1,721,048 research outputs found
Structural integrity guided column configuration for free standing canopies
No full textThe design of free-standing canopies has experienced significant advancements in the architecture field, with numerous solutions developed over the past few decades. However, there remains a need for further research focusing on the early-stage design phase, which is both critical and time-consuming. Determining appropriate support structures for canopies often relies on architects’ expertise and requires numerous repetitive tests. In this thesis, we propose a novel workflow presenting an interactive interface specifically tailored for early-stage canopy building design. By inputting canopy models and desired parameters, our algorithm generates a reasonable column placement solution. Our approach centers around solution optimization using the Capacity-constrained Voronoi Tessellation (CCVT) algorithm, which addresses placement optimization problems for the canopy building models. The weight distribution of the canopy mesh is transformed into a heat map, which subsequently serves as input for the CCVT algorithm after a series of smoothing and mapping processes. This ensures that different parts of the canopy receive varying levels of support based on their weights. By comparing the algorithm performance for multiple models, we demonstrate that our method produces satisfactory column placements during the early design phase, which will effectively facilitate the initiation of a well-informed canopy design process.</p
On the planning of handling large arbitrarily curved glass sheets
No full textArchitects and designers are increasingly using glass as a building material because of its adaptability and versatility. Glass is favored because it is visually versatile and structurally strong; it helps buildings open up to their environment while still protecting them from the elements. Glass can be cut, bent, laminated, tempered and chemically treated to give it desired properties, hence it is favored by many architects and manufacturers. Curved glass gives architects and designers the freedom to create aesthetically pleasing curved glazed facades where straightness, corners, and edges can be enhanced with soft curves. These high-strength sheets can be shaped by machines in specialized furnaces or on-site kilns without breaking and enabling architects to create sculptural glass buildings. Many glass facade panels are made of multiple (two or three) layers of tempered glass sandwiched by a polymer layer to form a single unit, framed by metal extrusions in the form of mullions and transoms. In this thesis, we aim to devise optimal configurations to manipulate these arbitrarily curved glass sheets using suction cups, an important during the fabrication of the panels.The stress in the sheet is calculated using Finite Element methods using SolidWorks and verified using Ansys. Since all the curved glass sheets are made by heating and bending a plane sheet in a kiln available onsite, the minimum edge bounding box (MEBB) is calculated for the curved sheet to find its initial orientation while lifting. A rigorous search for different configurations is done on two sheets to find the stress behavior for different cup configurations, which can be used to develop algorithms and tailor the parameters accordingly to enhance the efficiency of the algorithms. The algorithms such as cuckoo search and adaptive k-means are used and tested to find the optimal lifting configuration of the sheets. The objective function of the study is to minimize the maximum stress in the sheet while lifting it while keeping it well within industry standards since glass is a brittle material and it breaks without any prior warning. A modified Lloyd’s algorithm for k-means clustering is used to find an initial lifting configuration since it ensures a relatively better search point for the following optimization techniques. Heuristic algorithms like steepest descent search and the method of univariate gradient descent are used to calculate the near-optimal solutions and are modified to reduce the run-time of the algorithms. The main objective of this thesis is to provide the on-site construction workers with optimal configuration to manipulate arbitrarily curved glass sheets without breaking them.</p
Exploring neural stylization and rendering across 2D and 3D visual modalities
No full textThe rapid advancement of generative machine learning has shown promise for digital content generation. Neural network-driven techniques, including neural rendering, neural representations and neural stylization, have empowered artists, creators, and even non-professionals to blend artistic elements and technical intelligence revolutionizing the way we generate, manipulate, and stylize visual content across diverse modalities. This thesis begins by providing a comprehensive review of the fundamental theories and developments in neural stylization, covering key concepts such as neural style transfer, neural rendering, and the latest advancements in generative AI. It then establishes a systematic taxonomy to navigate the categorization of neural stylization for various digital content types, from 2D imagery to 3D assets. Starting with these fundamentals, the thesis further explores the difficulties of photorealistic stylization, focusing on outdoor scenarios in 2D and 3D realms. Under the outdoor cityscape circumstance, we aim to maintain the foreground’s geometry and structure while skillfully combining dynamic color and texture styles for the sky background. The TimeOfDay framework solves the issue of architectural style transfer on photographs, utilizing high-frequency-aware image-to-image translation models. Moving to 3D space, the StyleCity system supervises the compact neural texture optimization using multi-view features extracted from the large-scale pre-trained vision and language models in a progressive and scale-adaptive manner to handle extra challenges in 3D urban scenes including the large magnitude of area and scale-adaptive 3D consistency. Considering the holistic style representation in 3D scenarios, we proposed SC-OmniGS, a novel omnidirectional Gaussian splatting with camera calibration, which further facilities omnidirectional stylization in 3D scenes with medium such as subsea contexts. By seamlessly integrating neural rendering, generative models, and vision-language models, neural stylization has demonstrated its potential to revolutionize the creation and interaction with digital modalities. The insights and innovations in this thesis showcase a promising future where reality, technology, and art are interlinked.</p
Optimization approaches for automatic handling of glass sheets in architectural projects
No full textGlass façades are widely used in modern buildings. Often, the glass panels used in such projects are difficult handle due to the large size and irregular shape. In particular, handling large glass sheets during the panel fabrication process presents many challenges, since the sheet is not encased in the frame. In this study we develop a strategy for vacuum lifting of such large, curved glass sheets via an optimization framework. The optimization is set up to to reduce the maximum stress on the curved glass panel as it is lifted by a small number of vacuum suction cups. The study is restricted to the case where the problem is a static one - i.e., the dynamic forces felt by the sheet during the lifting are negligible. The mechanical structure of vacuum lifting systems is well developed and studied, as are the foundations of stress analysis in a static setting. The key contribution of this work is to find the optimal number of vacuum cups and their locations such that the maximum stress induced in the sheet (under gravity) as it is lifted vertically under quasi-static conditions is minimized. A commericial software (SolidWorks) is used to perform the stress computation. A modified Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is developed for solving our problem. Experiments were done to find the suitable parameters to reduce the optimization time and improve the result. Based on the experimental data, the stress on the glass surface can be largely reduced by applying new PSO methods on the glass façades handling system. This research creates the foundation for developing a robotic handling system that will eventually plan the optimal way to transport fabricated sheets from the forming machine to the panel assembly station in the glass factory.</p
A journey to empower OFW’s life
No full textOne of the important trends and driving forces of contemporary globalization is precisely the global flow of labor. In Hong Kong, domestic helpers from the Philippines are a living example of the international population movement. They have been playing an essential role in different families for over 30 years. Many families can devote themselves to work without any worries and promote Hong Kong’s economic benefits. With the aging of the population, the demand for foreign helpers in Hong Kong derived from the past 30 years is expected to reach more than 600,000 people, accounting for one-sixth of the total labor force in Hong Kong. There are more than 2 million foreign Filipino workers in other developed countries. However, these foreign workers are often neglected in terms of legal status, social response, labor and economic situation, etc. They also endure mental pain for a long time because of the financial burden of their families. It is known that the Hong Kong government has in recent years devoted great efforts to advancing the development of innovation and technology. By joining the TLE program, I started to realise that it is important to build something not only innovative and technology-driven, but also with social value. Over the past years, to empower those foreign workers in Hong Kong and other places, I have been building MamaHelpers and OneCircle to help them overcome financial difficulties and achieve their goals and dreams. The purpose of the study was to acquire the business academic knowledge from school and experience how to build a venture from zero to one in real life. Throughout the several years of research journey, I learnt how to measure the successes and failures of business, how to evaluate the potential customer and market niche, and to identify and solve problems when they occur. My particular targeted customer is initially Filipino domestic workers (OFW) in Hong Kong. I examine what difficulty they encountered, what help they needed when they were working abroad and how they managed their finances. As I made some findings from the analysis, I built two different ventures catering their needs. My first startup MamaHelpers disrupted the traditional employment industry in Hong Kong, enabling workers to find their employers easily in Hong Kong or from overseas. My second startup, OneCircle, aims to educate OFWs to manage their finances wisely. In order to deliver the product and make the startup successful, it took several months to investigate our targeted customers’ interest and needs. Given the length of our survey and experimental sessions, ranging from market research and go-to-market launch campaigns, to tech product development and fundraising, my startup teammates and I experienced different hardships and failures. One of the biggest challenges we faced was the lack of experience in building a completely new business from scratch. My teammates and I had to self-learn different skills including tech product development, marketing and internal operational management skills. In later stages, we countered internal co-founding team conflicts, which led us to the fatal failures after all of the successful experimental startup journey. More discussions and self-reflections on the startup failures and stage of success will be discussed. In addition, after the failures of MamaHelpers will be analyzed, it leads me to new motivation to kick start another new startup OneCircle. More discussions on the business ideas and market positioning will be shared. The planned project timeline and deliverables will be summarised. This is another business development journey throughout my study program. MamaHelpers used to be a fast-growing and leading helper-matching network in Hong Kong and worldwide. It is built to help those foreign domestic helpers get a job quickly and efficiently using a much more transparent network. OneCircle is being built after MamaHelpers’ company dissolution. It positions itself to be the leading finance technology platform for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW), committed to providing world-class financial products and services for those un-banked. I aim to improve the quality of life of OFW by presenting a complete and reliable all-round financial ecosystem. OneCircle’s mission is to enable greater financial literacy, financial control, and offer products and services that are better and cheaper. Despite the vicissitude of this startup journey, I remain diligent and persistent in building something meaningful to serve those minorities in our society. In this journey, I also continuously build my network with an experienced team of industry veterans. OneCircle places us in a favourable position to achieve our goals of being the leader in finance technology and credit reference for the OFW market.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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