Homelessness and student learning

As increased foreclosure creates more homelessness and children change schools frequently, learning suffers. The author surveys the research and makes a case for urgent action.Homeless persons ; Education

Research and Advocacy Group Established

How can social science research aid advocacy efforts to address the intersection of race and poverty? How can researchers and activists in this area begin to network with each other on a regular basis to exchange information and develop strategies? A new organization, the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), has been convened by major civil rights, civil liberties and anti-poverty groups, to address these questions. With substantial initial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, funds will be channeled into research grants tied to local, state and national level advocacy strategies for litigation, legislation, community organizing, public education and other activities that support progressive social change. PRRAC will also establish a communications network among advocates and social science researchers. It will hold conferences,publish reports and disseminate ideas and materials

Flight Testing of Nap of-the-Earth Unmanned Helicopter Systems

This paper describes recent results from a partnership between the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation and the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop, improve, and flight test a sensor, guidance, navigation, control, and real-time flight path optimization system to support high performance nap-of-the-Earth helicopter flight. The emphasis here is on optimization for a combination of low height above terrain/obstacles and high speeds. Multiple methods for generating the desired flight path were evaluated, including (1) a simple processing of each laser scan; and (2) a potential field based method. Simulation and flight test results have been obtained utilizing an onboard laser scanner to detect terrain and obstacles while flying at low altitude, and have successfully demonstrated obstacle avoidance in a realistic semi-urban environment at speeds up to 40 ft/s while maintaining a miss distance of 50 ft horizontally and vertically. These results indicate that the technical approach is sound, paving the way for testing of even lower altitudes, higher speeds, and more aggressive maneuvering in future work

Revisiting the design intent concept in the context of mechanical CAD education

[EN] Design intent is generally understood simply as a CAD model¿s anticipated behavior when altered. However, this representation provides a simplified view of the model¿s construction and purpose, which may hinder its general understanding and future reusability. Our vision is that design intent communication may be improved by recognizing the multifaceted nature of design intent, and by instructing users to convey each facet of design intent through the better-fitted CAD resource. This paper reviews the current understanding of design intent and its relationship to design rationale and builds on the idea that communication of design intent conveyed via CAD models can be satisfied at three levels provided that specialized instruction is used to instruct users in selection of the most suitable level for each intent.Otey, J.; Company, P.; Contero, M.; Camba, J. (2018). Revisiting the design intent concept in the context of mechanical CAD education. Computer-Aided Design and Applications. 15(1):47-60. https://doi.org/10.1080/16864360.2017.1353733S476015

Learning CAD at university through summaries of the rules of design intent

The ease with which 3D CAD models may be modified and reused are two key aspects that improve the design-intent variable and that can significantly shorten the development timelines of a product. A set of rules are gathered from various authors that take different 3D modelling strategies into account. These rules are then applied to CAD strategic-knowledge learning methodology and included in 3D CAD modelling exercises for students following the degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Burgos (Spain). The experiment was conducted in two groups with a total of 75 students. The design-intent rules were introduced in the different exercises that the teacher explained in both the theoretical and the practical classes. In addition, a summary of the different design rules in each of the practical exercises was explained in the practical classes in only one of the groups. The experimental results, reported in this paper, tested the influence of these summaries on overall improvements in 3D modelling and on the design-intent variable, which is subdivided into four sections: skeleton, structures, alterations and constraints. The use of the summaries of the design intent rules led to statistically significant improvements in 3D modelling in the experimental group, in comparison with the group of students to whom those summaries were not explained