John McCardle

Product lifecycle management in design and engineering education: International perspectives

Technological advances in the last decade have influenced changes in the design and engineering industries on a global scale. Lean and collaborative product development are approaches increasingly adopted by the industry and seen as the core of product lifecycle management. These trends have created the need for new skilled professionals, and universities should adapt their curricula in response. There is an increased need for academia to work with industry in order to meet these challenges. This article reports on the Parametric Technology Corporation Academic Research Symposium held in April 2011. The topics were centred around understanding the essence of product lifecycle management and its impact on design and engineering education. Furthermore, examples of implementing product lifecycle management and collaborative practices in higher education were presented from the United States and France. This article concludes with a discussion of the recommendations made at the symposium for the future development and support of key skills across university curricula.

The Challenge of Integrating AI & Smart Technology in Design Education

This paper examines some of the many problems and issues associated with integrating new and developing technologies into the education of future designers. As technology in general races ahead challenges arise for both commercial designers and educators on how best to keep track and utilise the advances. The challenge is particularly acute within tertiary education where the introduction of new cutting edge technology is often encouraged. Although this is generally achieved through the feedback of research activity, integrating new concepts at an appropriate level is a major task. Of particular concern is how focussed areas of applied technology can be made part of the multidisciplinary scope of design education.The paper describes the model used to introduce areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to undergraduate industrial design students. The successful interaction of research and education within a UK higher education establishment are discussed and project examples given. It is shown that, through selective tuition of research topics and appropriate technical support, innovative design solutions can result. In addition, it shows that by introducing leading edge and, in some cases, underdeveloped technology, specific key skills of independent learning, communication and research methods can be encouraged.

Classification of metal transfer mode using neural networks

To develop a control strategy for a metal inert gas (MIG) welding system it is necessary to classify several parameters in order to describe the process state. Neural networks have been identified as an appropriate processing technology because of the noisiness of weld data and the nonlinearity of the relationships between many of the process parameters. This paper describes the application of neural networks to the classification of metal transfer mode. We report on the analysis of the data, network selection, network development and evaluation of the final system.

Controlling 1000 amps using neural networks

The continued effort to improve working conditions and efficiency in fusion welding has increased automation and taken the operator further from the workpiece. This inherently has increased the demand for improved monitoring and control systems to cope with the increase in throughput. The paper describes an application of two network architectures to control submerged arc welding-a high current, low voltage automatic joining process. A logical discriminator, implemented in hardware is used to identify time/amplitude return echoes derived from ultrasonic interrogation of the arc vicinity and a Kohonen feature map is used to classify arc sound.

Insights on how metacognition influences knowledge application in product design education

An empirical study investigating creativity relevant factors that impact on knowledge application within the context of Product Design Education has been undertaken in the form of survey. The principal creativity relevant factor is identified as metacognition, which is related to creative thinking. Different kinds of knowledge applied in Product Design students’ final year design projects (FYDPs) have been assembled and arranged into three categories. Possible ways of categorising knowledge according to the influences of metacognition are proposed that may inform design education practices.

Observation of impact energy absorption performance on idealised trabecular forms in laser sintered nylon

Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether the trabecular architecture found in natural bone can be effectively replicated through the selective laser sintering process of Nylon P2200. Design/methodology/approach Trabecular bone was idealised into a scaled up hexagonal cell proven to replicate the natural structure. The structure was modelled in Solidworks 2013 to form a network of interlinking cells. The specific property analysed was the structure toughness through the measurement of the energy absorbed before sample fracture. Findings It was found that the impact absorption can be increased with the integration of a greater number of trabecular cells producing a finer resolution and not necessarily by increasing the trabecular size. The information gained from this research may be useful in the design of impact and shock absorbing components, with an emphasis on efficient use of material mass. Research limitations/implications Designers and engineers may find biomimetic methods of absorbing shock and impact an efficient alternative consideration in design applications. Practical implications The trabecular architecture should be designed so as to be weaker than the bounding surfaces, ensuring that the individual trabecular experience failure first, maximising their energy absorbing capability through increasing the period of deceleration. The simplest way of doing this is to ensure the rod thickness is less than the bounding material thickness. Originality/value This work documents original testing of both the RP material and consolidated design of samples of idealised bone structures. It builds on previous work in the area and through the results of empirical testing, derives recommendations for further considerations in this area of design and manufacture of biomimetic structures.