well as common elements of STP (segmentation - targeting - position) marketing model should be presented and worked together. This applied project contains a combination of marketing and design background to be successfully developed. As a final result it represents a complete framework prepared for future implementations and designed for necessary customisations. Starting with marketing inputs - information about conference, target, areas and other details, putting it all together and transforming it into concept and real communication product took a lot of effort and research. The full process of creation was dynamic and the development was made according to available information. In the initial stage, to cover all necessary aspects and determine the concept of visual communication and strategy of marketing, organisation team meetings were realised. Benchmark analysis of 44 similar conferences in marketing or design combined both disciplines was carried out. It helped to determine necessary aspects that should be implemented for a good successful practice. As a result, a functional web platform including intranet, strong visual communication with a memorable concept, strategy for social marketing was created and data from metrics carried out, which allowed to compare all the interactions.Ao desafiar as questões transdisciplinares em marketing e design poderá revelar as partes inexploradas de ambas as áreas. Investigar as colaborações entre as boas práticas destas áreas e pesquisa de fatores decisivos poderá resultar na descoberta de novas possibilidades e práticas originais. Cada área possui suas nuances e existem diferentes pontos de vista sobre elas de acordo com a perspetiva do observador. Embora qualquer tarefa seja reconhecida por seu conceito, é também associada a vários interpretações pré-existentes. Contudo, ao observar cada disciplina sob uma diferente ótica, as conclusões poderão sofrer alterações e a relação entre estas duas áreas poderá resultar em inovação. Sendo assim, o design apelativo e a possibilidade de personalização, bem como os elementos comuns do modelo de marketing STP (segmentação - targeting - posição) devem ser trabalhados em conjunto. Este projeto aplicado contém uma combinação de conhecimento em marketing e design. Como resultado final, obteve-se uma estrutura preparada para realização de futuros projetos semelhantes, pronta para a personalização. O marketing foi utilizado como ferramenta para a obtenção da informação essencial – dados sobre o público alvo da conferência, objetivos, áreas de interesse e outros pormenores. Consoante as informações disponíveis, o processo de desenvolvimento foi dinâmico, possibilitando assim a criação do conceito, junto com o design e, posteriormente, projeto real do evento. Inicialmente, para cobrir todos os aspetos necessários, determinar o conceito de comunicação visual e estratégia de marketing, foram realizadas reuniões com a equipa da organização. Além disso, procedeu-se uma análise comparativa de 44 conferências semelhantes em marketing e/ou design, que ajudou a determinar os aspetos necessários a serem implementados para concretizar boas práticas desta conferencia. Como resultado, foi criada uma plataforma web funcional, incluindo intranet, com uma comunicação visual concisa, estratégia de marketing social e obtidos os dados de métricas, que permitiram comparar todas as interações

Artificial Intelligence-based Smarter Accessibility Evaluations for Comprehensive and Personalized Assessment

The research focuses on utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to enhance accessibility for people with disabilities (PwD) in three areas: public buildings, homes, and medical devices. The overarching goal is to improve the accuracy, reliability, and effectiveness of accessibility evaluation systems by leveraging smarter technologies. For public buildings, the challenge lies in developing an accurate and reliable accessibility evaluation system. AI can play a crucial role by analyzing data, identifying potential barriers, and assessing the accessibility of various features within buildings. By training ML algorithms on relevant data, the system can learn to make accurate predictions about the accessibility of different spaces and help policymakers and architects design more inclusive environments. For private places such as homes, it is essential to have a person-focused accessibility evaluation system. By utilizing machine learning-based intelligent systems, it becomes possible to assess the accessibility of individual homes based on specific needs and requirements. This personalized approach can help identify barriers and recommend modifications or assistive technologies that can enhance accessibility and independence for PwD within their own living spaces. The research also addresses the intelligent evaluation of healthcare devices in the home. Many PwD rely on medical devices for their daily living, and ensuring the accessibility and usability of these devices is crucial. AI can be employed to evaluate the accessibility features of medical devices, provide recommendations for improvement, and even measure their effectiveness in supporting the needs of PwD. Overall, this research aims to enhance the accuracy and reliability of accessibility evaluation systems by leveraging AI and ML technologies. By doing so, it seeks to improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities by enabling increased independence, fostering social inclusion, and promoting better accessibility in public buildings, private homes, and medical devices

Further Developing a Procedural Digital Twin for Road Tunnels

A Digital Twin is a close to as possible replica of a real world application, in the digital world. The Digital Twin aims to simulate a process, in real time so the user can generate information and value from the process. It is a representation of a physical asset, object or service. Often the Digital Twin takes data from real sensor to mimic the live process in a digital representation. In this thesis, the focus is on Digital Twin representations of road tunnels in Norway. This thesis builds further on previously designed implementation and thesis written at University of Stavanger. The project creates tunnel twins for any given Norwegian tunnel, by using Satens Vegvesen public API for tunnel information. Extending work made previously that connects static models with generated sensor data to display sensors in a tunnel made in Unity. This thesis furthers develops this project, by aiming to find ways to improve the architecture made in the current implementation while also finding new features to add based on what is seen in other Digital Twins in the academic world. Implementing these new features and changes to see how they are helpful to the continuous work of this Digital Twin project

Field-based measurement of hydrodynamics associated with engineered in-channel structures: the example of fish pass assessment

The construction of fish passes has been a longstanding measure to improve river ecosystem status by ensuring the passability of weirs, dams and other in- channel structures for migratory fish. Many fish passes have a low biological effectiveness because of unsuitable hydrodynamic conditions hindering fish to rapidly detect the pass entrance. There has been a need for techniques to quantify the hydrodynamics surrounding fish pass entrances in order to identify those passes that require enhancement and to improve the design of new passes. This PhD thesis presents the development of a methodology for the rapid, spatially continuous quantification of near-pass hydrodynamics in the field. The methodology involves moving-vessel Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurements in order to quantify the 3-dimensional water velocity distribution around fish pass entrances. The approach presented in this thesis is novel because it integrates a set of techniques to make ADCP data robust against errors associated with the environmental conditions near engineered in-channel structures. These techniques provide solutions to (i) ADCP compass errors from magnetic interference, (ii) bias in water velocity data caused by spatial flow heterogeneity, (iii) the accurate ADCP positioning in locales with constrained line of sight to navigation satellites, and (iv) the accurate and cost-effective sensor deployment following pre-defined sampling strategies. The effectiveness and transferability of the methodology were evaluated at three fish pass sites covering conditions of low, medium and high discharge. The methodology outputs enabled a detailed quantitative characterisation of the fish pass attraction flow and its interaction with other hydrodynamic features. The outputs are suitable to formulate novel indicators of hydrodynamic fish pass attractiveness and they revealed the need to refine traditional fish pass design guidelines