Harnessing Technology: new modes of technology-enhanced learning: action research, March 2009

5 action research studie

Evaluation of the DWP Growth Fund

The objective of the DWP Growth Fund was to raise levels of access to affordable credit by building the capacity of third sector lenders to serve financially excluded households. In doing so, the Growth Fund aimed to disrupt the role of high cost credit in the lives of borrowers. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, our evaluation of the Growth Fund examined both impact and process in order to establish the wider implications of the initiative on: Financially excluded individuals. Third sector lending institutions (Credit Unions / Community Development Finance Institutions). Other organisations delivering services to the financially excluded

Aerodynamic analysis and optimisation of a servo-controlled aileron

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-190).The pressure for the airline industry to reduce its consumption of fuel is mounting. It has been conjectured that smart materials could be employed to control the aileron deflections via the tab, using with an electrically-actuated system instead of the bulky hydraulics currently used. In a collaboration between a leading aircraft manufacturer and four South African universities, potentially more efficient technologies for aircraft roll control, which would reduce the weight, are being investigated. This dissertation involves the aerodynamic analysis component of the collaboration project

Reach modelling for drive-up self-service

People using a self-service terminal such as an automated teller machine (ATM) tend to adjust their physical position throughout a transaction. This is particularly apparent with terminals that are designed to be used from a vehicle (i.e. drive up automated teller machines or ATMs). Existing predictive tools tend to focus on static reach and provide limited predictions for how far people are willing to stretch to complete a task. Drive-up self-service products have 3 main challenges: the variability of vehicles, people and driver behaviour. Such conventional tools are therefore of limited use in understanding how much people are willing to move to use a self-service terminal. Work is described to build in-house predictive models based on 2 large empirical studies of reach in a drive up installation. These 2 studies assessed comfortable and extended reach from 10 vehicle categories. Extended reach was defined as stretching/leaning as far as participants would normally be willing to in order to complete a drive-up transaction. Findings from these studies indicated that participants are prepared to adopt more extreme postures at drive-up than in other situations with extended reach at drive-up being significantly different to what might be seen at a walk-up kiosk

Lantana: Current Management Status and Future Prospects

Crop Production/Industries,

Testing of a Green Monopropellant Integrated Propulsion System

VACCO has application-engineered a green monopropellant Integrated Propulsion System (IPS) specifically designed for ESPA-class small satellites. The Integrated Propulsion System is a smart propulsion system with propellant storage, pressurant storage, feed system, controller, software and four flight-proven 1N non-toxic thrusters in a compact bolt-on package. This paper documents Protoflight testing of the first flight system against specified requirements. Protoflight testing of the Integrated Propulsion Systems combines both acceptance testing that screens for workmanship and Protoflight and qualification testing that verifies the design. As with conventional propulsion systems, Integrated Propulsion Systems are not hot fire tested at the system level. The Bradford ECAPS LMP-103S 1N thrusters were already space qualified with 56 thrusters on-orbit. For this application, each thruster was acceptance tested, including hot fire testing, at the thruster component level. Separately, the system will be Protoflight tested with mass simulators in place of thrusters then electrically checked after thruster integration. A structurally identical Burst Pressure Unit was also built and will be tested. Twelve thrusters have successfully passed acceptance testing and the first flight system and Burst Pressure Unit are expected to pass protoflight qualification test requirements. Integrated Propulsion System Protoflight test data was not at the time of publication. This information will be included in the presentation

Analyzing high energy physics data using database computing: Preliminary report

A proof of concept system is described for analyzing high energy physics (HEP) data using data base computing. The system is designed to scale up to the size required for HEP experiments at the Superconducting SuperCollider (SSC) lab. These experiments will require collecting and analyzing approximately 10 to 100 million 'events' per year during proton colliding beam collisions. Each 'event' consists of a set of vectors with a total length of approx. one megabyte. This represents an increase of approx. 2 to 3 orders of magnitude in the amount of data accumulated by present HEP experiments. The system is called the HEPDBC System (High Energy Physics Database Computing System). At present, the Mark 0 HEPDBC System is completed, and can produce analysis of HEP experimental data approx. an order of magnitude faster than current production software on data sets of approx. 1 GB. The Mark 1 HEPDBC System is currently undergoing testing and is designed to analyze data sets 10 to 100 times larger