ChainMail: A configurable multimodal lining to enable sensate surfaces and interactive objects

The ChainMail system is a scalable electronic sensate skin that is designed as a dense sensor network. ChainMail is built from small (1"x1") rigid circuit boards attached to their neighbors with flexible interconnects that allow the skin to be conformally arranged and manipulated. Each board contains an embedded processor together with a suite of thirteen sensors, providing dense, multimodal capture of proximate and contact phenomena. This system forms a sensate lining that can be applied to an object, device, or surface to enable interactivity. Under extended testing, we demonstrate a flexible skin to detect and respond to a variety of stimuli while running quickly and efficiently.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Graduate Research Fellowship number 2007050798

New Approaches to HSCT Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization

The successful development of a capable and economically viable high speed civil transport (HSCT) is perhaps one of the most challenging tasks in aeronautics for the next two decades. At its heart it is fundamentally the design of a complex engineered system that has significant societal, environmental and political impacts. As such it presents a formidable challenge to all areas of aeronautics, and it is therefore a particularly appropriate subject for research in multidisciplinary design and optimization (MDO). In fact, it is starkly clear that without the availability of powerful and versatile multidisciplinary design, analysis and optimization methods, the design, construction and operation of im HSCT simply cannot be achieved. The present research project is focused on the development and evaluation of MDO methods that, while broader and more general in scope, are particularly appropriate to the HSCT design problem. The research aims to not only develop the basic methods but also to apply them to relevant examples from the NASA HSCT R&D effort. The research involves a three year effort aimed first at the HSCT MDO problem description, next the development of the problem, and finally a solution to a significant portion of the problem

New Approaches to Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization

Research under the subject grant is being carried out in a jointly coordinated effort within three laboratories in the School of Aerospace Engineering and the George Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. The objectives and results for Year 2 of the research program are summarized. The "Objectives" and "Expected Significance" are taken directly from the Year 2 Proposal presented in October 1994, and "Results" summarize the what has been accomplished this year. A discussion of these results is provided in the following sections. A listing of papers, presentations and reports that acknowledge grant support, either in part or in whole, and that were prepared during this period is provided in an attachment

Compromise: An Effective Approach for Designing Composite Conical Shell Structures

The layout of fiber composite structures compared to that of structures made from conventional homogeneous isotropic materials is far more difficult, because a fiber composite (laminate) is built up of several unidirectional layers (UD-layers) with fibers set at different angles. A contribution to the structural analysis and preliminary design of a fiber-reinforced conical shell is made in this paper Design of Composite Material Shells In modern lightweight structures, shells of revolution fabricated of fiber composite materials, e.g., fuel tanks, are becoming increasingly important. These shell structures can mostly be built up from different well known shell types, e.g., spherical, cylindrical and conical shells, simplifying the stress and deformation calculations. A more difficult problem is calculating the stress concentrations which appear at the connections of the different shell types. The reason being that the deformations of the different shell types under similar loading are not the same and so bending and shear effects appear. The high stresses at the connection decrease rapidly away from it, so that for the most part of the shell the membrane stresses are important. Thus, to design a shell structure one must use both the membrane theory and bending theory. The bending theory for composite material structures is much more complicated than for structures made of homogeneous and isotropic materials. Therefore, we have to find a way to design shell structures using only the membrane theory. This is possible if the stiffnesses of the different shell types can be changed in a way that the strains (or the deformations) at the connections are the same. By using composite materials, instead of isotropic materials, the stiffness can be changed by using different layer orientations in a laminate and increasing or decreasing the layer thickness. To find the appropriate layer orientation and thickness optimization methods can be applied. Before one can build up a whole shell structure out of spherical, cylindrical and/or conical shells the deformation behavior of the different shell types has to be studied in detail. In references [1] and [2] several parametric studies and the "optimum" design of spherical and cylindrical shells under pressure and temperature loads are given. Battermann and Pavicic [3] published a paper about weight minimization of laminated shells of revolution where the laminate is built up as a symmetrical angle-ply laminate. They found the optimal results by doing a lot of calculations with different laminate parameters, e.g., fiber angles and laminate thicknesses. Most of the publications in the field of optimum design of composite shells have dealt with weight minimization including stability and/or vibration constraints, see Our paper deals with the structural analysis and preliminary design of a thin conical shell subjected to a pressure load and a temperature distribution along the meridian direction, as shown in A comprehensive approach called the Decision Support Problem (DSP) Techniqu

Responding to COVID‐19 through Surveys of Public Servants

Responding to COVID‐19 presents unprecedented challenges for public sector practitioners. Addressing those challenges requires knowledge about the problems that public sector workers face. This Viewpoint essay argues that timely, up‐to‐date surveys of public sector workers are essential tools for identifying problems, resolving bottlenecks, and enabling public sector workers to operate effectively during and in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic. This essay presents the COVID‐19 Survey of Public Servants, which is currently being rolled out in several countries by the Global Survey of Public Servants Consortium to assist governments in strategically compiling evidence to operate effectively during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Decision-based design: A contemporary paradigm for ship design

For decades ships have been designed using the well-known “basis ship approach ” together with the equally well-known Evans-Buxton-Andrews spiral. The two principal limitations of the spiral are that the process of design is assumed to be sequential and the opportunity to include life cycle considerations is limited. It is our contention that in order to increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process of ship design a new paradigm for the process of design is needed. In this paper, we review recent developments in the field of design and offer a contemporary paradigm, Decision-Based Design, for the design of ships; one that encompasses systems thinking and embodies the concept of concurrent engineering design for the life cycle