Selective Laser Sintering Process Management Using a Relational Database

With more and more materials used in the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) process, it is becoming necessary to use a database to manage the process efficiently. In this paper, a relational database for the SLS process is described. The database includes powdered material data, sintering parameters, machine characteristics, mechanical properties and surface quality of prototypes. Use ofthis database will make it is easy to store and retrieve processing information and make decisions for planning the SLS. This paper will go on to describe how the database can be extended to include other RP technologies.Mechanical Engineerin

A rapid prototyping/artificial intelligence approach to space station-era information management and access

Applications of rapid prototyping and Artificial Intelligence techniques to problems associated with Space Station-era information management systems are described. In particular, the work is centered on issues related to: (1) intelligent man-machine interfaces applied to scientific data user support, and (2) the requirement that intelligent information management systems (IIMS) be able to efficiently process metadata updates concerning types of data handled. The advanced IIMS represents functional capabilities driven almost entirely by the needs of potential users. Space Station-era scientific data projected to be generated is likely to be significantly greater than data currently processed and analyzed. Information about scientific data must be presented clearly, concisely, and with support features to allow users at all levels of expertise efficient and cost-effective data access. Additionally, mechanisms for allowing more efficient IIMS metadata update processes must be addressed. The work reported covers the following IIMS design aspects: IIMS data and metadata modeling, including the automatic updating of IIMS-contained metadata, IIMS user-system interface considerations, including significant problems associated with remote access, user profiles, and on-line tutorial capabilities, and development of an IIMS query and browse facility, including the capability to deal with spatial information. A working prototype has been developed and is being enhanced

Educating Educators On Mastery Learning And Spiral Learning

There are many barriers that hinder teachers from educating themselves on effective teaching and learning methods they can use in the classroom. Along with shortness of time and energy, the inaccessibility of reliable information and the time it takes to sift through all of the extensive amount of information all pose as problems. For this project, information and research on two methods of teaching and learning: mastery and spiral learning will be collected and summarized and the advantages and disadvantages of each will be presented in order to help educate teachers and educators on effective methods of teaching

The place of expert systems in a typology of information systems

This article considers definitions and claims of Expert Systems ( ES) and analyzes them in view of traditional Information systems (IS). It is argued that the valid specifications for ES do not differ fran those for IS. Consequently the theoretical study and the practical development of ES should not be a monodiscipline. Integration of ES development in classical mathematics and computer science opens the door to existing knowledge and experience. Aspects of existing ES are reviewed from this interdisciplinary point of view

Validation of a Content Analysis System Using an Iterative Prototyping Approach to Action Research

In the face of a more rapid pace of scientific development, academic societies and competitive organizations alike are seeking new methods for content analysis. This paper describes a theoretically driven action research study that delivers a technology-mediated solution for specifying, organizing, representing and using elements of meaning in a body of knowledge. The theoretical basis, \u27ontological specification\u27 is of particular interest to IS professionals, particularly those involved in analysis and design, because it guides the efficient transformation of tacit knowledge into an explicit form. The technology-mediated solution influenced by ontological specification was validated through an iterative prototyping form of action research. Users reported that the system was useful in their work, easy to use, and compatible with collaborative work when using it for content analysis in academic research

The development of a prototype intelligent user interface subsystem for NASA's scientific database systems

The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) has initiated an Intelligent Data Management (IDM) research effort which has as one of its components the development of an Intelligent User Interface (IUI).The intent of the latter is to develop a friendly and intelligent user interface service that is based on expert systems and natural language processing technologies. The purpose is to support the large number of potential scientific and engineering users presently having need of space and land related research and technical data but who have little or no experience in query languages or understanding of the information content or architecture of the databases involved. This technical memorandum presents prototype Intelligent User Interface Subsystem (IUIS) using the Crustal Dynamics Project Database as a test bed for the implementation of the CRUDDES (Crustal Dynamics Expert System). The knowledge base has more than 200 rules and represents a single application view and the architectural view. Operational performance using CRUDDES has allowed nondatabase users to obtain useful information from the database previously accessible only to an expert database user or the database designer

CAD, BIM, GIS and other tricks of the computer science in the education of the Building Engineer

Revisione internazionale- relazione a invito- chair sessione S8T The paper aims to develop some thoughts on the upgrade implemented in the disciplines of drawing from the latest forms of digital representation, commenting on the experiences under way in some university courses included in the learning curriculum provided to engineering students with regard to the course of study in Ingegneria Edile (Building Engineering, also known as Architectural or Construction Engineering) at the Politecnico di Torino. It's a matter of reasoning on what and how to suggest knowledge and practises in the experience of teaching that result as an improvement of skills and abilities appropriate for future commitments required by the job world. Method: Methodological reasons, subject contents and experiences positively carried out during the activities of the course of Representation Techniques and Data Management (in the post graduate "Laurea Magistrale") are treated, focusing on all the resources needed to conduct profitable operations training and first clarifying the specific skills and experience required for the teaching staff, essential qualities to ensure good results: all the activities organized to achieve the training objectives are based on the belief that early training is needed to trigger virtuous review processes for engineering practice and that opportunities to practice through simulations in the academic curriculum for future engineers can produce effects of greater permanence and enable an enhancement of learning outcomes. Result: The analysis, which is addressed primarily to illustrate the result of some of the outcomes of exercise activities leaded by students, brings attention to a solicitation that seems to be constraining and that concerns the system of relations required between operators of the design and construction process, which are requested to enter into shared aims while operating in the specificity of the various technical fields; in this sense, the tricks of the CAD, which is at the service of a geometric knowledge, measured and fulfilled by its attributes, the attention demanded by BIM, which builds a widespread and open network of relationship, the cunnings of the GIS, which has to gather dynamic information and alternative choices, appear to address areas of operational testing following a single purpose directed towards a better characterization of the process of conceptual development and a more advantageous control of the working method. Discussion & Conclusion: So, with the design and over the usual representations, we speak of computer tricks to say that to be understood as the necessary infrastructure to solicit and investigate the reasons of doing and how to solve the complexity of operating on the field, upon which students must impractical themselves to identify qualities and limits, whether they are exploring the reasons of the survey or the reasons bound with the design; certainly a renewal for the most usual ways of designing useful to produce different levels of knowledge and a new shared place for the exchange and discussion of the hypotheses, with what results

The load shedding advisor: An example of a crisis-response expert system

A Prolog-based prototype expert system is described that was implemented by the Network Operations Branch of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The purpose of the prototype was to test whether a small, inexpensive computer system could be used to host a load shedding advisor, a system which would monitor major physical environment parameters in a computer facility, then recommend appropriate operator reponses whenever a serious condition was detected. The resulting prototype performed significantly to efficiency gains achieved by replacing a purely rule-based design methodology with a hybrid approach that combined procedural, entity-relationship, and rule-based methods