Design Team Research Articles

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.

Collaborative Design Capacity for Enactment Framework: An Analytic Tool for Conceptualizing Pedagogical Design Capacity Within Social Context

ABSTRACTThis study examines an urban middle school teacher design team's capacity for creating integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curricula. Using Brown's pedagogical design capacity (PDC) theory, which highlights interactions between personal and curricular resources, this paper introduces an extended framework that includes social interactions as key influences on teachers' design abilities. Findings show that individual teachers' spontaneous curriculum modifications were adopted by the team, becoming collective resources for ongoing redesign and improving their design capacity. Teachers effectively used each other as resources to address unexpected challenges in integrating science, engineering, and mathematics concepts. Three types of social interactions were identified as collaborative resources: (i) Storytelling: sharing experiences to make abstract concepts actionable for curriculum development; (ii) Protocols: structured methods to address curricular problems related to integration; and (iii) Assessment “for” curriculum redesign: using assessment tools to inform and improve the curriculum. The Collective Design Capacity for Enactment framework is introduced to describe PDC within a social context, highlighting the importance of social interactions in bridging curriculum use and development, thus extending the literature on PDC.

Distributed Electric Propulsion and Flight Control Concept to Meet EASA SC-VTOL-01 10‐9 Catastrophic Failure Criteria

The objective of the current work was to develop an all-electric distributed propulsion and flight control (DPFC) architecture that will have no more than 10‐9 catastrophic failures per flight hour (pfh). The DPFC architecture was broken into four system design teams: (i) electrical power and distribution system, (ii) drive and power system, (iii) thermal management system, and (iv) flight control system. System designs were updated and iterated upon, working with reliability and safety analysis teams to develop compliant designs. The firm designs were reflected in a preliminary system safety assessment (PSSA) for initial verification of compliance. Additionally, design and analysis excursions are presented in which aircraft attributes were modified to investigate sensitivities to propulsion type, number of rotors, and control schemes. Excursion results found that all aircraft evaluated likely have paths to comply with the stringent, probabilistic catastrophic failure criteria. However, stability and control models showed large power transients that must be addressed, and PSSA results show that future work is needed in single load path structures, high voltage power storage and distribution, and motor/rotor overspeed protection.

Assessing the Impact of Teacher Design Teams on the Professional Development of Vocational Education Teachers

Assessing the Impact of Teacher Design Teams on the Professional Development of Vocational Education Teachers

The We All Speak Math Campaign for Meaningful Discourse

Improving mathematical discourse in high school classrooms through a statewide campaign draws on the images of high-quality instruction promoted in Principles to Actions. The High School Visions Design Team of the North Carolina Collaborative for Mathematics Learning

Toward sustainable urban health: defining hospital outdoor spaces for community well-being

Abstract The challenges that Bologna is facing belonging to the 100-carbon neutral city list are largely related to the quality of its urban fabric. The site hosting the IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero - Universitaria di Bologna Policlinico di Sant’Orsola represents one of the largest green areas of the city. The renovation plan the hospital has launched represents an opportunity to contribute to the city’s sustainability goals and to enhance the value of the hospital’s outdoor spaces for users. The hospital experiences over 20, 000 accesses per day, with a significant proportion of these being for work or medical visits; the informal use of outdoor spaces often leads to tensions among users with diverse needs, discouraging access and depriving individuals of potential benefits that could be derived from spending time outdoors. Reflecting the management’s commitment towards two of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3) and Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), the hospital created a design team with the cooperation of the University of Bologna to research the technical and functional requirements for adapting outdoor spaces to meet the needs of users. The research is based on a human-centred design approach while the methods are grounded in Service Design practices.

Application of BIM and Virtual Reality of System Integration Design and Development in Medical Building Projects: A Case Study in China

Design outcomes in the Medical Building Projects (MBPs) must satisfy the demand of the medical staff and stakeholders. However, they often do not have the relevant engineering expertise, so the design team is prone to misunderstandings when communicating with them using traditional two-dimensional (2D) Computer-Aided Design (CAD) drawings. The medical staff may not readily visualize and understand the design and then provide feedback to the designer through professional medical requirements or advice, which results in the need to redesign and carry out additional work during the design phase, thus delaying the progress of the MBPs. To address these challenges, this study aims to develop an integrated system based on BIM, advanced rendering engines, and VR technology for use in non-immersive and immersive VR environments. Moreover, in this study, the integrated system was applied to the infection-building project of the People's Hospital of Qingbaijiang District, Chengdu City, and semi-structured interviews were distributed to 16 engineers, designers, contractors, and medical staff who had been involved in the whole project to validate the practicality and effectiveness of the integrated system. The results indicate that this system integration is an efficient visual communication and simulation tool in medical design. Key advantages include enhanced communication efficiency between the design team and medical stakeholders, improved visual interaction, and streamlined decision-making processes within a 3D VR/BIM environment. The successful implementation of this integrated system is expected to significantly aid design teams and stakeholders in effectively managing medical design tasks in future projects.

Development of a Tool for Evaluating the Influence of Engineering Students’ Perception of Generative AI on University Courses Based on Personality, Perceived Roles in Design Teams, and Course Engagement

Development of a Tool for Evaluating the Influence of Engineering Students’ Perception of Generative AI on University Courses Based on Personality, Perceived Roles in Design Teams, and Course Engagement

The social shaping of biotechnological innovation. The case of Covid-19 protein vaccine in Cuba and the US

AbstractLike other technologies, vaccines are socially shaped by socio-economic, political and organisational factors. Property rights, value capture strategies and public innovation policies guide research teams in the biochemical design of vaccines, with inevitable consequences for their price and accessibility. The Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to analyse this institutional shaping process and its consequences for global public health from a political economy perspective. Indeed, the same type of invention, a recombinant protein vaccine, was simultaneously and originally developed in the US and Cuban biopharmaceutical industries and in the field of philanthropic Open Innovation. The article shows, through empirical research that collected direct testimony from scientists and privileged observers of the vaccine development fields, how certain norms and values characteristic of the US industry (financialization, assetization and de-risk) created a path dependency in the use of proprietary and experimental biotechnologies that made the US vaccine Nuvaxovid more expensive and complex to produce, but no more effective and safe than Abdala, Soberana 02 and Corbevax. In addition, the institutional constraints of the US biopharmaceutical industry on radical innovation, even within a mature biotechnology platform such as protein vaccines, would have resulted in a competitive disadvantage for Nuvaxovid, which was as expensive as an mRNA vaccine but less rapid to market and less reliable in delivery. The case of protein vaccines against Covid-19 thus shows how the institutional architectures of techno-scientific capitalism create not only inequalities but also inefficiencies, and that an innovation path with excellent results is possible even in competition where the market is not the dominant order of worth.

Fit models’ roles in identifying fit issues in the apparel technical design process and implications for improving 3D virtual fitting

Fit sessions are essential in making well-fitted clothing. During these sessions, apparel fit is determined iteratively by a team of designers, technical designers, fit models, and merchandisers. With the advent of the digitalization of new product development processes in the fashion industry, fit sessions have been seen as a bottleneck for they are still held in person. However, the process is currently still irreplaceable, and what makes the feedback provided by fit models important is an area that has never been tapped. Therefore, the present study aimed to understand fit models’ role in fit sessions as well as how they assess the fit of garments and deliver their feedback. On-site observation during fit sessions and individual interviews with fit models were conducted. It was found that fit models gave comfort, fit, and tactile comments by testing garments while standing and moving between several postures. They had knowledge that overlapped with those of technical designers and designers and this empowerment enabled them to take part in the decision-making process in fit sessions. It also was found that fit models’ feedback on garments was essential as they were the first people to try on the garments and present the customers’ points of view.

Design of a Mixed-Reality Application to Reduce Pediatric Medication Errors in Prehospital Emergency Care

Children in prehospital emergency care are particularly vulnerable to medication errors, often with serious consequences. A prior study analyzing prehospital pediatric medication dosing errors, conducted after the implementation of a statewide pediatric drug-dosing reference for emergency medical services (EMS), identified an alarmingly high error rate. This significant finding led to the current study, which aims to develop technological interventions to reduce the frequency of medication errors for children during treatment by EMS. The current study focuses on the design and development of a safety strategy to automate medication administration using mixed-reality technology. Simulations were conducted to inform the design process, focusing on three scenarios: cardiac arrest, seizure, and burns. The design team included medical and engineering researchers, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians from multiple emergency medical service agencies. Root cause analysis (RCA) and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) were conducted after the simulations were completed. The RCA and FMEA were used to identify and prioritize failure points, which were then addressed in a mixed-reality solution using Microsoft HoloLens 2 to automate and enhance pediatric medication administration in prehospital emergency care. The resulting application will provide real-time assistance to guide paramedics through the complicated medication dosing and administration process using a detailed step-by-step guide, aiming to decrease medication errors and improve medication dosing accuracy.

Measuring Services and Inferring Causes

Today, designers are bringing both data and data practitioners into the design process in increasingly diverse ways. These sorts of collaborations were once orchestrated by overarching product teams without input from a design team, but now, design teams have become active collaborators. ‘Data thinking’ and quantitative reasoning can be applied in the design process itself, rather than simply to the products of the design process. This often involves partnering with analytics or data science teams throughout the design process, instead of at the end of the process when seeking to evaluate output.

Building a Versatile and Efficient Service Design Team

At its core, service design is about addressing ambiguity to drivetransformational changes. As service designers, working with ambiguity is one of the first things we learn to dealwith, and it’s what we excel at. It might even be what drew us to the service design field in the first place.

A snapshot of Bulgarian school teachers’ familiarity with, use of, and opinions on artificial intelligence at the threshold of its incorporation into the educational process

The current study was designed within a survey-based quantitative research methodology in order to investigate Bulgarian teachers’ familiarity with, use of, and attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI) at the nascent stage of its integration into the Bulgarian education system. The survey was completed by 2252 teachers, of whom 16.30% were men and 83.70% were women. The majority of the teachers (72%) reported some level of familiarity with AI technology. Higher levels of familiarity were significantly associated with younger teachers (aged 20 to 29), mathematics, sciences, and technology subject areas, as well as the male gender. More than 50% of the teachers reported using AI technology in their instruction. Familiarity with AI technology was the only significant predictor of AI use, overriding the effect of other variables. The teachers used AI technology to prepare teaching, assessment, and homework materials; design individual and team tasks; and grade students' work. The teachers who regularly used AI technology were more favorable towards AI in contrast to those who seldom or never employed AI. The majority of the respondents recognized the need for teacher training in AI technology and expressed willingness to participate in teacher training initiatives. Therefore, the current situation requires teacher education programs to harness teachers’ needs by equipping them with relevant AI literacy and skills that they could apply to the critical adoption of suitable AI tools. Educational institutions and stakeholders should provide guidelines and consultancy regarding technical, methodological, and ethical issues concerning the instructional use of AI technology.

Fuzzy synthesis analysis of social network risk factors in supply chains of African megaprojects

PurposeMegaproject supply chains involve multiple layers of stakeholders, leading to complex relationships and risks. The role of social interactions within these networks is unexplored. Therefore, an analysis of construction supply chain risk management from the perspective of social networks is essential to identify related stakeholders, their relationships and the social network risk factors.Design/methodology/approachAbout 65 risk factors, identified from literature and interviews, informed the development of a questionnaire for the study. Online questionnaires administered in Ghana and South Africa produced 120 valid responses. Feedback from the responses was ranked and assessed to determine the overall social network risk levels using the Normalised Mean and Fuzzy synthesis analysis methods.FindingsAbout 24 risk factors were identified and classified into six groups: Client/Consultant-related, Community-related, Government-related, Industry Perception-related, Supplier-related and Stakeholder Opportunism. The top five social network risks identified include bribery, supplier monopoly, incomplete design teams, poor communication and lack of collaboration.Practical implicationsThe study provides detailed evaluations of social network risks in Africa, and the findings will help in developing strategies to mitigate supply chain disruptions caused by these challenges.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on supply chain risk management by offering context-specific insights into the social network perspective of megaprojects in Africa, which differs from those in developed countries.

Nephrology rapid response team in the intensive care unit

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and it is known as an independent factor for adverse outcomes like increased length of hospital stay, the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and increased mortality with the associated high cost to healthcare systems. The use of AKI biomarkers and new tools such as point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) to perform a hemodynamic and volume status assessment has made it more feasible to detect or predict kidney damage in a very accurate way, thereby avoiding the progression of AKI. The design and implementation of a nephrology rapid response team (NRRT) should be considered to improve patient outcomes and healthcare costs. In this paper, we provide an overview of the implementation of an NRRT.

Artificial intelligence and social accountability in the Canadian health care landscape: A rapid literature review.

Situated within a larger project entitled "Exploring the Need for a Uniquely Different Approach in Northern Ontario: A Study of Socially Accountable Artificial Intelligence," this rapid review provides a broad look into how social accountability as an equity-oriented health policy strategy is guiding artificial intelligence (AI) across the Canadian health care landscape, particularly for marginalized regions and populations. This review synthesizes existing literature to answer the question: How is AI present and impacted by social accountability across the health care landscape in Canada? A multidisciplinary expert panel with experience in diverse health care roles and computer sciences was assembled from multiple institutions in Northern Ontario to guide the study design and research team. A search strategy was developed that broadly reflected the concepts of social accountability, AI and health care in Canada. EMBASE and Medline databases were searched for articles, which were reviewed for inclusion by 2 independent reviewers. Search results, a description of the studies, and a thematic analysis of the included studies were reported as the primary outcome. The search strategy yielded 679 articles of which 36 relevant studies were included. There were no studies identified that were guided by a comprehensive, equity-oriented social accountability strategy. Three major themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (1) designing equity into AI; (2) policies and regulations for AI; and (3) the inclusion of community voices in the implementation of AI in health care. Across the 3 main themes, equity, marginalized populations, and the need for community and partner engagement were frequently referenced, which are key concepts of a social accountability strategy. The findings suggest that unless there is a course correction, AI in the Canadian health care landscape will worsen the digital divide and health inequity. Social accountability as an equity-oriented strategy for AI could catalyze many of the changes required to prevent a worsening of the digital divide caused by the AI revolution in health care in Canada and should raise concerns for other global contexts.

Interventions and dissonance in industrial research: dressing the emperor in new clothes?

ABSTRACT This article describes the efforts of an ethnographically trained architect, employed as an industrial researcher in an architectural firm, as she tests ways of being relevant to both scholarly and business audiences. Drawing on the STS-inspired concept sorting attachments, the study illustrates how the industrial researcher aims to handle implicit friction inherent in the industrial research framework, while at the same time introducing frictions by her interventions in the firm’s practices. While frictions may simply be disruptive to this type of collaboration, they also hold the potential for creating what Stark calls a sense of dissonance – moments in which competing criteria of worth allow the firm to create new business opportunities. We investigate the industrial researcher’s efforts in three specific moments of interventions, in which she tests different ways of engaging with the diverging agendas and interests present in the firm. The study demonstrates that it is when the industrial researcher joins a design team and adopts their task, their purpose and problems, while at the same time mobilising conceptual tools from her own academic practice that we can observe the creation of new ways of working in architectural practice and new ways of conducting ethnographic fieldwork.

The Effective Management of Remote Higher Education Curriculum Design Teams Using Scrum

The Effective Management of Remote Higher Education Curriculum Design Teams Using Scrum

Maturing the design: challenges in maturing a first of a kind fusion power plant.

The design, delivery and operation of a large-scale infrastructure project are challenging at best. For the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) prototype powerplant (SPP), the challenges increased dramatically. In addition to being a large-scale infrastructure project, it is a cutting edge, first of a kind (FOAK) technology demonstrator. The design teams are working in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment, where technology is constantly emerging, maturing and changing. STEP will be unlike any power plant ever built and requires the development of new technologies and capabilities, but also a novel approach to planning and maturing the design. By taking a holistic view of the engineering life cycle from the start, the programme will be better positioned to achieve an SPP that is fit for purpose and can be used to show a path to ultimate commercial viability for subsequent power plants. This paper will review the key challenges in maturing a FOAK fusion power plant and look in depth at how the STEP team are maturing the required capabilities and planning to ensure successful delivery of the SPP. This article is part of the theme issue 'Delivering Fusion Energy - The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP)'.