Product Design

Product design is a comprehensive process related to the creation of new products, and the ability to design and develop efficient products are key to success in today’s dynamic global market. Written by experts in the field, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the product design process and its applications in various fields, particularly engineering. Over seven chapters, the authors explore such topics as development of new product design methodologies, implementation of effective methods for integrated products, development of more visualized environments for task-based conceptual design methods, and development of engineering design tools based on 3D photogrammetry, among others

A transformation grammar-based methodology for housing rehabilitation: meeting contemporary functional and ICT requirements

This research starts from the premise that the future of the real estate market in Portugal will require the rehabilitation of existing residential areas in order to respond to new life-styles and dwelling requirements that have emerged in an era in which information plays a structuring role in society. The goal of this research is the definition of design guidelines and a rehabilitation methodology to support architects involved in the process of adapting existing dwellings, allowing them to balance sustainability requirements and economic feasibility with new dwelling trends such as the incorporation and updating of Information Communication and Automation Technologies and the need to solve emerging conflicts affecting the use of space prompted by the introduction of new functions associated with such technologies. In addition to defining a general methodology applicable to all the building types, the study focuses on a specific type, called “rabo-de-bacalhau” (“cod-tail”), built in Lisbon between 1945 and 1965 for which a specifc methodology has been generated. Both shape grammar and space syntax were used as part of the rehabilitation methodology as tools to identify and encode the principles and rules behind the adaptation of existing houses to new requirements.FCT PhD Gran

Visual tracking over multiple temporal scales

Visual tracking is the task of repeatedly inferring the state (position, motion, etc.) of the desired target in an image sequence. It is an important scientific problem as humans can visually track targets in a broad range of settings. However, visual tracking algorithms struggle to robustly follow a target in unconstrained scenarios. Among the many challenges faced by visual trackers, two important ones are occlusions and abrupt motion variations. Occlusions take place when (an)other object(s) obscures the camera's view of the tracked target. A target may exhibit abrupt variations in apparent motion due to its own unexpected movement, camera movement, and low frame rate image acquisition. Each of these issues can cause a tracker to lose its target. This thesis introduces the idea of learning and propagation of tracking information over multiple temporal scales to overcome occlusions and abrupt motion variations. A temporal scale is a specific sequence of moments in time Models (describing appearance and/or motion of the target) can be learned from the target tracking history over multiple temporal scales and applied over multiple temporal scales in the future. With the rise of multiple motion model tracking frameworks, there is a need for a broad range of search methods and ways of selecting between the available motion models. The potential benefits of learning over multiple temporal scales are first assessed by studying both motion and appearance variations in the ground-truth data associated with several image sequences. A visual tracker operating over multiple temporal scales is then proposed that is capable of handling occlusions and abrupt motion variations. Experiments are performed to compare the performance of the tracker with competing methods, and to analyze the impact on performance of various elements of the proposed approach. Results reveal a simple, yet general framework for dealing with occlusions and abrupt motion variations. In refining the proposed framework, a search method is generalized for multiple competing hypotheses in visual tracking, and a new motion model selection criterion is proposed

Optimisation of aspects of rotor blades using computational fluid dynamics

This work presents a framework for the optimisation of various aspects of rotor blades in forward flight. The literature survey suggests that the quest for such a method is generating much research as more performance is obtainable from current designs. With increasing computational power and efficient methods, this can be of practical use to the helicopter industry. The proposed method employs CFD in conjunction with metamodels such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) and kriging interpolation, and a non-gradient based optimiser, in the form of genetic algorithms (GAs), for optimisation. The approach is demonstrated using several cases, including the optimisation of linear twist of rotors in hover (a steady case) and the optimisation of rotor sections in forward flight (an unsteady case); other cases include transonic aerofoils, wing and rotor tip planforms. For rotor tip planforms, first a simple rectangular rotor in hover was optimised. Then the developed method was used to optimise the anhedral and sweep of the UH60-A rotor blade in forward flight while constraining its hover performance and the final rotor optimisation was for a BERP-like rotor in forward flight, also constraining hover performance. For each case, a parameterisation method was defined, a specific objective function created using the initial CFD data and the metamodel was used for evaluating the objective function during the optimisation using the GAs. The obtained results suggest optima in agreement with engineering intuition but provide precise information about the shape of the final lifting surface and its performance. The results were checked by comparison with the Pareto subset of data and the metamodels were also validated with high-fidelity CFD data. Neither was sensitive to the employed techniques with substantial overlap between the outputs of the selected methods. The main CPU cost was associated with the population of the CFD database necessary for the metamodel. To improve this further, the Harmonic Balance alternative for obtaining the CFD data (as opposed to Time Marching) was used to increase efficiency and reduce clock time for the BERP-like tip optimisation. The novelty of this method is the use of a metamodel in conjunction with high-fidelity CFD data so that high-resolution performance improvements can be captured efficiently using a non-gradient based method

Spatial representation in architecture: spatial communication through the use of sound

This PhD embodies a series of creative works rather than an analytical or purely scientific investigation. This PhD is in accord with Rasmussen’s (1962) thoughts as published in Grueneisen (2003) Can Architecture be heard? Most people would probably say that architecture does not produce sound, it cannot be heard. But neither does it radiate light and yet it can be seen. We see the light it reflects and therefore gain an impression of form and material. In the same way we hear the sounds it reflects and they, too, give us an impression of form and material. Differently shaped rooms and different materials reverberate differently. (p. 00.008) Architecture is not only a visual and physical phenomenon but also an instrument that tempers and constructs our sound perceptions of the world. The projects in this PhD draw our attention to the significance of what I will term ‘aural representation’ as being a contribution in forming an understanding of a work of architecture and how architectural space conditions not only how we see the world but also how we hear it. During my research an argument began to appear along the lines of the following: sound can be used to offer a simulation of what it may be like to be in a certain space. The sound may offer a potential description of a space and may offer information via ‘aural representation’ that drawings may not be able to offer. The sound of a space has an affordance that images do not. How might I direct these possibilities toward some useful and design-based end? The research question unfolded to become: Can sound be used to tell an audience things about space that, perhaps, images cannot? The findings from this question interact with and extend an internationally recognised body of scholarly work. The PhD involves a series of projects. The first preliminary, exploratory projects begin to work through the questions of how sound could be used to describe space. These in turn lead to a final project involving a substantive body of creative work to help to make the knowledge gained in the PhD more explicit. This final project involves composing music for spaces based on my perceptions of their spatial sound characteristics. Each individual piece of music is based on the aural characteristics of the spaces it is created for, and in some cases, within

Visual tracking over multiple temporal scales

Visual tracking is the task of repeatedly inferring the state (position, motion, etc.) of the desired target in an image sequence. It is an important scientific problem as humans can visually track targets in a broad range of settings. However, visual tracking algorithms struggle to robustly follow a target in unconstrained scenarios. Among the many challenges faced by visual trackers, two important ones are occlusions and abrupt motion variations. Occlusions take place when (an)other object(s) obscures the camera's view of the tracked target. A target may exhibit abrupt variations in apparent motion due to its own unexpected movement, camera movement, and low frame rate image acquisition. Each of these issues can cause a tracker to lose its target. This thesis introduces the idea of learning and propagation of tracking information over multiple temporal scales to overcome occlusions and abrupt motion variations. A temporal scale is a specific sequence of moments in time Models (describing appearance and/or motion of the target) can be learned from the target tracking history over multiple temporal scales and applied over multiple temporal scales in the future. With the rise of multiple motion model tracking frameworks, there is a need for a broad range of search methods and ways of selecting between the available motion models. The potential benefits of learning over multiple temporal scales are first assessed by studying both motion and appearance variations in the ground-truth data associated with several image sequences. A visual tracker operating over multiple temporal scales is then proposed that is capable of handling occlusions and abrupt motion variations. Experiments are performed to compare the performance of the tracker with competing methods, and to analyze the impact on performance of various elements of the proposed approach. Results reveal a simple, yet general framework for dealing with occlusions and abrupt motion variations. In refining the proposed framework, a search method is generalized for multiple competing hypotheses in visual tracking, and a new motion model selection criterion is proposed

Women of fire, women of the robe: subjectivities of charismatic Christianity and normative Islam in Java, Indonesia

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University.This dissertation examines the ways changing Muslim-Christian relations and new gendered norms constitute the identities of orthodox Muslims and charismatic Christians in Java, Indonesia. The research is based on 12 months of fieldwork between 2009 and 2010 in the multi-religion city of Salatiga. Working with two middle-class Pentecostal congregations, with memberships of 400 and 150 individuals respectively, as well as two middle-class Muslim woman's Koranic sermon groups that involved about 70 households each, this research expands the ongoing discussion of gender politics and religious movements in modern pluralistic societies, and suggests we re-examine religious identities through the lens of inter-religious relations, particularly the role of women in them. The dissertation begins with ethnographic scenes where women and Christians figure prominently in Muslim-majority public rituals, in order to highlight the centrality of women and minorities in constructing religious pluralism. Chapter 1 presents a history of religious diversity in Java, and argues that over the last three decades, the children of Javanist Muslims have become brthodox Muslims, while the offspring of mainline Protestants have become born-again Christians. Chapter 2 elaborates on the transformation of Salatiga's landscape by the proliferation of worship facilities and ascendant inter-religious tensions. Building on this foundation, Chapter 3 focuses on women and neighborhood sociality. Here I argue that an unexpected outcome of recent religious change has been women's expanded public roles and a re-alliance of traditionalist and modernist Muslims in the presence of a strong Christian minority. Chapter 4 explains Muslim women's choices of embracing veiling and de-legitimizing polygamy in the context of cultural change, and demonstrates the social and political nature of the changing interpretations of religious knowledge. Chapter 5 turns to Christians' congregational lives, and illustrates the Pentecostal training of "sacrificial agency" among both men and women in order to fulfill "successful families." Finally, Chapter 6 examines the routine interactions between Muslim and born-again Christian women, and discusses their unequal social footings in Salatiga's pluralism. In conclusion, this dissertation contends that pluralism in Salatiga involves unequal power relations and dialectical negotiations between religious communities, in which gendered identities and cross-religious relations are integral components of religious subjectivity

Queer Methods and Methodologies

When we first envisaged this book, we anticipated that those reflecting on queer methods and methodologies might experience similar possibilities, tensions and anxieties to those we encountered in our own work. A major impetus for producing this book was our own awareness of how often we ignored or skimmed over thinking about how some methodologies and methods might not neatly fit the ‘queer’ conceptual frames we use in our research

KEER2022

Avanttítol: KEER2022. DiversitiesDescripció del recurs: 25 juliol 202