1,053 research outputs found
Why designers and philosophers should meet in school
Get PDFMany scholars who study user-technology relations have shown from different perspectives that such relations are mutually constructive: users shape technology, and technology shapes users. This awareness raises questions about the part a designer plays in the workings of society. Are designers responsible for the social role of their products? Can designers promote the well-being of users and society at large? These questions are still largely absent in design education. In this paper we argue the importance and benefit of integrating concepts from Philosophy of Technology and the related field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) in design education. We will discuss a threefold benefit of a combined approach that draws on both traditional design education (generally focused on individual users and objects) and theoretical approaches to technology (generally focused on how technology marks and transforms the way we live our lives). In the first place such an integrated approach enables a deeper insight in the social significance of design. Secondly, it allows for a better understanding of design theory and practice itself. Thirdly, it provides a basis for the development of new design perspectives that promote human well-being. To illustrate we will introduce the notion of ‘open script design’ as a new design perspective that was developed in a Capita Selecta design course based on insights from philosophy of technology and STS
Digging through the dirt: a general method for abstract discrete state estimation with limited prior knowledge
No full textAutonomous robots are often successfully deployed in controlled environments. Operation in uncontrolled situations remains challenging; it is hypothesized that the detection of abstract discrete states (ADS) can improve operation in these circumstances. ADS are high-level system states that are not directly detectable and influence system dynamics. An example of a typical ADS problem that is used in this thesis is that of a wheeled robot driving through puddles of mud that, when entered, alters the velocity of the robot. When the robot is in such a puddle, it is in an ADS 'mud', and when it is not, it is in an ADS 'free'. ADS can be indirectly inferred through the analysis of lower-level data such as the velocity of the robot. The goal of this thesis is to design a general abstract discrete state estimator (ADSE) operating with limited prior knowledge. An ADSE is a hierarchical system for detecting changes in ADS. The ADSE should be general; applicable to multiple ADSE problems. The ADSE should further operate under limited prior knowledge: only assuming that the amount of ADS and the ADS that describes the regular operation are known. The basis for the ADSE designed in this thesis is a Gaussian hidden Markov model (GHMM), a hidden Markov model enhanced with Gaussian emissions. Randomly generated experiments are done on a simple but general ADSE problem. Two unsupervised learning methods derived from Expectation Maximization are evaluated, namely Baum-Welch (BW) and forward extraction (FWE). FWE is introduced in this thesis and is a simpler implementation of Viterbi extraction, leveraging assumptions of ADSE to in theory gain computational efficiency. We found that both BW and FWE exhibit superior performance compared to a likelihood-based baseline estimator when the maximum score of the learning curve is considered. When the final score is considered, in some cases, FWE displays a deteriorating learning curve, resulting in worse final scores compared to the baseline. Furthermore, it was found that the lower the overlap coefficient (therefore the less similar the ADS), the higher the maximum reached score. It was further shown that BW exhibits better convergence than FWE to the true model parameters. Besides this, FWE obtained comparable or in some cases even superior scores compared to BW. In general, from the results, the diversity of the experiments conducted, and the assumptions made we can conclude that the GHMM can be a general method for an ADSE with limited prior knowledge. To quantify the suitability of the GHMM for ADSE, further research should include the evaluation of different ADSE methods on the same problem. There exists a tradeoff between the lower computational cost FWE and the more stable but more computationally intensive BW learning. Therefore, future research can include a combination of these methods. Other extensions include extending the GHMM to a Gaussian mixture hidden Markov model to allow for the modeling of more complex distributions, or the application to multiple states or a changing environment.https://github.com/Wouter-deBoer/adseMechanical Engineering | Vehicle Engineering | Cognitive Robotic
Design (For) Yourself, Experiences with Author Driven Design Practices
Get PDFWithin the Bachelor's programme Industrial Design Engineering we created a 15EC elective research module "Scientific Challenges". One of the possible research subjects of this module is “Author Driven Design project”, which means exploring the Design of objects from your own intrinsic motivation, rather than from an external demand driven assignment. The rationale behind this subject is that demand driven and author driven design practices both have strengths and weaknesses and that the two approaches can benefit from each other. By letting the students, that are regularly trained as a demand driven designer, execute an author driven design project, we serve two purposes. The students learn more about themselves and about different design approaches, and we as researchers learn more about how the two approaches can influence and inform each other
Re-engaging with Design History through the Practical Turn
Get PDFThis paper reflects on the interpretation of design histories for use in contemporary design practice. After the introduction and advocacy of STS approaches in design history by Fallan in 2010, I started to become interested in using these approaches for understanding contemporary design challenges. This interest resulted in the development of historically informed design methods in the context of the Practical Turn.The Practical Turn is a term that is coined by Eggink and Dorrestijn for the collaboration between Philosophy of Technology and Design Research. Some results of this collaboration are Utopian Technology, the Product Impact Tool, and Open Script Design. I will explain the use of Utopian Technology for designing responsibly, based on the experiences with a one-week Industrial Design Workshop at the University of Antwerp. Here, 18 students executed a conceptual design project for the improvement of public space. During the process they applied the idea of Utopian Technology in both the analysis and synthesis of their designs
Where's my robot? Integrating human technology relations in the design curriculum
Get PDFIn today’s society, and in almost every forecast for the future, technology development plays a major role. From theories in Science & Technology Studies we learn that the development of new technology cannot be meaningful unless there are users that successfully adapt the products and services to their own lives. As a result, it is important that designers learn to explore the interrelationships between engineering and behavioural, cultural and social issues. Within our Industrial Design Engineering curriculum we therefore emphasise the influence of technology on human behaviour and vice-versa. Although every specific product and context demands for a specific relation, we have experienced that there is common ground in the developments of these relationships that makes our education work. At a higher level of abstraction, the human side of the relation stays merely the same, because human bodies and human needs and emotions do not develop fast. It is only the technology side of the relation that develops and therefore changes the relationship. Thus, by starting from the human side of the relationship, the technology side can be consciously developed and shaped. A carefully designed series of courses in Design Aesthetics, Philosophy of Technology, Cognitive Ergonomics and Usability develops the students ability to analyse the human needs and characteristics, to understand the impact of technology, and provides the skills to shape the desired relationships. And although we do not design robots, our experience with Industrial Design Engineering is that human technology relations are apparent within all sorts of design challenge
A Design Process for Creative Technology
Get PDFCreative Technology is a new bachelor programme at the University of Twente. Goal of Creative Technology is to design products and applications that improve the quality of daily life in its manifold aspects, building on Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The application domains range from recreation to work, from entertainment to learning and from health to art. A paradigm of Creative Technology is to make use of existing technology in novel combinations –in contrast to developing new technology. In this paper we identify and elaborate the Design Methods of Creative Technology in a consistent overview. On one side, the focus on human daily life suggests that user centred design approaches from Industrial Design and Interaction Design are relevant for Creative Technology. On the other side, the development of prototypes will make use of “classical‿ engineering design principles. Between these areas of design is a field that is not covered by other disciplines: the exploration of the potential of existing ICT technology, focussing on applicability for the user. To foster this process, our design method is a balanced combination of Divergence-Convergence and Spiral models of design practice. The purpose of this model is mainly for education. However, for Creative Technology as a multidisciplinary field, it is also relevant to position itself in contrast to the neighbouring disciplines, which in our context are Industrial Design Engineering and ICT
A chair to look to the moon; what we can learn from irrational design history for contemporary design practice
Get PDFThe focus of product design is shifting from primarily offering functionality, towards experience and emotion driven product characteristics. The mantra of the universal design-language, within which, according to the good old modernist movement the shape of a product is directly derived from the (technical) functionality, is not very useful anymore. Consequently the contemporary designer has to look for other ways to fill his or her repertoire. That this experience and emotion driven approach to products is not new, is shown by an example of a Chinese Ming-period reclining chair that is not referred to as a reclining chair but as “a chair to look to the moon”. Also during the history of industrial product design there are numerous examples of designers and designs contradicting the dominant modernist/functionalist approach. So it is interesting to analyze how designers have used this non-rational approach through time. In this way, principles, methods or work-a-rounds for contemporary design problems are derived. This paper focuses on the period from circa 1990 to 2000, because at that time, the emotional orientation of the ‘irrational’ post-modernist designs is more and more connected with the function of products. Therefore interesting combinations of recognizable meanings and, for instance, new materials arise. Many products in this period do not stand out with their functional usability, but with the intelligibility of the idea behind it. The Netherlands are playing an important role in this development with the Droog label. This study tries to visualize how interesting approaches and principles of this merely author-driven design practice can enrich the demand-driven design projects of industrial design engineers in our highly emotion-oriented environment nowadays
embalming and reperfusion of porcine kidneys
No full text<p>These are the data of the following article:</p>
<p>Understanding Thiel embalming in pig kidneys to develop a new circulation model</p>
<p>First author: Wouter Willaert</p
Nederland op een kantelpunt: Interview met Wouter Veldhuis over het Stedelijk Netwerk Nederland en het sociaal netwerk van woonwijken
Get PDFDe stedenbouwkundige en architect Wouter Veldhuis en landschapsarchitect Jannemarie de Jonge zijn per 1 december 2020 Rijksadviseur voor de fysieke leefomgeving. Later in september 2021 komt daar de architect Francesco Veenstra bij als Rijksbouwmeester en dan is het nieuwe trio College van Rijksadviseurs weer compleet. De uitdagingen voor het college zijn groot. De ruimteclaims die er liggen in stad en land, de hooggestemde ambities om klimaatneutraal en circulair te zijn in 2050, de roep om een minister voor de fysieke leefomgeving en of wonen en weer een echt ministerie met budget. Het enorme probleem op de woningmarkt en de druk om één miljoen woningen ergens bij te bouwen. Op 24 april sprak het team van 1M Homes initiative van de TU Delft met de nieuw benoemde rijksadviseur voor de fysieke leefomgeving Wouter Veldhuis over de aanstaande veranderingen
Unruly Design Practice: Porcelain Phones and Lampshade Fireplaces
No full textIn this paper the application of the ‘rules of unruly design’ are explored in demand driven design practice. The rules of unruly design are a set of design rules that were derived from design history to form an inspirational tool for the design and styling of meaningful objects in a postmodern context. Traditionally, the design of the new, the strange and the weird and wonderful is largely the domain of the artistically oriented author driven design practice. The rules of unruly design are an attempt to transfer some of their accomplishments to the demand driven practice of industrial design engineers.
The rules were explored in two master students graduation projects. From the results of the projects one can conclude that the set of rules stimulates creativity in the development of concepts of form and use, and acts as a brainstorm tool for the synthesis of new objects and object types
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