The Philosophically Educated Teacher as a Traveler

My dissertation investigates teachers' thinking within that "oscillating place of difference" that is the classroom. I propose that teachers think and see differently in the classroom because they have practiced, like travelers, the dynamic thinking which makes them open to novelty, attentive to difference, reflective wayfarers on the paths of the world. I offer a threefold articulation of teaching into thinking, traveling and philosophizing . My guiding figure is that of teacher as traveler. I focus on the teacher's way of seeing the familiar and the unfamiliar in the classroom. Reliance on teaching routines is considered as a sign of the need for the teacher to feel at home in the classroom, and as a response to the inherent uncertainty of the educational experience. Dewey's conception of reflective thinking is put at work to explain teachers thinking in the classroom: reflection is a twofold movement of the mind that at first focuses on the given particular of the experience, and that also expands and opens up the given to new possible interpretations. The third chapter proposes to historicize the metaphor of teacher as traveler by considering Graeco-Roman thinking about travel and movement in relation to knowledge and wisdom. I consider the thesis that traveling is conducive to learning and wisdom. Herodotus explicitly connects travel to knowledge. The presence of itinerant teachers in Ancient Greece seems to reinforce this connection, as does the mythological representation of the ideal teacher as the centaur Chiron. I then posit an antithetical idea: that traveling be counterproductive because in travel the person is exposed to distraction, loss of focus, fragmentation. This antithesis is endorsed by Seneca's Epistles to Lucilius. The dissertation moves to a re-examination of the figure of teacher as traveler in relation to the idea of home. The traveler reaches out and explores novelty and alterity in a meaning-making relation to where she is from. Similarly, the teacher thinks in the classroom by being attentive to newness and difference while keeping in mind the home or familiar: her routines, her curriculum, her tradition Montaigne's humanistic philosophizing is considered in its constitutive dynamism. The way to the knowledge of home-- and the wisdom deriving from it-- passes through the encounter with the Other, be it the indigenous inhabitant of the new world, or the neighboring country, or a different language. Like a traveler, a teacher retains her freedom to move and to chose the direction to her steps, and carries the necessary provisions and supplies: enough to get around, but not too many to weigh her down. The teacher as traveler can read the world of experience, can read her discipline, and can read her students by paying attention and knowing their pace. The encounters that are at the heart of the educational experience, between teachers, students, works and things of the world, all concur to exercise the mind of a traveler: a mind that finds itself " at home" in the world

Daylighting design for energy saving in a building global energy simulation context

A key factor to substantially reduce the energy consumption for electric lighting consists in a more widespread exploitation of daylight, associated with the use of the most energy efficient lighting technologies, including LEDs or electric lighting controls. At the same time daylight harvesting in indoor spaces can influence the global energy performance of a building also in terms of heating and cooling loads. For this reason, it’s always necessary to account for the balance between daylighting benefits and energy requirements. Furthermore the increasing awareness of the potential benefits of daylight has resulted in an increased need for objective information and data on the impact that different design solutions, in terms of architectural features, can have on the daylighting condition and energy demand of a space. Within this frame the research activity has been focusing on three main aspects: − Analyzing limits and potentials of the current daylighting design practice and proposing synthetic information and tools to be used by the design team during the earliest design stage to predict the daylight condition within a space. − Analyzing the effect of a proper daylighting design approach on energy requirements for electric lighting, associating with the use of efficient lighting technologies and control systems. − Assessing the influence of energy demand for electric lighting on the global energy performance. The methodology that was adopted relies on dynamic simulations carried out with Daysim and EnergyPlus used in synergy to perform a parametric study to assess the indoor daylighting conditions and the energy performance of rooms with different architectural features. Within the first phase the database of results of the lighting analysis was used to assess the sensitivity of new metrics which have been proposed by the scientific community as predictors of the dynamic variation of daylight. Furthermore it was analyzed how indoor daylight can be influenced by room’s architectural features. Than the energy demand for electric lighting for all simulated case studies have been analyzed so as to examine the influence of a proper daylighting design in presence of different lighting control systems. Finally results related to the amount of daylight available in a space were compared with annual energy demand for lighting, heating and cooling to highlight the influence of a proper daylighting design on the global energy performance

STATIC AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS

This thesis is focused on the structural behaviour of high-rise buildings subjected to transversal loads expressed in terms of shears and torsional moments. As horizontal reinforcement, the resistant skeleton of the construction can be composed by different vertical bracings, such as shear walls, braced frames and thin-walled open section profiles, having constant or variable geometrical properties along the height. In this way, most of the traditional structural schemes can be modelled, from moment resisting frames up to outrigger and tubular systems. In particular, an entire chapter is addressed to the case of thin-walled open section shear walls which are defined by a coupled flexural-torsional behaviour, as described by Vlasov’s theory of the sectorial areas. From the analytical point of view, the three-dimensional formulation proposed by Al. Carpinteri and An. Carpinteri (1985) is considered and extended in order to perform dynamic analyses and encompass innovative structural solutions which can twist and taper from the bottom to the top of the building. Such approach is based on the hypothesis of in-plane infinitely rigid floors which assure the connection between the vertical bracings and, consequently, reduce the number of degrees of freedom being only three for each level. By means of it, relevant design information such as the floor displacements, the external load distribution between the structural components, the internal actions, the free vibrations as well as the mode shapes can be quickly obtained. The clearness and the conciseness of the matrix formulation allow to devise a simple computer program which, starting from basic information as the building geometry, the number and type of vertical stiffening, the material properties and the intensity of the external forces, provides essential results for preliminary designs

Estimating Cargo Airdrop Collateral Damage Risk

The purpose of this research is to determine an appropriate method for estimating cargo airdrop collateral damage risk. Specifically, this thesis answers the question: How can mission planners accurately predict airdrop collateral damage risk? The question is answered through a literature review and a thorough examination of a data set of real world airdrop scoring data. The data were examined to determine critical factors that affect airdrop error risks as well as to determine the characteristics of airdrop error patterns. Through this research it was determined that bivariate normal distributions with parameters pairs determined by empirical data are appropriate for modeling cargo airdrop errors patterns. Collateral risk is estimated by summing numerical integrations of a fit bivariate normal distribution for each drop type across rectangular representations of drop field objects in the field of concern. Airdrop altitude and chute type are found to make a statistically significant difference in airdrop error patterns while airdrop aircraft type does not appear to have a significant effect. This research methodology is implemented in an EXCEL spreadsheet tool that can be easily used by airdrop mission planners including an extension, requested by the research sponsors, to handle bundled drops that fall in a linear spread

Value management in infrastructure projects in Western Australia: techniques and staging

Infrastructure projects to service the mining industry in Western Australia (WA) are on the increase, somewhat in contrast to a stalling of projects nationally and globally. It remains important therefore for WA companies to be competitive in the realisation of a client's brief. Value management (VM) has long been regarded as an effective means to eliminate unnecessary capital and life-cycle costs, however, whilst many are familiar with the underlying theory, its use locally is perceived to be less widespread. The research presented here investigates the extent to which value management is implemented by Western Australian engineering and construction companies in both the design and construction fields; exploring, the various value management techniques used in practice and, VM staging. This study documents benefits achieved by means of value management and, the attitudes of industry professionals towards the feasibility or need in establishing a compulsory value management procedure for all (civil engineering) developments. To investigate current value management implementation in WA a pilot-study research methodology embraced a qualitative semi-structured interview approach of ten respondents from organisations involved in design and construction of civil engineering work. Straw poll project results suggest WA industry to be well aware of both, the concept of value management and, the benefits that may arise from its use to address the life-cycle of a project; case-study specification analysis is then presented to explore VM benefits/disbenefits explicitly.The research presented here concludes that industry does have formal value management procedures within a preliminary design phase. Findings show however that industry is resistant to a statutory requirement for value management and, argue that in WA competition is enough to drive the uptake and utilisation of VM