Multilevel integration of exploration units : beyond the ambidextrous organization

How firms combine incremental and radical innovation? The ambidextrous model suggests to differentiate exploration units from exploitation units. We show the importance of integration between these entities in outlining the tensions between them. We suggest that integration takes place on a multilevel basis and relies on various mechanisms.Modèle ambidextre

Exploiting partial reconfiguration through PCIe for a microphone array network emulator

The current Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) technology enables the deployment of relatively low-cost wireless sensor networks composed of MEMS microphone arrays for accurate sound source localization. However, the evaluation and the selection of the most accurate and power-efficient network’s topology are not trivial when considering dynamic MEMS microphone arrays. Although software simulators are usually considered, they consist of high-computational intensive tasks, which require hours to days to be completed. In this paper, we present an FPGA-based platform to emulate a network of microphone arrays. Our platform provides a controlled simulated acoustic environment, able to evaluate the impact of different network configurations such as the number of microphones per array, the network’s topology, or the used detection method. Data fusion techniques, combining the data collected by each node, are used in this platform. The platform is designed to exploit the FPGA’s partial reconfiguration feature to increase the flexibility of the network emulator as well as to increase performance thanks to the use of the PCI-express high-bandwidth interface. On the one hand, the network emulator presents a higher flexibility by partially reconfiguring the nodes’ architecture in runtime. On the other hand, a set of strategies and heuristics to properly use partial reconfiguration allows the acceleration of the emulation by exploiting the execution parallelism. Several experiments are presented to demonstrate some of the capabilities of our platform and the benefits of using partial reconfiguration

Reconfigurable Flood Wall Inspired by Architected Origami

Recent interest in the art of origami has opened a wide range of engineering applications and possibilities. Shape changing structures based on origami have had a large influence on the drive for efficient, sustainable engineering solutions. However, development in novel macro-scale utilization is lacking compared to the effort towards micro-scale devices. There exists an opening for environmentally actuated structures that improve quality for life of humans and the natural environment. Specifically, resilient infrastructure systems could potentially benefit from the tailorable properties and programmable reconfiguration of origami-inspired designs. The realm of flood protection and overall water resources management creates a unique opportunity for adaptable structures. A flood protection system, or flood wall, is one application of the origami technique. In many situations, flood protection is visually displeasing and hinders an otherwise scenic natural environment within a cityscape. By applying a permanent, adaptable protection system in flood-prone areas, not only will general aesthetics be conserved, but quick deployment in disaster situations will be ensured. With a rapidly changing climate and an increase in storm disaster events, an efficient flood-protection system is vital. In this study, simple rigid flood barriers are compared to adaptable wall systems that utilize multi-stable configurations. The flood event is characterized by a surcharge of water that is suddenly introduced–like that of a flash flood–and sustained at steady-state. Small-scale prototypes are tested in a hydraulic flume and compared to a numerical simulation for validation.Ohio State University College of Engineering Undergraduate Research ScholarshipNo embargoAcademic Major: Civil Engineerin

Understanding the thermal implications of multicore architectures

Multicore architectures are becoming the main design paradigm for current and future processors. The main reason is that multicore designs provide an effective way of overcoming instruction-level parallelism (ILP) limitations by exploiting thread-level parallelism (TLP). In addition, it is a power and complexity-effective way of taking advantage of the huge number of transistors that can be integrated on a chip. On the other hand, today's higher than ever power densities have made temperature one of the main limitations of microprocessor evolution. Thermal management in multicore architectures is a fairly new area. Some works have addressed dynamic thermal management in bi/quad-core architectures. This work provides insight and explores different alternatives for thermal management in multicore architectures with 16 cores. Schemes employing both energy reduction and activity migration are explored and improvements for thread migration schemes are proposed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Socio-technical transition processes: A real option based reasoning.

Using a real option reasoning perspective we study the uncertainties and irreversibilities that impact the investment decisions of firms during the different phases of technological transitions. The analysis of transition dynamics via real options reasoning allows the provision of an alternative and more qualified explanation of investment decisions according to the sequentiality of pathways considered. In our framework, flexibility management through option investments concerns both the incumbent and the future technological regime. In the first case it refers to ex-post flexibility management and in the second case to ex-ante flexibility management.

A Survey of Techniques For Improving Energy Efficiency in Embedded Computing Systems

Recent technological advances have greatly improved the performance and features of embedded systems. With the number of just mobile devices now reaching nearly equal to the population of earth, embedded systems have truly become ubiquitous. These trends, however, have also made the task of managing their power consumption extremely challenging. In recent years, several techniques have been proposed to address this issue. In this paper, we survey the techniques for managing power consumption of embedded systems. We discuss the need of power management and provide a classification of the techniques on several important parameters to highlight their similarities and differences. This paper is intended to help the researchers and application-developers in gaining insights into the working of power management techniques and designing even more efficient high-performance embedded systems of tomorrow