Other Perspectives: Extending the Architectural Representation

This paper discusses how the tension between arts and science inherent in the discipline of architecture, can be traced in architectural representations, which are not neutral but actively contribute to the design process, ranging from highly poetic, subjective, and artistic to more exact and objective. Within this paper, we reflect on how to overcome this restrictive perspective implicit in conventional design media by comparing two elective courses that aim to broaden the traditional architectural perspective. In doing so, we take a position in the broader debate on the role of artistic practices within an academic learning environment

A Look Inside The Engineering Students’ Backpack: Differences In Engineering Capital According To Gender Or Migration Background.

Every student has a unique combination of experiences, resources and social networks related to engineering, called ‘engineering capital’, derived from Archer’s concept of ‘science capital’. The engineering capital gathered throughout life creates a backpack that impacts someone’s aspirations to study engineering, as well as the performance and persistence in the programme itself. Engineering technology is one of the most homogeneous fields within the STEM domain, being mostly white and male. To stimulate a more diverse engineering technology field, this research paper investigates the relationship between the level of engineering capital and gender or migration background, as well as the influence of engineering capital on aspiration and performance within the engineering technology field. Through an online survey, last-year secondary education pupils in math/science tracks (N = 490, March 2023), and first-year engineering technology students (N =391, October 2022) in Belgium were asked about their engineering capital, and engineering aspiration (pupils) or performance (students). Results disclose little difference in engineering capital, engineering aspiration, or engineering performance for students with a migration background. However, female pupils appear to have less engineering capital than male pupils, and in need of more engineering capital to gain an interest in engineering technology compared to male pupils. Once women start the engineering technology program, engineering capital does not influence female students’ performance differently than male students. It is possible that only those with a heavy backpack of engineering capital find their way to the program. That is why it is important that educators stimulate students’ engineering capital

Negotiating agency: computation and digital fabrication as design media

My research investigates agency of computation and digital fabrication and its influence on the making and materiality in architecture and design. Recent developments in the computation and digital fabrication have made these technologies increasingly accessible to architects and designers in practice and academia, taking it from a rare novelty to a ubiquitous part of design practice. This has opened up a field of design exploration and brought material-making and materiality to the centre of attention in computational design, affording designers control over production processes at unseen scales and resolutions. The discourse in this field tends to stress the positivist impact of these technologies – better integrated workflows, higher precision, uninterrupted flow from design intent to material artefacts – describing them as transparent and neutral. The practice of working with computation and digital fabrication in design differs from these idealised processes: materials can misbehave, computer code inherits a world-view and assumptions based on engineering and geometry, machines have limits and depend on specific material supply chains. My research investigates the extent to which this difference reveals the agencies of materials, computation and fabrication, and tests the extent to which this can lead to new creative opportunities. I have conducted my research through my creative practice and scoped it in a designerly, practical, artistic, and scholarly context - my work consists of a series of design experiments, design studio-led investigative projects and workshops. Developing the research coincided with establishing MMlab, a research lab predicated on hands-on experimentation, fabrication and making. The research was further developed through literature and project review, collaborations and discussions with a community of practice at conferences and the practice research symposia. My exegesis groups the research in three explorations, each consisting of a framework, a number of case studies and a reflection. The first, Design and Making explores the role of making during the design process and materializing as a way of exploring rather than concretizing design ideas. The second, Code and Matter, explores how materiality and fabrication are encoded in computational design models. The third, Allographic Machines, explores designing in negotiation with specific fabrication machines. A number of inquiries were developed through these three explorations: the negotiation between design intent and the creative significance of the unexpected as well as the expected outcomes of design processes; the negotiation between the agency of the designer and the agency evident in materiality, computation and fabrication, the allographic qualities of external agencies in design. The contribution that my research makes to new knowledge can be located within the specificity of the explorations: firstly, making explicit the agencies uncovered through the explorations; secondly, recognizing these agencies to be negotiable; and thirdly, developing design projects through negotiating these agencies. Fourthly, next to these specific contributions, a more general modus operandi has been developed for negotiating external agencies as a designer: an agile, prototypical approach to evaluating rapidly changing technologies in design

Het archeologische vooronderzoek te Kumtich-De Kouter

Dit rapport werd ingediend bij het agentschap samen met een aantal afzonderlijke digitale bijlagen. Een aantal van deze bijlagen zijn niet inbegrepen in dit pdf document en zijn niet online beschikbaar. Sommige bijlagen (grondplannen, fotos, spoorbeschrijvingen, enz.) kunnen van belang zijn voor een betere lezing en interpretatie van dit rapport. Indien u deze bijlagen wenst te raadplegen kan u daarvoor contact opnemen met: [email protected]

Enhancing (future) students’ sense of belonging to increase diversity and inclusion in engineering

The shortage of engineering talent leads to a loss in economic output. This shortagecombat has to be fought on several fronts, one of them is attracting and retaining more currently underrepresented students. This paper discusses the need to improve a sense of belonging and to increase professional awareness, or the understanding of the different roles an engineer can take on, in order to increase diversity in engineering. Based on an extensive literature review an overview is given of previous research on this topic from an interdisciplinary perspective. Research has shown that professional identity development has high impact on persistence and study success. Although identity development is a hot topic in engineering education research, several studies indicate that engineering students still have difficulties in grasping what it is to be an engineer and often fall back upon the rather stereotypical, harsh technological, male image. However, research also shows that it is important for students to know what to expect and value in order to develop feelings of belonging or fit. The former European project PREFER has developed promising tools in this regard. However, these tools have not been tested regarding inclusiveness. The paper also outlines the next steps that will be taken by the authors as part of an interdisciplinary project URGENT to increase attractiveness and retention of underrepresented groups in engineering education. This URGENT project proceeds on the outcomes of the PREFER project and will focus on the attraction and retention of female students and students with a migration background

What drives product-service integration? An abductive study of decision-makers’ motives and value strategies

Many firms struggle to successfully translate corporate strategy into value-added solutions for customers by integrating products and services. A particular hurdle is the intrinsic motivation of the people in charge. This study contributes to the microfoundations of servitization literature by exploring what motives and strategies drive decision-makers to pursue product-service integration (PSI). Given the fragmented state of the literature, we follow an abductive approach. First, applying a behavioral strategy lens, we identify the theoretical building blocks to construct a conceptual framework. Next, we collect data of 178 small, Belgian firms to perform an exploratory quantitative analysis. Finally, we develop theory based on the results. Specifically, we find that the need for achievement and affiliation are both directly and positively associated with PSI. Also, achievement-driven people are likely to pursue PSI, originating from a product leadership position. Finally, the power motive is positively associated with operational excellence, but not with PSI

Ambidexterity and Public Organizations: A Configurational Perspective

A general assumption in public sector research is that public organizations have to be efficient and innovative to overcome challenges such as demographic changes and digitization. This argument has been discussed in light of ambidexterity theory, for example. However, only little public sector research has focused on “how” public organizations reach ambidexterity. We take this question into account and focus on design and leadership conditions that are necessary or sufficient for ambidexterity. More precisely, the main question of this article is: Which combination of leadership and design conditions plays a role for ambidexterity in public organizations? We theoretically rely on the concept of ambidexterity, collected data in Belgian public cultural centers, and analyzed the data via the set-theoretic method Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). We can conclude from our analysis that six different combinations of design and leadership conditions were found to be sufficient for ambidexterity in our dataset. What is more is that public organizations combine design and leadership conditions of both structural and contextual ambidexterity to balance simultaneously exploitation and exploration. Hereby this article provides new theoretical and empirical insights and offers opportunities for further ambidexterity research in public organizations

Co-Creative Action Research Experiments—A Careful Method for Causal Inference and Societal Impact

The rigor-versus-relevance debate in the world of academia is, by now, an old-time classic that does not seem to go away so easily. The grassroots movement Responsible Research in Business and Management, for instance, is a very active and prominent advocate of the need to change current research practices in the management domain, broadly defined. One of its main critiques is that current research practices are not apt to address day-to-day management challenges, nor do they allow such management challenges to feed into academic research. In this paper, we address this issue, and present a research design, referred to as CARE, that is aimed at building a bridge from rigor to relevance, and vice versa. In so doing, we offer a template for conducting rigorous research with immediate impact, contributing to solving issues that businesses are struggling with through a design that facilitates causal inference