Experimental Applications of Virtual Reality in Design Education

By introducing rapid reproduction, algorithms, and complex formal configurations, the digital era of architecture began a revolution. Architects incorporated the computational capacity of the computer into the design process both as a tool and as a critical component of the theories and practice of architecture as a whole. As we move into what has been coined “the second digital turn,” a period in which digital integration is considered ubiquitous, how can we consider, prepare, and propel towards the next technological innovation to significantly inform design thinking, representation, and manifestation? What tools are available to investigate this speculative design future and how can they be implemented? If the integration of technology in architecture is now a given, perhaps the next digital design era is not just digital but virtual. As new technologies emerge the potential for integrating the virtual design world with our physical senses affords novel possibilities for interactive design, simulation, analysis and construction. Hybrid reality technologies, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), embody the potential to supersede conventional representation methodologies such as drawing, rendering, physical modeling, and animation. As they become increasingly pervasive, they will transform how we communicate ideas and data as spatial concepts. Further, they will reform the construct of the built environment when applied to both materiality and fabrication. This paper will describe the incorporation of VR as a tool in various classroom and laboratory settings, recognize the educational outcomes of this incorporation, and identify the potential relationship of these technologies to future academic exploration and application to practice

Non-Uniform Assemblage: Mass Customization in Digital Fabrication

This paper focuses on the development of parametric detailing, mass customization in CNC fabrication and its computational and handcrafted realizations in actualized built work. The projects studied are examples of student and faculty applied research work at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture that engage parametric design strategies to integrate digital fabrication processes with manual assembly procedures, including prefabricated components and assemblies. The presented case studies include the design, fabrication and assembly of two full-scale pavilion projects

Rapidly Deployed and Assembled Tensegrity System: An Augmented Design Approach

The Rapidly Deployable and Assembled Tensegrity (RDAT) project enables the efficient automated design and deployment of differential-geometry tensegrity structures through computation-driven design-to-installation workflow. RDAT employs the integration of parametric and solid-modeling methods with production by streamlining computer numerically controlled manufacturing through novel detailing and production techniques to develop an efficient manufacturing and assembly system. The RDAT project emerges from the Authors\u27 research in academia and professional practice focusing on computationally produced full-scale performative building systems and their innovative uses in the building and construction industry

Non-Uniform Assemblage: Mass Customization in Digital Fabrication

This paper focuses on the development of parametric detailing, mass customization in CNC fabrication and its computational and handcrafted realizations in actualized built work. The projects studied are examples of student and faculty applied research work at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture that engage parametric design strategies to integrate digital fabrication processes with manual assembly procedures, including prefabricated components and assemblies. The presented case studies include the design, fabrication and assembly of two full-scale pavilion projects

The EUSO-SPB2 Fluorescence Telescope for the Detection of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

International audienceThe Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 2 (EUSO-SPB2) flew on May 13$^{\text{th}}$ and 14$^{\text{th}}$ of 2023. Consisting of two novel optical telescopes, the payload utilized next-generation instrumentation for the observations of extensive air showers from near space. One instrument, the fluorescence telescope (FT) searched for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) by recording the atmosphere below the balloon in the near-UV with a 1~$\mu$s time resolution using 108 multi-anode photomultiplier tubes with a total of 6,912 channels. Validated by pre-flight measurements during a field campaign, the energy threshold was estimated around 2~EeV with an expected event rate of approximately 1 event per 10 hours of observation. Based on the limited time afloat, the expected number of UHECR observations throughout the flight is between 0 and 2. Consistent with this expectation, no UHECR candidate events have been found. The majority of events appear to be detector artifacts that were not rejected properly due to a shortened commissioning phase. Despite the earlier-than-expected termination of the flight, data were recorded which provide insights into the detectors stability in the near-space environment as well as the diffuse ultraviolet emissivity of the atmosphere, both of which are impactful to future experiments