Design Project Research Articles

Implementation and development of hospital-based health technology assessment in Poland from the perspective of hospital representatives: qualitative research.

The analysis of health technologies in Poland has so far mainly concerned drugs assessed by the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariffication, which was established for this purpose. Due to the implementation of various forms of investment (hardware, diagnostic, and organizational) in hospitals, and the growing need to properly assess the costs of implemented solutions, Hospital-Based Health Technology Assessment (HB-HTA) began to develop. In order to implement HB-HTA in the Polish healthcare system, in 2019-2022 a project was carried out, the consortium members of which were: the National Health Fund (NHF), the National Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw (NIKARD), and Lazarski University (UŁ). Analyzing the possibilities of developing HB-HTA in Polish hospitals based on the experiences of the study participants. Presenting benefits and barriers for HB-HTA units implementation to Polish hospitals. Qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with the representatives of hospitals that participated in the HB-HTA project using the Nvivo12 program. A specially prepared questionnaire with questions regarding the pre-project, design, and post-project phases was presented to respondents from five of the seven hospitals participating in the pilot phase of the project, during which HB-HTA reports were prepared for selected medical technologies. The remaining two facilities that were invited refused to participate in the study. The Ethics Committee of the Jagiellonian University Medical College gave consent to conduct the study. Hospital representatives indicate that the HB-HTA methodology allows for the assessment of investments in facilities based on appropriate data. Thanks to the project, employees of hospital units gained new skills, such as becoming familiar with literature reviews in medical bibliographic databases. However, HB-HTA in Poland has not been fully implemented because facilities do not obtain adequate benefits from the implementation of HB-HTA at the organizational and financial level. According to the study participants, the methodology itself should be modified to take into account the needs of the facility. The hospitals participating in the HB-HTA project are developing the field of analyzing how innovative solutions are implemented in their facilities, but not to the extent that was intended in the project design.

Developing a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan for Organization's Strategic Objectives Using the Design Thinking Approach

The objective of this study was to develop a theoretical framework tailored for managers of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as project managers. Design thinking is human centered approach that involves stakeholders at different levels of its application in the development of innovations. Originally as an engineering method, it has been applied in diverse fields, including entrepreneurship. This paper presents an extended version of the double diamond framework used in design thinking. The double diamond framework was developed in 2005 as a graphical approach for achieving project design process. The author’s in-depth analysis of the model indicates that it can be applied to formulating business strategic objectives, a use case not previously discussed in the literature. Therefore, this paper aims contribute to the scientific body of knowledge by extending the double diamond model for strategic objective formulation. A normative conceptual methodology was used to develop this framework. The development of a monitoring and evaluation plan for businesses or projects, based on a traditional literature review methodology, illustrates how design thinking can offer a new perspective on these processes, helping to address key challenges. This paper demonstrates how each of the five stages in the design thinking process can be employed during the development of a monitoring and evaluation plan. Although this development process can be tedious and complicated, applying the design thinking approach can simplify and streamline it, ensuring active involvement from all stakeholders through the introduced extended framework. Recommendations for future research include applying the proposed extended framework in empirical studies involving large organizations. For practical implications, managers of small and medium businesses are encouraged to apply this model when developing strategies or incorporate it into project management to enhance the development of a project's monitoring and evaluation plan.

Design for steel structures deconstruction: an analytics system for construction waste minimization in a circular economy through BIM technology

This study focuses on shifting from traditional demolition methods to more sustainable deconstruction procedures in the steel structures building sector, specifically through Design for Deconstruction (DfD) techniques. The aim is to identify factors for BIM for deconstruction (BIMfD) implementation in Egypt’s construction industry and create a BIM-based Deconstructability Assessment Score (BIM-DAS). A literature review is conducted to determine the design principles for effective building deconstruction, the performance evaluation of DfD, and existing views on BIM implementation. The development of the BIM-DAS & SP includes mathematical modelling rooted in material demand planning. The model was implemented in Building Information Modelling (BIM) environment and it was tested using a case study design. Custom parameters related to deconstruction are added and used in the mathematical model to calculate DAS and salvage performance (SP), followed by a questionnaire and analytical hierarchy process analysis. These findings highlight demountable connections and reusable components as crucial drivers of DfD. Also, the results show that the key variables affecting BIMfD deployment include the availability and acceptance of BIM tools for deconstruction technology among industry professionals, and collaboration between project design and deconstruction teams through integrated platforms. This study demonstrates the usefulness of BIM-DAS and SP as indicators of efficient disassembly of buildings. This study will benefit all stakeholders in designing steel structure deconstruction by providing baseline specifications and a hierarchical model for implementing the BIMfD using current software tools. The results provide the needed technological support for developing tools for BIM-compliant DfD tools in Egypt to encourage deconstruction.

Sustainable Sip: Learning Concepts Of Business Sustainability Through A Hybrid Game

We present Sustainable Sip, a hybrid multiplayer round-based game designed to provide an experiential learning environment for university-level students at the University of Queensland, Australia. It aims to facilitate literacy around the fundamental concepts of business sustainability, specifically the tensions and interplay between economics and sustainability, and systems thinking. This paper represents stage 1 of this project (design, development, testing). Impact assessment will be covered by stage 2 (application), which is outside the scope of this paper. Each player manages a coffee shop in a competitive market, seeking to maximise their customer base, whilst minimising the production of waste (unsold coffee tokens). Each round, players must decide how much coffee (inventory) to buy from the wholesaler, and the price to sell coffee to customers. Players aim to balance the dimensions of economic performance, environmental sustainability, and customer loyalty; the player that best achieves this wins the ‘Sustainable Sipper’ award. ‘Customer loyalty’ is a central concept, calculated in the app for each player and is influenced by the shop’s coffee price, quantity of waste the shop produces, and a player’s ability to meet customer demand. The game design explicitly draws from system thinking, user-centred and hybrid design, and from self-determination theory (motivation). Sustainable Sip has undergone early testing with preliminary feedback highlighting that the gameplay is simple, intuitive and interactive, aspects that are attributable in part to the game design and the hybrid approach.

Game Lab Innovations in Education: Insights from a Board Game Design Project

From the perspective of educators, game development has great potential as a teaching method, as it promotes group collaboration, project-based learning and the development of content tailored to a given target group. This paper is based on a study that was carried out through an international project, implementing an educational game development concept called Game Lab into an educational context. The study explored professional development topics such as game-based learning, game development, and game testing, along with the Game Lab method focusing on group dynamics, progression, and creativity. It employed an abductive analysis of written responses from twelve teachers who participated in the Let’s Play project, which involved a Game Lab component. The teachers, ranging in age from their thirties to their sixties, represented all levels of education from preschool to upper secondary school. They responded to a survey with open-ended questions and reflection notes, providing insights into their experiences with game development methods as pedagogical tools. Their responses were analyzed to identify key themes and patterns. Findings suggest that this approach has broadened participants' perspectives on utilizing diverse games and game development techniques in education, aligning with prior research on production pedagogy. It underscores the importance of integrating in-game content with real-world contexts as a modern teaching method. Participants also highlighted that effective game-based learning supports a constructivist approach to teaching over behaviorism. The participants emphasized their increased insight and understanding of game development and game systems and how the combined effect of educational game design and the Game Lab method (working in teams) resulted in a more valuable learning outcome than they would have experienced alone. They also reported an improved understanding on how working with the development of a board game made them dig much deeper into the topic at hand. In addition, they found that this increased their motivation for learning, knowing that this was going to be a product that was to be tested and played by others (pupils and teachers). Furthermore, the participants highlighted the role of group dynamics in fostering teamwork and consensus during the collaborative game development process.

The SpeaK methodology for sound design

The first meetings of a sound design project aim to present the request which may concern the identity of a brand or the emotion associated with a new product. It is then crucial to elaborate recommendations for the sound designer. However, the major difficulty encountered is to specify the request in terms of sound features. The Speak methodology is based on an efficient co-design workshop to help participants, ranging from the project manager to the communication manager, to specify their request with words related to sound features. Frist, a lexicon composed of 35 words often used by professionals is presented to the participants; each word is related to a sound feature explained by a definition and highlighted by a corpus of sound examples. Then, a card game is provided to each participant; each card is associated with a word from the lexicon. The rule during the workshop is to use only the cards to describe the desired audible intention; each participant can select or reject a word, and exchange with other participants focusing only on the sound features. Finally, participants are actively involved in the process to develop sound recommendations. During the presentation, we will focus on a specific project.

Creating Future Stations: The Application of Large Generative Models in Metro Design

New technologies, including the use of generative models, are beginning to actively influence design decisions in the decoration of metro stations. The study of the possibilities of using generative artificial intelligence as an art design tool in the decoration of metro stations is relevant, because it can significantly accelerate the design process, reducing time and labour costs for the development and optimization of projects. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that for the first time the process of interaction between the designer and software and hardware of large generative models is considered in detail on the example of designing the interior of a metro station on the theme “ocean”.The problem of creation of original design project in conditions of generative models at the moment is not solvable without direct control on the part of a human, as this technology, for lack of human perception, first of all orientate on expressive means contained in training databases. Therefore, when designing metro stations using generative models, images generated through text often lose the semantic and emotional meanings that the designer put into them. As a result, the generated design project does not fully conform to the designer’s intent and requires further manual adjustment and optimization. Thus, as long as there is a need for conscious and purposeful communication of ideas and feelings through art and design, the problem of endowing a work with meaning using generative models will require human involvement.At the same time, it should be noted that in the artist’s work, the use of generative pre-trained transformers is manifested in the ability to easily create realistic visual effects, to execute images in different styles, focusing on the creative individual manner of famous masters, and to improve design ideas. The advantage of this technology is that it can reduce the designer’s workload while improving the efficiency and accuracy of the design.

Integrating Building Information Modelling and Artificial Intelligence in Construction Projects: A Review of Challenges and Mitigation Strategies

Artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning and decision support systems, can deploy complex algorithms to learn sufficiently from the large corpus of building information modelling (BIM) data. An integrated BIM-AI system can leverage the insights to make smart and informed decisions. Hence, the integration of BIM-AI offers vast opportunities to extend the possibilities of innovations in the design and construction of projects. However, this synergy suffers unprecedented challenges. This study conducted a systematic literature review of the challenges and constraints to BIM-AI integration in the construction industry and categorise them into different taxonomies. It used 64 articles, retrieved from the Scopus database using the PRISMA protocol, that were published between 2015 and July 2024. The findings revealed thirty-nine (39) challenges clustered into six taxonomies: technical, knowledge, data, organisational, managerial, and financial. The mean index score analysis revealed financial (µ = 30.50) challenges are the most significant, followed by organisational (µ = 23.86), and technical (µ = 22.29) challenges. Using Pareto analysis, the study highlighted the twenty (20) most important BIM-AI integration challenges. The study further developed strategic mitigation maps containing strategies and targeted interventions to address the identified challenges to the BIM-AI integration. The findings provide insights into the competing issues stifling BIM-AI integration in construction and provide targeted interventions to improve synergy.

Three–dimensional matrices for enhanced coral settlement through design for additive manufacturing

Purpose The effects of climate change have been contributing to coral reef degradation. Artificial reefs are one method being used to counteract this destruction. However, the most common artificial approaches, such as sunken vehicles and prefabricated cement reefs, do not allow adequate coral development. This paper aims to demonstrate how designers, using additive manufacturing and computational design techniques, can create artificial reefs that better mimic natural reef structures. Design/methodology/approach This research focuses on developing three-dimensional matrices through computational design using additive manufacturing to achieve better coral settlement. A “Nature Centered Design” approach was followed, with the corals at the center of the design project. Samples with different geometries and roughness, produced using paste-based extrusion with porcelain and porcelain with oyster shell, were tested in a controlled environment to investigate the settlement preference of soft corals. Findings The rapid prototyping of samples confirmed the preference of corals to settle to complex surfaces compared to smooth surfaces. Porcelain showed comparable results to Portland cement, suggesting further testing potential. A closer resemblance to the natural and intricate forms found in coral reefs was achieved through computational design. Originality/value This paper proposes a new approach combining rapid prototyping with coral’s biological responses to enhance the understanding of their surface settlement preference. The Nature Centered Design approach, with additive manufacturing and computational design, made it possible to create an innovative working model that could be customized depending on the implementation area or intended coral species, validating the design approach as a method to support environmental conservation.

Implementation of a Practical Environmental Sustainable Design Project in Interior Architectural Education: A Case Study at the University of Jordan

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to discuss the implementing of a practical project as a new learning methodology to help students develop expertise in the functional, aesthetic, and creative aspects of environmental design. Methods: The research is qualitative in design and based on a case-study approach, in which sixty-three environmental practical projects were explored. The examined design projects were conducted by interior design students at the department of visual arts of the University of Jordan as part of an environmental design course during three semesters in 2022. Results: Nine themes emerged from the study, which were interpreted based on the selecting and processing of materials (either recycled or adapted from the local environment). These materials comprised recycled plastic, recycled paper, recycled metal, recycled wood, recycled glass, recycled threads, resin, ceramic, and plants. The study also found that working with and processing local or recycled materials in practical projects within the study curriculum helped students acquire skills and gain confidence in relation to environmental practice, and increased their awareness of the different usages of materials and their advantages from both a functional and aesthetic perspective. Conclusions: The significance of the study lies in its adoption of a practical approach as a new active learning methodology within art and design educational programmes to meet the current educational standards stipulated by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Jordan. Real-world projects foster students’ development of critical creativity to achieve the ultimate principles of environmental design and prepare them to deal with real challenges within the professional job market.

The perception of complex engineering problems among engineering teachers and students: A case study

The complex engineering problems (CEPs) are characterized by challenges such as: a) involving extensive or inconsistent, incompatible data from engineering and other offshoots, b) unable to be solved in the absence of in-depth engineering knowledge. The engineering teachers are not found successful in the design of a CEP because it does not touch the real issues from industry and / or environment. Therefore, the expertise of applicable skill cannot be evaluated and the reason behind this failure is the lack of or poor intellectual perception of the attributes of CEPs among the teachers. In order to help teachers, the relation between attributes, knowledge profiles and CEPs is elucidated in this work by giving examples. The main objective of this article is to establish an understanding of the student’s level of perceiving a complex engineering problem with respect to the learning domain. The Survey was conducted among 70 participants and the quantitative approach employed, utilizing a questionnaire survey and interviewing teachers to gather data from respondents selected through random probability sampling. It is concluded that Industrial training (like apprenticeships), laboratory practices and final year design project are good tools for the complex engineering activities/ exercises. The results obtained in the case study were found promising, therefore, it is recommended to extend this study by using various engineeringinstitutions to ascertain a framework on CEP solving. skills.

Internship and Coaching of Fresh Female Engineers in Development Programmes of Nepal: Promoting Gender Inclusion for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is providing Technical Assistance (TA) to the Government of Nepal through the Department of Local Infrastructure (DoLI) under the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, later restructured into the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration that is responsible for local development in Nepal, in the implementation of Rural Roads, Trail (foot) Bridge, and Motorable Bridge programmes. The DoLI has now been readjusted within the Federal Ministry of Urban Development recently, which is responsible for providing technical support and grants to implement infrastructure programmes for local and provincial governments. While the SDC tries to promote workforce diversity in the programmes, it struggled to bring female engineers into its infrastructure sector technical programmes in early 2009. Only a handful of female engineers were involved in the programmes. Therefore, the internship programme targeted at female engineers was started to train young fresh female civil engineering graduates to work in the rural roads programme initially in 2009. With its success, it continued in the trail and motorable bridge programmes from 2011 onwards to date. So far, over a hundred female civil engineering graduates have been trained in Nepal and are working in different organizations within the country and abroad, the government systems, and the private sector. They contribute their skills and knowledge in project design, implementation, management, and supervision.

Integration of parametric design tools with artificial intelligence in the construction industry - a review

Background: Technology continues to reshape the design and execution of construction projects in today's global scenario. Objective: The objectives of the research are focused on providing insight into the most prominent Parametric Design (PD) tools in the construction sector, accurately identifying the Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and algorithms used in the PD of buildings and structures, and prominently highlighting the benefits derived from the collaboration between these tools and AI in the context of construction. Methods: The present review is carried out using the Prisma methodology, with a specific search string, and applied to the determined scientific databases, between the years 2015 and 2023 and using exclusion and inclusion criteria. Results: The research concludes that the integration of parametric tools and AI, with special attention to Rhinoceros 3D + Grasshopper, has a significant impact on building through adaptive and complex models. Collaboration with artificial neural networks (ANN) and convolutional neural networks (CNN) enables detailed simulations and automations. Conclusions: The benefits are numerous: optimized designs, automation, improved quality and efficient decision-making, all of which drive innovation in construction projects.

Financing urban land development in underdeveloped small cities in western China: The role of earmarked funds

Previous studies suggest that market forces and the strategic behavior of local governments regarding land development jointly contribute to rapid urban expansion in China. In underdeveloped small cities in Western China, the market is weak, and local governments lack the conditions required to promote land-centered urbanization. Surprisingly, these cities have experienced an expansion of urban space faster than the national average. This study presents a significant funding model of urban land development within the framework of the project system. Within this model, central and provincial governments are key providers of land development funds. Local governments design, apply for, package, and implement land development projects. Private developers cooperate with local governments rather than functioning as real initiators of and investors in land development projects. The findings provide new and supplementary evidence about how rapid urban expansion occurs in China, particularly in underdeveloped areas.

Four new families of NMDS codes with dimension 4 and their applications

For an [n,k,d]q linear code C, the singleton defect of C is defined by S(C)=n−k+1−d. When S(C)=S(C⊥)=1, the code C is called a near maximum distance separable (NMDS) code, where C⊥ is the dual code of C. NMDS codes have important applications in finite projective geometries, designs and secret sharing schemes. In this paper, we present four new constructions of infinite families of NMDS codes with dimension 4 and completely determine their weight enumerators. As an application, we also determine the locality of the dual codes of these NMDS codes and obtain four families of distance-optimal and dimension-optimal locally recoverable codes.

Design and prototyping of smart mobile grinding bots as an educational experience

Abrasive finishing of large areas is often done manually and can be time-consuming, ergonomically challenging, and even detrimental to the operator’s health. Inspired by ant robots, this paper presents a senior design project that developed a grinding robot and a quality robot, which can grind and assess a sheet metal surface. This concept of mobile grinding robots is novel and demands a multidisciplinary design approach. The main requirements included applying a controlled pressure with the grinding spindle to the surface, having a range of mobility within a predefined work area, and communication between the robots. A first prototype was delivered based on Linkbot modules, a commercial power tool as grinding spindle, sensors to measure spindle height, taped work area boundary, and surface finish. The mechanical and electronical system performance was analyzed and tested. This paper presents a proof of concept for smart mobile grinding bots and a reproducible educational experience.

First-Year Design Projects and Student Perceptions of the Role of an Engineer

First-Year Design Projects and Student Perceptions of the Role of an Engineer

Reflections on an Evidence Review Process to Inform the Co-Design of a Toolkit for Supporting End-of-Life Care Planning With People With Intellectual Disabilities.

There is growing recognition that healthcare inequalities faced by people with intellectual disabilities extend to their experiences at the end of life, resulting in calls for more inclusive research to help address these inequities. Our study aimed to address this through the co-design of a toolkit for supporting end-of-life care planning with people with intellectual disabilities. To inform the co-design process, we undertook an evidence review to identify existing tools, resources and approaches that were already being used in practice. Our evidence review comprised three components: (i) a rapid scoping review of the academic literature, (ii) a desk-based search of the grey literature and (iii) an online survey to capture unpublished resources that were distributed to services, professionals, third-sector organisations and family members. A longlist of existing materials was appraised using an adapted version of the AGREE II instrument, resulting in a shortlist that was shared with the co-design team. The evidence review played a critical role in the co-design of a new toolkit of end-of-life care resources for people with intellectual disabilities. However, AGREE II proved to be limited for our purposes. The survey was particularly useful in helping us identify resources, tools and approaches in current use. We identified evidence review processes that served to support co-design team activities and elements that were more problematic. We argue that evidence review practices might be enhanced to better aid co-design activities in health and care research, particularly for studies involving people with intellectual disabilities. This article reflects on an evidence review that was conducted as part of The Victoria and Stuart Project. People with intellectual disabilities were deeply involved at every stage of project design, delivery and dissemination. The project employed people with intellectual disabilities as members of the core research team. People with intellectual disabilities and family carers were members of the project co-design team and the project Advisory Group. The evidence review process itself was led by academic members of the research team with contributions from colleagues with intellectual disabilities via the Advisory Group and core research team. The findings from the evidence review were used by the co-design team to inform the development of an end-of-life care planning toolkit for people with intellectual disabilities.

Optimalisasi Desain Struktur Gedung Interdisciplinary Engineering (IDE) – Fakultas Teknik Universitas Indonesia dengan Memanfaatkan BIM (Building Information Modelling)

Project design is a step in the construction process that determines the technical requirements to be applied when the project is constructed. BIM (Building Information Modeling) is a form of technological innovation used in project design. BIM (Building Information Modeling) has become the main factor for increasing efficiency and accuracy; using BIM, everything related to design, construction, scheduling, and costs can be integrated into one digital platform that all stakeholders can access. In this paper, the structural planning optimization of the Interdisciplinary Engineering (IDE) Building - Faculty of Engineering, University of Indonesia, will be carried out. This building planning refers to (SNI-2847-2019) concerning Structural Concrete Requirements for Buildings and (SNI-1726-2019) concerning Procedures for Planning for Earthquake Resistance of Structures. Outputs are generated through superstructure and substructure plans, the design of foundation structures, columns, beams, and plates, 2D Detail Engineering Design (DED), 3D modeling, and construction management plans in the form of Budget Plans and scheduling.

국제개발협력 분야 기술사업화 프로젝트의 성공 저해 요인과 결합적 인과 영향: KOICA 혁신적기술프로그램(CTS)을 중심으로

Purpose: This study examines the factors and factor combinations that impede the success of Creative Technology Solution (CTS) projects, a recently introduced development cooperation approach in Korea that prioritizes science and technology innovation and private sector involvement in the field of development cooperation. Originality: This study pioneers the examination of technology commercialization cases in development cooperation, an area unexplored by both technology entrepreneurship and development cooperation academics. It goes beyond identifying individual factors to analyze conjunctural causal effects of multiple factors impeding project success. It also provides practical implications on which factors to address first for CTS project success. Methodology: A total of 23 CTS project end-of-project evaluation reports were subjected to qualitative content analysis (QCA) in order to identify the factors that impede the success of CTS projects. Furthermore, fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA) was employed to examine the ways in which combinations of factors impede project success. Result: The analysis identified four main impeding factors: inadequate preliminary research, inadequate project design, inadequate implementing organisation capacity, and inadequate stakeholder cooperation and communication. Of these, the two most significant factors impeding the success of CTS projects are poor preliminary research and poor project design. When these two factors co-occur, the likelihood of project failure is high, even in the absence of any particular issue with the capacity of the implementing organisation and stakeholder cooperation and communication. Conclusion and Implication: In order to enhance the probability of success for CTS projects, it is imperative to reinforce the preliminary research and project design, as these have been identified as the main impeding factors.