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Faust, Juergen. "Discursive designing theory : towards a theory of designing design." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/3210.
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Motivated by the immature theoretical framework of design, this thesis employs transdisciplinary discourse to provide a contemporary and forward-looking model of design and design theory, as well as the linkages between the two, along with the necessary methodology. The discourse involves research into the current understanding of design, its principles, its practice and conceptual framework. The methodology developed and employed in this thesis can be outlined in five steps: 0. Design briefing 1. Developing a conceptual model based on the writings of Michel Foucault and Helmut Krippendorff. 2. Presenting the model in a written form. 3. Using accounts of conferences as tools for Designing Design and building monuments. 4. Interrogating the theory through an expert system. 5. Summarising and evaluating the findings. Design Briefing The present study delves into design, and into the design of theory. In Chapter A.1.6, a summary of Chapter A.0−A.1.5 is given, highlighting the underlying discourse. As shown, the theory behind this work is based on a hypothesis, which cannot be proved experimentally, or deduced from experimental data, at least at the time of its construction. Therefore, it needs to be understood that the case studies (A.3.2−A.3.5) in this thesis are not intended to serve as experiments that were conducted in order to prove the theory; rather, these case studies are design cases—products and artefacts—and should be viewed as discourse frameworks that can be adopted to design design. As described in Chapter 3.1, these are elements of monuments—in reference to Raichman (1988)—that have resulted from the discursive strategies and were designed within a community of designers, allowing the design understanding to be shaped. Methodologically, the theory is created through an indication of differences. These differences were elaborated on in the literature review, and can be explained using either logic-based or hermeneutical metaphors. As the latter approach is more flexible, it might be more applicable to the design environment. The generated knowledge can be located in three areas—design knowledge, epistemology, methodology (the process to get there), and phenomenology (the composition of the artefacts). While the main focus of this thesis has been on theory design, it was also important to delineate how to get there, as well as analyse the questionable differences between theory and practice, since they are ideal types that mark the extreme ends of a continuum (Jonsen and Toulmin 1988, p.36). The work presented in this thesis was conducted in a circular manner, like a design process, in order to encapsulate the instance. Therefore, essential topics reappear, allowing them to be reframed and newly contextualised. Chapter 0.0 to 0.7 reperesent the introductory part of this work. Thus, the content presented could be referred to as ‘the briefing’—as a parallel to a design case—to provide the background. It shows the motivation, a first hypothesis, some methodological considerations, and the research design and decisions. The aim is to provide insight into the phenomenon of interest and discuss some preconceptions. Thus, these introductory chapters provide orientation through locating some statements of the provided (design) discourse. Developing a conceptual model based on the writings of Michel Foucault and Helmut Krippendorff. As a follow up, Section A consists of several key components, and encompasses the research methodology specificity, its theoretical underpinning, and its connection to design, a reframing and contextualisation. This section also provides the means to overcome the discrepancy between researching and designing. Therefore, in Chapter A1−A1.6, a more substantial discourse of design is provided, along with the theory and the essential knowledge. Here, we can see the method in operation, as a patching of discursive statements—akin to an additive process of designing. Clearly, the attempt made here belongs to the constructivist epistemology, as the idea of design is a mental construct. Nonetheless, the aim is to provide a broad perspective of what can be presently observed in the design field. The employed methodology strategically aims to overcome the divide between designing and researching—between acting and reflecting—in order to provide a conceptual model. Still, it also makes the designing practice a conscious process, whereby theory is designed through discourse. Such discourse is revealed within the discovery of textual statements based on an extensive literature review, as well as through the discovery of textual statements from organised interactive conferences. The theory developed here is, in fact, a theory derived from theory, and is shaped through finding patterns and the simplification of the overall structure they form. In A.2, the concept of discourse and its designing quality is revealed. It shows how discourse, as the guiding method, is ‘excavated’ from the writings of Michel Foucault and Helmut Krippendorff. Methodologically, Michel Foucault’s ‘Archeology of Knowledge’ was analysed against and parallel to Helmut Krippendorff’s ‘Semantic Turn’, as these sources are complementary to each other. The goal of this process is a comparison of statements, yielding reasoning towards discourse and design discourse. In sum, this analysis helped reveal that it is a matter of design how the discourse is provided. The outcome of the aforementioned comparison is very interesting and satisfying. The findings revealed a difference in discourse, because engineering and design discourses are informed by rhetoric of design, rhetoric of deliberation, in opposite to humanistic discourse, which consumes textual objects (Perelman 1999). The discursive designing process within these chapters reveals some important elements, such as the conceptual frame of politics, referred to in Foucault’s discourse explorations. According to the author, power is a generating force in shaping discourse (Faucault 1980, p.119). In contrast, Krippendorff (1995b) sees power as emanating from language, which can be overcome through avoiding the construction of certain language. In the research presented, the designing practice that took place during the conferences, as well as the aforementioned notions, play a role, as was shown in Chapter 3. Power, as it was experienced, is unavoidable. Yet, rather than seeing it as a problem, it should be viewed as a generating force. A second more substantial question arises around the notion of discontinuity (A.2.3), which is essential in Foucault’s concept. According to Krippendorff, knowledge is not partitioned; it rather provides continuity through the various disciplines. As this research shows, this view should not be seen as an opposite to Foucault’s concept of discontinuity, because statements can refer to the same object, but coming from a discontinuous field, from various disciplines. In other words, as design discourse can be viewed as a discourse hosted by various disciplines, it is discontinuous! With respect to Foucault’s concern of grasping of statements, the main goal of this thesis is to provide support for this perspective. As the author noted, the grasping of the statements needs to follow the exact specificity of their occurrence (Foucault 1972). The prudence and success of dissociating statements from their original context to place them in a new context is questionable, since no discontinuity can be ignored (Foucault 1972). Often, rather than paraphrasing the text so that it reflects one’s own understanding of it, the result is a mere citation of the original texts and con-texts. The awareness of discontinuity does not allow for this thesis to be presented according to the positivistic paradigm.
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Tedeschi, Carla. "Design theory and methodology /." Online version of thesis, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/1850/11771.
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Perolini, Petra S. "Futuring Design: Transforming Interior Design using Design Futures Theory." Thesis, Griffith University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/393969.
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Design studies traditionally examine the process of design in the context of how that process contributes to the creation of the designed object, system or structure. That is, a successful design process is measured by the capacity and efficiency with which it results in an object, space or system. In many cases, there is no measure of how well-designed these outputs are, at most; such measures will generally be limited to cost, efficacy and user satisfaction. Further, the notion of what constitutes well-designed is arbitrary and inconsistent across disciplines. The theory of Design Futures highlights the crucial implications of design on society and the environment in which the designed object operates over its lifetime. This thesis deals with the challenge of finding ways to incorporate the principles of Design Futures to improve design practice so that it incorporates both the lessons learned from historical enquiry and the experience of design practitioners who have attempted to incorporate these historical lessons. Inevitably, any attempt to improve design practice must engage with education practice to ensure that designers acquire the principles and methods of design which they apply in their professional practice.
Human-centred design focuses on the impact of the design on the user as they make use of the space, dwelling or object that has been designed and Design Thinking facilitates this by framing the problem as broadly and contextually as possible and iteratively reviewing the design approach with the user. Design Futures is one of a number of theories, or movements, that extends the context to the long term social, environmental and cultural implications of the design. This research builds on that work to discover a framework that connects theory to practice and how that framework might be used in educating designers to embed that theory into their practice thereby assisting them to take responsibility for the long term cultural, social and environmental implications of their design.
This research sets out to link the theory and the practice by creating a Design Futures framework and integrating it into the curriculum of an Interior Design course. This challenges the superficial view of Interior Design with a view to teaching a socially responsible design practice that takes a long-term view. Such a curriculum is built on the theoretical underpinnings of Design Futures and is informed by the key principle that a designer is responsible for the social, cultural and environmental impact of their design. The term sustainability is used in this research to include these impacts over the long-term.
This review unfolds in a narrative that moves from the literature review of Interior Design theory and practice in chapter one to an analysis of Urban Planning and its social impacts in chapter two. This second phase combines the literature review with interviews to explore the mechanics of change through an examination of the theory and practice of Urban Planning. The chapter on Authenticity extracts and examines a framework based on the variables of success developed by Price Waterhouse Coopers and summarised by the Greater Namoi Chamber of Commerce, to determine criteria for urban planners to measure the “Success of the City.”
Interviews were carried out with the founder and residents of Common Ground and with the urban planners commenting on authenticity. The practitioners actively engaged in the research as they commented on the value of authenticity as a framework for measuring the impact of gentrification as well as on the authenticity of their practice.
Given the apparent power of a framework to record and collate quantitative action research, these frameworks are then examined and compared with the Authenticity framework, to create the proposed Design Futures framework. This framework is then tested against Action Research previously undertaken by the author to explore its aptness for measuring Design Thinking and ways in which it might be employed pedagogically.
There are two separate sets of Action Research used to retrospectively review the Design Futures framework. Firstly, the author and colleagues undertook major external projects applying Design Futures theory to refine, develop and promote it. In addition, the students engaged in delivering design projects to real-world clients by applying Design Futures methodology and so were actively engaged in developing and testing the concepts that were later incorporated as the components of the Design Futures framework developed in this thesis.
By working with the students to refine and test the application of Design Futures theory, the research actively engages the students as participants in the research that they are applying. By developing the framework and the Action Research independently but from the same underpinning theory, it is possible that built in assumptions have been reinforced rather than exposed. Methods for overcoming this weakness are addressed in the conclusion.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Queensland College of Art
Arts, Education and Law
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Snepscheut, Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut Jan L. A. van de. "Trace theory and VLSI design /." Berlin : Springer, 1985. http://sfx.ethz.ch:9003/sfx_locater?sid=ALEPH:EBI01&issn=0302-9743&volume=200.
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Carnegie, F. L. "Language theory and urban design." Thesis, University of Westminster, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.323128.
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Booth, Stuart. "Multisensory theory for interface design." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.269283.
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Kim, Taejung 1969. "Implementation of axiomatic design theory." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34098.
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Lee, Tae-Sik 1974. "Complexity theory in axiomatic design." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29631.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-182).
During the last couple of decades, the term complexity has been commonly found in use in many fields of science, sometimes as a measurable quantity with a rigorous but narrow definition and other times as merely an ad hoc label. With an emphasis on pragmatic engineering applications, this thesis investigates the complexity concept defined in axiomatic design theory to avoid vague use of the term 'complexity' in engineering system design, to provide deeper insight into possible causes of complexity, and to develop a systematic approach to complexity reduction. The complexity concept in axiomatic design theory is defined as a measure of uncertainty in achieving a desired set of functional requirements. In this thesis, it is revisited to refine its definition. Four different types of complexity are identified in axiomatic design complexity theory: time-independent real complexity, time-independent imaginary complexity, time-dependent combinatorial complexity and time-dependent periodic complexity. Time-independent real complexity is equivalent to the information content, which is a measure of a probability of achieving functional requirements. Time-independent imaginary complexity is defined as the uncertainty due to ignorance of the interactions between functional requirements and design parameters. Time-dependent complexity consists of combinatorial complexity and periodic complexity, depending on whether the uncertainty increases indefinitely or occasionally stops increasing at certain point and returns to the initial level of uncertainty. In this thesis, existing definitions for each of the types of complexity are further elaborated with a focus on time-dependent complexity. In particular, time-dependent complexity is clearly defined using the concepts of time-varying system ranges and time-dependent sets of functional requirements.
(cont.) Clear definition of the complexity concept that properly addresses the causes of complexity leads to a systematic approach for complexity reduction. As techniques for reducing time-independent complexity are known within and beyond axiomatic design theory, this thesis focuses on dealing with time-dependent complexity. From the definition of time-dependent complexity, combinatorial complexity must be transformed into periodic complexity to prevent the uncertainty from growing unboundedly. Time-dependence of complexity is attributed to two factors. One is a time-varying system range and the other is a time-dependent set of functional requirements. This thesis shows that achieving periodicity in time-varying system ranges and maintaining functional periodicity of time-dependent sets of functional requirements prevent a system from developing time-dependent combinatorial complexity. Following this argument, a re-initialization concept as a means to achieve and maintain periodicity is presented. Three examples are drawn from different fields, tribology, manufacturing system, and the cell biology, to support the periodicity argument and illustrate the re-initialization concept.
by Taesik Lee.
Ph.D.
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Stauffer, Griffin K. "Design-build vs design-bid-build a procurement method selection framework." Thesis, (8 MB), 2006. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA471905.
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Thesis (M.S. in Civil Engineering)--Purdue University, 2006."August 2006." Description based on title screen as viewed on June 9, 2010. DTIC Descriptor(s): Decision Making, Construction, Game Theory, Procurement, Models, Facilities, Standards, Selection. DTIC Identifier(s): Construction Projects, Utility Theory, Thresholds, Frameworks, Procurement Criteria, Project Delivery, Procurement Methods, DB (Design-Build), DBB (Design-Bid-Build) Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-32). Also available in print.
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Fiala, Nick C. "Some topics in combinatorial design theory and algebraic graph theory /." The Ohio State University, 2002. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1486402957198077.
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McCulloch, Stacey L. "Theory and design, justification for new urbanism design attributes." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0026/MQ31853.pdf.
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Jeong, Jinyong. "Essays in Matching Theory." Thesis, Boston College, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107959.
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Thesis advisor: Utku UnverMy doctoral research focuses on the matching theory and its market design application. Specifically, I work on matching with property rights, where property rights not only mean the ownership, but also refer to the ability to determine how the good is used. In the matching with property rights model, an agent who owns a resource can claim how her resource is offered, depending on what she gets from the system. For example, in a housing exchange for vacation, an agent who gets a house with a car will offer her house also with a car. However, if she is assigned only a house without a car, she might refuse to offer a car. This restriction can be thought as a matching with externality, as someone's consuming my resource in certain way affects my utility. With property rights present, it is not clear how we can achieve a desirable outcome while satisfying the rights. I am currently pursuing two main lines of research in this topic that constitute the two chapters dissertation. In Matching with Property Rights: an Application to a Parking Space Assignment Problem, I introduce parking in urban areas as a matching problem. First, I model the street-parking market as a strategic game and show that the set of Nash equilibrium outcomes is equivalent to the set of stable allocations. However, it is not reasonable to expect drivers to reach a Nash equilibrium in the decentralized system due to lack of information and coordination failure. Therefore, I suggest a centralized mechanism that would enable a parking authority to assign available spaces to drivers in a stable way. The model incorporates resident parking spaces, such that visitors could access vacant resident spaces. To use the resident parking spaces, the system needs to protect exclusive property rights over their parking spaces. I show that, however, there is no mechanism that is stable and protects residents' rights. To resolve this issue, I introduce a new concept, a claim contract, and suggest a mechanism that protects property rights, is strategy proof for the drivers, and approximates a stable matching. Besides its market-design focus, this paper handles both priority-based and property right-based assignment, which considered separately in the matching theory literature. In Housing Market with Contracts, I study matching with property rights problem in the housing market framework. To introduce property rights in housing market, I assume the house can be offered in two contractual terms. Property rights requires that when an agent gets a house in a certain term, her house should also be offered as the same term. Moreover, when every agent owns a house, property rights reduces to an equal-term matching. After defining efficiency and core in equal-term domain, I show that, in a housing market with contracts problem, core may be empty. However, there always exists an efficient, individually rational, and equal-term matching in every housing market with contracts problem. Then I present a mechanism that always produces an efficient, individually rational, and equal-term matching. This is the first attempt to model a matching with contract in a exchange economy
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics
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Dyas, Scott Patrick. "A unified theory of engineering design." Texas A&M University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/4777.
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A theoretical model of design, that is universal and has a scientific basis, was developed.
By doing so, it is believed that the practice of engineering design can be significantly
improved. A better system of modeling designs is the missing ingredient that needs to
be developed in order to improve the practice of design in the manner suggested above.
Existing methodologies were reviewed to examine the current state of engineering
design. This helped in developing a set of requirements for a new methodology. The
potential for a scientific methodology to improve the practice of engineering design is
also discussed. Developing a scientific theory of design, and showing that it meets these
requirements was done to satisfy the objective. The theory takes the form of a
conceptual model of design, which relates important aspects of the problem and the
solution to facilitate a truly top-down hierarchical approach. A few examples are given
to show how the methodology can be applied to real world design problems.
As a result, a theoretical framework for design was created as a part of this research
project. The new methodology, termed UTED (Unified Theory of Engineering Design),
addresses many important aspects of design which are overlooked by other
methodologies. A set of rules was developed, to guide the designer through the design,
and allow a more scientific process to be used. Making design more scientific
increases the likelihood of achieving a successful design. The primary conclusions are
that the development of a scientific theory of design can be created that makes design
processes faster and more efficient, and improves the quality of designs produced,
meaning there is a strong potential for such a methodology to have a positive impact on
the field of engineering design.
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Levine, Jonathan. "Computer based dialogs : theory and design /." Online version of thesis, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1850/10590.
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Yiu, Ka Fai Cedric. "Aerodynamic design via optimal control theory." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.317867.
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Wakkary, Ronald Lengkong. "Experiencing interaction design : a pragmatic theory." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2111.
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This thesis contributes a theory for the field of interaction design based on philosophical pragmatism. The theory frames interaction design as a pragmatic experience shaped by the inquiries of designers. The contributions of the theory are that it positions the designer at the centre of a theory, describes interaction design practice to be more than a collection of methods and strategies, and provides a sound basis for generating and verifying new knowledge through design. The thesis describes and analyzes two interaction design research projects through self-reflexive accounts that illustrate the proposed theory. The projects are a tangible museum guide and a responsive environment for physical play. The thesis examines the value of understanding interaction design through pragmatism and how interaction design when viewed as experience opens the field up to a new theoretical framework. The two interaction design research projects arc described as design inquiries constituted by a design inquirer, designer intentions, and design rationales. Further descriptions of the projects show interaction design to be comprised of design actions based on judgment and interpretation. Interaction design can be assessed by the degree to which there is integrity between the design inquiry and design actions, as well as by the transferability and discursiveness of the design inquiry findings that are relevant to the wider field of interaction design and related disciplines like human-computer interaction. The implications of the theory lead to new ways of mobilizing interaction design research and interaction design education. The pragmatic theory shows capacity for clear descriptions and analysis of interaction design inquiries in ways that extract and communicate new knowledge from interaction design practice and research. The theory shows interaction design to be a distinct and independent field of inquiry that generates knowledge through design.
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Reber, Michael. "A theory of value in design." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2011. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=18974.
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Zimmerman, Douglas W., Ian S. Davis, and Carrie L. Worth. "The theory of dark network design." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/5013.
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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimitedApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited
This study presents a theory of dark network design and answers two fundamental questions about illuminating and interdicting dark networks: how are they configured and how are they vulnerable? We define dark networks as interdependent entities that use formal and informal ties to conduct licit or illicit activities and employ operational security measures and/or clandestine tradecraft techniques through varying degrees of overt, or more likely covert, activity to achieve their purpose. A dark network must design itself to buffer environmental hostility and produce output to achieve its purpose according to its design state. The level of hostility in the environment and the requirement for secure coordination of work determine the dark network's design state. These factors yield four typological dark network configurations: Opportunistic-Mechanical; Restrictive-Organic; Selective-Technical; and Surgical-Ad hoc. Each configuration must allow the secure coordination of work between the dark network's directional, operational, and supportive components and should adhere to the six principles of dark network design we identify: security, agility, resilience, direction setting, control, and capacity. If a dark network's configuration does not fit its design state or violates the principles of dark network design, the network will be vulnerable to illumination and interdiction.
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Oh, Yeonjoo. "Toward A Theory of Design Critiquing." Research Showcase @ CMU, 2010. http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/133.
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Critiquing is a fundamental part of design education, yet we lack a clear and systematic understanding of how effective teachers make decisions about how to critique students. Although there is a considerable literature on design education, little has been written about design critiquing, specifically about critiquing strategies.
The dissertation outlines a theoretical framework of design critiquing practice developed through a literature survey. It then describes a computational model based on this framework, implemented in the Furniture Design Critic program, a kind of constraint-based tutor. The Furniture Design Critic provides a basis for describing and articulating critiquing strategies. The program first assesses the conditions of critiquing: how much a designer knows, his or her weaknesses and strengths, what critiquing methods have been effective for the designer, and the history of interaction between critic and designer. Based on this the Furniture Design Critic then selects a set of critiquing methods.
This program offers a computational model to describe design critiquing and to model inference about critiquing, and an environment for exploring and investigating alternative critiquing strategies. The dissertation contributes to an ongoing discussion of critiquing in design, design education, and intelligent tutoring systems
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Peng, Richard. "Algorithm Design Using Spectral Graph Theory." Research Showcase @ CMU, 2013. http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/277.
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Spectral graph theory is the interplay between linear algebra and combinatorial graph theory. Laplace’s equation and its discrete form, the Laplacian matrix, appear ubiquitously in mathematical physics. Due to the recent discovery of very fast solvers for these equations, they are also becoming increasingly useful in combinatorial optimization, computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning.
In this thesis, we develop highly efficient and parallelizable algorithms for solving linear systems involving graph Laplacian matrices. These solvers can also be extended to symmetric diagonally dominant matrices and M-matrices, both of which are closely related to graph Laplacians. Our algorithms build upon two decades of progress on combinatorial preconditioning, which connects numerical and combinatorial algorithms through spectral graph theory. They in turn rely on tools from numerical analysis, metric embeddings, and random matrix theory.
We give two solver algorithms that take diametrically opposite approaches. The first is motivated by combinatorial algorithms, and aims to gradually break the problem into several smaller ones. It represents major simplifications over previous solver constructions, and has theoretical running time comparable to sorting. The second is motivated by numerical analysis, and aims to rapidly improve the algebraic connectivity of the graph. It is the first highly efficient solver for Laplacian linear systems that parallelizes almost completely.
Our results improve the performances of applications of fast linear system solvers ranging from scientific computing to algorithmic graph theory. We also show that these solvers can be used to address broad classes of image processing tasks, and give some preliminary experimental results.
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Wu, Tao. "Profiled absorbers : theory, measurement and design." Thesis, University of Salford, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.400825.
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Lim, Beng-Teck 1974. "Dielectric Resonator Antennas : theory and design." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36782.
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Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-122).
Theoretical models for the analysis of Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA) are developed. There are no exact solutions to many of the problems in analytical form, therefore a strong focus on the physical interpretation of the numerical results is presented alongside theoretical models. I have used the physical interpretation of the numerical results to lay down some important design rules. A few new inventions associated with the DRA are also included. These are the elliptical DRA, the DRA with a rectangular slot, the adjustable reactance feed, the triangular DRA and the dual band DRA-patch antenna.
by Beng-Teck Lim.
M.Eng.
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Huang, J. "Frequency diversity array : theory and design." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2010. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/624503/.
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This thesis presents a novel concept of beam scanning and forming by employing frequency diversity in an array antenna. It is shown that by applying a linear frequency shift to the CW signals across the elements, a periodically scanning beam pattern is generated and the main beam direction is a function of time and range. Moreover, when transmitting a pulse signal, the frequency diversity array (FDA) can be used for beam forming in radar applications. These properties offer a more flexible beam scanning and forming option over traditional phase shifter implementations. The thesis begins with the discussion on FDA’s array factor. It is mathematically proven that the array factor is a periodic function of time and range and the scanning period itself is a function of the linear frequency shift. Then further discussion is made when a pulsed signal is transmitted by an FDA. The requirement on the pulse width for a certain linear frequency shift is specified and corresponding signal processing technique is provided for the frequency diverse signal receiver. The thesis subsequently goes on to an electromagnetic simulation of FDA. The CST Microwave Studio is utilized to model the FDA and simulate its transient field, which allows one to verify the relationship between the scanning period and the linear frequency shift. Finally, the implementation of FDA is considered with the focus laid on the generation of the required frequency diverse signals complying with the two basic assumptions. The PLL frequency synthesis technique is introduced as an effective approach of generating the frequency diverse signals. One low cost and profile design of integer-N frequency synthesizer is presented to illustrate the basic design considerations and guidelines. For comparison, a Σ − Δ fractional-N frequency synthesizer produced by Analog Device is introduced for designs where more budget is available.
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Ramasamy, Vivekanandan. "The Design Theory - A Systematic Approach." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/603478.
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Kennedy, R. Scott. "Synthesis of chaos theory & design." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42000.
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The design implications of chaos theory are explored. What does this theory mean, if anything, to landscape architecture or architecture?
In order to investigate these questions, the research was divided into four components relevant to design. First, philosophical- chaos offers a nonlinear understanding about place and nature. Second, aesthetical- fractals describe a deep beauty and order in nature. Thirdly, modeling-it is a qualitative method of modeling natural processes. Lastly, managing- concepts of chaos theory can be exploited to mimic processes found in nature. These components draw from applications and selected literature of chaos theory.
From these research components, design implications were organized and concluded. Philosophical implications, offer a different, nonlinear realization about nature for designers. Aesthetic conclusions, argue that fractal geometry can articulate an innate beauty (a scaling phenomenon) in nature. Modeling, discusses ways of using chaos theory to visualize the design process, a process which may be most resilient when it is nonlinear. The last research chapter, managing, applications of chaos theory are used to illustrate how complex form, like that in nature, can be created by designers.
Master of Landscape Architecture
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Hong, Sukhwa. "Mechanism Design Theory for Service Contracts." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/76865.
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This paper presents a novel approach for designing and optimizing maintenance service contracts through the application of mechanism design theory. When offering a contract to its customer, the maintenance service provider seeks to specify contract terms - such as price, service features and incentives - that maximize the provider's profit, satisfy customer needs, allocate risks effectively and mitigate moral hazards. Optimal contract design has to account for asymmetric information and uncertainties associated with customer characteristics and behaviors. We illustrate our mechanism design approach by applying it to the contract design challenge of a gas turbine manufacturer, which also provides maintenance services for its aircraft engines. In our solution approach, we compute an optimal set of contracts. The entire set is presented to the customer and is designed such that the customer will accept one of the contract alternatives without negotiations. In addition to eliminating the costs and delays associated with negotiations, this approach also reveals the customer's private information to the service provider, which the provider can use to its benefit in maintenance management and future contract renewals. Furthermore, we design and incorporate win-win incentive mechanisms into the contracts, which reward the customer for actions that reduces maintenance costs. We present a deterministic and a stochastic mechanism design model, the latter accounting for uncertainties associated with customer actions, engine performance, and maintenance costs during the contract execution phase.Master of Science
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Giannakopoulos, Ioannis. "Duality theory for optimal mechanism design." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:90e1fdec-8803-4306-8985-5106c457f34d.
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In this work we present a general duality-theory framework for revenue maximization in additive Bayesian auctions involving multiple items and many bidders whose values for the goods follow arbitrary continuous joint distributions over some multi-dimensional real interval. Although the single-item case has been resolved in a very elegant way by the seminal work of Myerson [1981], optimal solutions involving more items still remain elusive. The framework extends linear programming duality and complementarity to constraints with partial derivatives. The dual system reveals the natural geometric nature of the problem and highlights its connection with the theory of bipartite graph matchings. We demonstrate the power of the framework by applying it to various special monopoly settings where a seller of multiple heterogeneous goods faces a buyer with independent item values drawn from various distributions of interest, to design both exact and approximately optimal selling mechanisms. Previous optimal solutions were only known for up to two and three goods, and a very limited range of distributional priors. The duality framework is used not only for proving optimality, but perhaps more importantly, for deriving the optimal mechanisms themselves. Some of our main results include: the proposal of a simple deterministic mechanism, which we call Straight-Jacket Auction (SJA) and is defined in a greedy, recursive way through natural geometric constraints, for many uniformly distributed goods, where exact optimality is proven for up to six items and general optimality is conjectured; a scheme of sufficient conditions for exact optimality for two-good settings and general independent distributions; a technique for upper-bounding the optimal revenue for arbitrarily many goods, with an application to uniform and exponential priors; and the proof that offering deterministically all items in a single full bundle is the optimal way of selling multiple exponentially i.i.d. items.
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Quiñońez, Carlo Joseph Fraser Scott E. "Theory and design of relaxometric probes /." Diss., Pasadena, Calif. : California Institute of Technology, 2003. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-05292003-182043.
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Neeley, William Lawrence. "Adaptive design expertise : a theory of design thinking and innovation /." May be available electronically:, 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/login?COPT=REJTPTU1MTUmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=12498.
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Imamura, Kenzo. "Essays in Market Design:." Thesis, Boston College, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:109090.
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Thesis advisor: M. Utku ÜnverThesis advisor: M. Bumin Yenmez
This dissertation consists of two essays in market design. In the first chapter, we study affirmative action policies in college admissions and hiring. A college or firm makes admissions or hiring decisions in which each candidate is characterized by priority ranking and type, which may depend on race, gender, or socioeconomic status. The admissions or hiring committee faces a trade-off between meritocracy and diversity: while a merit-first choice rule may admit candidates of the same type, a diversity-first choice rule may be unfair due to priority violations. To formalize this trade-off, we introduce a measure of meritocracy and a measure of diversity for choice rules. Then, we investigate how to resolve the tension between them. A choice rule that uses both reserves and quotas can be viewed as a compromise and is a generalization of the two extreme rules. The first result is comparative statics for this class of choice rules: we show that as parameters change and the choice rule becomes more meritorious, it also becomes less diverse. The second result is a characterization of the choice rule, which may help admissions or hiring committees to decide their policies. In the second chapter, we introduce a method to measure manipulability of a matching mechanism and use theory and simulation to study constrained mechanisms in school choice. First, we show that the implications from existing measures are strongly dependent on the full preference domain assumption. Our measure is more robust. The implications from existing measures can be carried over as well: while the recent school admissions reforms did not fully eliminate incentives to manipulate, they discouraged manipulation. Second, we use simulations for quantitative analysis. Our results support the recent school admissions reforms quantitatively, as well as qualitatively: they largely eliminated the incentives to manipulate. In addition, while the qualitative implications from theory are parallel to existing measures, the quantitative implications from simulations confirm a significant difference
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics
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Biesek, Guilherme. "Infrastructure design for evolvability : theory and methods." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2013. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/infrastructure-design-for-evolvability-theory-and-methods(942e3e8b-8734-4de0-9a2f-68bbb566dfa2).html.
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The development of new infrastructure invariably requires massive capital investments, take many years to design and deliver, and are expected to operate for several decades. During delivery and operational lifetime, the functional requirements are likely to change. To make the assets economically adaptable to foreseeable changes, sizeable investments in design flexibility may be required upfront. Under uncertainty about the future and tight budgets, multi-stakeholder teams must trade-off additional investments in flexibility with more affordable investments in rigid designs at risk of costly adaptation. How to help project teams bridge their divergences and coalesce their views of the world into a project strategy is the core question at the heart of this research. After reviewing the limitations of current practice and theory in the management of capital projects, this study turns to real options reasoning. By definition, investments in design flexibility can be equated with buying options: if the future resolves favourably, the options can be exercised to adapt the design economically. To advance theory and practice on capital design for evolvability, this study combines case-based with experimental work. First, an exploratory study reveals that, despite using options thinking, project teams find real options mathematical models inadequate to support mundane design decisions. A subsequent study on design practices at Network Rail shows the difficulties of designing for evolvability become amplified with multiple stakeholders. With asymmetry in capabilities, knowledge, and power to influence decisions, multi-stakeholder teams systematically resort to a combination of informal options thinking and ‘money talks’ to resolve concept design. Tensions flare up whenever stakeholders demanding investments in design flexibility cannot fund them. These findings suggest that a formal procedure to design for evolvability can offer a superior approach at front-end strategizing. To test this proposition, this research develops an original proof-of-principle of a formal design for evolvability framing that cross-fertilizes literature on project risk management and real options theory with insights from the fieldwork. It also develops a two-group experiment – grounded on fine-grained empirical data from a real-world rail station project – to compare the performance of the experimental and control groups in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. The results show that a formal design for evolvability framing can improve front-end strategizing. As project teams become more efficient, they have more time to effectively resolve the design for evolvability strategy. Importantly, teams are unlikely to reject attempts to formalize the decision-making process. The study also shows that a formal design for evolvability strategy can improve the accountability of decision-makers for investments in design flexibility. Final considerations discuss the generalizability and limitations of these insights, and future directions.
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Thompson, Stephanie C. "Rational design theory: a decision-based foundation for studying design methods." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/39490.
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While design theories provide a foundation for representing and reasoning about design methods, existing design theories do not explicitly include uncertainty considerations or recognize tradeoffs between the design artifact and the design process. These limitations prevent the existing theories from adequately describing and explaining observed or proposed design methods.
In this thesis, Rational Design Theory is introduced as a normative theoretical framework for evaluating prescriptive design methods. This new theory is based on a two-level perspective of design decisions in which the interactions between the artifact and the design process decisions are considered. Rational Design Theory consists of normative decision theory applied to design process decisions, and is complemented by a decision-theory-inspired conceptual model of design.
The application of decision analysis to design process decisions provides a structured framework for the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of design methods. The qualitative evaluation capabilities are demonstrated in a review of the systematic design method of Pahl and Beitz. The quantitative evaluation capabilities are demonstrated in two example problems. In these two quantitative examples, Value of Information analysis is investigated as a strategy for deciding when to perform an analysis to gather additional information in support of a choice between two design concepts. Both quantitative examples demonstrate that Value of Information achieves very good results when compared to a more comprehensive decision analysis that allows for a sequence of analyses to be performed.
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Marston, Matthew C. "Game based design : a game theory based approach to engineering design." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/15877.
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Matuschek, Nicolai. "Theory and design of double-chirped mirrors /." Zürich, 1999. http://e-collection.ethbib.ethz.ch/show?type=diss&nr=13223.
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Mandal, Abhyuday. "Some Contributions to Design Theory and Applications." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/7142.
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The thesis focuses on the development of statistical theory in experimental design with applications in global optimization. It consists of four parts. In the first part, a criterion of design efficiency, under model uncertainty, is studied with reference to possibly nonregular fractions of general factorials. The results
are followed by a numerical study and the findings are compared with those based on other design criteria.
In the second part, optimal designs are dentified using Bayesian methods. This work is linked with response surface methodology where the first step is to perform factor screening, followed by response surface exploration using different experiment plans. A Bayesian analysis approach is used that aims to achieve both goals using one experiment design. In addition we use a Bayesian design criterion, based on the priors for the analysis approach. This creates an integrated design and analysis framework. To distinguish between competing models, the HD criterion is used, which is based on the pairwise Hellinger distance between predictive densities.
Mixed-level fractional factorial designs are commonly used in practice but its aliasing relations have not been studied in full rigor. These designs take the form of a product array. Aliasing patterns of mixed level factorial designs are discussed in the third part.
In the fourth part, design of experiment ideas are used to introduce a new global optimization technique called SELC (Sequential Elimination of Level Combinations), which is motivated by genetic algorithms but finds the optimum faster. The two key features of the SELC algorithm, namely, forbidden array and weighted mutation, enhance the performance of the search procedure. Illustration is given with the optimization of three functions, one of which is from Shekel's family. A real example on compound optimization is also given.
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Doruk, Resat Ozgur. "Missile Autopilot Design By Projective Control Theory." Master's thesis, METU, 2003. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/4/1089929/index.pdf.
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In this thesis, autopilots are developed for missiles with moderate dynamics and
stationary targets. The aim is to use the designs in real applications. Since the real
missile model is nonlinear, a linearization process is required to get use of systematic
linear controller design techniques. In the scope of this thesis, the linear quadratic
full state feedback approach is applied for developing missile autopilots. However,
the limitations of measurement systems on the missiles restrict the availability of all
the states required for feedback. Because of this fact, the linear quadratic design will
be approximated by the use of projective control theory. This method enables the
designer to use preferably static feedback or if necessary a controller plus a low
order compensator combination to approximate the full state feedback reference.
Autopilots are checked for the validity of linearization, robust stability against
aerodynamic, mechanical and measurement uncertainties.
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Puhakainen, P. (Petri). "A design theory for information security awareness." Doctoral thesis, University of Oulu, 2006. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9514281144.
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Abstract
When implementing their information security solutions organizations have typically focused on technical and procedural security measures. However, from the information systems (IS) point of view, this is not enough: effective IS security requires that users are aware of and use the available security measures as described in their organizations' information security policies and instructions. Otherwise, the usefulness of the security measures is lost.
The research question of this thesis is to explore how IS users' compliance with IS security policies and instructions can be improved. Solving this research question is divided into two steps. Since there is a lack of a comprehensive review of existing IS security awareness approaches, the first step aims at reviewing the existing IS security awareness approaches. This kind of analysis is useful for practitioners as they do not necessarily have the time to go through a large body of literature. For scholars, such an analysis shows what areas of IS security awareness have been studied, and to where the need for future research is of greatest importance.
The second step in this dissertation is to address the shortcomings detected by the analysis by developing three novel design theories for improving IS users' security behavior: (1) IS security awareness training, (2) IS security awareness campaigns, and (3) punishment and reward. These design theories aim to help practitioners to develop their own IS security awareness approaches. Finally, testing of the design theory for IS security awareness training (1) in two action research interventions is described. The results of the interventions suggest that this design theory provides a useful and applicable means for developing a training program in organizations. In addition, the results provide empirically evaluated information regarding the obstacles to user compliance with IS security policies and instructions.
In the action research studies described, the goal was to solve practical problems experienced by the host organizations and to understand them and the results achieved from the viewpoint of theory. Consequently, the results as such can not be generalized, but they are of use in the host organizations in planning and delivering subsequent IS security awareness training programs. In addition, the results are utilizable in similar organizations as a point of departure in planning IS security awareness training programs.
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Schwierz, Frank Liou Juin J. "Modern microwave transistors : theory, design and performance /." Hoboken, NJ : Wiley-Interscience, 2003. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/wiley023/2002027230.html.
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Instefjord, Norvald. "Essays on the theory of security design." Thesis, London Business School (University of London), 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.265342.
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Poriazis, S. "Theory and design of multiphase synchronous circuits." Thesis, Cranfield University, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.359490.
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Settaluri, Krishna Tej. "Photonic Links| From Theory to Automated Design." Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13423776.
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Recent advancements in silicon photonics show great promise in meeting the high bandwidth and low energy demands of emerging applications. However, a key gating factor in ensuring this necessity is met is the utilization of a link design methodology which transcends the various levels in the hierarchy, ranging from the device and platform level up to the systems level. In this dissertation, a comprehensive methodology for link design will be introduced which takes a two-prong approach to tackling the issue of silicon photonic link efficiency. Namely, a fundamentals-based first principles approach to link optimization will be introduced and validated. In addition, physical design trade-offs connecting levels in the architectural hierarchy will also be studied and explored. This culminates in an intermediate goal of this dissertation, which is the first-ever design and verification of a full silicon photonic interconnect on a 3D integrated electronic-photonic platform. To proceed and further enable the rapid exploration of the link design architectural space, the analog macros for a majority of this dissertation were auto-generated using the Berkeley Analog Generator (BAG). With these key design tools and framework, performance bottlenecks and improvements for silicon photonic links will be analyzed and, from this analysis, the motivation for a new, single comparator-based PAM4 receiver architecture shall emerge. This architecture not only showcases the tight bond in dependency between high-level link specifications and low level device parameters, but also shows the importance of physical design constraints alongside fundamental theory in influencing end-to-end link performance.
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Deniz, Juan C. (Deniz Carlos) 1976. "Learning theory applications to product design modeling." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89269.
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Van, Baalen Jeffrey. "Steps towards a theory of representation design." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39952.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1989.Includes bibliographical references.
Supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense under Office of Naval Research. N00014-85-K-0124
by Jeffrey Van Baalen.
Ph.D.
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Bó, Inácio G. L. "Essays in Matching Theory and Mechanism Design." Thesis, Boston College, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104172.
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Thesis advisor: Utku ÜnverThis dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter consists of a survey of the literature on affirmative action and diversity objective in school choice mechanisms. It presents and analyzes some of the main papers on the subject, showing the evolution of our understanding of the effects that different affirmative action policies have on the welfare and fairness of student assignments, the satisfaction of the diversity objectives as well as the domain of policies that allows for stable outcomes. The second chapter analyzes the problem of school choice mechanisms when policy-makers have objectives over the distribution of students by type across the schools. I show that mechanisms currently available in the literature may fail to a great extent in satisfying those objectives, and introduce a new one, which satisfies two properties. First, it produces assignments that satisfy a fairness criterion which incorporates the diversity objectives as an element of fairness. Second, it approximates optimally the diversity objectives while still satisfying the fairness criterion. We do so by embedding "preference" for those objectives into the schools' choice functions in a way that satisfies the substitutability condition and then using the school-proposing deferred acceptance procedure. This leads to the equivalence of stability with the desired definition of fairness and the maximization of those diversity objectives among the set of fair assignments. A comparative analysis also shows analytically that the mechanism that we provide has a general ability to satisfy those objectives, while in many familiar classes of scenarios the alternative ones yield segregated assignments. Finally, we analyze the incentives induced by the proposed mechanism in different market sizes and informational structures. The third chapter (co-authored with Orhan Aygün) presents an analysis of the Brazilian affirmative action initiative for access to public federal universities. In August 2012 the Brazilian federal government enacted a law mandating the prioritization of students who claim belonging to the groups of those coming from public high schools, low income families and being racial minorities to defined proportions of the seats available in federal public universities. In this problem, individuals may be part of one or more of those groups, and it is possible for students not to claim some of the privileges associated with them. This turns out to be a problem not previously studied in the literature. We show that under the choice function induced by the current guidelines, students may be better off by not claiming privileges that they are eligible to. Moreover, the resulting assignments may not be fair or satisfy the affirmative action objectives, even when there are enough students claiming low--income and minority privileges. Also, any stable mechanism that uses the current choice functions is neither incentive compatible nor fair. We propose a new choice function to be used by the universities that guarantees that a student will not be worse off by claiming an additional privilege, is fair and satisfies the affirmative action objectives whenever it is possible and there are enough applications claiming low--income and minority privileges. Next, we suggest a stable, incentive compatible and fair mechanism to create assignments for the entire system
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics
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Nandakumar, Ramnath. "Robust Control Design using Quantitative Feedback Theory." Thesis, City University London, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.514959.
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Zhang, Qi. "Applied game theory and optimal mechanism design." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2014. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/370438/.
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This thesis applies game theory to study optimal toehold bidding strategies during takeover competition, the problem of optimal design of voting rules and the design of package bidding mechanism to implement the core allocations. It documents three different research questions that are all related to auction theory. Chapter 2 develops a two-stage takeover game to explain toehold puzzle in the context of takeover. Potential bidders are allowed to acquire target shares in the open market, subject to some limitations. This pre-bid ownership is known as a toehold. Purchasing a toehold prior to making any takeover offer looks like a profitable strategy given substantial takeover premiums. However actual toehold bidding has decreased since 1980s and now is not common. Its time-series patter is centred on either zero or a large value. Chapter 2 develops a two-stage takeover game. In the first stage of this two-stage game, each bidder simultaneously acquires a toehold. In the second stage, bidders observe acquired toehold sizes, and process this information to update their beliefs about rival's private valuation. Then each bidder competes to win the target under a sealed-bid second-price auction. Different from previous toehold puzzle literature focusing on toehold bidding costs in the form of target managerial entrenchment, this chapter develops a two-stage takeover game and points another possible toehold bidding cost - the opportunity loss of a profitable resale. Chapter 2 finds that, under some conditions, there exists a partial pooling Bayesian equilibrium, in which low-value bidders optimally avoid any toehold, while high-value bidders pool their decisions at one size. The equilibrium toehold acquisition strategies coincide with the bimodal distribution of the actual toehold purchasing behaviour. Chapter 3 studies the problem of optimal design of voting rules when each agent faces binary choice. The designer is allowed to use any type of non-transferable penalty on individuals in order to elicit agents' private valuations. And each agent's private valuation is assumed to be independently distributed. Early work showed that the simple majority rule has good normative properties in the situation of binary choice. However, their results relay on the assumption that agents' preferences have equal intensities. Chapter 3 shows that, under reasonable assumptions, the simple majority is the best voting mechanism in terms of utilitarian efficiency, even if voters' preferences are comparable and may have varying intensities. At equilibrium, the mechanism optimally assigns zero penalty to every voter. In other words, the designer does not extract private information from any agent in the society, because the expected penalty cost of eliciting private information to select the better alternative is too high. Chapter 4 presents a package bidding mechanism whose subgame perfect equilibrium outcomes coincide with the core of an underlying strictly convex transferable utility game. It adopts the concept of core as a competitive standard, which enables the mechanism to avoid the well-known weaknesses of VCG mechanism. In this mechanism, only core allocations generate subgame perfect equilibrium payoffs, because non-core allocations provide arbitrage opportunities for some players. By the strict convexity assumption, the implementation of the core is achieved in terms of expectation.
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Jain, Ritesh. "Essays In Mechanism Design and Implementation Theory." The Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1524135020720277.
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Ionascu, Adriana. "Poetic design : a theory of everyday practice." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2010. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/6965.
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This study aims to define design poetics as a category of design practice set apart from commercial, industrial or market-led design that generates a collection of experimental artefacts which investigate the everyday life of contemporary culture. It is argued that in creating an active interplay between users (human agents) and objects, poetic design involves a different kind of production (which is not about improving the functionality of a product) and alternative forms of "consumption" (which is not about a 'using up' of objects), by developing new practices of living with things. As such it is suggested that design poetics depends on the production developed by consumers as a creative users (postproducers), within unconventional experiential and social scenarios of living. In changing the bilateral relationship object-user poetic design develops objects from the point of view of the user - its activities and models of operation - and this aspect is related to an emotional and experiential evaluation. Thus the study proposes a re-evaluation of objects and users through experiential, narrative and performative criteria in order to understand their various roles and functions. In proposing these particular points of evaluation, poetic objects are distinguished as a particular category of objects together with the practices they engender or support; and within a network of relationships and contexts, as specific sites of interaction.1 In this light, it is shown that poetic design proposes a class of objects that respond to needs beyond the objects' instrumental (functional, practical) power; but to their contribution to life experience, embodying a variety of processes and manifestations. They translate immaterial interactions and make these interrelations visible.
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Lopez, Carbajal Hector A. "Essays in market design." Thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10159090.
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In this dissertation, I study three problems in market design: the allocation of resources to schools using deferred acceptance algorithms, the demand reduction of employees on centralized labor markets, and the alleviation of traffic congestion. I show how institutional and behavioral considerations specific to each problem can alleviate several practical limitations faced by current solutions. For the case of traffic congestion, I show experimentally that the proposed solution is effective. In Chapter 1, I investigate how school districts could assign resources to schools when it is desirable to provide stable assignments. An assignment is stable if there is no student currently assigned to a school that would prefer to be assigned to a different school that would admit him if it had the resources. Current assignment algorithms assume resources are fixed. I show how simple modifications to these algorithms produce stable allocations of resources and students to schools. In Chapter 2, I show how the negotiation of salaries within centralized labor markets using deferred acceptance algorithms eliminates the incentives of the hiring firms to strategically reduce their demand. It is well-known that it is impossible to eliminate these incentives for the hiring firms in markets without negotiation of salaries.
Chapter 3 investigates how to achieve an efficient distribution of traffic congestion on a road network. Traffic congestion is the product of an externality: drivers do not consider the cost they impose on other drivers by entering a road. In theory, Pigouvian prices would solve the problem. In practice, however, these prices face two important limitations: i) the information required to calculate these prices is unavailable to policy makers and ii) these prices would effectively be new taxes that would transfer resources from the public to the government. I show how to construct congestion prices that retrieve the required information from the drivers and do not transfer resources to the government. I circumvent the limitations of Pigouvian prices by assuming that individuals make some mistakes when selecting routes and have a tendency towards truth-telling. Both assumptions are very robust observations in experimental economics.
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Conrad, Janet. "Prospect/Refuge theory: An experimental approach." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1993. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/107076/1/T%28BE%26E%29%20359%20Prospect%20refuge%20theory%20ban%20experimental%20approach.pdf.
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Viewed qualitatively, Jay Appleton's prospect/refuge theory is intuitively attractive. Viewed quantitatively, can it be substantiated and is it useful? This study aims to substantiate the theory. Prospect/refuge theory is presented in context with other landscape theories all of which are based on a long tradition of gardening practice. A review of gardening practice and theory is followed by a review of empirical aesthetics and the landscape. The main part of the study. is the set of experiments developed to test certain predictions of prospect/refuge theory using a variety of experimental methods. The results of these experiments give support to Appleton's hypotheses and open the way for future research in prospect/refuge theory.