In de Solution Rooms bespreken studenten, docenten, beleidsmakers en onderzoekers uitdagingen en oplossingsrichtingen voor het vervolgonderwijs van de toekomst. Eén van de thema's is 'Duurzaamheid', waar Rolien Blanken een wetenschappelijke reflectie over schreef. Twee problemen zijn geïdentificeerd bij doorvoeren van duurzaamheid binnen de instelling en het onderwijs: de complexiteit van het vraagstuk enerzijds en draagvlak en effecten op de studenten anderzijds. Dit bemoeilijkt het duurzaamheidsproces. Inzetten op het gebruik maken van meetinstrumenten voor verduurzaming van curricula, transdisciplinair- en sectoroverstijgend werken en duurzaam burgerschap als uitgangspunt voor studentontwikkeling kunnen helpen om tot een succesvolle verduurzaming te komen. Aandacht voor duurzaamheid in het onderwijs kent een hoge mate van urgentie. De student ervaart hierbij negatieve invloed op het welzijn. Tegelijkertijd is verduurzaming een complex proces. Het doorvoeren van regeneratief onderwijs kan helpen bij het aangaan van genoemde uitdagingen. Naast het meten van de duurzaamheid van het curriculum is aan te bevelen breder in de organisatie duurzaamheid te meten en door te voeren. Het werken met integrated reporting kan hierin bijdragen. Transdisciplinair en sectoroverstijgend werken is een goede oplossing om duurzaamheidstransities te bereiken. Dit kan men toepassen door te werken in labs. In deze omgevingen zijn diverse stakeholders betrokken en kan de student zijn rol als wereldburger hier in co-creatie vervullen.
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Research about design cognition acknowledges the importance of knowledge about exiting solutions. Designers tend to employ solution oriented thinking strategies; they generate idea’s starting from initial solutions - called primary generators; they are known to rely on episodic knowledge and precedent throughout the design process; and they iterate frequently between the problem and solution space . This raises the question how such solutions, often in the form of existing designs are taught. Few design programs explicitly acknowledge existing solutions as part of the designers knowledge base, or specify, for example, what types of analyses designers should be able to perform on them. We believe design education could benefit from rethinking how their curricula handle solutions and from explicating this role. To this end we introduce the notion of ‘solution repertoire’. With this term we refer to the knowledge designers have of existing solutions. An analysis of the notion of solution repertoire helps us to identify and recognize solution oriented knowledge and its treatment in our schools. This, in turn, helps us to make more informed choices in our curriculum development.
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Design education has a nuanced relationship with examples. Although they are considered useful teaching tools, their use is often restricted to illustrating the design theories and principles around which the curriculum is structured. In contrast, professional designers view examples as autonomous entities and use them to initiate a critical dialogue with their current problem space. Therefore, students should be facilitated in cultivating their own repertoire of solutions and learn to initiate conversations between existing solutions and design challenges to gain a better understanding of the problem space and generate new designs. This paper outlines a small-scale experiment conducted with master's students in Applied Data Science at Utrecht University who took a course on designing recommender system interfaces. The students were provided with a set of examples of recommender interface designs as their main instructional tool. They could use this set to curate their own solution repertoire. As a result, the majority of the participants' work displayed more diverse designs, and they used design patterns distilled from those examples generatively, developing innovative designs. Based on this case study, we tentatively conclude that a design curriculum built around examples, complemented by theories, could be advantageous, as long as special attention is given to helping students initiate fruitful iterations between their challenges and a set of solutions.
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Designing cities that are socially sustainable has been a significant challenge until today. Lately, European Commission’s research agenda of Industy 5.0 has prioritised a sustainable, human-centric and resilient development over merely pursuing efficiency and productivity in societal transitions. The focus has been on searching for sustainable solutions to societal challenges, engaging part of the design industry. In architecture and urban design, whose common goal is to create a condition for human life, much effort was put into elevating the engineering process of physical space, making it more efficient. However, the natural process of social evolution has not been given priority in urban and architectural research on sustainable design. STEPS stems from the common interest of the project partners in accessible, diverse, and progressive public spaces, which is vital to socially sustainable urban development. The primary challenge lies in how to synthesise the standardised sustainable design techniques with unique social values of public space, propelling a transition from technical sustainability to social sustainability. Although a large number of social-oriented studies in urban design have been published in the academic domain, principles and guidelines that can be applied to practice are large missing. How can we generate operative principles guiding public space analysis and design to explore and achieve the social condition of sustainability, developing transferable ways of utilising research knowledge in design? STEPS will develop a design catalogue with operative principles guiding public space analysis and design. This will help designers apply cross-domain knowledge of social sustainability in practice.
Carboxylated cellulose is an important product on the market, and one of the most well-known examples is carboxymethylcellulose (CMC). However, CMC is prepared by modification of cellulose with the extremely hazardous compound monochloracetic acid. In this project, we want to make a carboxylated cellulose that is a functional equivalent for CMC using a greener process with renewable raw materials derived from levulinic acid. Processes to achieve cellulose with a low and a high carboxylation degree will be designed.
Size measurement plays an essential role for micro-/nanoparticle characterization and property evaluation. Due to high costs, complex operation or resolution limit, conventional characterization techniques cannot satisfy the growing demand of routine size measurements in various industry sectors and research departments, e.g., pharmaceuticals, nanomaterials and food industry etc. Together with start-up SeeNano and other partners, we will develop a portable compact device to measure particle size based on particle-impact electrochemical sensing technology. The main task in this project is to extend the measurement range for particles with diameters ranging from 20 nm to 20 um and to validate this technology with realistic samples from various application areas. In this project a new electrode chip will be designed and fabricated. It will result in a workable prototype including new UMEs (ultra-micro electrode), showing that particle sizing can be achieved on a compact portable device with full measuring range. Following experimental testing with calibrated particles, a reliable calibration model will be built up for full range measurement. In a further step, samples from partners or potential customers will be tested on the device to evaluate the application feasibility. The results will be validated by high-resolution and mainstream sizing techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Coulter counter.
