Multi-level modeling: cornerstones of a rationale

This expert voice paper presents a comprehensive rationale of multi-level modeling. It aims not only at a systematic assessment of its prospects, but also at encouraging applications of multi-level modeling in business information systems and at providing a motivation for future research. The assessment is developed from a comparison of multi-level modeling with object-oriented, general-purpose modeling languages (GPMLs) and domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs). To foster a differentiated evaluation, we propose a multi-perspective framework that accounts, among others, for essential design conflicts, different types of users, as well as economic aspects. Besides the assessment of the additional abstraction offered by multi-level modeling, the evaluation also identifies specific drawbacks and remaining challenges. Based on the results of the comparative assessment, in order to foster the adoption and further development of multi-level modeling, we discuss the prospects of supplementing multi-level modeling languages with multi-level programming languages and suggest possible dissemination strategies customized for different groups of users. The paper concludes with an outline of future research.

A Unique Transdisciplinary Engineering-Based Integrated Approach for the Design of Temporary Refugee Housing Using Kano, HOQ/QFD, TRIZ, AD, ISM and DSM Tools

The continued displacement of refugees from their homes and homelands (now greater than 50 million people worldwide) places increased focus and attention on evolving the designs of temporary housing that is available to be provided to the refugee population, especially in rural areas where housing does not already exist and must be constructed in very little time. Complex engineering problems involving social issues, such as this case study, benefit from the use of Integrated Transdisciplinary (TD) Tools (ITDT) to effectively and efficiently address the design questions related to them. The integrated use of TD Tools such as Kano Analysis, KJ Diagrams, Critical to Quality (CTQ), House of Quality (HOQ)/Quality Function Design (QFD), Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), Axiomatic Design (AD), Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), and Design Structure Matrix (DSM) through an end-to-end unique design process leads to innovation and elimination of design conflicts for especially complicated design problems. The objective of this study is to examine the design of temporary refugee housing using integrated TD tools mentioned above. This research concludes that the use of the ITDT approach provides an innovative, decoupled design.

Der Computer als Denkzeug für hermeneutische Arbeit

Computer science and the humanities seem to belong to two opposite sides within the spectrum of scientific methods and research. In the domain of digital humanities, however, formalization and hermeneutic interpretation have to be integrated. As will be argued in this article, this integration provides a fundamentally new challenge to both disciplines. In particular, researchers from the humanities want to be sure that using the tools provided by computer science (big data, machine learning, etc.) do not change insights in any non-expected way. However, even if this could be partially secured, it cannot be achieved in general for most of the research practices. As will be demonstrated in the context of digital editions in musicology, it is impossible to design technology in a neutral or context-free manner. Due to the interests of different actors and institutions, numerous design conflicts arise where the implementation of requirements violates other, equally valid demands. To balance these conflicting requirements invariably brings some bias to the overall design. Thus, it is important to develop a strategy for identifying potential influences as well as the impact of design decisions throughout the whole process of developing tools and infrastructures. The paper presents an approach for hypotheses driven design of digital tools and infrastructures from a computer science point of view, placing great emphasis on supporting mutual understanding and ensuring a transparent design process.

Developing Evidence-Based Design Guidelines for Medical/Surgical Hospital Patient Rooms That Meet the Needs of Staff, Patients, and Visitors

Objectives: This research investigated medical/surgical (Med/Surg) patient room design to accommodate the needs of hospital staff, while at the same time accommodating the needs of patients and their visitors. Background: Designing hospital patient rooms that provide a comfortable healing experience for patients, while at the same time meeting the needs of the hospital staff, is a challenging process. Prior research has shown that many hospital patient room designs adversely affect the ability of hospital staff to perform their tasks effectively, efficiently, and safely. Method: Twenty-seven design sessions were conducted in which 104 participants, representing 24 different occupations, worked in small mixed occupational groups to design an ideal single patient Med/Surg patient room to fit their collective needs using a full-scale mock-up. During analysis, the investigators reduced the resulting 27 room designs to 5 hybrid designs that were sequentially reviewed by patients and visitors and by staff to address design conflicts. Results: This design process identified 51 desirable room design features that were incorporated into 66 evidence-based design guidelines for the different areas within the Med/Surg patient room including the entry way (16 guidelines), the patient clinical area (22 guidelines), the bathroom (17 guidelines), the family area (8 guidelines), and storage areas for patients and their visitors (3 guidelines). Conclusions: The guidelines developed through this study identified many opportunities for improving the design of hospital Med/Surg rooms to allow staff to be more effective, efficient, and safer, while at the same time addressing the design needs of patients and their visitors.

An integrated principle solution synthesis method in multi-disciplinary mechatronic product conceptual design

Synthesizing suitable principle solutions together to form the design solution is a universal method in conceptual design. For the modern mechatronic product, the conceptual design is often multi-disciplinary, which would be extremely time consuming and labour-intensive for designers to synthesize multi-disciplinary principle solutions together. Taking advantage of functional knowledge and structural knowledge of principle solution, this article proposes an integrated principle solution synthesis method which not only achieves the automated synthesis of multi-disciplinary principle solutions but also solves the undesired physical conflicts among principle solutions to be synthesized. In integrated principle solution synthesis, a synthesis agent is developed to chain the functional flows of principle solutions to form the combinatorial principle solution set, and synthesis agent selects the combinatorial principle solution with highest availability value as the recommended combinatorial principle solution. Then extensic theory is employed to deal with the partial design conflicts hidden in recommended combinatorial principle solution by extending and transforming the conflict functional structures. A case study on the emergency cutting off device design is given to prove the industrial applicability of integrated principle solution synthesis, which indicates that compared with traditional synthesis method, integrated principle solution synthesis can not only get multi-disciplinary design result of emergency cutting off device but also further resolve the design conflict (i.e. vibration impact) to optimize the functional structure of emergency cutting off device.