<p>Since there was a need for an Educational Management Information System (EMIS) in the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan, we designed and implemented a prototype for use in the ministry and investigated the appropriateness of using Agile methods for producing the EMIS. The prototype consisted of a database containing data about schools and a Dari interface which was used by educational planners, managers and policy makers of the ministry for decision making and planning. Agile methods are relatively new in software engineering and have an approach and development guidelines which strive for user satisfaction and early incremental delivery of software. We adapt them to local conditions due to their collaborative client-developer approach. The interface, a key component, is easy to use and e cient. The key research result is an evaluation concerning the appropriateness of using Agile Methods for developing the EMIS. Focus groups and surveys were used to develop the prototype and accomplish the study.</p>

Aircraft despatch reliability was the main subject of this research in the wider content of aircraft reliability. The factors effecting dispatch reliability, aircraft delay, causes of aircraft delays, and aircraft delay costs and magnitudes were examined. Delay cost elements and aircraft delay scenarios were also studied. It concluded that aircraft dispatch reliability is affected by technical and non-technical factors, and that the former are under the designer's control. It showed that the costs of aircraft delays are very significant and must be reduced. Cont/d.

Powered orthotic devices can be used to restore mobility to the impaired user, and may thereby assist them in daily living tasks. An investigation is performed herein to examine the feasibility of a powered lower-limb orthotic in assisting the sit-to-stand task by 50% of the required torque. Feasibility is considered via simulation. A three-link sit-to-stand model, which is driven by kinematic data, is developed. Models of a Pneumatic Muscle Actuator and a DC motor are used to determine which of the two technologies can make a more appropriate contribution to the sit-to-stand task. Simulation revealed that both the Pneumatic Muscle Actuator and the DC motor are reasonable actuator choices, and neither limited the ability to achieve 50% torque assistance. The ability to assist the task was, however, limited by the ability to derive a control signal for the actuator from the user-orthotic interface. It was concluded that the user-orthotic interface requires further investigation. It was also found that while both actuator technologies are suitable for contributing 50% of the required torque, the Pneumatic Muscle Actuator is preferable due to its ability to scale to greater torques.

Optimal control methods are applied to mechanical models in order to predict the control strategies in human arm movements. Optimality criteria are used to determine unique controls for a biomechanical model of the human upper-limb with redundant actuators. The motivation for this thesis is to provide a non-task-specific method of motion prediction as a tool for movement researchers and for controlling human models within virtual prototyping environments. The current strategy is based on determining the muscle activation levels (control signals) necessary to perform a task that optimizes several physical determinants of the model such as muscular and joint stresses, as well as performance timing. Currently, the initial and final location, orientation, and velocity of the hand define the desired task. Several models of the human arm were generated using a graph-theoretical method in order to take advantage of similar system topology through the evolution of arm models. Within this framework, muscles were modelled as non-linear actuator components acting between origin and insertion points on rigid body segments. Activation levels of the muscle actuators are considered the control inputs to the arm model. Optimization of the activation levels is performed via a hybrid genetic algorithm (GA) and a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) technique, which provides a globally optimal solution without sacrificing numerical precision, unlike traditional genetic algorithms. Advantages of the underlying genetic algorithm approach are that it does not require any prior knowledge of what might be a 'good' approximation in order for the method to converge, and it enables several objectives to be included in the evaluation of the fitness function. Results indicate that this approach can predict optimal strategies when compared to benchmark minimum-time maneuvers of a robot manipulator. The formulation and integration of the aforementioned components into a working model and the simulation of reaching and lifting tasks represents the bulk of the thesis. Results are compared to motion data collected in the laboratory from a test subject performing the same tasks. Discrepancies in the results are primarily due to model fidelity. However, more complex models are not evaluated due to the additional computational time required. The theoretical approach provides an excellent foundation, but further work is required to increase the computational efficiency of the numerical implementation before proceeding to more complex models.

Controlling systems with multiple robots is quickly becoming the next large hurdle that must be overcome for groups of robots to successfully function as a team. An agent oriented approach for this problem is presented in this thesis. By using an agent oriented method, the robots can act independently yet still work together. To be able to establish communities of robots, a basic agent oriented control system for each robot must first be implemented. This thesis introduces a novel method to create Physical Robot Agents, promoting a separation of cognitive and reactive behaviours into a two layer system. These layers are further abstracted into key subsections that are required for the Physical Robot Agents to function. To test this architecture, experiments are performed with physical robots to determine the feasibility of this approach. <br /><br /> A real-time implementation of a Physical Robot Agent would greatly expand its field of use. The speed of internal communication is analyzed to validate the application of this architecture to real-time tasks. <br /><br /> It is concluded that the Physical Robot Agents are well suited for multiple robot systems and that real-time applications are feasible.

This research deals with urban water reuse planning and management modeling in the context of sustainable development. Rapid urbanization and population growth have presented a great challenge to urban water resources management. As water reuse may alleviate pollution loads and enhance water supply sources, water reuse is being recognized as a sustainable urban water management strategy and is becoming increasingly attractive in urban water resources management. An efficient water reuse planning and management model is of significance in promoting water reuse practices. This thesis introduces an urban water reuse management and planning model using optimization methods with an emphasis on modeling uncertainty issues associated with water demand and water quality. The model is developed in conjunction with the overall urban water system with considerations over water supply, water demand, water distribution, water quality, and wastewater treatment and discharge. The objective of the model is to minimize the overall cost of the system subject to technological, societal and environmental constraints. Uncertainty issues associated with water demand and treatment quality are modeled by introducing stochastic programming methods, namely, two-stage stochastic recourse programming and chance-constraint programming. The model is capable of identifying and evaluating water reuse in urban water systems to optimize the allocation of urban water resources with regard to uncertainties. It thus provides essential information in planning and managing urban water reuse systems towards a more sustainable urban water resources management. An application was presented in order to demonstrate the modeling process and to analyze the impact of uncertainties.

The physiological energy requirements of prosthetic gait in lower-limb amputees have been observed to be significantly greater than those for able-bodied subjects. However, existing models of energy flow in walking have not been very successful in explaining the reasons for this additional energy cost. Existing mechanical models fail to capture all of the components of energy cost involved in human walking. In this thesis, a new model is developed that estimates the physiological cost of walking for an able-bodied individual; the same cost of walking is then computed using a variation of the model that represents a bi-lateral below-knee amputee. The results indicate a higher physiological cost for the amputee model, suggesting that the model more accurately represents the relative metabolic costs of able-bodied and amputee walking gait. The model is based on a two-dimensional multi-body mechanical model that computes the joint torques required for a specified pattern of joint kinematics. In contrast to other models, the mechanical model includes a balance controller component that dynamically maintains the stability of the model during the walking simulation. This allows for analysis of many consecutive steps, and includes in the metabolic cost estimation the energy required to maintain balance. A muscle stress based calculation is used to determine the optimal muscle force distribution required to achieve the joint torques computed by the mechanical model. This calculation is also used as a measure of the metabolic energy cost of the walking simulation. Finally, an optimization algorithm is applied to the joint kinematic patterns to find the optimal walking motion for the model. This approach allows the simulation to find the most energy efficient gait for the model, mimicking the natural human tendency to walk with the most efficient stride length and speed.

Texture analysis has been used extensively in the computer-assisted interpretation of SAR sea ice imagery. Provision of maps which distinguish relevant ice types is significant for monitoring global warming and ship navigation. Due to the abundance of SAR imagery available, there exists a need to develop an automated approach for SAR sea ice interpretation. Grey level co-occurrence probability (<i>GLCP</i>) texture features are very popular for SAR sea ice classification. Although these features are used extensively in the literature, they have a tendency to erode and misclassify texture boundaries. Proposed is an advancement to the <i>GLCP</i> method which will preserve texture boundaries during image segmentation. This method exploits the relationship a pixel has with its closest neighbors and weights the texture measurement accordingly. These texture features are referred to as <i>WGLCP</i> (weighted <i>GLCP</i>) texture features. In this research, the <i>WGLCP</i> and <i>GLCP</i> feature sets are compared in terms of boundary preservation, unsupervised segmentation ability, robustness to increasing boundary density and computation time. The <i>WGLCP</i> method outperforms the <i>GLCP</i> method in all aspects except for computation time, where it suffers. From the comparative analysis, an inconsistency with the <i>GLCP</i> correlation statistic was observed, which motivated an investigative study into using this statistic for image segmentation. As the overall goal of the thesis is to improve SAR sea ice segmentation accuracy, the concepts developed from the study are applied to the image segmentation problem. The results indicate that for images with high contrast boundaries, the <i>GLCP</i> correlation statistical feature decreases segmentation accuracy. When comparing <i>WGLCP</i> and <i>GLCP</i> features for segmentation, the <i>WGLCP</i> features provide higher segmentation accuracy.

This thesis presents a model of fabric bending hysteresis. The hysteresis model is designed to reproduce the fabric bending measurements taken by the Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) and the model parameters can be derived directly from these property measurements. The advantage to using this technique is that it provides the ability to simulate a continuum of property curves. Results of the model and its components are compared and constrasted with experimental results for fabrics composed of different weaves and yarn types. An attempt to incorporate the bending model as part of a fabric drape simulation is also made.

This research investigates the relationship between those incentives for faculty support of university-industry technology transfer that are governed by university intellectual property policies and technology transfer outcomes at Canadian universities. <br /> Empirical research, chiefly conducted in the United States, has explored the link between the incentives that are governed by IP policies and various outcomes and found that financial incentives are correlated with a variety of outcomes. This research extends the literature by exploring the same underlying relationship, in Canada, where IP policies also determine ownership and control of the development of the IP; some universities retain control over the development and other universities let the ownership and control vest with the inventors. <br />The research question was pursued by conducting three studies, each of which provided a different perspective. The first study seeks to explain cross-institutional patterns in the numbers of patents held by Canadian universities using variables that represent the financial incentives and control offered to faculty inventors by the universities' policies. The second study investigated the impact of a policy change at the University of Toronto, using interrupted time series analysis techniques. The third study investigated the experiences of faculty inventors at the University of Waterloo through indepth interviews and thematic analysis of the resulting qualitative data. <br /> The first, cross-sectional study failed to generate statistically significant results. In the second, longitudinal study, the change from a "university-owns" to an "inventor-owns" policy appeared to have significantly and substantially increased the number of invention disclosures submitted to the University of Toronto by its faculty members. The third, qualitative study suggests that faculty members interpret the incentives governed by intellectual property policies and that this interpretation is shaped by group norms, academic leadership, university culture and the inventors' experiences with technology transfer support organizations. Therefore, Studies 2 and 3 indicate that university intellectual property policies are effective levers with which to stimulate university-industry technology transfer and thus deserve further study. The importance of university factors in Study 3 implies that intellectual property policies must fit with their organizational contexts in order to be productive. <br />This research also has important policy implications. Many governments have been attempting to emulate the American Bayh-Dole Act by introducing or changing national regulations affecting university IP policies. This research suggests that these national regulations may actually depress researcher support for technology transfer and thus the amount of activity at those institutions that would benefit from an alternate policy. In effect, standardization of university IP policies through national regulations may deprive university administrators of an effective lever for encouraging technology transfer on their campuses. This inference will be the focus of further research which will broaden the work documented in this dissertation by exploring the relationship between university IP policies, university-industry technology transfer, and university factors, including culture, across a wider range of universities.