Experimental Design: Design Experimentation

This paper was selected for publication in MIT’s Design Issues. The research takes an original approach by positioning experimentation as a comprehensive design methodology, rather than using the traditional industrial design approach of employing experimentation as a problem-solving tool within a standard design model. It is an evolution of design thinking on non-linear design methods first developed by Hall and presented to the ‘International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference’, Seoul, South Korea (2009), and in a paper entitled ‘Innovation design engineering: Non-linear progressive education for diverse intakes’ presented at the ‘International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education’, University of Brighton, UK, which offered a non-linear pedagogy (Hall and Childs 2009) that uniquely supports a diverse interdisciplinary intake. Experimental design is well known in the science domain but very little evidence has been recorded of experimentation in industrial design and its position in relation to work in other science and research domains. Connections are made with theories on research methods, an analysis of case studies and comparisons of literature on experimentation from science disciplines, especially that of Kuhn (1962), Galison (1987), Pasteur’s quadrant for scientific research in Stokes (1997) and Borgdorff (2007). Hall makes significant claims in exploring and articulating a model of design experimentation that highlights the differences between scientific and design experimentation. This work was original in describing an experimental design model for the increasing activity in early phases of design development by recording and enhancing knowledge in this important area for future design research and practice. The methods researched in the paper were later used in experimental design workshops in Daegu, South Korea (2011) and Busan, South Korea (2012)

The multimedia brain

The Open University is producing an interactive multimedia tutorial on the brain and nervous system on CD-ROM, for use in its Biology: Brain and Behaviour course. Such a tutor could have a wider use in higher education as the subject matter is known to be difficult for students to master. A prototype version has been produced. Consultation is now taking place before work starts on a fully functional version that can be evaluated for educational effectiveness

A multimedia tutorial shell with qualitative assessment in biology

The project is developing methods to produce multimedia tutorials relatively quickly and cheaply, using a generic software shell suitable for any subject area. The shell is a version of one produced originally as part of the HEFC-funded TLTP initiative by the Biodiversity Consortium. Tutorials presented in the shell will provide the student with a structured learning experience that will allow their initial knowledge level or their knowledge acquisition and progress to be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed. Where areas of weakness are revealed by the assessment, students will be advised to study particular parts of the tutorial in order to improve their understanding

Covid-19 and the Hopeless University at the End of the End of History

The file attached to this record is the Publisher's final version

Hall Voltage with the Spin Hall Effect

The spin Hall effect does not generally result in a charge Hall voltage. We predict that in systems with inhomogeneous electron density in the direction perpendicular to main current flow, the spin Hall effect is instead accompanied by a Hall voltage. Unlike the ordinary Hall effect, we find that this Hall voltage is quadratic in the longitudinal electric field for a wide range of parameters accessible experimentally. We also predict spin accumulation in the bulk and sharp peaks of spin-Hall induced charge accumulation near the edges. Our results can be readily tested experimentally, and would allow the electrical measurement of the spin Hall effect in non-magnetic systems and without injection of spin-polarized electrons