National Educators' Workshop: Update 1988. Standard Experiments in Engineering Materials Science and Technology

Presented here is a collection of experiments presented and demonstrated at the National Educators' Workshop: Update 88, held May 10 to 12, 1988 at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersberg, Maryland. The experiments related to the nature and properties of engineering materials and provided information to assist in teaching about materials in the education community

JETC (Japanese Technology Evaluation Center) Panel Report on High Temperature Superconductivity in Japan

The Japanese regard success in R and D in high temperature superconductivity as an important national objective. The results of a detailed evaluation of the current state of Japanese high temperature superconductivity development are provided. The analysis was performed by a panel of technical experts drawn from U.S. industry and academia, and is based on reviews of the relevant literature and visits to Japanese government, academic and industrial laboratories. Detailed appraisals are presented on the following: Basic research; superconducting materials; large scale applications; processing of superconducting materials; superconducting electronics and thin films. In all cases, comparisons are made with the corresponding state-of-the-art in the United States

Architecture of Video Games: Potential Reference

The Architecture perspective / scale in video games has evolved throughout time to an extent that it is no longer a mere spatial visualization to host the game, but it has become an interaction medium between the player and the game. Architecture in recent video games played a fundamental role in bridging the gap between the real and the digital world. The analogy between these two is increasingly established through the representational immersion and the participation of the player in a highly realistic environment transforming the gaming experience into an entertaining and educational journey. The aim of this thesis is not only to explore insights on the depth of video games referencing through an urban and a sustainable way but also to investigate the potential application of video games architectural environment into real-life settings as guidelines to promote sustainability in both Architecture and Urbanism

Ethics, Integrity and Policymaking

This Open Access book provides illustrative case studies that explore various research and innovation topics that raise challenges requiring ethical reflection and careful policymaking responses. The cases highlight diverse ethical challenges and provide lessons for the various options available for policymaking. Cases are drawn from many fields, including artificial intelligence, space science, energy, data protection, professional research practice and pandemic planning. Case studies are particularly helpful with ethical issues to provide crucial context. This book reflects the ambiguity of ethical dilemmas in contemporary policymaking. Analyses reflect current debates where consensus has not yet been achieved. These cases illustrate key points made throughout the PRO-RES EU-funded project from which they arise: that ethical judgement is a fluid enterprise, where values, principles and standards must constantly adjust to new situations, new events and new research developments. This book is an indispensable aid to policymaking that addresses, and/or uses evidence from, novel research developments

Clouds of discontent: art, work, solidarity and digital platform labour

This thesis charts the course of a practice-based project that has employed a range of artistic research methods to explore modes of critical engagement with digital platform labour (commonly referred to as the ‘gig economy’). Digital labour platforms act as intermediaries between buyers and sellers of labour, through which a temporary employment relation can be entered into with a few clicks of a mouse or taps on a mobile phone. The wide range of questions that this throws open in relation to how work is organised include issues of workers’ rights and organisation, precarity, management by algorithm, opacity of decision-making, the disconnect between digital interfaces and the bodily reality of labour, and an entrepreneurial ideology that is promulgated in order to obscure the problematic aspects of work of this kind. The central question that has motivated this project is how artistic inquiry, with its specific concerns and methodologies, as well as the distinct kinds of precarities it engenders, can intervene in this emerging area of work on several levels, particularly in relation to questions of representation and the critique of hegemonic discourses, as well as practiced solidarity. The practice conducted in the process comprises two broad strands of inquiry: one has made use of digital platforms as a medium with which to create artistic works, the second has taken to working directly with labour activists. Reflecting on what has emerged in the process, this thesis is ultimately concerned with a methodological investigation that asks, firstly, what kinds of interventions are possible within the restrictions of proprietary digital infrastructures when the objective is to highlight the contradictions of work under platform capitalism; and secondly, how artistic practice can engage with its own problematic position in the capitalist division of labour, particularly when leaving its field of operation and extending solidarity outwards, to workers whose struggles are external to the sphere of art. The main contribution to knowledge in this thesis is twofold: firstly, the development of a methodology by which artworks employ the functionalities of digital labour platforms in order to critically intervene within their own structures, as well as test what kinds of oppositional flows can be inserted into or extracted from their workings. Secondly, a critique of the former methodology through working with labour rights activists has led to the development of a form of and attitude towards practice that seeks to undermine art’s position in the capitalist division between intellectual and manual labour, through what I call artwork that is not artwork as a model for artistic counter-production

China's absorptive State: research, innovation and the prospects for China-UK collaboration

China's innovation system is advancing so rapidly in multiple directions that the UK needs to develop a more ambitious and tailored strategy, able to maximise opportunities and minimise risks across the diversity of its innovation links to China. For the UK, the choice is not whether to engage more deeply with the Chinese system, but how. This report analyses the policies, prospects and dilemmas for Chinese research and innovation over the next decade. It is designed to inform a more strategic approach to supporting China-UK collaboration

Ethics, Integrity and Policymaking

This Open Access book provides illustrative case studies that explore various research and innovation topics that raise challenges requiring ethical reflection and careful policymaking responses. The cases highlight diverse ethical challenges and provide lessons for the various options available for policymaking. Cases are drawn from many fields, including artificial intelligence, space science, energy, data protection, professional research practice and pandemic planning. Case studies are particularly helpful with ethical issues to provide crucial context. This book reflects the ambiguity of ethical dilemmas in contemporary policymaking. Analyses reflect current debates where consensus has not yet been achieved. These cases illustrate key points made throughout the PRO-RES EU-funded project from which they arise: that ethical judgement is a fluid enterprise, where values, principles and standards must constantly adjust to new situations, new events and new research developments. This book is an indispensable aid to policymaking that addresses, and/or uses evidence from, novel research developments