Skills development and recoding in engineering analysis and simulation : Industry needs

The EASIT2 project (Engineering Analysis and Simulation Innovation Transfer), funded under the European Union Lifelong Learning Programme, has the major goal to contribute to the competitiveness and quality of engineering, design and manufacturing in Europe through identifying the generic competencies that users of engineering analysis and simulation systems must possess. This competency framework will include a comprehensive Educational Base, a web-based interface compatible with other staff development systems, with links to associated resource material that engineers and analysts can use to develop and track their competencies. The project will also deliver an integrated Registered Analyst (RA) Scheme to provide recognition of achievement of these competencies. In order to help ensure that the deliverables of this project meet industry needs, a survey was undertaken and this paper summarises the findings of this survey. The survey comprised of an online questionnaire and was completed by 1094 respondents from 50 different countries. A large majority of respondents thought a system to define analyst skills and provide links to appropriate training resources would be useful. There was also strong support for a form of professional qualification in engineering analysis. The advantages to industry that these project deliverables would bring include incentives for staff development, marketing power and enhanced subcontractor qualification and internal resource management. The survey also provided a valuable insight into the current state of the engineering analysis and simulation industry. The most significant barriers to the effective use of engineering analysis were identified as recruitment of suitably qualified and experienced staff and a lack of analysis skills. “Pressure of work” was also identified as the most significant reason why organisations fail to get the most out of engineering analysis software. The findings of this survey are now being used in the development of the project deliverables to ensure that they meet the needs of industry as much as possible

Visible spatial contiguity of social information and reward affects social learning in brown capuchins (<i>Sapajus apella</i>) and children (<i>Homo sapiens</i>)

Animal social learning is typically studied experimentally by the presentation of artificial foraging tasks. Although productive, results are often variable even for the same species. We present and test the hypothesis that one cause of variation is that spatial distance between rewards and the means of reward release causes conflicts for participants’ attentional focus. We investigated whether spatial contiguity between a visible reward and the means of release would affect behavioral responses that evidence social learning, testing 21 brown capuchins (Sapajus apella), a much studied species with variant evidence for social learning, and 180 two- to four-year old human children (Homo sapiens), a benchmark species known for a strong social learning disposition. Participants were presented with a novel transparent apparatus where a reward was either proximal or distal to a demonstrated means of releasing it. A distal reward location decreased attention towards the location of the demonstration and impaired subsequent success in gaining rewards. Generally, the capuchins produced the alternative method to that demonstrated whereas children copied the method demonstrated, although a distal reward location reduced copying in younger children. We conclude that some design features in common social learning tasks may significantly degrade the evidence for social learning. We have demonstrated this for two different primates but suggest that it is a significant factor to control for in social learning research across all taxa

Cross-Platform Presentation of Interactive Volumetric Imagery

Volume data is useful across many disciplines, not just medicine. Thus, it is very important that researchers have a simple and lightweight method of sharing and reproducing such volumetric data. In this paper, we explore some of the challenges associated with volume rendering, both from a classical sense and from the context of Web3D technologies. We describe and evaluate the pro- posed X3D Volume Rendering Component and its associated styles for their suitability in the visualization of several types of image data. Additionally, we examine the ability for a minimal X3D node set to capture provenance and semantic information from outside ontologies in metadata and integrate it with the scene graph

Estimation of fractal dimension for a class of Non-Gaussian stationary processes and fields

We present the asymptotic distribution theory for a class of increment-based estimators of the fractal dimension of a random field of the form g{X(t)}, where g:R\to R is an unknown smooth function and X(t) is a real-valued stationary Gaussian field on R^d, d=1 or 2, whose covariance function obeys a power law at the origin. The relevant theoretical framework here is ``fixed domain'' (or ``infill'') asymptotics. Surprisingly, the limit theory in this non-Gaussian case is somewhat richer than in the Gaussian case (the latter is recovered when g is affine), in part because estimators of the type considered may have an asymptotic variance which is random in the limit. Broadly, when g is smooth and nonaffine, three types of limit distributions can arise, types (i), (ii) and (iii), say. Each type can be represented as a random integral. More specifically, type (i) can be represented as the integral of a certain random function with respect to Lebesgue measure; type (ii) can be represented as the integral of a second random functio

Trends and Design Relating literature to industry practice

In a crowded market place, where technology and functionality are not enough to differentiate a product from its competitors, the product’s appearance is a major driver of consumer preference. But preferences change over time, and product forms need to reflect this in order to stay relevant. This paper addresses the usage of trends by designers to inform the design and evolution of their products. Published theory regarding trends in product form exists in the fashion and consumer behaviour domains, but not in direct relation to the design of consumer products. This paper is preceded by a synthesis of literature in adjacent fields and compares the literature understanding with real industrial practice. Interviews with 9 professionals in trend research, design consultancy, furniture, fashion and architecture, were undertaken to explore the value and usage of trends across a variety of creative fields. The interview data were used to corroborate and enhance the literature understanding. In addition, the study also provides some emerging comparisons between design disciplines. The product designers interviewed were unlikely to use formal trend research methods: inspiration, tacit knowledge and experience accounts for much of their creative output. However, trend consultancies have developed methods of identifying and using trends to develop products for 5-10 years in the future. The fashion industry also has established ways of to rapidly identify or predict trend information. Keywords: Product form; trends; fashion; foresight</p

Saddlepoint approximation for moment generating functions of truncated random variables

We consider the problem of approximating the moment generating function (MGF) of a truncated random variable in terms of the MGF of the underlying (i.e., untruncated) random variable. The purpose of approximating the MGF is to enable the application of saddlepoint approximations to certain distributions determined by truncated random variables. Two important statistical applications are the following: the approximation of certain multivariate cumulative distribution functions; and the approximation of passage time distributions in ion channel models which incorporate time interval omission. We derive two types of representation for the MGF of a truncated random variable. One of these representations is obtained by exponential tilting. The second type of representation, which has two versions, is referred to as an exponential convolution representation. Each representation motivates a different approximation. It turns out that each of the three approximations is extremely accurate in those cases ``to which it is suited.'' Moreover, there is a simple rule of thumb for deciding which approximation to use in a given case, and if this rule is followed, then our numerical and theoretical results indicate that the resulting approximation will be extremely accurate.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053604000000689 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org