Applications of Simulation and Animation in Facilities Planning and Design

Recent developments of simulation software have made computer simulation and animation popular system problem-solving techniques. One field that has many potential applications for computer simulation and animation is in the area of facilities planning and design. The purpose of this paper is to provide the facilities planner with information to assist in determining when, why, how and what simulation software should be implemented to solve facilities planning and design problems. Also, the usefulness of simulation and animation to the facilities planner is evaluated and areas for improving software for future application in facilities planning and design are identified. TO assist in presenting these objectives, a sample facilities planning and design problem is modeled with Cinema software to illustrate the model-building process as well as the characteristics of simulation and animation software

Pilot study to develop a problem based learning environment for open distance learners

This action research examines the online Problem based learning (PBL) designed for one of the courses in the Bachelor of Project and Facility Management offered at Open University Malaysia. The main aim of this study was to explore the constraints of implementing PBL and to look for possible interventions during class tutorial sessions. Within the constraints of students’ attendance and the limitation of time, this project was conducted and monitored using the action research methodology. The participants were students who attended the Facilities, Planning and Design course and they were divided into two groups consisting of five members in each group. Observations and reflections from the students and facilitator were recorded for ten weeks. At the end of the research, the facilitator developed the guidelines to introduce and conduct the PBL environment for this particular course. (Abstract by authors

Pilot study to develeop a problem based learning environment for open distance learning

This action research examines the online Problem based learning (PBL) designed for one of the courses in the Bachelor of Project and Facility Management offered at Open University Malaysia. The main aim of this study was to explore the constraints of implementing PBL and to look for possible interventions during class tutorial sessions. Within the constraints of students’ attendance and the limitation of time, this project was conducted and monitored using the action research methodology. The participants were students who attended the Facilities, Planning and Design course and they were divided into two groups consisting of five members in each group. Observations and reflections from the students and facilitator were recorded for ten weeks. At the end of the research, the facilitator developed the guidelines to introduce and conduct the PBL environment for this particular course (Abstract by author

Speed control of separately excited dc motor using artificial intelligent approach

This paper presents the ability of Artificial Intelligent Neural Network ANNs for the separately excited dc motor drives. The mathematical model of the motor and neural network algorithm is derived. The controller consists two parts which is designed to estimate of motor speed and the other is which to generate a control signal for a converter. The separately excited dc motor has some advantages compare to the others type of motors and there are some special qualities that have in ANNs and because of that, ANNs can be trained to display the nonlinear relationship that the conventional tools could not implemented such as proportional-integral-differential (PID) controller. A neural network controller with learning technique based on back propagation algorithm is developed. These two neural are training by Levenberg�Marquardt. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by develop simulation model in MATLAB-Simulink program. The simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and the proposed of this neural network controller produce significant improvement control performance and advantages of the control system DC motor with ANNs in comparison to the conventional controller without using ANNs

What does CRT have to do with a roof?: critical race spatial praxis – an equity approach to institutional planning, college design, and campus space

Educational settings are an under-examined mechanism of social reproduction. “Hidden” in plain sight, college space is embedded with socializing messages that pass largely unacknowledged. So commonplace are the spatial arrangements of classrooms, cafeterias, bathrooms, and campuses that the ways spaces act to normalize social hierarchies and reproduce systems of power often escape critical scrutiny. In this study I examine how an integrated theoretical and praxis-oriented framework drawing upon the scholarship of the hidden curriculum, spatial theory, and critical race theory (CRT), serves as a means to reveal “invisible” mechanisms of socialization and open possibilities to disrupt their influence. Portland Community College (PCC) located in Portland, Oregon serves as a case study of how applied CRT in facilities planning and design can help to expose the ways in which educational settings reproduce dominant ideologies and, at the same time, how systemic and structural changes can advance racial equity. I employed two methodological approaches—ethnography and participatory action research (PAR)—and collected data over a period of nine months. Drawing on systematically documented, recorded, and transcribed interviews, observations, focus groups, meetings, and a student PAR project, I analyze institutional planning, campus design, and students’ experiences navigating college space. I argue CRT is well positioned to bridge the significant theory practice divide. In illustrating the strategic potential of CRT, I hope to encourage educators and campus leaders to apply CRT in the development of practical and transformative strategies to advance equity and inclusion, including changing the very architecture of education

Using Public Schools as Community-Development Tools: Strategies for Community-Based Developers

This paper explores the use of public schools as tools for community and economic development. As major place-based infrastructure and an integral part of the community fabric, public schools can have a profound impact on the social, economic and physical character of a neighborhood. Addressing public schools, therefore, is a good point of entry for community-based developers to place their work in a comprehensive community-development context. The paper examines ways in which community-based developers can learn from, as well as contribute to, current community-based efforts, particularly in disinvested urban areas, to reinforce the link between public schools and neighborhoods. Furthermore, the paper considers the policy implications of including public schools in comprehensive development strategies, and argues that reinforcing the link between public schools and neighborhoods is not only good education policy, but also good community-development policy and practice

Healthcare Built Environment and Telemedicine Practice for Social and Environmental Sustainability

The practice of telemedicine started at the beginning of the 20th century but has never been widely implemented, even though it is significantly sustainable compared to traveling to healthcare However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic pushed organisations and patients to accept this technology. During the pandemic, telemedicine consultations took place in ad hoc environments without much preparation and planning. As a result, there is a knowledge gap in the field between telemedicine’s clinical care services and healthcare built environment, in terms of design. This research focused on addressing the quality of service and experience of telemedicine in primary healthcare settings and how this could be influenced by the digital infrastructure. Our aim was to understand the correlations between telemedicine and healthcare built environment and whether the latter could have a significant impact on telemedicine practice. The methodology included interviews with professionals involved in healthcare planning, architecture and ethnography, and end user research involving telemedicine sessions. The interviews highlighted that professionals involved in the design of healthcare environments demonstrated limited consideration of telemedicine environments. Yet, the ethnographic, end-user research identified areas where the telemedicine environment could affect user experience and should be taken into consideration in the design of such spaces

Bikeways Guide

This guide is intended to familiarize counties and cities with the basic aspects of bicycle facilities

A Lin-Kernighan Heuristic for Single Row Facility Layout

The single row facility layout problem (SRFLP) is the problem of arranging facilities with given lengths on a line, while minimizing the weighted sum of the distances between all pairs of facilities. The problem is known to be NP-hard. In this paper, we present a neighborhood search heuristic called LK-INSERT which uses a Lin-Kernighan neighborhood structure built on insertion neighborhoods. To the best of our knowledge this is the first such heuristic for the SRFLP. Our computational experiments show that LK-INSERT is competitive and improves the best known solutions for several large sized benchmark SRFLP instances.