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This thesis compares two methods for studying the problem-solving processes of mechanical design engineers. The first method, verbal protocol analysis, was applied by L. Stauffer to construct a problem-solving model of mechanical design. The second method, timing analysis, measures the time intervals separating drawing or speaking actions during the design process. Timing analyisis was applied by the author to the verbal/video design data collected by Stauffer. This thesis demonstrates that the two methods are statistically related, and hence, that employing two different study techniques enhances the reliability of both methods. The two methods have complementary strengths: protocol analysis reveals the content of the design process, while timing analysis is much more complete. Hence, a combination of protocol and timing analysis provides a stronger measure of the design process than either method alone. / Graduation date: 1992

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture; and, (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1978. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 82-84. / M.Arch / M.S.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / Eastman, Chuck, Committee Member ; Paredis, Chris, Committee Co-Chair ; Allen, Janet, Committee Member ; Rosen, David, Committee Member ; Tsui, Kwok, Committee Member ; McDowell, David, Committee Member ; Mistree, Farrokh, Committee Chair. Includes bibliographical references.

Post-occupancy evaluations represent an important missed opportunity. While POEs are often used to inform design guides, and to support facility management, they are seldom used to support design decision-making. While there are several technical, methodological, and cultural impediments to the ongoing use of POE results in design, characteristics of POE data and data structure is an important, and often overlooked, impediment. Some evaluators have attempted to resolve this problem by involving actively as consultants in design teams or involving users, such as Placemaking or Process Architecture. Recent advances in conceptual data modeling provide another strategy to interface POE findings and design decision-making. This thesis uses EXPRESS modeling language to develop a conceptual data structure for POE data, and integrate POE data with as-built building descriptions. While this effort has the potential to develop an improved way to structure POE data and make it more useful, it is also an extension of ISO-STEP. This study develops a data structure based on post-occupancy evaluations of state and federal trial courtrooms conducted by the researcher. Thirty-one courtrooms were evaluated, resulting in usable data from 93 courtroom users in 26 courtrooms. An EXPRESS-G schema was developed and was translated into a relational database for holding data and running queries. The investigator illustrated a range of query-generated outcomes to support decision-making during design and design review. Such outcomes include exploring existing courtrooms, comprehending the types of design decisions implemented across federal and state courtrooms, identifying design decisions that have been rated favorably or otherwise by courtroom users, rating design decisions based on evaluation data from existing courtrooms, and predicting a designed environments supportiveness to task performance. Further, multivariate analysis of the POE data provides the first scientific investigation of courtrooms as work settings. Finally, eight key performance indicators of courtrooms were developed based on the POE data.

For all types of clothing and body worn technologies it is important to consider how they integrate and interact with the complex shapes that form the unique profile of the human body. This interaction determines the fit of these products and it is often difficult to generate a fit that can simultaneously accommodate these complex shapes. Achieving the correct fit is determined by a number of different factors that must be combined appropriately to create the fit associated with a particular product. This is particularly applicable to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to ensure it provides protection while maintaining comfort, mobility and good interaction with the surrounding environment. Integrating suitable anthropometric data into the design and manufacture of this type of clothing plays a critical role in achieving a good fit. By using various processes of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM), the detail contained within these data can be quickly and accurately transferred into physical tools. The aim of this study was to demonstrate and validate a method of enhancing the fit of PPE handwear. This has been achieved through an action research strategy using descriptive and practical research methods. The research tools primarily used are case studies, used to demonstrate how manually collected 2D anthropometric data can be used to generate computer models that represent these data in a 3D form. The products of the case studies are tools that have been introduced into the design and manufacture processes of commercial handwear manufacturing environments. The tools have successfully been used to produce gloves using two different manufacturing methods and been assessed to analyse their fit. An improvement in fit for the gloves has been quantified through user trials to determine the level of increased performance afforded to the wearer. The conclusions drawn from the case studies demonstrate that the integration of anthropometric data and CAD/CAM can greatly influence the fit of handwear and improve the iterative processes of its design. However, the data alone does not achieve this as the added integration of tacit knowledge related to glove design is needed to ensure the correct properties are included to the meet the needs of the target population. The methods developed in the case studies have the potential to be applied to other products where fit and interaction with the human body are important design considerations.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Mavris, Dimitri; Committee Member: Bishop, Carlee; Committee Member: McMichael, James; Committee Member: Nixon, Janel; Committee Member: Schrage, Daniel

Orientador: Doris Catharine Cornelie Knaltz Kowaltowski / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Acompanhado de anexo em CD-ROM: Apêndice 4: Entrevistas estruturadas gravadas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T20:29:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Deliberador_MarcellaSavioli_M.pdf: 13949564 bytes, checksum: c9d9b5c1fa4754f133902873958aa599 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Essa pesquisa investigou os processos de projeto dos profissionais arquitetos que colaboram com a Fundação para o Desenvolvimento Escolar (FDE) em projetos de prédios escolares no Estado de São Paulo, com o objetivo de conhecer e caracterizar tal processo e identificar oportunidades de intervenção que favoreçam a melhoria do ambiente escolar público estadual. Avaliações pós-ocupação em prédios escolares, divulgadas na literatura, apontam problemas, principalmente relativos ao conforto ambiental e à funcionalidade, remetendo-se, de forma especial, às falhas de implantação e de projeto. Essa constatação e a crescente complexidade do projeto em arquitetura diante de exigências e responsabilidades ambientais, sociais e econômicas apontam para a necessidade de aprimoramento do processo de projeto, inclusive disponibilizando ambientes de apoio, discussão e divulgação de resultados de avaliações e estudos de caso. Nesta pesquisa, aplicaram-se entrevistas estruturadas aos profissionais registrados junto à FDE, com o objetivo de caracterizar o processo de projeto adotado atualmente e explorar a motivação para a adoção de novas práticas em busca de um ambiente escolar de qualidade. O desenvolvimento do instrumento de investigação (questionário) foi baseado em conceitos vindos de trabalhos teóricos sobre metodologia de projeto, com ênfase nas fases de análise e avaliação de projetos e nas avaliações pós-ocupação já realizadas nos ambientes escolares. Os resultados das entrevistas conduzidas junto aos profissionais que atuam nessa realidade mostram que o processo adotado atualmente se aproxima pouco do processo de projeto referencial levantado na literatura. Faltam várias etapas, principalmente de discussão e análise. Percebe-se também a ausência da participação da comunidade envolvida em uma reflexão sobre parâmetros de projeto, considerados essenciais à arquitetura escolar de qualidade. A análise dos dados advindos da aplicação das entrevistas estruturadas identificou oportunidades de intervenção no processo atual para promover uma arquitetura escolar de qualidade. Os resultados desta investigação devem também servir para pesquisas futuras, objetivando o desenvolvimento de ambiente de apoio ao processo de projeto de escolas públicas no Estado de São Paulo / Abstract: This research project investigated the design processes of architects who work for the Fundação para o Desenvolvimento Escolar (FDE) in the design of school buildings in São Paulo, with the objective of characterizing these processes and identify opportunities for intervention to ensure improvement of state public school environment. School buildings post-occupancy evaluations founded in the field's scientific literature indicate problems, mainly related to environmental comfort and functionality, probably connected to project failures. This finding, along with the increasing complexity of design process in architecture, faced with the modern patterns of environmental, social and economic requirements and responsibilities, indicates the need of improvement of the design process, including providing opportunities of discussion and dissemination of results of evaluations and case studies. In this study, the author applied structured interviews with professionals registered with the FDE, in order to characterize the design process adopted by them and explore the motivation for adopting new practices to improve the school environment. The research instrument was developed based on concepts extracted from theoretical works on design methodology, with emphasis on the phases of analysis and evaluation of projects and post-occupancy evaluations done in school environments. The results of interviews conducted with professionals working with FDE show that their design process has little similarities with the literature recommended design process. Several stages are missing, mainly those related to participatory discussions and design analysis, which are considered essential to a quality school architecture. The analysis of data from the interviews also identified opportunities to intervene in the current process to promote a school architecture which can aggregate a large sort of elements in order to improve its quality. The research results also future studies, focused on the enhancement of the design process of public schools in the State of São Paulo / Mestrado / Arquitetura e Construção / Mestre em Engenharia Civil

This research is devoted to the development of a multiobjective facility layout creation methodology. This methodology seeks to extend the scope of existing computerized and manual layout creation methods by capturing a greater level of both intuitive and quantitative inputs in a method applicable for moderate to large-scale problems. To do this, an extended theoretical basis for decision theoretic models applicable to layout design is described. Using these models as an evaluation basis, a new optimizing layout creation strategy is developed and a decision support system for its implementation is presented. The new layout creation method is computationally attractive, and based on extensive computational experience, is found to give better solutions than those generated by CORELAP. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

A gap exists in the methods used in industry and available in academia that prevents customers and engineers from having a voice when considering engineering risk appetite in the dynamic shaping of early-phase conceptual design trade study outcomes. Current methods used in Collaborative Design Centers either collect risk information after a conceptual design has been created, treat risk as an afterthought during the trade study process, or do not consider risk at all during the creation of conceptual designs. This dissertation proposes a risk-informed decision making framework that offers a new way to account for risk and make decisions based upon risk information within conceptual complex system design trade studies. A meaningful integration of the consideration of risk in trade studies is achieved in this framework thus elevating risk to the same level as other important system-level design parameters. Trade-offs based upon risk appetites of individuals are explicitly allowed under the framework, enabled by an engineering-specific psychometric risk survey that provides aspirational information to use in utility functions. This dissertation provides a novel framework and supporting methodologies for risk-informed design decisions and trades to be made that are based upon engineering risk appetites in conceptual design trade studies. / Graduation date: 2012