Characterization of beech wood pulp towards sustainable rapid prototyping

Wood has several advantages that are transferable to various derivates allowing the introduction of a sustainable material into the product lifecycle. The objective of this paper is to apply a design for manufacturing approach based on wood flour rapid prototyping, while associating the requirements of the ‘mass customisation’ in the implementation of a customised product. New collaborative software allows consumers to be involved in the design process. Prototyping processes allow direct manufacturing of products

The MSFC Collaborative Engineering Process for Preliminary Design and Concept Definition Studies

This paper describes a collaborative engineering process developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center's Advanced Concepts Office for performing rapid preliminary design and mission concept definition studies for potential future NASA missions. The process has been developed and demonstrated for a broad range of mission studies including human space exploration missions, space transportation system studies and in-space science missions. The paper will describe the design team structure and specialized analytical tools that have been developed to enable a unique rapid design process. The collaborative engineering process consists of integrated analysis approach for mission definition, vehicle definition and system engineering. The relevance of the collaborative process elements to the standard NASA NPR 7120.1 system engineering process will be demonstrated. The study definition process flow for each study discipline will be will be outlined beginning with the study planning process, followed by definition of ground rules and assumptions, definition of study trades, mission analysis and subsystem analyses leading to a standardized set of mission concept study products. The flexibility of the collaborative engineering design process to accommodate a wide range of study objectives from technology definition and requirements definition to preliminary design studies will be addressed. The paper will also describe the applicability of the collaborative engineering process to include an integrated systems analysis approach for evaluating the functional requirements of evolving system technologies and capabilities needed to meet the needs of future NASA programs

A systematic technology evaluation and selection method for computer-supported collaborative design

Design is a global activity. It requires collaboration between individuals across borders and beyond barriers. Modern global design is achieved using computer technologies that support many activities of a design process. However, merely supporting design does not guarantee that it is a successful endeavour. The requirements of computer-supported collaborative design are abstract. They are influenced by human-to-human interaction and/or human to computer interaction. As our society moves towards faster communication technologies and a higher number of collaborative technologies available, the need to evaluate the available tools and select the best tool at the appropriate time of the design process is becoming more compelling. If the best tools are not identified, there are missed opportunities for productivity, impacting team communication, cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. Student designers at University have experienced an observable change in technology use within their personal and academic lives. The proliferation of Web 2.0 technologies and the spread of social media, social network sites and mobile technologies have impacted how students socialise and engage in group project work. However, it is unclear if these technologies support or hinder the design process. This behaviour change has led to a motivation to understand the use of technologies to support Computer-Supported Collaborative Design teamwork. This research intended to support Computer-Supported Collaborative Design teamwork by defining the requirements of Computer-Supported Collaborative Design, the technologies which can be used to support Computer-Supported Collaborative Design, the technology functionalities which these technologies feature, and to use this knowledge to systematically evaluate and select the appropriate technology to use for any given collaborative situation. The outcomes of this research documented within this thesis became the development of a systematic and automated method to allow engineering design teams to evaluate technologies based on the existing knowledge of the requirements of Computer Supported Collaborative Design and select which technologies would best support their group design activities. This technology evaluation and selection method was achieved by the creation of the Computer-Supported Collaborative Design matrix, a tool which enables the evaluation of technologies against Computer-Supported Collaborative Design requirements; the creation of an auto-population method for the tool supporting consistency and efficiency of using the method; and the development of an education programme to ensure the correct use of the Computer-Supported Collaborative Design matrix. The Computer-Supported Collaborative Design matrix can be used to support the assessment and selection of technology for use in Computer-Supported Collaborative Design projects by engineering design teams in an educational environment. The tool has been evaluated through demonstration of use for a class and implementation within a class environment. Beyond the Computer-Supported Collaborative Design matrix as a tool, a robust and systematic method of creating the tool has been documented, which is the first step towards broader use of the tool.Design is a global activity. It requires collaboration between individuals across borders and beyond barriers. Modern global design is achieved using computer technologies that support many activities of a design process. However, merely supporting design does not guarantee that it is a successful endeavour. The requirements of computer-supported collaborative design are abstract. They are influenced by human-to-human interaction and/or human to computer interaction. As our society moves towards faster communication technologies and a higher number of collaborative technologies available, the need to evaluate the available tools and select the best tool at the appropriate time of the design process is becoming more compelling. If the best tools are not identified, there are missed opportunities for productivity, impacting team communication, cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. Student designers at University have experienced an observable change in technology use within their personal and academic lives. The proliferation of Web 2.0 technologies and the spread of social media, social network sites and mobile technologies have impacted how students socialise and engage in group project work. However, it is unclear if these technologies support or hinder the design process. This behaviour change has led to a motivation to understand the use of technologies to support Computer-Supported Collaborative Design teamwork. This research intended to support Computer-Supported Collaborative Design teamwork by defining the requirements of Computer-Supported Collaborative Design, the technologies which can be used to support Computer-Supported Collaborative Design, the technology functionalities which these technologies feature, and to use this knowledge to systematically evaluate and select the appropriate technology to use for any given collaborative situation. The outcomes of this research documented within this thesis became the development of a systematic and automated method to allow engineering design teams to evaluate technologies based on the existing knowledge of the requirements of Computer Supported Collaborative Design and select which technologies would best support their group design activities. This technology evaluation and selection method was achieved by the creation of the Computer-Supported Collaborative Design matrix, a tool which enables the evaluation of technologies against Computer-Supported Collaborative Design requirements; the creation of an auto-population method for the tool supporting consistency and efficiency of using the method; and the development of an education programme to ensure the correct use of the Computer-Supported Collaborative Design matrix. The Computer-Supported Collaborative Design matrix can be used to support the assessment and selection of technology for use in Computer-Supported Collaborative Design projects by engineering design teams in an educational environment. The tool has been evaluated through demonstration of use for a class and implementation within a class environment. Beyond the Computer-Supported Collaborative Design matrix as a tool, a robust and systematic method of creating the tool has been documented, which is the first step towards broader use of the tool

Mapping customer needs to engineering characteristics: an aerospace perspective for conceptual design

Designing complex engineering systems, such as an aircraft or an aero-engine, is immensely challenging. Formal Systems Engineering (SE) practices are widely used in the aerospace industry throughout the overall design process to minimise the overall design effort, corrective re-work, and ultimately overall development and manufacturing costs. Incorporating the needs and requirements from customers and other stakeholders into the conceptual and early design process is vital for the success and viability of any development programme. This paper presents a formal methodology, the Value-Driven Design (VDD) methodology that has been developed for collaborative and iterative use in the Extended Enterprise (EE) within the aerospace industry, and that has been applied using the Concept Design Analysis (CODA) method to map captured Customer Needs (CNs) into Engineering Characteristics (ECs) and to model an overall ‘design merit’ metric to be used in design assessments, sensitivity analyses, and engineering design optimisation studies. Two different case studies with increasing complexity are presented to elucidate the application areas of the CODA method in the context of the VDD methodology for the EE within the aerospace secto

Metadata for describing learning scenarios under European Higher Education Area paradigm

In this paper we identify the requirements for creating formal descriptions of learning scenarios designed under the European Higher Education Area paradigm, using competences and learning activities as the basic pieces of the learning process, instead of contents and learning resources, pursuing personalization. Classical arrangements of content based courses are no longer enough to describe all the richness of this new learning process, where user profiles, competences and complex hierarchical itineraries need to be properly combined. We study the intersection with the current IMS Learning Design specification and the additional metadata required for describing such learning scenarios. This new approach involves the use of case based learning and collaborative learning in order to acquire and develop competences, following adaptive learning paths in two structured levels

New conceptual model for design development of smart clothing

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Smart Clothing, the convergent future of the electronics and clothing industries, struggles to reach its true potential and enter the mass market because of 1) imbalanced contributions from the electronics and clothing sectors, 2) the lack of an integrated approach to optimise the input from the different areas, and 3) the unclear direction of the products. There is a need for an NPD process that balances all contributions and addresses new values based on user requirements. Moreover, a strategic approach, that challenges the development teams to go beyond their existing creative boundary and reconciles their differences, is required. According to the research, Smart Clothes should take the design approach of functional clothing and focus on the area of sportswear, personal healthcare and physical monitoring, as they fit the users’ lifestyle and requirements. Since social acceptance is an important factor, Smart Clothes must also have a good design and whilst, at the same time, perform all the basic functions that ordinary garments do. They should allow the user to personalise the styles and functions according to the benefits, with respect to product lifecycle and disassembly. A conceptual model of the NPD process was developed and tested with experts in this field. The proposed model provides the basis for a computer software to plan and manage product development teams and activities at the front-end of the NPD process. It offers several advantages: 1. Combining the NPD models and those of collaborative development 2. Providing a holistic view of Smart Clothing development 3. Clarifying of the roles of all participants within the collaborative development teams 4. Describing the responsibilities and expected contributions of all participants 5. Explaining working relationships and overlapping roles and responsibilities 6. Offering the directions for the creative boundary extensio

Assisting the Design of virtualwork processes via on-line reverse engineering

The design of virtual workplaces that can support virtual work processes has traditionally been either adhoc, or has been influenced by the virtual architecture or requirements engineering disciplines. The problem with these approaches is the difficulty in obtaining, and subsequently retaining and reusing, ready-made configurations of collaborative work processes. Such configurations naturally occur during the actual use of CVEs for conducting projects. Can we predict some elements of the evolution of a new collaborative process, based on similarities and analogies with processes formalised and supported before? Can we capture and utilise the evolutionary component in the workspace design process, so that we can provide better support to the developers of collaborative workspaces? The paper presents a new approach for supporting design and redesign of virtual workspaces, based on combining data mining techniques for refining lower level models with a reverse engineering cycle to create upper level models