Understanding Abstraction in Design: A Comparison of Three Functional Analysis Methods for Product Dissection

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joran W. Booth ◽  
Tahira Reid ◽  
Karthik Ramani
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Formal Methods ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Generate Function ◽  
Energy Flow ◽  
Statistical Difference ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Power Drill ◽  
Measures Of Effectiveness

In design classes, functional analysis is a process that is typically used to assist students with identifying essential functions to aid in the development of their concepts. However, it has been observed that students sometimes struggle with this part of the design process. In this study, a group of 26 students were studied in a 3-level within-subject study (n = 78) to determine which of three common functional analysis approaches (i.e. top-down, energy-flow, and unstructured) was most effective. Participants were asked to dissect a hair dryer, power drill, and NERF pistol and generate function trees describing how these work. Measures of effectiveness include the number of functions generated, the number of errors, the number of levels of abstraction represented in the tree, and the number of unique subsystems and functions identified. No statistical difference between the approaches was found, and there was also no practical difference between the approaches. These results suggest that for novice engineers, there is no difference between methods used. This possibly indicates that for novice engineers, formal methods may not be any more effective than an unstructured approach.

scholarly journals Comparing Functional Analysis Methods for Product Dissection Tasks

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joran W. Booth ◽  
Tahira N. Reid ◽  
Claudia Eckert ◽  
Karthik Ramani
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Energy Flow ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Qualitative Difference ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Identification Methods ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Power Drill ◽  
Function Identification

The purpose of this study is to begin to explore which function identification methods work best for specific tasks. We use a three-level within-subject study (n = 78) to compare three strategies for identifying functions: energy-flow, top-down, and enumeration. These are tested in a product dissection task with student engineers who have minimal prior experience. Participants were asked to dissect a hair dryer, power drill, and toy dart gun and generate function trees to describe how these work. The function trees were evaluated with several metrics including the total number of functions generated, the number of syntactical errors, and the number of unique (relevant and nonredundant) functions. We found no statistical, practical, or qualitative difference between the trees produced by each method. This suggests that the cognitive load for this task for novices is high enough to obscure any real differences between methods. We also found some generalized findings through surveys that the most difficult aspects of using functional decomposition include identifying functions, choosing function verbs, and drawing the diagram. Together, this may also mean that for novice engineers, the method does not matter as much as core concepts such as identifying functions and structuring function diagrams. This also indicates that any function identification method may be used as a baseline for comparison between novices in future studies.

scholarly journals The Six Components of Social Interactions: Actor, Partner, Relation, Activities, Context, and Evaluation

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Susanna Hoppler ◽  
Robin Segerer ◽  
Jana Nikitin
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Abstraction Level ◽  
Systematic Description ◽  
Abstract Level ◽  
Age Range

Social interactions are essential aspects of social relationships. Despite their centrality, there is a lack of a standardized approach to systematize social interactions. The present research developed (Study 1) and tested (Study 2) a taxonomy of social interactions. In Study 1 (5,676 descriptions of social interactions from N = 708 participants, age range 18–83 years), we combined a bottom-up approach based on the grounded theory with a top-down approach integrating existing empirical and theoretical literature to develop the taxonomy. The resulting taxonomy (APRACE) comprises the components Actor, Partner, Relation, Activities, Context, and Evaluation, each specified by features on three levels of abstraction. A social situation can be described by a combination of the components and their features on the respective abstraction level. Study 2 tested the APRACE using another dataset (N = 303, age range 18–88 years) with 1,899 descriptions of social interactions. The index scores of the six components, the frequencies of the features on the most abstract level, and their correlations were largely consistent across both studies, which supports the generalizability of the APRACE. The APRACE offers a generalizable tool for the comprehensive, parsimonious, and systematic description of social interactions and, thus, enables networked research on social interactions and application in a number of practical fields.

scholarly journals TOP-DOWN OR BOTTOM-UP? EMPLOYING A MIDDLE-GROUND APPROACH IN DESIGNING A UK ACADEMIC WRITING COURSE FOR ADVANCED CHINESE GRADUATES

2020 ◽  
pp. 095
Author(s):  
Ivo Ganchev
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Postgraduate Study ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Second Tier ◽  
The Uk

This article documents the academic writing course design process for advanced Chinese learners aiming to pursue postgraduate degrees in business-related fields at their respective target universities in the UK. Four holders of BA degrees in the social sciences from second tier universities in Beijing were tested, surveyed and observed in detail to design a non-terminal twenty-hour pre-sessional writing course (ten two-hour sessions) to assist in their preparation for postgraduate study. All students held offers from Russell Group universities in the UK and had covered the IELTS requirement (6.5-7.0) for admission there prior to signing up for the EAP course discussed in this paper. The aim of the course is to enhance the students’ academic skills and improve their performance in the following year when they attend UK universities. The course design process is informed by two sets of principles, incorporating both a top-down and a bottom-up perspective. The former is framed within an understanding of EAP as academic, rather than language training. The latter is based on needs analysis of student-specific weaknesses explored through the use of a questionnaire, a diagnostic writing test and in-class observations. Both perspectives feed into the course goals and objectives which serve as a basis for the course rationale. Aiming to bridge the gap between Chinese undergraduate and UK postgraduate study, the course combines textbooks with authentic materials and formative with summative assessment. Reflections on major constraints and limitations are provided throughout the process. This documented case of academic writing course design aims to reveal challenges faced by EAP practitioners working with UK and Chinese institutions, and to present a middle ground approach to resolving tensions between top-down and bottom-up pressures in the context of course design for advanced Chinese graduates.

The Datum Flow Chain: A Systematic Approach to Assembly Design and Modeling

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Mantripragada ◽  
D. E. Whitney
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Assembly Planning ◽  
Assembly Process ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Assembly Design ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Assembly Sequences

Abstract In order to be able to lay out, analyze, outsource, assemble, and debug complex assemblies, we need ways to capture their fundamental structure in a top-down design process, including the designer’s strategy for kinematically constraining and locating the parts accurately with respect to each other. We describe a concept called the “Datum Flow Chain” to capture this logic. The DFC relates the datum logic explicitly to the product’s key characteristics, assembly sequences, and choice of mating features, and provides the information needed for tolerance analyses. Two types of assemblies are addressed: Type-1 where the assembly process puts parts together at their prefabricated mating features, and Type-2 where the assembly process can incorporate in-process adjustments to redistribute variation. Two types of assembly joints are defined: mates that pass dimensional constraint from part to part, and contacts that merely provide support. The scope of DFC in assembly planning is presented using several examples. Analysis tools to evaluate different DFCs and select the ones of interest are also presented.

Measuring the Progress of a System Development

2014 ◽  
pp. 1415-1439
Author(s):  
Marta (Plaska) Olszewska ◽  
Marina Waldén
Keyword(s):  
Formal Methods ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Formal Specification ◽  
System Development ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
System Construction ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
And Control

For most of the developers and managers, the structure and the behaviour of software systems represented in a graphical manner is more understandable than a formal specification of a system or than plain code. Our previous work combined the intuitiveness of UML with the development rigour brought by formal methods and created progress diagrams. In progress diagrams, the design decisions within a system refinement chain are assisted by the application of patterns and illustrated in a comprehensible and compact manner. In order to rigorously assess and control the design process, we need to thoroughly monitor it. In this chapter we show how the application of generic refinement patterns is reflected in measurements. We establish measures for the evaluation of the design progress of the system, where the progress diagrams are assessed from the size and structural complexity perspective. Our motivation is to support the system developers and managers in making the design decisions that regard the system construction.

Explaining Algorithms

2011 ◽  
pp. 2261-2279
Author(s):  
Tomasz Muldner ◽  
Elhadi Shakshuki
Keyword(s):  
Distance Education ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Visualization System ◽  
Client Server ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Visualization Systems ◽  
Explanation System ◽  
Server Architecture

This article presents a novel approach for explaining algorithms that aims to overcome various pedagogical limitations of the current visualization systems. The main idea is that at any given time, a learner is able to focus on a single problem. This problem can be explained, studied, understood, and tested, before the learner moves on to study another problem. Toward this end, a visualization system that explains algorithms at various levels of abstraction has been designed and implemented. In this system, each abstraction is focused on a single operation from the algorithm using various media, including text and an associated visualization. The explanations are designed to help the user to understand basic properties of the operation represented by this abstraction, for example its invariants. The explanation system allows the user to traverse the hierarchy graph, using either a top-down (from primitive operations to general operations) approach or a bottom-up approach. Since the system is implemented using a client-server architecture, it can be used both in the classroom setting and through distance education.

A CAD-Based Methodology for Motion and Constraint Analysis According to Screw Theory

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Franciosa ◽  
S. Gerbino
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Screw Theory ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Cad System ◽  
Constraint Analysis ◽  
Mechanical Assemblies ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Assembly Constraints

The need for a designer to have a tool able to do motion and constraint analysis, to check for the under-constrained and/or over-constrained status of an assembly, is strategic in a design contest where several changes are made during the design process by using CAD. Traditional kinematic tools provide little information on over-constraints at 3D level. Screw theory has been already used in mechanical assemblies, in a top-down design, to do motion and constraint analysis. This theory is here used to analyze mechanical assemblies in the contest of a feature-based CAD system. The structure of the CAD assembly is captured and described as assembly graph, similar to Datum Flow Chain, through which the motion or constraint status of any part (in terms of twist and wrench matrices), can be obtained. The underlying algorithm is based on the Kirchoff’s rules successfully applied by Davies to mechanisms. How to automatically create the assembly graph, detect the useful loops and then write the loop kinematic equations is described. Three case studies are presented related to CAD assemblies of mechanisms built up in SolidWorks® CAD system by Dassault Systemes from which assembly constraints have been acquired.

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