Space-Based Information Infrastructure Architecture for Broadband Services

This study addressed four tasks: (1) identify satellite-addressable information infrastructure markets; (2) perform network analysis for space-based information infrastructure; (3) develop conceptual architectures; and (4) economic assessment of architectures. The report concludes that satellites will have a major role in the national and global information infrastructure, requiring seamless integration between terrestrial and satellite networks. The proposed LEO, MEO, and GEO satellite systems have satellite characteristics that vary widely. They include delay, delay variations, poorer link quality and beam/satellite handover. The barriers against seamless interoperability between satellite and terrestrial networks are discussed. These barriers are the lack of compatible parameters, standards and protocols, which are presently being evaluated and reduced

Fashion-able. Hacktivism and engaged fashion design

This thesis consists of a series of extensive projects which aim to explore a new designer role for fashion. It is a role that experiments with how fashion can be reverse engineered, hacked, tuned and shared among many participants as a form of social activism. This social design practice can be called the hacktivism of fashion. It is an engaged and collective process of enablement, creative resistance and DIY practice, where a community share methods and experiences on how to expand action spaces and develop new forms of craftsmanship. In this practice, the designer engages participants to reform fashion from a phenomenon of dictations and anxiety to a collective experience of empowerment, in other words, to make them become fashion-able. As its point of departure, the research takes the practice of hands-on exploration in the DIY upcycling of clothes through “open source” fashion “cookbooks”. By means of hands-on processes, the projects endeavour to create a complementary understanding of the modes of production within the field of fashion design. The artistic research projects have ranged from DIY-kits released at an international fashion week, fashion experiments in galleries, collaborative “hacking” at a shoe factory, engaged design at a rehabilitation centre as well as combined efforts with established fashion brands. Using parallels from hacking, heresy, fan fiction, small change and professional-amateurs, the thesis builds a non-linear framework by which the reader can draw diagonal interpretations through the artistic research projects presented. By means of this alternative reading new understandings may emerge that can expand the action spaces available for fashion design. This approach is not about subverting fashion as much as hacking and tuning it, and making its sub-routines run in new ways, or in other words, bending the current while still keeping the power on

Enterprise software with half-duplex interoperations

10 page(s

A methodological approach to planning in Arctic regions

The starting point of this research is based on personal experience in research and design for extreme environments, including orbital and lunar planetary facilities, disaster shelters, polar stations and offshore surface and submersible habitats. This work reflects on related to research problem technical papers, discussions with professionals about their work experience with projects in extreme conditions, and students' workshops debating strategies to form sustainable behavior and design practices. Historically, projects in extreme environments are conducted following corporate- and professional checklists, which often fail to integrate important and inter-dependent sub-elements of the design process. In addition to technical challenges, projects in extreme environments deal with significant psychological challenges, due to isolation-, confinement-, deprivation-, and risk factors that planners and building designers must consider. The complexity of the problem requires a multi-disciplinary approach. Therefore, this research proposes a unified design methodology where human-related sub-element couplings are also addressed. This study finds that an interdisciplinary, comprehensive approach includes highlighting influences upon general habitat requirements, and constraints upon delivery, construction, and special provisions for safety and hazard intervention. Optimization of such design requirements based on a summary of design considerations is a key element of the matrix methodology. In a summary, the proposed methodology offers a consistent strategy for building design, staff operations and training, as well as equipment and logistical requirements for human activities. It facilitates a dialogue between all areas of expertise involved in designing, planning, living and working on site. emphasizing the importance of equal attention to all elements of the project development, including human factors and psychological aspects, in design and planning processes. Such an approach is essential to enable successful sustainable development and maintenance practices. The next steps of the research advancement are discussed including potentials of the proposed matrix methodology, which includes evolutionary databases, to serve as a foundation for developing an interactive software program for risk assessment, system-operations integration, logistics and safety