Otimização multiobjetivo das dimensões dos ambientes de uma residência unifamiliar baseada em simulação energética e estrutural

Resumo O desenvolvimento da tecnologia computacional nas últimas décadas levou a otimização associada à parametrização a possibilitar o desenvolvimento de projetos de melhor desempenho, com ou sem integração com a simulação. O intuito deste trabalho foi aplicar a otimização baseada em simulação na forma de uma edificação residencial unifamiliar com o objetivo de encontrar a composição que apresentasse o melhor desempenho térmico com o menor custo dos materiais construtivos, considerando-se restrições estruturais. Foram utilizados os programas Rhinoceros e Energy Plus, além de plug-ins para modelagem paramétrica, o intercâmbio de informações entre os programas e a condução da otimização. Foram realizadas duas simulações, a primeira considerando os custos dos componentes construtivos e os graus-hora de aquecimento e resfriamento combinados e a segunda considerando os custos e graus-hora de aquecimento, que produziu resultados mais relevantes. Dois casos de cada solução de Pareto foram selecionados para análise, dentre 19,8 mil e 27,4 mil casos obtidos com uso de algoritmos evolucionários. Apesar das limitações de algumas das ferramentas, foi verificado um grande potencial de aplicação deste método no desenvolvimento de projetos arquitetônicos

Virtual worlds in Australian and New Zealand higher education: Remembering the past, Understanding the present and imagining the future

3D virtual reality, including the current generation of multi-user virtual worlds, has had a long history of use in education and training, and it experienced a surge of renewed interest with the advent of Second Life in 2003. What followed shortly after were several years marked by considerable hype around the use of virtual worlds for teaching, learning and research in higher education. For the moment, uptake of the technology seems to have plateaued, with academics either maintaining the status quo and continuing to use virtual worlds as they have previously done or choosing to opt out altogether. This paper presents a brief review of the use of virtual worlds in the Australian and New Zealand higher education sector in the past and reports on its use in the sector at the present time, based on input from members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group. It then adopts a forward-looking perspective amid the current climate of uncertainty, musing on future directions and offering suggestions for potential new applications in light of recent technological developments and innovations in the area

Dealing with a panic attack: A virtual reality training module for postgraduate psychology students

In this paper we present a virtual reality training simulator for postgraduate psychology students. This simulator features an interaction between a clinical psychologist (student) and a patient (virtual agent) suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Our simulation focuses on the form of OCD treatment called “Exposure Therapy”. The traditional way of learning how to perform Exposure Therapy (ET) currently involves watching video recordings and discussing those in the class. In our simulation we conduct an immersive exposure therapy session in VR. This session involves a live interaction with a patient that at one stage triggers a panic attack. Our hypothesis is that the immersive nature of the training session will affect the decision making process of the students so that they are more likely to cease the exposure task than those student participating in a less immersive form of learning (watching a video recording). We also hypothesise that participating in an immersive VR training session is more effective than watching videos, as far as information retention goes

Shape grammars for architectural design: the need for reframing

Although many shape grammars and corresponding implementations have been proposed, shape grammars are not widely adopted by architectural designers. In this paper, we therefore look for the barriers of implementing and using shape grammars for architectural design. We do this by outlining several implementation strategies of shape grammars, we briefly point to our own graph-based design grammar system, and we analyse the resulting overview using theories on how designers think and act upon incoming information. Based on this analysis, we develop and suggest how design grammars might best be implemented and used for architectural design relying on the information technologies available at this particular moment of time