The effect of high molecular weight carboxylate ligands as compared to naphthenate ligands on the effectiveness of transition metals as additives for reducing soot particulates was studied in the combustion of diesel fuel and distillate fuel oil by use of a laboratory scale burner. A mechanism involving pseudoheterogenous catalytic reactions is proposed. A simple system to evaluate fuel additives by burning only a few milliliters of oil was designed, developed, and used. Polybutene with an average molecular weight of 920 was the raw material in this study. The polymer was oxidized with KMnO4 to the corresponding acid from whose potassium salt the transition metal-polymer complex obtained. Special treatments were required during the synthesis because of unique viscosity and solubility properties exhibited by the polymer. The oxidation was carried out in the presence of dicyclohexane 18-crown-6 ether as a phase transfer catalyst.

Our everyday lives are surrounded by gadgets and digital devices that help us perform our daily chores with ease and efficiency. However, these digital devices can also separate us from what we should do ourselves. Although children who are exposed to high levels of technology might become attuned to the latest and the best gadgets, they might not learn to use their physical abilities. Another implication of a child’s over dependence on technology is that parental interactions such as encouragement, tutoring and reinforcement are provided by gadgets rather than living, breathing parents. Research done by Padma Ravichandran and Brandel France de Bravo, revealed the importance of child interaction with live people and games noting that “Very young children learn best by relating to real live people, but they also learn by moving and doing. Part of the problem with screen time is that young children who watch TV and DVDs or use computer games may be substituting these activities for free play”. The aim of this project is to reduce the gap between young children and the tactile world by creating toys that are attractive for the children, but are low-tech and involve parental interaction. Thus, the primary goal that this thesis seeks to achieve is the stimulation of children toward tactile games, while the secondary goal is to allow and encourage parental involvement in the playtime of the child. The research is guided by the premise that children can absorb substantial knowledge through the tactile world and that such tactile centered play will broaden the horizon of their knowledge and experience.

When a caregiver suffers from epilepsy, a child can often feel frightened, vulnerable, and alone whenever a seizure occurs. In my thesis project I intend to help children negotiate this struggle with the use of therapeutic toys. Through play, children can navigate feelings that are often overlooked by adults. The visual appeal, simplicity, and materials used in their creation help facilitate comfort through sensory cues. By applying coping mechanisms to deal with stress caused by the passage of time, provide tactile comfort, and equip the child with tools to take action, their emotional needs are met. These toys address an overlooked need for children who consistently deal with the emotionally taxing occurrences that come with having an epileptic caregiver.

The notion of “you are what you buy” is an updated adage from “you are what you eat”. It makes a connection between our everyday objects and their effect on our lived experience. Looking at our relationships with our things as a type of contract, we must be intentional to shape these object contracts for our own good and health. Instead of our society’s design talents being put toward a consumerist agenda, designers must direct research and development which addresses the effects of our products holistically. Various concepts have emerged in my creative practice which demand a deeper research and development. These are concepts of little interest to the corporate product developer, as they appeal to agendas beyond profit. Just as the slow food movement responds to fast food and “Big Ag”, the concepts of time, gifts, ritual emerge as virtues which demand development in our products. These concepts are not an answer to consumerism. However, they are tastes that have fallen off of our product diet. I point to various works works of art and design, of my own and others, which seek to renew the vastness of our potential experience with everyday objects. Instead of choosing from the corporate offering, we may take a more critical view of design which looks at our holistic experience with our products.

Today, more than 400 million individuals around the world have diabetes. This number is expected to grow to more than 600 million by 2023. However, diabetes is more than just a statistic. It is an incurable, psychologically nuanced disease, with daily battles and far-reaching complications. The lives of those afflicted undergo permanent physical and psychological changes. Reading the stories of diabetics, or hearing them share their experience may elicit an immediate yet often fleeting sense of realization. How, then, can this brief moment of awareness be prolonged? How can a non-diabetic feel diabetes? More importantly, why should they? This research explores empathy as a tool to achieve that level of understanding. Elements found on the dining table, a place most diabetics are acutely aware of, were redesigned in an attempt to recreate certain aspects of the diabetic experience. These items no longer function in the way they were intended to, but have been transformed into tools that evoke empathy. A non-diabetic will get to experience the struggles associated with four main areas: control, or lack thereof; unpredictable dysfunctionality; a constant state of alertness; and finally, the burden of living with the disease, and the anchoring effect it has on those afflicted.

<p>This thesis project aims to create an animistic system for remote workers to promote a healthier work style and more interactions between remote workers and their colleagues. The Covid-19 pandemic since 2020 resulted in a significant increase in employees who started to work remotely, and with that came the benefits and challenges. Working from home allows remote workers to work with higher productivity and a more flexible schedule and improves the work and life balance of the remote workers. However, major communication issues were reported due to asynchronous working pace and less in-person interaction, which became a significant challenge for remote working. Other remote working challenges include difficulties setting up a home office, health concerns such as sedentariness and hydropenia, higher worker self-discipline requirements, etc. In this thesis, I took the approach of animistic design, focused on the context of a home office environment, and created an interactive system, Planto, a planter and mobile application system designed to improve the work-from-home experience. This thesis presents the Planto system’s research and design process, including literature review, peer product review, user research, ideation, the iterative process of a mobile application design and a product design, and a heuristic evaluation to assess the quality of the design outcome. Planto system seamlessly integrates product design, animistic design, and IoT design. More importantly, it aims to facilitate the complicated work-from-home experience, and the medium is a simple planter.</p>

This project's objective was to design and build 4 stages of the Audrey II puppet for the East Tennessee State University production of Little Shop of Horrors (Ashman, 1982). The puppets were to be created with consideration for the production space, budget, and operator ease, along with audience impact. This paper will present the design and construction in a step by step-bystep fashion using illustrations and photographic examples. Each puppet in the series was originally conceived using references to living plants and animals combined with an artistic vision of the designer. The puppets were built with light, modern materials using new and traditional techniques for puppet construction. Construction techniques and materials resulted in light, maneuverable puppets that can be manipulated with ease and with high audience impact.

We live in a very busy world with a variety of sensory stimulation including the olfactory, visual, tactile, and auditory. The five senses are triggered by our surroundings and help us to form meaning about the world.ⅰ Based on where someone grows up, she or he is introduced to various sites and sounds, affecting how they interpret the world. Sounds relate meaning through the association between hearing, memory and an event. Hearing is one of the learning processes, in which individuals give, receive, and store information. We typically rely on our five senses, which contribute to the process of understanding, communicating, and comprehending information. Moving beyond visual perception requires systematic attention to individual learning modalities.ⅱ Sound is one of the developing areas in the field of perception that moves beyond vision to help people understand nature, objects, narratives and varieties of perception. In order to comprehend how people hear, it is important to understand the role of perception. Sound functions as a signal, but also varies according to the capacity to hear. An individual’s physical ability to hear, and their unique experiences with sound, differ from one person to the next, and can result in a range of emotions and reactions. Certain sounds, like the voice of a loved one, also have the power to trigger emotion and convey meaning due to the association between hearing, memory and specific events from one›s past In short, the three aspects of sound perception–signal, hearing, and emotional reaction–play an integral role in auditory perception and the subjectivity of sound. However, the value of sound is often taken for granted or viewed as secondary to visual perception. This thesis will explore the value of sound perception by investigating two of its primary aspects–hearing and emotional response–in application to memory. Through a series of experiential objects, that trigger the senses. The aim is to utilize design to memorialize precious sounds in order to raise awareness about the emotional value of sound to the human experience.

"Handicraft" means a useful or decorative object made by a craftsman who has direct control over all stages of production. Handicrafts have always had a greater value, an identity of their own that is reflective of their place, culture and materials, as well as a sense of belonging to a particular place and time. With the ever-growing mass production that followed the Industrial Revolution, we lost those crafts to multiple reasons: one being cheaper, industrial-made products reducing the demand for handicrafts, and another being a shift in consumer tastes. Most craftspeople hardly earn enough to survive and fulfill their basic needs, and naturally seek greater economic stability. In hopes of making a better future for their children, they send them to schools to gain knowledge that could help them gain employment and be able to make better livings for themselves and their families, halting the passing of knowledge. Hence, the heritage of skills that had been passed for generations in a family comes to end. This risks the loss of a craft that once was a source of pride and joy for these artisans – and for the larger community There are a number of efforts going on around the globe to preserve the indigenous crafts of different cultures, and to allow that knowledge to be passed down to new generations. My focus in this paper is a specific object (the charpai) from the Jandi craft, and its preservation through innovation. My work seeks to advance and preserve the skills and traditions of the artisans, while designing a new set of products inspired by the craft that hope to reconnect more artisans to the craft and empower them in terms of knowledge and finance.

This thesis is intended to help eliminate misconceptions and missing information over the realm of smart materials, by offering a newly structured &lsquo / Information Hierarchy for Smart Materials Communication for Industrial / Product Design&rsquo / . Industrial and product designers are invited to use the findings of the thesis to assist in developing a common smart materials language and culture, enriched by details, technicalities, opportunities, and creative and innovative material attributes. The study commences with the creation of a concise and compact reservoir of technical knowledge on smart materials and critically contrasts two established systems of classification for smart materials. Then, the subject of materials information appropriate to industrial design is discussed, highlighting channels through which smart materials information may be communicated at an optimum level so as to be amenable to exploitation by industrial designers. A sectoral analysis of smart materials use follows, including the presentation of factors that may hinder their more extensive exploitation in major industrial sectors. v The thesis concludes that smart materials have potential to initiate a breakthrough in the materials universe, and that industrial designers have a role in promoting smart materials knowledge, the capabilities of smart materials, and their innovation possibilities. It is recomended that since smart materials are a new generation of materials quite different from the conventional, they be promoted carefully through the proposed Information Hierarchy.