Empowering Students in Leading their Education and Practice: The Design Workbook

© 2019 The Authors. iJADE © 2019 NSEAD/John Wiley & Sons Ltd How does education prepare future designers for current and future requirements of the field? An attempt to respond to this question is presented through the Design Workbook: a curricular project that has been proposed and developed over the course of three phases. In Phase One, the objectives, structure and format were defined: an online interface containing activities organised under five chapters that aim at building students’ creative confidence and sensitivity to surrounding contexts, and prepare them to lead their career path. In Phase Two, the website was developed to its first usable version, and content applied into live classes. Phase Three was marked with content refinement for the activities, navigation and feature redesign in the interface, and new ways of conducting the course. The article summarises learning points from the first two phases, and provides new findings and analyses from the final phase. It also includes a sample of the activities content, student works and feedback as well as the interface development stages. The methodology utilised throughout consisted of active research, as well as learning outcomes assessment using direct and indirect measures. Assessment results and classroom observations confirmed that students benefit greatly from visualising ideas, hands on activities, design thinking workshops, as well as from collaborative experiences, to avoid facing designer\u27s block and to practise empowerment of self and others. Finally, challenges, opportunities and future implications are discussed, alongside implementation possibilities: The Design Workbook can run as a sole course, spread across the curriculum, and expand into the community

Diagnostics of Helium-Argon Arc Discharge Plasma Based on Spectral Line Shape Measurements

Electron densities and ion (gas) temperatures on the axis of an arc discharge plasma, produced at atmospheric pressure in a gas mixture of 95% helium and 5% argon, are determined at two arc currents. The evaluation of both main plasma parameters is based on line shape measurements, the ion temperature on the Doppler broadening of selected ArII lines, while the electron density on the Stark broadening of the hydrogen H$\text{}_{β}$ line which appear in the spectrum due to hydrogen traces in the applied gases. The significance of reliable plasma diagnostics for determination of atomic structure data is discussed

Measurements of selected NI multiplet strength ratios and comparison with recent calculations

Results of recent calculations of multiplet strengths of atomic nitrogen (NI) are compared with arc emission measurements. Intensities of eleven infrared multiplets are measured and transformed into multiplet strength values applying the determined arc temperature values. Properly defined seven multiplet strength ratios are selected for comparison with results of calculations and previously obtained experimental data. Our measured multiplet strength ratios are in a very good agreement with the recent Breit-Pauli results of Tachiev and Froese Fischer

Stark broadening and shift measurements of two doubly excited NI multiplets

Experimental Stark-broadening studies of two selected doubly excited NI multiplets from the infrared wavelength range are presented. One of them is very sensitive to interactions with charged particles in plasmas and the other exhibits — at the same plasma conditions — only very small broadening and shift. A high current wall-stabilized arc operated in helium with admixture of nitrogen and hydrogen was applied as the excitation source. The radiation of the plasma was detected by applying a grating spectrometer equipped with a CCD detector. Measurements were performed at electron densities of the plasma between $3{\times}10^{15}$ and $7{\times}10^{15}$ cm-3, corresponding to temperatures from the range 8000–10500 K. Electron impact widths $(w_{e})$ and shifts $(d_{e})$ of fine structure components of these multiplets were determined. The evaluated Stark broadening parameters $(w_{e}$, $d_{e})$ are compared with other experimental data and with calculated Stark effect constants

Studies of the Bromine Spectrum and Determination of Transition Probabilities for Br I and Br II Lines

In a wall-stabilized cascade arc at atmospheric pressure in mixtures of argon and bromine vapors thermal plasmas were generated. Arc currents between 25 and 60 A were used. Applying a spectrometer of medium dispersion, equipped with an optical multichannel analyzer (CCD detector), the spectra of neutral and singly ionized bromine in the range between 3300 and 10400 Å were recorded. Line intensity measurements, corrected for self-absorption, at different operating conditions of the arc, were performed. A complete set of Br I transitions (5 lines) originating from a common upper level (branching fractions) was measured. In the case of the Br II spectrum intensities of 14 lines were determined. Both sets of lines (Br I and Br II) were normalized to an absolute scale using appropriate lifetime values. The uncertainties of the new determined transition probabilities depend mainly on the uncertainties of the lifetime data taken from the literature. The results are compared to other experimental data. Discrepancies are found to be outside of uncertainties of the measurements