Strategies for Developing Sustainable Design Practice for Students and SME Professionals

Designers and engineers seem finally to be awakening to the challenge that sustainable development has given. Educators and students alike are keenly aware of the need to become more effective in the training and practice of their specific disciplines with respect to sustainability. \noindent In the past four years since this research has developed, there has been a marked change in the mass market appeal for sustainable products and services. Implementation of sustainable design practice from both recent graduates and also innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at a local level is slow. One would assume that the consumer drive would push a change in design practice but perhaps the complexities of sustainable design along with the lack of experience in the field are providing barriers to designers and marketers alike. In addition the SME sector alone makes up the bulk of industry within the European Union (EU) varying in some countries from 80-95% of the total numbers of companies (Tukker et al. 2000). These industries by their nature find it difficult to dedicate expertise solely to sustainable development issues. The strategy outlined in this paper intended to introduce concepts of sustainable design thinking and practice to both SMEs and undergraduate students. \noindent This current and ongoing research qualitatively assesses appropriate models for educating for sustainable design thinking with SME employees and undergraduate design students. The sample groups include Industrial Design and Product Design undergraduate students in Ireland at the Institute of Technology, Carlow (IT Carlow), The University of Limerick (UL) and a sample of SMEs in the South East of Ireland, with broad national participation from other students of design and professionals from industry. Current levels of understanding of students and SME professionals of key environmental and social issues are measured

Sustainable design education: learning strategies for multidisciplinary education of undergraduates and professionals.

The concept of sustainable design as a specialism within design, business and manufacture is not a new one. Writers and educators such as Victor Papanek (Papanek 1971) and Buckminster Fuller (Fuller and Snyder 1969) were advocating a change in the way we taught students how to design and look at the world in which they live. In parallel with this, many other experts (Carson 1962; Lovelock 1979) were highlighting the difficulties being caused by industrialisation and global trade in the natural environment. Issues such as the dramatic impact of the global population on ecosystems; the strains on the global and local economic systems and the challenges meted by social inequity were starting to be raised by scientists, economists and even designers as early as the 1960s. These are now finally accepted as real problems for today's students and professionals and for the world as a whole. They now provide clear opportunity both to graduates and to businesses as fields in which they can provide and develop expertise with a view to mitigating past and future problems. This research grew out of an opportunity to examine how students and professionals learn to contextualise their design training through a sustainable design lens. Over a five year period from 2004-09 the research sought to evaluate how the learner understands and· applies their knowledge and skills and to begin the process of developing a sustainable design mindset. Through the development of a series of case studies the research goes on to develop learning strategies that can assist the learner to work in a multidisciplinary environment and to develop a sustainable literacy with their colleagues from non design disciplines. The work outlined here deals with how undergraduate students learn about sustainable design in a studio based environment over an extended period. It looks at the use of elearning, multidisciplinary project work, live projects and the mixing students with professionals all through the vehicle of sustainable design. The research also develops a number of strategies for assisting both SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) and practicing design professionals to learn about sustainable design. These strategies encourage the professionals to look at sustainability in a holistic manner and to develop a personal understanding about how it can influence their business and their design practice. The principal research question is: How can the third level effectively educate students, SMEs and professionals in sustainable design so as to be able to apply their knowledge, skills and competencies to design and industry practice in an effective manner within a complex and rapidly changing world paradigm? This body of research is a first comprehensive comparison of how undergraduate students, SME professionals and design professionals learn about sustainable design. It develops a number of learning strategies and proposes a sustainable design learning model based on the findings of the applied research

NETLAKE guidelines for automated monitoring system development. Factsheet 007: Communication options.

The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide some advice on the available methods to communicate with and retrieve data from your automated monitoring system

NETLAKE guidelines for automated monitoring system development. Factsheet 001: options for buoy design.

In this factsheet, we describe some of the options that can be used to house an automatic monitoring station (AMS) on a lake

NETLAKE guidelines for automated monitoring system development. How to deploy a low cost option (Factsheet 003).

In this factsheet, we give an overview of one “low cost” platform system

Selection and phylogenetics of salmonid MHC class I: wild brown trout (Salmo trutta) differ from a non-native introduced strain

We tested how variation at a gene of adaptive importance, MHC class I (UBA), in a wild, endemic Salmo trutta population compared to that in both a previously studied non-native S. trutta population and a co-habiting Salmo salar population ( a sister species). High allelic diversity is observed and allelic divergence is much higher than that noted previously for cohabiting S. salar. Recombination was found to be important to population-level divergence. The alpha 1 and alpha 2 domains of UBA demonstrate ancient lineages but novel lineages are also identified at both domains in this work. We also find examples of recombination between UBA and the non-classical locus, ULA. Evidence for strong diversifying selection was found at a discrete suite of S. trutta UBA amino acid sites. The pattern was found to contrast with that found in re-analysed UBA data from an artificially stocked S. trutta population

Assessing usability of a prototype soft exoskeleton by involving people with gait impairments

Background: Gait impairment is prevalent among many growing clinical populations e.g. people with stroke, incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI), older adults etc. Such populations may benefit from assistive devices such as exoskeletons to improve their walking ability. XoSoft (www.xosoft.eu) is a soft exoskeleton that is being developed for people with mild to moderate gait impairments to support their mobility by providing physical actuation across joints of the lower extremities. During the design and development of a device like XoSoft, it is crucial that Primary Users (PUs, e.g. patients) are involved and provide insight into their experiences and expectations regarding device usability. However, it is still not standard practice to include PUs in rigorous testing of highly technical exoskeletons. The XoSoft consortium took an iterative design approach to the development of the XoSoft prototypes. Data from usability testing with PUs are informing next iterations of the XoSoft concepts. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the PU experiences of the usability of a XoSoft prototype. This study should also highlight the importance of including PUs during the development of assistive devices. Methods: Eleven participants were recruited (mean age: 73 years, mean height: 166 cm, mean mass: 65 kg). There were three categories of PUs: frail (n=5), stroke (n=1), iSCI (n=5). Participants had no cognitive impairment (Mini Mental State Examination score > 24). The prototype consisted of a leggings-style garment with Velcro straps as anchor points for actuators across the relevant joints (hip, knee, ankle). Actuation and control was provided by a modular pneumatic/sensor controlled system, which was added to the garment in modular fashion based on the PU needs. After independent donning and doffing by the participant, the garment was donned and the Velcro straps placed and secured by a researcher to ensure proper placement. Participants then performed walking tasks with active actuation followed by completion of the System Usability Scale (SUS, Brooke 1996, maximum score = 100). Results: The scores for the SUS ranged from zero to 95 with a median rating of 52.5. The median rating corresponds to an “okay” score. According to the acceptability ranges by Bangor et al. (2008), 3 participants rated the prototype as acceptable, 3 as marginal, and 5 as not acceptable. Conclusions: The scores indicate the need for improvement in the design of future XoSoft prototypes. The large variability in SUS scores indicated that the same device may be rated considerably differently by different users. This highlights the importance of including a variety of potential users of assistive devices during development. Implications: Secondary Users (SUs) such as physical therapists are also involved in the development of XoSoft, providing insight into their own needs and the needs of their patients. The therapists also play a key role in motivating their patients to participate in research and development projects. To ensure that such assistive devices can be integrated into users’ lives and practices, it is essential to have both PUs and SUs actively involved in the technical development