Adapt

<p>This paper presents a system for digitally manufacturing hyper personalised sets of cutlery for stroke patients. Stroke produces a wide variety of physical, cognitive, emotional and social effects that vary widely among individuals and may include weakness or paralysis on one side of the body, contractures and inability to rotate joints. This design addresses the factors including weakened grip strength, contracted wrist and fingers, limited range of motion in the wrist, hand tremors and lack of control. Becoming independent again is an essential stage for patients and difficulty performing standard eating tasks is a commonly reported effect after stroke, which is challenging physically and emotionally. There are existing ergonomic eating aids on the market, but none that offer personalisation for the widely different physiological effects of stroke, or that effectively integrate a sense of progression and achievement, which is the key to keeping patients motivated and confident throughout the rehabilitation process. This study investigates the way design can help reduce product related and social stigma for upper limb stroke rehabilitation patients in the use of cutlery. This research explores the way that a parametric system can be implemented to aid clinicians in identifying the individual needs of patients against a list of criteria. This design study has developed a set of cutlery that assists patients, making them feel confident and comfortable using cutlery in situations outside of their homes, as well as assisting as a therapy device. This research presents a parametric system that allows for controlling the variables relative to the design criteria based on the patient’s physiological abilities. The variables include the ability to change the diameter and size of the handle, the curve of the utensil in the (x,y) plane, the angle of the handle in the (x,z) plane and the depth of the finger groove which accommodates the index finger. The paper presents the main findings from how participants experienced stigma, clinicians feedback on the appropriateness of the cutlery designs, and how personalisation contributes to motivation within therapy. These main findings conclude that cutlery designed for stroke patients needs to be personalised, as each patient has very individual needs according to their very individual impairments. Current cutlery does not address them all and even less address them through personalisation. The specific variables in the system need to be controlled and restricted to ensure that all 40,000 of the possible outcomes are effective.</p>

Adapt

<p>This paper presents a system for digitally manufacturing hyper personalised sets of cutlery for stroke patients. Stroke produces a wide variety of physical, cognitive, emotional and social effects that vary widely among individuals and may include weakness or paralysis on one side of the body, contractures and inability to rotate joints. This design addresses the factors including weakened grip strength, contracted wrist and fingers, limited range of motion in the wrist, hand tremors and lack of control. Becoming independent again is an essential stage for patients and difficulty performing standard eating tasks is a commonly reported effect after stroke, which is challenging physically and emotionally. There are existing ergonomic eating aids on the market, but none that offer personalisation for the widely different physiological effects of stroke, or that effectively integrate a sense of progression and achievement, which is the key to keeping patients motivated and confident throughout the rehabilitation process. This study investigates the way design can help reduce product related and social stigma for upper limb stroke rehabilitation patients in the use of cutlery. This research explores the way that a parametric system can be implemented to aid clinicians in identifying the individual needs of patients against a list of criteria. This design study has developed a set of cutlery that assists patients, making them feel confident and comfortable using cutlery in situations outside of their homes, as well as assisting as a therapy device. This research presents a parametric system that allows for controlling the variables relative to the design criteria based on the patient’s physiological abilities. The variables include the ability to change the diameter and size of the handle, the curve of the utensil in the (x,y) plane, the angle of the handle in the (x,z) plane and the depth of the finger groove which accommodates the index finger. The paper presents the main findings from how participants experienced stigma, clinicians feedback on the appropriateness of the cutlery designs, and how personalisation contributes to motivation within therapy. These main findings conclude that cutlery designed for stroke patients needs to be personalised, as each patient has very individual needs according to their very individual impairments. Current cutlery does not address them all and even less address them through personalisation. The specific variables in the system need to be controlled and restricted to ensure that all 40,000 of the possible outcomes are effective.</p>

Designed Parameters: Advancing Parametric Software in the Architectural Design Process

<p>Architects use computers predominantly to digitise a design process that has been in use prior to the advent of the computer. Traditional analogue concepts are transferred into and sculpted through the digital world but the overall process has remained mostly unchanged for decades. Merely digitising a known process does not utilise the full power of the computer and its near limitless ability to compute. For an architect, design of the built environment is highly important especially if they are to optimise the physical, phenomenological and psychological aspects of the space. The process of designing an architectural space is riddled with possibilities or variables that architects have used historically to aid in the design of the built environment, including but not limited to: object relationships, climate, site conditions, history, habitibility and the clients input - all project requirements that must somehow be quantified into a built object. This information is key for an architect as it will inform and form the architecture which is to be designed for the project at hand. This information, however useful, is not easy to integrate into every aspect of the design without intensive planning, problem solving and an exploration of almost an infinite number of possibilities. This is where parametric design can be used to aid in the design. More of the fundamental aspects of the information gathered in a project can be programmed into a computer as parameters or relationships. Once this information has been quantified, the designer can run through iterations of a design which are defined by these parameters. This is not a random process. It is controlled by the designer and the outcome is a product of how the architect designs the parameters, or relationships between components of the design. Parametric design offers a shift from merely digitising design ideas to using programmed constraints derived through the design process to influence and augment the design envisioned by the architect. Parametric design allows the system to be changed holistically and updated through the alteration of individual components that will then impact the form of the design as a whole – creating a non-linear process that is connected throughout all design phases. This thesis seeks to explore parametric design through its implementation within a group design project to decipher how a parametric process grounded in an understanding of contemporary digital fabrication can inform architectural space. To explore parametric design, this thesis will practice this re-envisioned design process through three design phases. The first phase is the foundational knowledge stage where the applications of digital workflow, computer models, tools and material explorations are examined. Second is the production of a prototype to investigate lessons learnt from phase one and apply these lessons to an actual parametric system used to design a prototype. The final stage will be a developed design process that will further explore a parametric system and its architectural applications. These phases will be developed through a series of prototypes in the form of material explorations and scale artefacts which will explore how it would be used to address many of the designs facets from sensual to corporeal.</p>

Designed Parameters: Advancing Parametric Software in the Architectural Design Process

<p>Architects use computers predominantly to digitise a design process that has been in use prior to the advent of the computer. Traditional analogue concepts are transferred into and sculpted through the digital world but the overall process has remained mostly unchanged for decades. Merely digitising a known process does not utilise the full power of the computer and its near limitless ability to compute. For an architect, design of the built environment is highly important especially if they are to optimise the physical, phenomenological and psychological aspects of the space. The process of designing an architectural space is riddled with possibilities or variables that architects have used historically to aid in the design of the built environment, including but not limited to: object relationships, climate, site conditions, history, habitibility and the clients input - all project requirements that must somehow be quantified into a built object. This information is key for an architect as it will inform and form the architecture which is to be designed for the project at hand. This information, however useful, is not easy to integrate into every aspect of the design without intensive planning, problem solving and an exploration of almost an infinite number of possibilities. This is where parametric design can be used to aid in the design. More of the fundamental aspects of the information gathered in a project can be programmed into a computer as parameters or relationships. Once this information has been quantified, the designer can run through iterations of a design which are defined by these parameters. This is not a random process. It is controlled by the designer and the outcome is a product of how the architect designs the parameters, or relationships between components of the design. Parametric design offers a shift from merely digitising design ideas to using programmed constraints derived through the design process to influence and augment the design envisioned by the architect. Parametric design allows the system to be changed holistically and updated through the alteration of individual components that will then impact the form of the design as a whole – creating a non-linear process that is connected throughout all design phases. This thesis seeks to explore parametric design through its implementation within a group design project to decipher how a parametric process grounded in an understanding of contemporary digital fabrication can inform architectural space. To explore parametric design, this thesis will practice this re-envisioned design process through three design phases. The first phase is the foundational knowledge stage where the applications of digital workflow, computer models, tools and material explorations are examined. Second is the production of a prototype to investigate lessons learnt from phase one and apply these lessons to an actual parametric system used to design a prototype. The final stage will be a developed design process that will further explore a parametric system and its architectural applications. These phases will be developed through a series of prototypes in the form of material explorations and scale artefacts which will explore how it would be used to address many of the designs facets from sensual to corporeal.</p>

METHODS OF OPTIMIZATION OF PARAMETRIC SYSTEMS

The paper considers methods of parametric optimization of a dynamical system, which is described by a parametric system of differential equations. The gradient of the functional in the form of Boltz is found, which is the basis of methods such as gradient descent. Another method is based on the application of the sensitivity function.