El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / This article analyzes the applicability of an appropriate design of blasting engineering for an underground mine to be used in a Peruvian grain context through the data collection and observation method using the Bieniawski rock mass geomechanical classification system, average vein power weighting, and operational dilution of the pits. The generation of solutions is under both the McCarthy approach formula and final results analysis of the dilution behavior obtained in relation to the initial ones. Moreover, the database provided by a mining company is analyzed with respect to the geological conditions for the rock mass classification of the roof box and floor box to determine the quality of the rock, ore grades, power of the vein, and the percentage of dilution. Then we proceed to determine the continuity and thickness of the vein in a given block and analyze the dilution based on the fundamental criteria of blasting engineering.

<p>  </p> <p>Recently, there has been significant increase in research and development in the field of organic electronics. This is mainly because organic electronic devices can be flexible, lightweight, and processed from solution using low-cost manufacturing techniques. Typically, these devices have utilized conjugated polymers as their active layer components. This approach has been successful, but the use of conjugated polymers comes with limitations. To address these limitations and expand the field of organic electronics, this work studies a novel class of macromolecules, radical polymers. Unlike their conjugated polymer counterparts, radical polymers are comprised of a non-conjugated backbone with stable open-shell groups at their pendant sites. By studying the structure-property relationships of these radical polymers, this work developed novel polymer systems for a variety of organic electronic applications. Furthermore, these studies can be applied to future radical polymer systems yet to be discovered. Ultimately, this work served as a template for expanding the field of organic electronics. </p>

The protective design industry has to adapt to new threats and challenges facing the industry constantly. As a result, invested stakeholders within the industry must take a critical look at the current state of the practice. By assessing the current protective design industry, one can identify both challenges and opportunities within it and provide insight into how to improve the industry. This study aims to understand the current state of the protective design industry through an analysis of protective design literature and interviews with protective designers. Both academic literature (conference papers and journal articles) and design guidelines showcase the current trends and challenges within the industry. While understanding the protective designer's perception of their role help explain how protective designers engage within the design process with other design stakeholders. Together, both the literature and the people will dictate the current state of the protective design industry. Lastly, this study has developed a database for protective design guidelines that both protective designers and other design stakeholders can utilize to search for a comprehensive database. / M.S. / The 2001 September 11th attacks fundamentally changed the protective design industry. Not only did it take the lives of thousands of Americans, but it showcased a flaw in our national security. Designers and engineers had to rethink their perspectives on security and proceed to integrate more protective measures in both the private and commercial sectors of design. Now, nearly two decades later, there hasn't been a deadly attack to the scale of 9/11, but new threats are facing the protective design industry. Newer and more recurring threats such as mass shootings within the United States and vehicle attacks have become a significant threat. Because of these new threats facing the industry, it is appropriate to take a critical look at the challenges and trends in the protective design industry that need improvement. This study aims to understand the current state of the practice in the protective design industry by reviewing both the protective design literature and interviewing protective designers.

<p dir="ltr">In this research, I study the role of empathy in first-year engineering design teams. Engineering programs provide students with opportunities to practice and develop teamwork skills to help them become more effective team members. Thus, it is essential to understand factors that contribute to effective teaming experiences for engineering students. One key factor for promoting effective teaming experiences is empathy.</p>

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As the use of computer in engineering design as well as other areas increase, it becomes more imperative that the application software used be as simple, convenient, and powerful as possible. The engineer is not interested in the internal workings of the computer or its operating system. It is the design itself that takes precedence. The filter design package developed for this project, known as FILTER, is such an application. With FILTER, coupled with the Digital Research Graphics Environment Manager, the engineer is led through the analog and digital filter design phase on a personal computer with carefully designed interactive computer graphics requiring little or no computer knowledge.

Engineering is widely accepted as a creative discipline. However, research focused on assessment of student creativity in engineering studies is lacking. Creativity by definition encompasses both novelty and value and has been approached through investigations of person, product, process and environment. Contemporary socio-cultural theories of creativity recognize the subjective nature of creativity in terms of a person, domain, and field. Domain specific viewpoints recognize the necessity of specialized skills and knowledge beyond the scope of general creativity to attain advanced levels of creative achievement within a given domain. Given the breadth of these theoretical perspectives, the overarching goal of this research was to initiate a foundational understanding of student creativity through a sustainable energy themed engineering design project developed specifically for an introductory engineering course at Virginia Tech. This embedded mixed-methods study approached creativity through assessment as well as significance of correlations between students' creative thinking abilities, their creative performance and their perceptions of the design experience in terms of known creativity factors on the 8-week long open-ended engineering design project. The study is comprised of two research themes; the investigation begins in theme one with a focus on individual creativity leading to investigation of team creativity in theme two with data collected over two successive semesters (i.e., spring â 07 and fall â 07). Creativity assessment measures included a test of creative thinking abilities, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) as well as application of the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT), a widely used creativity measurement technique, with graduate student judges assessing creativity of student's brainstorming ideas and final designs. Student surveys were administered for each theme to assess students' perceptions of the design project. Results reveal a significant correlation (p < 0.05) between students' ATTA scores and perceptions of the project as open-ended and interesting. Additional factors significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with students' perceptions of the design experience as creative included finding the project meaningful, interesting, exciting, enjoyable and surprising. Results of inter-rater reliability analysis followed by a two-way ANOVA illustrated difficulties in establishing consistency of judges' assessment of technical brainstorming ideas and final designs. Theme one findings with students repeatedly discussing the importance of their team in the creative process on the design project were further substantiated in theme two, bringing fresh insights concerning the role of collaboration in student creativity in the introductory engineering course. Implications for future research begin with the necessity for establishing reliable judging criteria and training as well as determining appropriate judges used in the assessment of students' creative performance on the design project. This research provides an essential starting point for researchers interested in developing engineering design curriculum to foster creativity. / Ph. D.

The traditional product development process has been sequential in nature, with the product going through design, process planning, manufacturing and assembly. This sequential decision making results in increased costs and higher product development times. With the trend towards better product quality, product customization, shorter product life cycle, and international competition, manufacturers are faced with the challenge of improving product quality while reducing product development time, manufacturing lead-time, and product cost. To cope with these challenges, the product development process has to be made more efficient by integrating manufacturing and assembly considerations in the design phase itself, through the use of techniques such as Design For Manufacturability (DFM) and Design For Assembly (DFA). DFM techniques have to be automated to take advantage of the vast advances in CAD and CAM systems. However, the automation of DFM has been constrained, especially for machined components, by the lack of methodologies which are dependent on the process of manufacture, and the incomplete part data representation in CAD systems. This research created a DFM methodology for machined components, along with an appropriate data representation scheme. Also, a software prototype was developed to demonstrate and validate both the methodology and the data structure. The DFM methodology consists of three modules: DFM feasibility, process plan generation, and DFM analysis. The DFM feasibility module performs an initial feasibility check on the material, dimensions, tolerances, and configuration of the part. It also generates the spatial relationships between features. The process plan generation module uses a sequence identifier algorithm to generate the manufacturing sequence. The DFM analysis module evaluates tolerances relative to their stacking effects and manufacturability. It then analyzes the part configuration for possible design and process plan improvements. A software prototype was developed using C++. It addresses the dimension checking, tolerance checking, configuration checking and spatial relationships generation in the DFM feasibility module. In the process plan generation module, the sequence of surfaces/features to be generated has been automated. This sequence is one of the major inputs to a computer-aided process planning module. Other methodologies for non-machined components can be easily integrated into the DFM framework for complete automation of DFM analysis. / Ph. D.

Good engineering practice requires designers to incorporate knowledge, processes and skills to produce a superior product. Each stage of the product realization process requires that the designer utilize available resources to make sound engineering decisions in a timely manner. Much of the research on engineering design has focused on formulating genera] models for the design process. However, it has been shown that these models are rarely used by engineers in practice. This dissertation advances the concept that useful design models must include methodologies that are particular to a given field or type of design. The inclusion of these knowledge-domain-dependent methodologies provides a complete framework for the greatest utility to the designer. This dissertation describes a general approach to engineering design and proposes a model for developing design assistance tools useful to the practicing designer. The methodology and the model are applied to the domain of cam mechanism design. The model describes the conceptual design process that begins with formulating objectives and establishing specifications and concludes with the actual synthesis of the cam profile. The design model is then incorporated into a comprehensive modular computer tool that is integrated with a PC-based CAD package. This dissertation contributes to both the field of engineering design and cam mechanism design. It provides a design model that incorporates a detailed methodology with information and analytical tools for design. By focusing on the knowledge domain of cam mechanism design it contributes to this field as well. Most prior research focused on techniques for synthesizing the cam profile and provided little assistance for the earlier stages of design. No previous tools have been developed that provide the scope of assistance presented in this dissertation. / Ph. D.