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- Genre: Masters Thesis
Description
Creative design lies at the intersection of novelty and technical feasibility. These objectives can be achieved through cycles of divergence (idea generation) and convergence (idea evaluation) in conceptual design. The focus of this thesis is on the latter aspect. The evaluation may involve any aspect of technical feasibility and may be desired at component, sub-system or full system level. Two issues that are considered in this work are: 1. Information about design ideas is incomplete, informal and sketchy 2. Designers often work at multiple levels; different aspects or subsystems may be at different levels of abstraction Thus, high fidelity analysis and simulation tools are not appropriate for this purpose. This thesis looks at the requirements for a simulation tool and how it could facilitate concept evaluation. The specific tasks reported in this thesis are: 1. The typical types of information available after an ideation session 2. The typical types of technical evaluations done in early stages 3. How to conduct low fidelity design evaluation given a well-defined feasibility question A computational tool for supporting idea evaluation was designed and implemented. It was assumed that the results of the ideation session are represented as a morphological chart and each entry is expressed as some combination of a sketch, text and references to physical effects and machine components. Approximately 110 physical effects were identified and represented in terms of algebraic equations, physical variables and a textual description. A common ontology of physical variables was created so that physical effects could be networked together when variables are shared. This allows users to synthesize complex behaviors from simple ones, without assuming any solution sequence. A library of 16 machine elements was also created and users were given instructions about incorporating them. To support quick analysis, differential equations are transformed to algebraic equations by replacing differential terms with steady state differences), only steady state behavior is considered and interval arithmetic was used for modeling. The tool implementation is done by MATLAB; and a number of case studies are also done to show how the tool works. textual description. A common ontology of physical variables was created so that physical effects could be networked together when variables are shared. This allows users to synthesize complex behaviors from simple ones, without assuming any solution sequence. A library of 15 machine elements was also created and users were given instructions about incorporating them. To support quick analysis, differential equations are transformed to algebraic equations by replacing differential terms with steady state differences), only steady state behavior is considered and interval arithmetic was used for modeling. The tool implementation is done by MATLAB; and a number of case studies are also done to show how the tool works.
ContributorsKhorshidi, Maryam (Author) / Shah, Jami J. (Thesis advisor) / Wu, Teresa (Committee member) / Gel, Esma (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This thesis contains the applications of the ASU mathematical model (Tolerance Maps, T-Maps) to the construction of T-Maps for patterns of line profiles. Previously, Tolerance Maps were developed for patterns of features such as holes, pins, slots and tabs to control their position. The T-Maps that are developed in this thesis are fully compatible with the ASME Y14.5 Standard. A pattern of square profiles, both linear and 2D, is used throughout this thesis to illustrate the idea of constructing the T-Maps for line profiles. The Standard defines two ways of tolerancing a pattern of profiles - Composite Tolerancing and Multiple Single Segment Tolerancing. Further, in the composite tolerancing scheme, there are two different ways to control the entire pattern - repeating a single datum or two datums in the secondary datum reference frame. T-Maps are constructed for all the different specifications. The Standard also describes a way to control the coplanarity of discontinuous surfaces using a profile tolerance and T-Maps have been developed. Since verification of manufactured parts relative to the tolerance specifications is crucial, a least squares fit approach, which was developed earlier for line profiles, has been extended to patterns of line profiles. For a pattern, two tolerances are specified, and the manufactured profile needs to lie within the tolerance zones established by both of these tolerances. An i-Map representation of the manufactured variation, located within the T-Map is also presented in this thesis.
ContributorsRao, Shyam Subramanya (Author) / Davidson, Joseph K. (Thesis advisor) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Generally speaking, many programs of interior design have had a gender imbalance in the student population. As a case in point, the interior design program at Arizona State University (ASU) is at present ninety percent female. While other design programs such as architecture or industrial design have achieved gender balance, interior design has not. This research explores the reasons why male students are not enrolling in the interior design program at ASU and to what degree gender influences the selection of a major. The objectives of this research are to determine: 1) what role gender plays in the selection of interior design as a choice of a major at ASU; 2) why might male students be hesitant to join the interior design program; 3) why female students are attracted to interior design; 4) if there are gender differences in design approach; and 5) if curricular differences between interior architecture and interior design impact the gender imbalance. A mixed method approach is used in order to answer the research questions including: a literature review, a visual ethnography, and interviews of interior design students and faculty members at ASU. The results reveal that gender might have an effect on students' decision to join the interior design program. For a male student, people questioned his sexuality because they assumed he would have to be of a certain sexual orientation to study interior design. According to a male faculty member upon visiting a middle school on career day, young boys would be interested in the projects displayed at the interior design booth until they figured out what it was. Even at a young age, the boys seemed to know that interior design was a female's domain. A participant stated that women seemed to be less critical of the men's projects and were more critical of each other. A male respondent stated that on the occasion there were no men in the class the studio culture changed. Another stated that interior design students did not take feedback as well as others and need to be affirmed more often. Gender socialization, the history of interior design as a feminine career, and the title "interior design" itself are all possible factors that could deter male students from joining the program. The insights acquired from this research will provide students and faculty members from The Design School and beyond a better understanding of gender socialization and what the interior design program has to offer.
ContributorsRuff, Charlene (Author) / Giard, Jacques (Thesis advisor) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / Margolis, Eric (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The study of lighting design has important implications for consumer behavior and is an important aspect of consideration for the retail industry. In today's global economy consumers can come from a number of cultural backgrounds. It is important to understand various cultures' perceptions of lighting design in order for retailers to better understand how to use lighting as a benefit to provide consumers with a desirable shopping experience. This thesis provides insight into the effects of ambient lighting on product perception among Americans and Middle Easterners. Both cultural groups' possess significant purchasing power in the worldwide market place. This research will allow marketers, designers and consumers a better understanding of how culture may play a role in consumer perceptions and behavior Results of this study are based on data gathered from 164 surveys from individuals of American and Middle Eastern heritage. Follow up interviews were also conducted to examine the nuances of product perception and potential differences across cultures. This study, using qualitative and quantitative methods, was executed using a Sequential Explanatory Strategy. Survey data were analyzed to uncover significant correlations and relationships using measures of descriptive analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and regression analysis. Interviews were analyzed using theme-based coding and reported in narrative form. The results suggest that lighting does in fact have an impact on product perception, however despite minor differences, this perception does not vary much between individuals from American and Middle Eastern cultures. It was found that lighting could affect price and quality perception with reference to store-image and store atmospherics. Additionally, lighting has a higher impact on subjective impressions of product (such as Freshness, Pleasantness, and Attractiveness), more than Price and Quality perceptions. This study suggests that particular lighting characteristics could be responsible for differences in product perception between these two cultures. This is important to note for lighting designers and marketers to create retail atmospheres that are preferable to both cultures.
ContributorsAlsharhan, Dalal Anwar (Author) / Kroelinger, Michael D. (Thesis advisor) / Eaton, John (Committee member) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The development of literacy abilities in young children has been a major concern for authorities and teachers in the USA for the last two decades. Significant effort has been devoted to ensure that preschool settings allow and motivate children to engage in literacy activities before entering kindergarten. Research has found that a rich classroom environment in preschool settings enables teachers to encourage literacy interest in children at a young age. While a large amount of research has concentrated in testing the effect of prescriptive modifications in the classroom environment, few have focused on studying the design process and tools that teachers follow to design their classrooms. Public policy and research studies in the United States, mention the design of the classroom environment among teacher's responsibilities, but they do not include practical or methodological guides for them to use. The purpose of this research was to study the design process and tools that teachers use to design literacy rich classrooms in preschool settings. A case study was conducted at the ASU Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Preschool at Arizona State University. This setting provides a unique opportunity for an exploratory study of this nature because it is a private child development laboratory with a flexible curriculum. Participant observation sessions and in depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the design process used and experienced by the teachers. Findings revealed an iterative and cyclic design process that is repeated over time adjusting to the influence of numerous factors. Results also suggest that teacher's knowledge and beliefs highly influence the organization of their classrooms. Considering these factors as a standpoint allows for further exploration to determine a design process suitable for teachers when designing their learning environments. The use of a structured yet flexible design process, can be a potential tool for educators to design their classrooms, collaborate, document and transmit their knowledge. Although the findings correspond to a specific site studied, the implications are wide reaching as problems and opportunities expressed by the staff are common to other educational settings with similar characteristics.
ContributorsCortes, Catalina (Author) / Patel, Mookesh (Thesis advisor) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / Christie, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The aim of this study is to test the feasibility of building a storytelling system for older adults to tell and share their life stories based on email. It is measured by the level of participation and people's acceptance of the system. The central goals were to empower people over 60 years old by providing a platform for them to share their wonderful life experience and perspectives on life and lead social services into the digital age by bridging traditional roundtable interaction and modern digital communication. A prototype was built to test the level of participation of the system and follow-up interviews were conducted in order to deeply understand people's acceptance. Content analysis was used to analyze the stories to ascertain what common themes were present. Key design considerations and key factors that affect the feasibility of storytelling system were discussed. This research expands on current research and implementation of Internet-based storytelling system and shed light on the future of combining storytelling with older adults' existing Internet knowledge. Key findings of this research are :(1) Frequency of reminiscence trigger and the number of active participants affect the level of participation collectively. Frequency is considered to be a key determinant. High frequency indicates high level of participation. (2) Categories of topics do not affect the level of participation significantly but serve as key attractions that enhance people's acceptance of the system. (3) Older adults highly accept and get involved in the new email storytelling system. This storytelling program helps them recall their memories and have a profound effect on their own introspection.
ContributorsLi, Yuanyi (Author) / Giard, Jacques R (Thesis advisor) / Margolis, Eric (Committee member) / Larkin, Kyle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Transformation Is... is an arts practice-led research in Dance and Design, embodying and materializing concepts of structure, leadership and agency and their role in bringing about desired social transformation. My personal experiences as a foreign student interested in transformative experiences gave origin to this arts practice-led research. An auto-ethnographic approach informed by grounded theory methods shaped this creative inquiry in which dance was looked at as data and rehearsals became research fields. Within the context of social choreography, a transformational leadership style was applied to promote agency using improvisational movement scores to shape individual and collective creative explorations. These explorations gave birth to a flexible and transformable dance installation that served as a metaphor for social structure. Transformation revealed itself in this research as a sequence of process and product oriented stages that resulted in a final performance piece in which a site-specific interactive installation was built before the audience's eyes. This work became a metaphor of how individual actions and interactions effect the construction of social reality and how inner-transformation and collaboration are key in the process of designing and building new egalitarian social structures.
ContributorsSibauste Bermudez, Janelle (Author) / Kaplan, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Britt, Melissa (Committee member) / Standley, Eileen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Waveform design that allows for a wide variety of frequency-modulation (FM) has proven benefits. However, dictionary based optimization is limited and gradient search methods are often intractable. A new method is proposed using differential evolution to design waveforms with instantaneous frequencies (IFs) with cubic FM functions whose coefficients are constrained to the surface of the three dimensional unit sphere. Cubic IF functions subsume well-known IF functions such as linear, quadratic monomial, and cubic monomial IF functions. In addition, all nonlinear IF functions sufficiently approximated by a third order Taylor series over the unit time sequence can be represented in this space. Analog methods for generating polynomial IF waveforms are well established allowing for practical implementation in real world systems. By sufficiently constraining the search space to these waveforms of interest, alternative optimization methods such as differential evolution can be used to optimize tracking performance in a variety of radar environments. While simplified tracking models and finite waveform dictionaries have information theoretic results, continuous waveform design in high SNR, narrowband, cluttered environments is explored.
ContributorsPaul, Bryan (Author) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Thesis advisor) / Bliss, Daniel W (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The author explores the influences on the interiors of Hollywood films of the late 1920s and 30s. The Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Paris 1925 is examined in historical context and its influence on design trends internationally.
The Hollywood film industry is examined, in general, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and its longtime art director, Cedric Gibbons, in particular. Eight MGM films are discussed and their interiors analyzed for related influence from the 1925 Paris Exposition.
The thesis makes a case for the influence of the 1925 Paris Exposition on Cedric Gibbons and the interiors of the MGM films of the late 1920s and 30s.
The Hollywood film industry is examined, in general, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and its longtime art director, Cedric Gibbons, in particular. Eight MGM films are discussed and their interiors analyzed for related influence from the 1925 Paris Exposition.
The thesis makes a case for the influence of the 1925 Paris Exposition on Cedric Gibbons and the interiors of the MGM films of the late 1920s and 30s.
ContributorsRishell, Ann (Author) / Brandt, Beverly (Thesis advisor) / Bender, Diane (Committee member) / Sweeney, Gray (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Research in design, emotion, and product experience has focused on establishing a connection between the aesthetic qualities of products and emotions. Studies in product expression have demonstrated relevant patterns between aesthetics and spatial reasoning. In design research, fully understanding latent qualities of consumers assists in developing an immersive product experience which in turn can engender a lasting product relationship. This study evaluates how people interpret the emotionality of form in order to establish a veritable method for interpreting emotional variables in 3D objects.
This research assesses the emotional perception of aesthetic values in 2D and 3D teapots. A teapot image collection and taxonomy was constructed with 101 images of teapots across four centuries. Eighty-four participants completed a card sorting task of twenty randomly distributed teapot images (taken from the total 101 image collection) into Plutchik's eight emotion categories. Individual pieces of the teapots were coded according to the base, handle, lid, or spout that was presented in the image. The coded pieces from the card-sorting task were arranged per frequency in the overall set. Through the use of response data from the card sorting task, a network of the images was developed in Pathfinder. The content of these results were compared to images of models gathered during an interview with an interactive co-creation method referred to as Magnetic Modeling. Magnetic Modeling is a methodological tool that allowed participants to manipulate individualized pieces of 3D printed teapots into proposed emotional labels.
The findings of this research establish prototypical associations in aesthetic traits and teapot piece combinations for each emotion category. Participant responses were categorized into 4 personas representing the types of perceptual bias in the studies' participants. A discussion and comparison of the methods for academic and theoretical practice is provided.
This research assesses the emotional perception of aesthetic values in 2D and 3D teapots. A teapot image collection and taxonomy was constructed with 101 images of teapots across four centuries. Eighty-four participants completed a card sorting task of twenty randomly distributed teapot images (taken from the total 101 image collection) into Plutchik's eight emotion categories. Individual pieces of the teapots were coded according to the base, handle, lid, or spout that was presented in the image. The coded pieces from the card-sorting task were arranged per frequency in the overall set. Through the use of response data from the card sorting task, a network of the images was developed in Pathfinder. The content of these results were compared to images of models gathered during an interview with an interactive co-creation method referred to as Magnetic Modeling. Magnetic Modeling is a methodological tool that allowed participants to manipulate individualized pieces of 3D printed teapots into proposed emotional labels.
The findings of this research establish prototypical associations in aesthetic traits and teapot piece combinations for each emotion category. Participant responses were categorized into 4 personas representing the types of perceptual bias in the studies' participants. A discussion and comparison of the methods for academic and theoretical practice is provided.
ContributorsHorner, Candace (Author) / Takamura, John (Thesis advisor) / McDermott, Lauren (Committee member) / Branaghan, Russel; (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014