Integración de investigación basada en el arte en programas de diseño

This paper focuses on the use of art-based research to enrich active methodologies in design curricula. Based on the analysis of two case studies, it argues the need to further explore a hybridisation of methodologies and disciplines to foster disruptive and innovative design practices within academic programmes in the expanded architectural field. The case studies articulate temporary spatial design with artistic practices through a radical approach to materiality, which is posited as the starting point for each project. Rather than seeing materiality as a second-tier decision addressed after a design concept has been formulated, materials are tackled directly, and the working process then defines the design concept and its detailed resolution. A crucial result of the case studies is the active enactment of new forms of authorship, straddling the space between the autarkic author of post-romantic models and the dissolution of authorship of some contemporary collaborative models.Este artículo se centra en el uso de la investigación basada en el arte para enriquecer metodologías activas en planes de estudio de diseño. Basado en el análisis de dos casos de estudio, argumenta la necesidad de explorar una hibridación de metodologías y disciplinas para fomentar prácticas de diseño disruptivas e innovadoras dentro de los programas académicos en el campo de la arquitectura expandida. Los casos de estudio articulan la arquitectura efímera con prácticas artísticas a través de un enfoque radical sobre la materialidad, que se plantea como el punto de partida de cada proyecto. En lugar de entender la materialidad como una decisión de segundo nivel que se aborda después de haber formulado el concepto de proyecto, ésta se aborda directamente para definir el concepto de diseño y su resolución detallada. Un resultado relevante de los casos de estudio es la exploración activa de nuevas formas de autoría, a caballo entre el autor autárquico de modelos posrománticos y la disolución de la autoría de algunos modelos colaborativos contemporáneos.Peer Reviewe

Exploring creative music making as a vehicle for integrated teaching and learning

The arts have evolved with each society as a means of consolidating cultural and social identity and connecting past with future generations (Russell-Bowie, 2006, p3). Situating the arts within a broader interdisciplinary curriculum, we believe, allows students to discover and explore social issues and their relevance to students\u27 contemporary lives. We argue that creative music making through composition promotes a deeper and more personally relevant teaching and learning experience for teacher education students, particularly when situated within an interdisciplinary framework. The challenge for us as teacher educators\u27 is to prepare pre-service teachers for both disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning as is required by the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). At Deakin University, in the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary/Secondary) Degree, the postgraduate unit called Humanities, Societies and Environments; Language and Music Education adopts an interdisciplinary pedagogy that encourages students to learn from each other, share content knowledge and make links between and across VELS domains. In this paper we reflect on the possibilities exploring of creative music making to enhance the teaching and learning of social education, with particular reference to issues of environmental change. Specifically, we reflect on non-music specialist students\u27 experiences in Semester 1, 2008 using Jeannie Baker\u27s book Window (1991) as a platform to deliberate about the impact of urbanisation on the environment. Through dramatisation and a sonic environment students were able to both further conceptualise issues of social change and their understandings of the power of integrating music across other VELS domains.<br /

Labour law and social policies: an agenda for transnational research. WP CSDLE “Massimo D’Antona”.INT – 128/2016

The great economic and social transformations driven by two main factors, globalization and technological innovations, have altered the very basis on which the labor law and welfare systems created in the past decades have been built. The national States are losing power in the global markets, the fordist large companies are changing structure, industrial unions and centralized collective agreements are weakened, stable subordinate employment, which was the central object of labour law, has given way to a variety of non- standards work arrangements, often informal and in many cases economically dependent even though formally autonomous. General factors, or mega trends, are altering the context in which we operate and our daily life develops: aging of population, climate changes, scarcity of resources. The turbulence of our times has increased the uncertainty of once stable societies. The responses of policy makers and also of experts and scholars to the challenges posed by these transformations are by and large inadequate. It is our responsibility not only as professionals but as citizens concerned, to intensify the efforts to understand the new questions and to look for solutions. The seriousness of the economic crisis and its dramatic consequences on the world of work are so evident that they do not leave room for hesitation or inertia

Understanding Reinforcement Learning Control in Cyber-Physical Energy Systems

The possibility of modeling a renewable energy system as a Cyber-Physical Energy System (CPES) offers new possibilities in terms of control. More precisely, this document discusses the applicability of Reinforcement Learning (RL) techniques to CPES. By considering a benchmark algorithm, we focus on conceptual and implementation details and on how such details relate to the problem of interest. In this case, we simulate how a RL model can optimize the energy storage control in order to reduce energy costs. The work also discusses the issues that arise in RL models and the possible approaches to these difficulties. Specifically, we propose investigating a better exploitation of the memory mechanism

Network-driven positive externalities in clean energy technology production: the case of energy efficiency in the EU residential sector

In this paper, we propose a model of national innovation production that formalizes the role of trade partnerships as a channel of knowledge spillovers across countries. The model is used to investigate the energy efficiency technological domain in the European Union (EU) using a panel database covering 19 EU countries for the time span 1990-2015. The model is estimated by using a novel empirical strategy which allows to assess the knowledge spillover effects benefiting a country depending on its relative position in the trade network, and correct for common endogeneity concerns. We show that being central in the trade network is a significant determinant of a country's innovative performance, and that learning-by-exporting mechanisms are responsible for increased innovation performances. We further reveal that neglecting network effects may significantly reduce our understanding of domestic innovation patterns. Finally, we find that the benefits obtained from knowledge diffusion varies with the domestic absorptive capacity and policy mix composition. Our main implication is that policy design informed by network-based case studies could help maximizing the exploitation of positive knowledge spillovers

The Adapting city. Resilience through water design in Rotterdam

The Netherlands is a fragile and vulnerable land; spatial planning is very important, just as important is the resilience of the system and its adaptation to climate change. Rotterdam is a delta city and, in a period of heavy climate change, it will experiment more extreme weather conditions, such as heavier rainstorms, longer periods of drought and more heat waves, as well as higher water levels in the river Meuse; so is important to know that it is a deep vulnerable city and need right strategies to overcome the problem and to be adapted to conseguences of climate change. The results presented in these manuscript were developed through some academic course at TUDelft; the main aim is to arrive at shared ambitions for climate proof urban development and to make specific concrete agreements about this defining a strategy able to enforce urban beauty and absorb excess rainwater and improve urban resilience through the implementation of some adaptive measures linking this strategy to the whole urban governante of the city. There is the need to implement a conscious and smart urban governance and to undertake urban awareness actions that aim at the awareness of the communities, which becomes an active part in promoting urban resilience policies and in creating the sustainable city. The strategy is characterized by some main innovation that could be recreated in other countries, such as the inclusion of resilience’s theme in all levels of government and in all urban planning instruments and in spatial and strategic development policies; the deep cooperation between all stakeholders and public administrations; and the role of urban design that is able to create a waterproof city, enhancing the quality of public space

The evolution of composite indices of well-being: An application to Italy

Abstract Prompted by the work of the Stiglitz's Commission, the growing attention to the beyond-GDP measures has led to the inclusion of well-being indicators in the policy agenda. This innovation asks for an improvement of the existing methodology to produce composite indices, in order to correctly address spatial and temporal comparisons as well as tackling for unbalances. Following a short review of the main international experiences, this paper will investigate these issues considering the methodology currently adopted to normalize and aggregate the selected individual indicators included in the Italian well-being. We study the properties of this methodology looking at different normalization and aggregation approaches and underlining some drawbacks, mostly due to the way in which time dimension, normalization, aggregation and unbalance adjustment interplay with each other. We illustrate our findings by means of examples related also to the ecological side. We argue that new efforts should be done to overcome these drawbacks extending the research agenda toward new non-compensatory approaches. Testing for time series methods, such as dynamic factor models could represent another important step forward. Meanwhile the introduction of a more traditional framework for the composite indicators for Italian well-being could be considered

Machine Learning approach to sport activity recognition from inertial data

In this thesis we consider an Activity recognition problem for Cross-Country Skiing; the goal of this work is to recognize different types of Cross Country techniques from inertial sensors equipped on a wear- able device. We want to apply the SAX technique to the acceleration signals, specifically on the Atomic Gestures extracted from them. Using the SAX Distance we want to able to recognize which activity an athlete is performin