23,282 research outputs found
New advances in Hâ control and filtering for nonlinear systems
The main objective of this special issue is to
summarise recent advances in Hâ control and filtering
for nonlinear systems, including time-delay, hybrid and
stochastic systems. The published papers provide new
ideas and approaches, clearly indicating the advances
made in problem statements, methodologies or applications
with respect to the existing results. The special
issue also includes papers focusing on advanced and
non-traditional methods and presenting considerable
novelties in theoretical background or experimental
setup. Some papers present applications to newly
emerging fields, such as network-based control and
estimation
Innovative teaching strategies: enhancing the soft-skilloriented approach through integrated onsite-online learning environments
ABSTRACT
The integration of ICT in Higher Education requires reflective design by
teachers. In particular, from recent international research on the subject, it
emerges that the perspective of the TPCK framework (Technological, Pedagogical,
Content Knowledge) can favour an effective design reasoning of
teachers. Teaching practice requires the implementation of innovative organizational
models for the creation of learning environments that offer continuity
between classroom and distance learning (Hybrid Instruction
Solution). The empirical mix-method research involved a group of volunteer
teachers of different teachings. The objective was to design and implement
innovative teaching solutions using ICT in onsite/online environments to enhance
specific soft skills in students. The results of a questionnaire (CAWI)
given to incoming and outgoing teachers from the experience of designing
and conducting the didactic action will be presented. the TPCK perspective
design of integrated learning environments and the reasoned choice of coherent
methodologies seem to make a soft-skilloriented didactics feasible
Designing transition paths for the diffusion of sustainable system innovations. A new potential role for design in transition management?
Copyright @ 2008 Umberto AllemandiIt is a shared opinion that the transition towards sustainability will be a continuous and articulated learning process, which will require radical changes on multiple levels (social, cultural, institutional and technological). It is also shared that, given the nature and the dimension of those changes, a system discontinuity is needed, and that therefore it is necessary to act on a system innovation level. The challenge now is to understand how it is possible to facilitate and support the introduction and diffusion of such innovations. Bringing together insights from both Design for sustainability and Transition management literatures, the paper puts forward a model, called Transition model of evolutionary co-design for sustainable (product-service) system innovations, aimed at facilitating and speed-up the process of designing, experimentation, niche introduction and branching of sustainable such innovations
Developing a Methodology to Characterize the Use of Emerging and Converging Technologies in Federal Agencies
Although some methodologies exist for the systematic and strategic consideration of emerging and converging technologies, they typically do not incorporate agency current use, strategies, or foresight. This research develops a methodology to characterize current and potential United States federal agency use of emerging and converging technologies to fulfill agency strategic plans and serve society.
Phase 1 of this research develops a methodology to fulfill criteria derived from a literature review and an assessment of best practices. Designed to be implemented in four phasesâdevelop, apply, evaluate, disseminateâthe steps of this methodology include definition, collection, organization, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and dissemination. Within the analyze step, a mix of qualitative and quantitative analysis approaches are applied to answer the defined questions. Current agency use of emerging and converging technologies is characterized with content analysis of strategic documents; technology assessment analysis by experts; and individual interviews with government employees. Potential agency use of emerging and converging technologies is characterized with individual interviews with government employees; plausibility matrix analysis by experts; and crowd-sourced intelligence. The methodology is applied in Phase 2 to two cases, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Energy, then evaluated in Phase 3 versus the design criteria and visual analytics, and disseminated in Phase 4 to researchers, policymakers, and the general public.
Key findings, results, and meta-inferences of this research are that many more potential uses exist for using emerging and converging technologies to fulfill agency strategies and the research identifies some of the potential uses by technology and strategy. These potential uses also are presented in terms of comparable technical feasibility and societal benefit. Implications for policymakers are that governing with foresight is critical; encouraging systematic agency consideration of emerging and converging technologies is necessary; and it is important to implement a government-wide methodology that will characterize current and potential use of emerging and converging technologies for fulfilling agency strategies. This research contributes the criterion for such a methodology as well as the methodology and the results of its application to two agency cases
Recommended from our members
Unpacking capabilities underlying design (thinking) process
Engineering graduates must know how to frame and solve non-routine problems. While design classes explicitly teach problem framing and solving, it is lacking throughout much of the rest of the engineering curriculum and is often relegated to capstone classes at the end of the studentsâ educational experience. This paper explores problem framing and solving through the lens of experiential learning theory. It captures core problem framing and solving approaches from critical, design and systems thinking and concludes with a table of learning outcomes that might be drawn upon in designing an engineering curriculum that more fully develops the problem framing and solving capabilities of its students
Comparing and Combining Lexicase Selection and Novelty Search
Lexicase selection and novelty search, two parent selection methods used in
evolutionary computation, emphasize exploring widely in the search space more
than traditional methods such as tournament selection. However, lexicase
selection is not explicitly driven to select for novelty in the population, and
novelty search suffers from lack of direction toward a goal, especially in
unconstrained, highly-dimensional spaces. We combine the strengths of lexicase
selection and novelty search by creating a novelty score for each test case,
and adding those novelty scores to the normal error values used in lexicase
selection. We use this new novelty-lexicase selection to solve automatic
program synthesis problems, and find it significantly outperforms both novelty
search and lexicase selection. Additionally, we find that novelty search has
very little success in the problem domain of program synthesis. We explore the
effects of each of these methods on population diversity and long-term problem
solving performance, and give evidence to support the hypothesis that
novelty-lexicase selection resists converging to local optima better than
lexicase selection
Bioengineered Textiles and Nonwovens â the convergence of bio-miniaturisation and electroactive conductive polymers for assistive healthcare, portable power and design-led wearable technology
Today, there is an opportunity to bring together creative design activities to exploit the responsive and adaptive âsmartâ materials that are a result of rapid development in electro, photo active polymers or OFEDs (organic thin film electronic devices), bio-responsive hydrogels, integrated into MEMS/NEMS devices and systems respectively. Some of these integrated systems are summarised in this paper, highlighting their use to create enhanced functionality in textiles, fabrics and non-woven large area thin films. By understanding the characteristics and properties of OFEDs and bio polymers and how they can be transformed into implementable physical forms, innovative products and services can be developed, with wide implications. The paper outlines some of these opportunities and applications, in particular, an ambient living platform, dealing with human centred needs, of people at work, people at home and people at play. The innovative design affords the accelerated development of intelligent materials (interactive, responsive and adaptive) for a new product & service design landscape, encompassing assistive healthcare (smart bandages and digital theranostics), ambient living, renewable energy (organic PV and solar textiles), interactive consumer products, interactive personal & beauty care (e-Scent) and a more intelligent built environment
Time-and event-driven communication process for networked control systems: A survey
Copyright © 2014 Lei Zou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.In recent years, theoretical and practical research topics on networked control systems (NCSs) have gained an increasing interest from many researchers in a variety of disciplines owing to the extensive applications of NCSs in practice. In particular, an urgent need has arisen to understand the effects of communication processes on system performances. Sampling and protocol are two fundamental aspects of a communication process which have attracted a great deal of research attention. Most research focus has been on the analysis and control of dynamical behaviors under certain sampling procedures and communication protocols. In this paper, we aim to survey some recent advances on the analysis and synthesis issues of NCSs with different sampling procedures (time-and event-driven sampling) and protocols (static and dynamic protocols). First, these sampling procedures and protocols are introduced in detail according to their engineering backgrounds as well as dynamic natures. Then, the developments of the stabilization, control, and filtering problems are systematically reviewed and discussed in great detail. Finally, we conclude the paper by outlining future research challenges for analysis and synthesis problems of NCSs with different communication processes.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61329301, 61374127, and 61374010, the Royal Society of the UK, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany
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