Standardizing design performance comparison in microfluidic manufacturing

Microfluidic devices published in literature today lack sufficient information for automating the physical design process. Moreover, the constantly changing landscape of manufacturing and technological requirements poses a large problem in the physical design automation space. In this talk, we discuss some of the methodologies and standards formulated by CIDAR at BU and CARES at UC Riverside that allow not only allow the researchers in the physical design automation space to share and compare their results but also provide means for capturing the Specify, Design and Build lifecycle in microfluidic design

[Review of] Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas Piazza. The Scar of Race

Into the murky, politically-charged waters of contemporary racial politics shines this welcome ray of light. Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas Piazza, using clever research design and innovative techniques, clarify the changing meaning of race in today’s political landscape and conclusively dismiss many strongly-held, but nonetheless inaccurate, assumptions about whites’ attitudes toward African Americans

A sustainable tourism development in Alacati, Turkey : (Re)invention of public space with clean energy

Although there is an increasing recognition of the impacts of climate change on communities, residents often resist changing their lifestyle to reduce the effects of the problem. By using a landscape architectural design medium, this paper argues that public space, when designed as an ecological system, has the capacity to create social and environmental change and to increase the quality of the human environment. At the same time, this ecological system can engage residents, enrich the local economy, and increase the social network. Through methods of design, research and case study analysis, an alternative master plan is proposed for a sustainable tourism development in Alacati, Turkey. Our master plan uses local geographical, economic and social information within a sustainable landscape architectural design scheme that addresses the key issues of ecology, employment, public space and community cohesion. A preliminary community empowerment model (CEM) is proposed to manage the designs. The designs address: the coexistence of local agricultural and sustainable energy generation; state of the art water management; and the functional and sustainable social and economic interrelationship of inhabitants, NGOs, and local government

Learners in a Changing Learning Landscape: Reflections from an Instructional Design Perspective

Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Stoyanov, S. (2008). Learners in a changing learning landscape: Reflections from an instructional design perspective. In J. Visser & M. Visser-Valfrey (Eds.), Learners in a changing learning landscape: Reflections from a dialogue on new roles and expectations (pp. 69-90). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.Both learners and teachers find themselves in a learning landscape that is rapidly changing, along with fast societal and technological developments. This paper discusses the new learning landscape from an instructional design perspective. First, with regard to what is learned, people more than ever need flexible problem-solving and reasoning skills allowing them to deal with new, unfamiliar problem situations in their professional and everyday life. Second, with regard to the context in which learning takes place, learning in technology-rich, informal and professional 24/7 settings is becoming general practice. And third, with regard to the learners themselves, they can more often be characterized as lifelong learners who are mature, bring relevant prior knowledge, and have very heterogeneous expectations and perceptions of learning. High-quality instructional design research should focus on the question which instructional methods and media-method combinations are effective, efficient and appealing in this new learning landscape. Some innovative instructional methods that meet this requirement are discussed

Design technology

These days, everyone can design, even on their mobile phones, thanks to innovative apps that allow consumers to use handy tools, broadcast their opinions and, more importantly, make purchases online. These technological advances may be assisting all design thinkers but are they changing the design landscape too radically at the same time? What does the future hold in the global design industry and is the new landscape a win, a loss or an own goal for designers

Dynamic landscape: The theatre of time unfolding

Human’s particular perspective and scale couldn’t allow them to perceive the ever-changing quality of the landscape through their senses. As landscape architects, we lack tools to communicate and work with not only time but typically experiment with the representation of time in physical landscape images. To create a dynamic experience, what tools of representation allow landscape architects to respond to time? This thesis explores many different types of representational techniques in terms of videos and drawings and uses them in a series of experimentation back and forward to make the unfamiliar familiar. The goal of the thesis is to build up the process of translating the 2D abstract visualization into the 3D design to allow the different possible dynamism of the design intervention

Landing your first job in Creative Technologies: Soft skills as Core skills

Recent university graduates face an ever-changing professional landscape where it can be challenging to find jobs that lead to successful careers. This is particularly the case for emergent professions such as Creative Technologies, given the changing nature of technology and the value as well as the challenges of working across traditional disciplines. This paper presents a research project that seeks to help fresh creative technologists get better work opportunities in a changing landscape. Students, alumni, and industry experts were interviewed to identify current perceptions and practices, opportunities and challenges, and to generate insights that inform the design of future solutions. Three themes were identified from these interviews: unexplored existing opportunities, a demand for employability skills, and the need for better student-industry interactions. The first refers to opportunities that may already be available but lack sufficient recognition or need more visibility. The second points to the need of an ongoing dialogue between academia and industry to identify the changing landscape of skills in demand. The third highlights the need for creative collaborations across sectors and actors to increase the interaction between students and potential employers. The insights from this study inform the aspects that need to be addressed to design solutions that help Creative Technologies graduates start their careers in the right directions. The research raises new questions about why and how universities in the future can engage stakeholders to make the most of existing untapped opportunities and restructure processes to align with changing demands in industry

Getting Better by Design: Evaluation of a programme to support the voluntary sector in Scotland

Better by Design was developed in 2013 by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland in response to the complex and changing landscape for voluntary sector organisations delivering services on the ground with people or communities. It aimed to support a process of change, and prioritised organisations focusing on social care, employability, health and housing where intervening earlier or preventing needs emerging could make a real difference. The programme encouraged sustainability in the widest sense to enable organisations to meet the needs of their beneficiaries better now and in the future.The chance to learn in this way and the challenge to habitual ways of thinking and doing, have made a significant change to mindsets in a number of organisations and at times, brought a new quality of engagement in partnership settings. This report shows that design-led approaches do have a great deal to contribute in creating the new organisational cultures of collaboration and mutual learning necessary for public service reform