DIDET: Digital libraries for distributed, innovative design education and teamwork. Final project report

The central goal of the DIDET Project was to enhance student learning opportunities by enabling them to partake in global, team based design engineering projects, in which they directly experience different cultural contexts and access a variety of digital information sources via a range of appropriate technology. To achieve this overall project goal, the project delivered on the following objectives: 1. Teach engineering information retrieval, manipulation, and archiving skills to students studying on engineering degree programs. 2. Measure the use of those skills in design projects in all years of an undergraduate degree program. 3. Measure the learning performance in engineering design courses affected by the provision of access to information that would have been otherwise difficult to access. 4. Measure student learning performance in different cultural contexts that influence the use of alternative sources of information and varying forms of Information and Communications Technology. 5. Develop and provide workshops for staff development. 6. Use the measurement results to annually redesign course content and the digital libraries technology. The overall DIDET Project approach was to develop, implement, use and evaluate a testbed to improve the teaching and learning of students partaking in global team based design projects. The use of digital libraries and virtual design studios was used to fundamentally change the way design engineering is taught at the collaborating institutions. This was done by implementing a digital library at the partner institutions to improve learning in the field of Design Engineering and by developing a Global Team Design Project run as part of assessed classes at Strathclyde, Stanford and Olin. Evaluation was carried out on an ongoing basis and fed back into project development, both on the class teaching model and the LauLima system developed at Strathclyde to support teaching and learning. Major findings include the requirement to overcome technological, pedagogical and cultural issues for successful elearning implementations. A need for strong leadership has been identified, particularly to exploit the benefits of cross-discipline team working. One major project output still being developed is a DIDET Project Framework for Distributed Innovative Design, Education and Teamwork to encapsulate all project findings and outputs. The project achieved its goal of embedding major change to the teaching of Design Engineering and Strathclyde's new Global Design class has been both successful and popular with students

Enhancing design learning using a digital repository

The process of design is context dependent and open-ended, and therefore does not revolve around a specific body of information or knowledge. The educational paradigm shift in the area of engineering design from teaching to coaching and the increased use of social constructivist learning ideals requires students to have access to as wide a range of information as possible. Digital resources provide an excellent opportunity for extending the range of information available to design students and to this end, as part of a joint research program with Stanford University, the University of Strathclyde has developed a groupware product called LauLima to provide students with a collaborative environment which allows them to gather, organise, store and share information. This paper describes the improvement to design learning, based on a Design Knowledge Framework, in a 3rd year product design engineering project from session 03/04 to 04/05 which has been facilitated by the implementation of this technology

Extractives From Grand Fir [Abies Grandis (DOUGL.) LINDL.] Bark

The neutral fraction of the petroleum-ether-soluble bark extract contains a homologous series of normal alkanes (C19 to C42), free β-sitosterol, behenyl and lignoceryl alcohols, esters of these three compounds with arachidic, behenic, and lignoceric acids, and a major fraction comprising a mixture of behenyl and lignoceryl ferulates. The triterpene lactones cyclograndisolide and epicyclograndisolide are minor components

A Theoretical Model for ROP Localisation by Auxin in Arabidopsis Root Hair Cells

Local activation of Rho GTPases is important for many functions including cell polarity, morphology, movement, and growth. Although a number of molecules affecting Rho-of-Plants small GTPase (ROP) signalling are known, it remains unclear how ROP activity becomes spatially organised. Arabidopsis root hair cells produce patches of ROP at consistent and predictable subcellular locations, where root hair growth subsequently occurs.We present a mathematical model to show how interaction of the plant hormone auxin with ROPs could spontaneously lead to localised patches of active ROP via a Turing or Turing-like mechanism. Our results suggest that correct positioning of the ROP patch depends on the cell length, low diffusion of active ROP, a gradient in auxin concentration, and ROP levels. Our theory provides a unique explanation linking the molecular biology to the root hair phenotypes of multiple mutants and transgenic lines, including OX-ROP, CA-rop, aux1, axr3, tip1, eto1, etr1, and the triple mutant aux1 ein2 gnom(eb).We show how interactions between Rho GTPases (in this case ROPs) and regulatory molecules (in this case auxin) could produce characteristic subcellular patterning that subsequently affects cell shape. This has important implications for research on the morphogenesis of plants and other eukaryotes. Our results also illustrate how gradient-regulated Turing systems provide a particularly robust and flexible mechanism for pattern formation

Using engineering design tools in multidisciplinary distributed student teams

Collaborative design practice in distributed student teams is becoming more popular as technology makes it easier to communicate ideas with others that are geographically distant. However, a challenge for students is to use design tools which they are not familiar with. These design tools usually differ from each other and engineers may find it much more difficult to share their ideas. This could make the whole design process longer and less successful. Each year the University of Malta, City University London and University of Strathclyde organise a joint collaborative design project, involving engineering students with different disciplines and cultural backgrounds. In this paper, the patterns of use of design tools by students to collaborate with each other are investigated. Based on survey results of students, this paper proposes an approach which can be utilised by engineering students to enhance collaboration in multidisciplinary distributed design teams

TikiWiki: a tool to support engineering design students in concept generation

For student design engineers, the concept generation stage of the design process is usually one of most creative, but poses problems in handling large amounts of information when developing new ideas. Storing such information digitally potentially makes its retrieval and utilisation quicker and easier - ideal for the inherently spontaneous nature of the concept generation task. There is, however, currently a low use of existing electronic resources amongst undergraduate students. This paper discusses how a group of product design engineering students were encouraged to use TikiWiki, a groupware product, as an integral part of a design project. It was observed that a digital repository has a positive effect on concept generation, despite the logistical problems with moving information into the digital domain. Students were able to better interact with the information, evidenced by hierarchical and well constructed topic information resources, a high number of ‘hits’ on their Wiki pages, clear references to information used in concept design templates and instances of ‘topic-led’ designs where the research carried out by a group clearly influenced design direction. Additionally, students showed a strong preference for browsing the structured Wiki pages they had created rather than searching with keywords, in keeping with the open-ended nature of concept generation

Delivering a total engineering education

The department of Design Manufacturing and Engineering Management (DMEM) at the University of Strathclyde developed the concept of "Delivering Total Engineering" to capture the essence of the teaching, research, and knowledge exchange activity. It is a framework and ethos of the department for its multi-disciplinary and holistic approach throughout the three pillars of design, manufacture and engineering management. This paper defines the Delivering Total Engineering concept from an educational perspective and is used to demonstrate the interconnectivity of the learning and teaching that is needed to innovate in the delivery of capable, competent and confident graduates

Toxicology evaluation of radiotracer doses of 3'-deoxy-3'-[18F]fluorothymidine (18F-FLT) for human PET imaging: Laboratory analysis of serial blood samples and comparison to previously investigated therapeutic FLT doses

Background: 18F-FLT is a novel PET radiotracer which has demonstrated a strong potential utility for imaging cellular proliferation in human tumors in vivo. To facilitate future regulatory approval of 18F-FLT for clinical use, we wished to demonstrate the safety of radiotracer doses of 18F-FLT administered to human subjects, by: 1) performing an evaluation of the toxicity of 18F-FLT administered in radiotracer amounts for PET imaging, 2) comparing a radiotracer dose of FLT to clinical trial doses of FLT. Methods: Twenty patients gave consent to a 18F-FLT injection, subsequent PET imaging, and blood draws. For each patient, blood samples were collected at multiple times before and after 18F-FLT PET. These samples were assayed for a comprehensive metabolic panel, total bilirubin, complete blood and platelet counts. 18F-FLT doses of 2.59 MBq/Kg with a maximal dose of 185 MBq (5 mCi) were used. Blood time-activity curves were generated for each patient from dynamic PET data, providing a measure of the area under the FLT concentration curve for 12 hours (AUC12). Results: No side effects were reported. Only albumin, red blood cell count, hematocrit and hemoglobin showed a statistically significant decrease over time. These changes are attributed to IV hydration during PET imaging and to subsequent blood loss at surgery. The AUC12 values estimated from imaging data are not significantly different from those found from serial measures of FLT blood concentrations (p = 0.66). The blood samples-derived AUC12 values range from 0.232 ng*h/mL to 1.339 ng*h/mL with a mean of 0.802 � 0.303 ng*h/mL. This corresponds to 0.46% to 2.68% of the lowest and least toxic clinical trial AUC12 of 50 ng*h/mL reported by Flexner et al (1994). This single injection also corresponds to a nearly 3,000-fold lower cumulative dose than in Flexner's twice daily trial. Conclusion: This study shows no evidence of toxicity or complications attributable to 18F-FLT injected intravenously.This study was supported by NIH grant R01 CA115559, 1R01 CA107264, and 1R01 CA80907

A novel systematic method to evaluate computer supported collaborative design technologies

Selection of suitable computer-supported collaborative design (CSCD) technologies is crucial to facilitate successful projects. This paper presents the first systematic method for engineering design teams to evaluate and select the most suitable CSCD technologies comparing technology functionality and project requirements established in peer-reviewed literature. The paper first presents 220 factors that influence successful CSCD. These factors were then systematically mapped and categorised to create CSCD requirement statements. The novel evaluation and selection method incorporates these requirement statements within a matrix and develops a discourse analysis text processing algorithm with data from collaborative projects to automate the population of how technologies impact the success of CSCD in engineering design teams. This method was validated using data collected across 3 years of a student global design project. The impact of this method is the potential to change the way engineering design teams consider the technology they use and how the selection of appropriate tools impacts the success of their CSCD projects. The development of the CSCD evaluation matrix is the first of its kind enabling a systematic and justifiable comparison and technology selection, with the aim of best supporting the engineering designers collaborative design activity