Food as Experience A Design and Evaluation Methodology

This research, conducted for Frito Lay-North America, Inc, demonstrates how new product designs, package designs, concepts, and prototypes can be created based on the social, emotional, cognitive, and sensory information gathered through a combined methodology based on activity theory, Kansei Engineering and the ZMET process. The study examines how activity theory can be used to observe situational settings mediated by products for the purpose of collecting significant social and behavioral data. It also examines how Kansei methods can be used to evaluate sensory experiences and how the ZMET process can be used to gather demographic and marketing data. The outcome of this research concludes that activity theory, Kansei engineering, and ZMET are each useful, however, none of these methods used in isolation are sufficient to inform all aspects of marketing, new product development, and package design decisions. However, as a combined design and evaluation methodology they can provide more useful data for these processes. Keywords: Experience Design, Kansei Assessment, Food, Activity Theory</p

Graph Embedded Term Rewrite Systems

The primary motivator of this research is attempting to extend the ability of cryptographic protocol analysis tool and prove security questions about a wider set of cryptographic systems. Many systems already work for “subterm-convergent” presentations. Many also work for specific examples of protocols that are beyond subterm-convergent. However, there is no syntactic definition of this “beyond subterm” or no classification of what systems. The resulting question is: Can we define a new form of beyond subterm-convergent Term Rewrite System (TRS) and prove it can be used to extend the ability of existing cryptographic protocol analysis methods? We begin finding our solution by first using notions of graph theory develop a new definition of graph-embedded relation on terms. Then, we extend the graph embedded notion on terms to term-rewrite systems. Next, we prove that these new “graph-embedded TRS” encompass the required properties of the cryptographic analysis systems. Finally, we prove that the protocol analysis systems work on the classes of graph-embedded TRS, namely that they have the local stability property. As a result of this research, we have developed a new form of graph-embedded term rewrite system. Additionally, we have proven several properties such as termination and that they differ from homeomorphic embedded systems. These properties were then used to show how graph-embedded term rewrite systems can be used to analyze cryptographic protocols, for example, by using local stability. In future work, we would like to explore more applications for graph-embedded term rewrite systems, as well as investigating if additional embedding properties such as topological embeddings are useful

Design of a Meta-Material with Targeted Nonlinear Deformation Response

The M1 Abrams tank contains track pads consist of a high density rubber. This rubber fails prematurely due to heat buildup caused by the hysteretic nature of elastomers. It is therefore desired to replace this elastomer by a meta-material that has equivalent nonlinear deformation characteristics without this primary failure mode. A meta-material is an artificial material in the form of a periodic structure that exhibits behavior that differs from its constitutive material. After a thorough literature review, topology optimization was found as the only method used to design meta-materials. Further investigation determined topology optimization as an infeasible method to design meta-materials with the targeted nonlinear deformation characteristics. Therefore, a method was developed in this thesis to logically and systematically design meta-material unit cells using engineering principles to achieve the desired nonlinear response. This method, called the Unit Cell Synthesis Method, requires the designer to have a fundamental understanding of the geometric nonlinearity of an elemental geometry. One or more of these elemental geometries are then systematically combined into a unit cell. A size optimization is performed on promising unit cell concepts to tune the geometry and converge its response towards that of the target. Application of this method was successful in generating a meta-material to meet the response of the rubber pad. The method represented in this thesis is meant to serve as a framework for future designers to develop meta-materials for nonlinear targeted responses