Master of Science / Department of Architecture / Donald J. Watts / This thesis assesses concepts of architectural education both globally and regionally but ultimately presents a pedagogy aimed at the special needs of Afghan architectural education that will serve the needs of Afghan society. It is the author’s hope that this thesis may aptly establish the first steps for a renewed architectural education at Kabul University, Kabul, Afghanistan. The essence of this thesis presents a carefully reasoned and detailed educational strategy for teaching beginning architectural design. The new curriculum in the Department of Architecture at Kabul University requires new syllabi to achieve higher academic standards. The new design course syllabus should address the existing problems of Afghan society. This thesis begins by understanding the context and the current problems confronting the Kabul University Department of Architecture. It is by understanding these problems that I can begin to identify a solution. Understanding the Kabul Municipality rules and regulations, familiarity with beginning design terminology, a carefully stated and sequenced course description promoting gradual student improvement, understanding interrelationships between the interior spaces, environmental sustainable design, and finally introducing a new generation of conscientious architects to Afghan society are some of the main objectives for designing this course. Identifying the best strategy for teaching this course was a primary research question. Christopher Alexander’s great work, A Pattern Language inspired me to select it as the best methodology for my research. My early research focused upon the creation of a new syllabus for the first semester of architectural design at Kabul University. This new syllabus was launched during the first semester of 2009 in Kabul where I taught the new course alongside a junior Afghan faculty member. Establishing the new course materials for the first semester set the stage for my primary focus of this thesis. That is the creation of the second semester architectural design course using pattern language as my pedagogical framework. This pedagogy is fundamental for establishing architectural studies focused upon meaningful new academic criteria. The ultimate aim of my thesis is to lay the foundation stone for the reincarnation of Afghan architectural identity.

Continued dimensional scaling of CMOS processes is approaching fundamental limits and therefore, alternate new devices and microarchitectures are explored to address the growing need of area scaling and performance gain. New nanotechnologies, such as memristors, emerge. Memristors can be used to perform stateful logic with nanowire crossbars, which allows for implementation of very large binary networks that can be easily reconfigured. This research involves the design of a memristor-based massively parallel datapath for various applications, specifically SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) like architecture, and parallel pipelines. The dissertation develops a new model of massively parallel memristor-CMOS hybrid datapath architectures at a systems level, as well as a complete methodology to design them. One innovation of the proposed approach is that the datapath design is based on space-time diagrams that use stateful IMPLY gates built from binary memristors. This notation aids in the circuit minimization in logic design, calculations of delay and memristor costs, and sneak-path avoidance. Another innovation of the proposed methodology is a general, new, architecture model, MsFSMD (Memristive stateful Finite State Machine with Datapath) that has two interacting sub-systems: 1) a controller composed of a memristive RAM, MsRAM, to act as a pulse generator, along with a finite state machine realized in CMOS, a CMOS counter, CMOS multiplexers and CMOS decoders, 2) massively parallel, pipelined, datapath realized with a new variant of a CMOL-like nanowire crossbar array, MsCMOL (Memristive stateful CMOL), with binary stateful memristor-based IMPLY gates. Next contribution of the dissertation is the new type of FPGA. In contrast to the previous memristor-based FPGA (mrFPGA), the proposed MsFPGA (Memristive stateful logic Field Programmable Gate Array) uses memristors for memory, connections programming, and combinational logic implementation. With a regular structure of square abutting blocks of memristive nanowire crossbars and their short connections, proposed architecture is highly reconfigurable. As an example of using the proposed new FPGA to realize biologically inspired systems, the detailed design of a pipelined Euclidean Distance processor was presented and its various applications are mentioned. Euclidean Distance calculation is widely used by many neural network and associative memory based algorithms.

Calculating a sparse code for signals with high dimensionality, such as high-resolution images, takes substantial time to compute on a traditional computer architecture. Memristors present the opportunity to combine storage and computing elements into a single, compact device, drastically reducing the area required to perform these calculations. This work focused on the analysis of two existing sparse coding architectures, one of which utilizes memristors, as well as the design of a new, third architecture that employs a memristive crossbar. These architectures implement either a non-spiking or spiking variety of sparse coding based on the Locally Competitive Algorithm (LCA) introduced by Rozell et al. in 2008. Each architecture receives an arbitrary number of input lines and drives an arbitrary number of output lines. Training of the dictionary used for the sparse code was implemented through external control signals that approximate Oja's rule. The resulting designs were capable of representing input in real-time: no resets would be needed between frames of a video, for instance, though some settle time would be needed. The spiking architecture proposed is novel, emphasizing simplicity to achieve lower power than existing designs. The architectures presented were tested for their ability to encode and reconstruct 8 x 8 patches of natural images. The proposed network reconstructed patches with a normalized, root-mean-square error of 0.13, while a more complicated CMOS-only approach yielded 0.095, and a non-spiking approach yielded 0.074. Several outputs competing for representation of the input was shown to improve reconstruction quality and preserve more subtle components in the final encoding; the proposed algorithm lacks this feature. Steps to address this were proposed for future work by scaling input spikes according to the current expected residual, without adding much complexity. The architectures were also tested with the MNIST digit database, passing a sparse code onto a basic classifier. The proposed architecture scored 81% on this test, a CMOS-only spiking variant scored 76%, and the non-spiking algorithm scored 85%. Power calculations were made for each design and compared against other publications. The overall findings showed great promise for spiking memristor-based ASICs, consuming only 28% of the power used by non-spiking architectures and 6.6% as much power as a CMOS-only spiking architecture on this task. The spike-based nature of the novel design was also parameterized into several intuitive parameters that could be adjusted to prefer either performance or power efficiency. The design and analysis of architectures for sparse coding should greatly reduce the amount of future work needed to implement an end-to-end classification pipeline for images or other signal data. When lower power is a primary concern, the proposed architecture should be considered as it surpassed other published algorithms. These pipelines could be used to provide low-power visual assistance, highlighting objects within high-definition video frames in real-time. The technology could also be used to help self-driving cars identify hazards more quickly and efficiently.

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A leitura comparativa das arquiteturas de Oscar Niemeyer e Le Corbusier aponta para a existência de um diálogo. Os três encontros ocorridos entre os arquitetos em 1936 no Rio de Janeiro, em 1947 em Nova York e 1955 em Paris prestam-se como cenário para uma troca de experiências estéticas caracterizada por uma relação de influência e contra-influência. Nos projetos que sucedem seu primeiro encontro com Le Corbusier na cidade do Rio de Janeiro em 1936, Niemeyer estrutura sua própria linguagem no instante em que, expande à escala do edifício, os elementos de caráter compositivo que Le Corbusier preserva internos a um esquema plástico-gráfico de matriz pictórica. A crescente emancipação da forma de traçado curvilíneo com relação aos pressupostos puristas apregoados por Le Corbusier em seus projetos realizados durante a década de 1920, além de representar a autonomia formal da arquitetura de Oscar Niemeyer, sinaliza uma perspectiva plástica para a própria obra de Le Corbusier, justamente no momento em que o arquiteto franco-suíço, em 1947, na cidade de Nova York, é apresentado, pelas mãos do arquiteto brasileiro, às fotografias dos edifícios da Pampulha. No início de 1955, ano em que inicia uma severa auto-crítica com relação aos seus procedimentos projetuais, Niemeyer realiza sua primeira viagem à Europa e reencontra Le Corbusier, dessa vez, no atelier do mestre em Paris. Ao ser apresentado aos estudos de Le Corbusier para os palácios de Chandigarh, Niemeyer encontra o nexo entre síntese plástica e monumentalidade que será incorporado em seus projetos para os palácios de Brasília. Oscar Niemeyer arma seu universo estético a partir de um raciocínio dialético que oscila entre o respeito e a ruptura com relação aos postulados corbusianos. Ao extravasar a dimensão expressiva da plástica arquitetônica para além dos parâmetros reguladores dos modelos de Le Corbusier, Niemeyer revigora os sentidos da superfície, da forma e do espaço na arquitetura moderna, assimilando o projeto como um desenho da própria paisagem. / The comparison between Oscar Niemeyers and Le Corbusiers architectures points out to the existence of a dialog. The three meetings that took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1936, New York in 1947 and Paris in 1955, provides a scenario for an aesthetic interchange of experiences, characterized by a relation of influence and counter-influence. In the works that come after Niemeyers first meeting with Le Corbusier in the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1936, he structures his own language at the same time that he expands and reaches the building scale, the compounded elements Le Corbusier preserved inside a plastic/graphic scheme of pictorial source. The growing curved line trace freedom with regard to the purist presupposes divulged by Le Corbusier in his projects realized during the 1920s, besides representing the formal autonomy of Niemeyers architecture, points to a plastic perspective in Le Corbusiers own works, just in the moment when the French-Swiss architect in 1947, in New York city, is introduced, through the Brazilian architect, to Pampulha building photographs. Early of 1955, the year he initiates a strong self-criticism of his design procedures, Niemeyer travels to Europe for the first time and meets Le Corbusier again, at the masters atelier in Paris. Introduced to Le Corbusiers plan for Chandigarh Palaces, Niemeyer finds the connection between plastic syntheses and monumentality, which would be incorporated in his works for Brasilia Palaces. Oscar Niemeyer builds his aesthetic universe from a dialectical thought that oscillates between respect and rupture with regard to the Corbusian postulates. Extroverting the expressive dimension of architecture plastics to beyond the regulator parameters of Le Corbusiers models, Niemeyer revives the surface, form and space senses in modern architecture, incorporating the design project as a drawing from landscape itself.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar as casas modernas de arquitetos que contribuíram na formação e transformação do viver urbano, onde estes objetos de estudos podem ser utilizados como fio condutor para a discussão do ensino da disciplina de projeto de arquitetura. Também é analisado as principais escolas de arquitetura, tanto européias como as brasileiras que consolidaram um novo modo de compreender o programa de ensino das disciplinas e do curso de arquitetura no ensino moderno e contemporâneo, onde a Bauhaus, na Alemanha, influenciou muitas escolas no Rio e São Paulo, como a FAUUSP e FAUUBC, esta última elemento norteador da pesquisa geradora dos estudos de caso nos anos de 2001 e 2002, onde lecionei como professor assistente e posteriormente como responsável na disciplina de Projeto de Arquitetura, consolidando um conjunto de material para a análise do que chamo de experiência didática vivenciada. / The present dissertation aims to study and analyze the modern house projects which have contributed to new living architecture and urban concepts, and the acknowledgement of these intentions and purposes is used as guideline for the development of didactical orientations. Different projectual concepts that belong to the Twentieth Century architecture history are also compared in order to set up an internationally constructed scenario which will include brazilian didactical teaching experiences (FAUUSP and FAUUBC) as well as historical european examples such as the BAUHAUS experience in Germany. The faculty teaching carreer of the author shall help the construction of the concept he names as shared didactical experience.

Trata-se de trabalho realizado por uma arquiteta e professora de projeto que pretende mostrar a importância da observação direta das poéticas dos arquitetos, tanto para a produção da arquitetura quanto para sua teoria e seu ensino. Ele se baseia na idéia de uma separação entre os campos da história, da crítica e da teoria da arquitetura, esta não tendo um caráter valorativo, mas sendo vista como um catalisador da produção. Nessa posição de frente, a teoria necessariamente passa a necessitar das poéticas dos próprios arquitetos o lugar onde a invenção ocorre. A valorização das poéticas também se explica pela crise por que passa o pensamento racionalista em todas as disciplinas, a qual permite o aparecimento do pluralismo de idéias e o afrouxamento da dicotomia subjetividade/objetividade. Essas poéticas, embora revelem idéias e conceitos particulares, forjam permanentemente uma teoria mais geral, através do diálogo com outras poéticas, a crítica e a história. Para isso ela analisou seus próprios projetos realizados entre 1970 e 1990 e entrevistas e projetos de outros arquitetos publicados de 1990 até o momento. / This is a work realized by a woman architect and project teacher that demands to show the importance of direct observation of architects poetics, for the architectural production as much as for theory and teaching. Its based on the idea of a separation between the areas of history, criticism and architecture theory, this one with no valorizing character, but considered as a production catalyser. In this front, theory necessarily needs poetics of its own architects the place where invention occurs. Poetics valoriazation also explains by crisis that attains rationalistic thought in all points os view, as well as allows the appearing of ideas pluralism and slackening of dycotomy subjectivity/objectivity. This poetics although reveals particular ideas and concepts, permanently forges a more general theory by the dialog among other poetics, criticism and theory. On the strenght of it, she analyzed her own projetcs, realized between 1970 and 1990, teoria da interviews and projects of other architects, published from 1970 up till now.

A partir da segunda metade do século XX, o futebol consolidou-se como um importante ramo da indústria do entretenimento no Brasil e assim sendo, deflagrou a necessidade de se projetar novos estádios, mais eficientes especialmente no que tange os processos de requalificação do seu entorno construído. O crescimento desordenado das cidades brasileiras a partir das décadas de 1960 e 1970, conjugado ao desenvolvimento da indústria do futebol expuseram a incapacidade dos grandes estádios brasileiros, construídos na sua maioria em concreto armado durante o regime militar, de se tornarem peças centrais em processos de regeneração urbana e nem mesmo de acomodar com qualidade seus espectadores. Portanto, o presente trabalho visa reavaliar o arquétipo do estádio de futebol contemporâneo verificando a presença de estratégias projetuais que permitam a estes edifícios tornarem-se qualificadores do espaço construído, especialmente neste momento em que o país será sede de mega eventos esportivos, como a Copa do Mundo e os jogos olímpicos. Além disto, a organização destas competições, juntamente com a consolidação da industria esportiva nacional, deve ser compreendida como uma possibilidade de desenvolvimento de sistemas de infraestrutura urbana e políticas sociais que contribuam para a regeneração de áreas urbanas subutilizadas. Sendo assim, o presente resumo sintetiza os resultados obtidos com a dissertação de mestrado intitulada: O estádio contemporâneo: uma arquitetura regeneradora do seu tecido urbano. Inicialmente, o trabalho foi desenvolvido a partir de pesquisa bibliográfica em periódicos internacionais, como: European Urban Studies, Urban Environment, Built Environment, Town Planning Review, Annals of Regional Science, Economic Development Quarterly, Urban Studies, Tourism Management, Journal of Sport Management, Leisure Studies, World Leisure and Recreation Studies, Journal of Urban Affairs, Sb Magazine. Posteriormente, a metodologia aplicada a pesquisa utilizou-se da análise de estudos de caso, que apontaram os aspectos arquitetônicos que contribuíram para que os edifícios analisados tornassem-se regeneradores, e não desagregadores de seu contexto urbano. Portanto, o estudo concentrou-se na análise dos estádios de futebol contemporâneos, construídos como sedes de competições internacionais, a partir da compreensão das estratégias projetuais presentes nestes edifícios propostos como requalificadores de seu contexto urbano. Os resultados obtidos pelo estudo indicaram que as tendências arquitetônicas apresentadas pelos estádios contemporâneos são consequências de transformações morfológicas ocorridas durante o século XX que incorporaram ao edifício novas tecnologias e sistemas construtivos que reafirmam a sua função enquanto regeneradores de tecidos degradados. A necessária ligação ente o estádio e o seu contexto urbano demanda que estes sejam concebidos conjugadamente com sistemas de infraestrutura, possibilitado ao edifício estar inserido na malha consolidada de grandes cidades, uma condição fundamental para que estes equipamentos consolidem-se enquanto pontos focais de sua estrutura espacial. Desta forma, o estudo dos estádios contemporâneos, sedes de grandes eventos esportivos, possibilitou identificar as diretrizes de projeto e planejamento que possibilitam repensar esta tipologia arquitetônica, propondo uma integração coerente com a malha consolidada de sua cidade, permitindo assim que o mesmo seja parte integrante de processos de regeneração urbana / Brazil, has been well known worldwide for its deep relation with soccer as its national sport. Through the last century this sport modality has become a strong branch of the entertainment industry and it has brought with it the need of more efficient stadia specially regarding the urban regeneration aspect. The massive growth of Brazilian cities during the 60\'s and 70\'s and the development of soccer industry in the last decades have exposed the incapability of Brazilian\'s huge concrete bowls built for soccer practice during the military regime to function as catalysts of urban change nor to accommodate fans. Clearly there is a great need of reviewing the archetypal of Brazilian stadia since the country will be the next host of the two greatest contemporary mega-events: the World Cup and the Summer Olympics. Furthermore, hosting this mega-events and the settlement of its sports industry can be understood as a possibility to develop urban infrastructure systems and social policies contributing for the regeneration of underdeveloped urban areas. Therefore, this abstract summarizes the results obtained with the dissertation entitled: The contemporary stadium: an urban regeneration architecture. Initially, the work was developed from a bibliographical research in international journals such as: European Urban Studies, Urban Environment, Built Environment, Town Planning Review, Annals of Regional Science, Economic Development Quarterly, Urban Studies, Tourism Management, Journal of Sport Management, Leisure Studies, World Leisure and Recreation Studies, Journal of Urban Affairs, Sb Magazine. This research focus on the analysis of the contemporary stadia built for mega-events starting from the comprehension of the design strategies proposed by these buildings which expect to become the centerpieces of a process of urban renewal. The research understands that the design trends proposed by contemporary stadia is a consequence of a set of architectural morphological transformations occurred during the 20th century, which incorporated new technologies and building systems to its conception, confirming a new function to this typology of building also responsible for the urban regeneration of parts of the city. The connection between the stadium and its surroundings suggests that this buildings must be designed together with infrastructure systems, which allow these great sports buildings to be placed near the city centre, a fundamental condition for these facilities to achieve the status of architectonic monument. Therefore, the systems of mass transportation are a key element on the stadia proposal, especially in the cases where these building will be venues of important sports events such as the summer Olympics or the World Cup. A critical analysis of contemporary stadia will identify the relation between this buildings and its host cities, using the mass transportation systems planned for mega-evens since Atlanta 1996 as an object of the study as well as the architectonic aspects that contribute for the stadium to boost the regeneration process instead of becoming a burden to the host city.

A finite element tool has been developed to design and investigate a multi-hull composite ship structure, and a hybrid hull of identical length and beam. Hybrid hull structure is assembled by Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) frame and sandwich composite panels. Wave loads and slamming loads acting on both hull structures have been calculated according to ABS rules at sea state 5 with a ship velocity of 40 knots. Comparisons of deformations and stresses between two sets of loadings demonstrate that slamming loads have more detrimental effects on ship structure. Deformation under slamming is almost one order higher than that caused by wave loads. Also, Titanium frame in hybrid hull significantly reduces both deformation and stresses when compared to composite hull due to enhancement of in plane strength and stiffness of the hull. A 73m long hybrid hull has also been investigated under wave and slamming loads in time domain for dynamic analysis. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

Trata-se da constatação de que o ensino de desenho arquitetônico, nas escolas brasileiras de arquitetura, apresenta um quadro pouco positivo, em que os alunos não utilizam adequadamente a representação gráfica do desenho técnico arquitetônico na criação e na produção do objeto de arquitetura. Fica evidente o pouco domínio dessa ferramenta básica, necessária ao exercício da profissão de arquiteto, o que compromete seu bom desempenho. O trabalho se dá a partir da fundamentação teórica sobre a matéria, seguindo-se com a elaboração e aplicação de um questionário a professores de desenho arquitetônico e de CAD, o levantamento e análise de manuais ainda em uso por professores e alunos e, por fim, entrevistas com arquitetos e/ou professores. Os resultados nos instigam à auto-reflexão e à revisão de algumas posturas, a fim de contribuir para a qualidade do ensino de arquitetura e urbanismo e, conseqüentemente, para uma melhor capacitação profissional do arquiteto. / This work analyses the teaching of architectural drawing at Brazilian schools of architecture, coming to a general picture which is not a good one, for the students do not use correctly the graphic representation of the architectural technical drawing, when creating or producing the object of architecture. Such lack of knowledge for using this basic tool, which is so necessary to the architects, endangers their professional performance. The works presents a theoretical foundation on architectural drawing; a questionary apllied to the teachers of architectural drawing and CAD; a list and analysis of manuals in use by teacher and stundents; and, eventually, interviews with architects and/or teachers. The results instigate us to reconsider our role and to review our positions, in order to contribute to the improvement of the quality of the architecture and urbanism teaching and, as a consequence, to a better professional performance of the architects.