Three-dimensional modeling of a primary health care clinic in Ho, Ghana: its contribution to student engagement, fundraising, and program planning

Improvements in computer-based technologies can be leveraged to enhance engagement of remote stakeholders with the health needs of a geographically distant community. Three-dimensional (3D) modeling offers a platform to create detailed spatial representations through which stakeholders can experience improvements in shared understanding as well as increased involvement in community health projects occurring anywhere in the world. This case study describes the development of a 3D model of a community health clinic in rural Ghana used to encourage fundraising and sustain global engagement among students at Northwestern University. The resulting ‘virtual clinic’ was achieved quickly and at little cost, suggesting a broader utility of 3D modeling for global health practitioners for increasing donor engagement and resource mapping

Optimising the design of building envelopes for thermal performance

Computer models for the simulation of the thermal performance of buildings have been in existence for many decades. Although these programs save a great deal of time and effort in computational terms they still rely on designers intuition and experience to achieve optimum solutions for a design problem. This paper presents a computer model which, not only simulates the thermal performance of the building taking into account design variables related to the building's envelope and fabric, but also applies numerical optimization techniques to automatically determine the optimum design variables, which achieve the best thermal comfort conditions. The main optimization program is supported by a graphical model for the design of window shading devices, which uses the numerical coefficients that define the window shading to model shading devices taking into account seasonal variations in solar angles and solar gains. The rationale and methodology used to develop the models is outlined and the resulting programs are described with examples of outputs. Finally, it is concluded that the models offer a valuable decision support system for designers at an early design state for the optimization of the passive thermal performance achieving optimum thermal comfort and savings in heating and cooling energy.

Implementation of VR systems: a comparison between the early adoption of CAD and current uptake of VR

Use of new technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), is important to corporations, yet understanding of their successful implementation is insuf. ciently developed. In this paper a case study is used to analyse the introduction of VR use in a British housebuilding company. Although the implementation was not successful in the manner initially anticipated, the study provides insight into the process of change, the constraints that inhibit implementation and the relationship between new technology and work organization. Comparison is made with the early use of CAD and similarities and differences between empirical . ndings of the case study and the previous literature are discussed