Supporting the Reuse of Design Assets in ETO-Based Components—A Case Study from an Industrialised Post and Beam Building System

The ability to offer customisation has been considered as a competitive advantage for industrialised house building (IHB) companies. Product platform approaches have been acknowledged as one of the prominent ways to improve both internal and external efficiency. However, the use of traditional platform-based strategies does not suffice for the design of engineer-to-order (ETO)-based components in a building system. The purpose of this research is to test and evaluate how the reuse of design assets can be achieved by using a parametric modelling approach to support the design process of ETO-based components in a post and beam building system. This is an additional study using the design platform approach (DPA) that contributes to expanding the knowledge for designing ETO-based components. This research proposes a parametric design platform method developed by following an inductive approach based on the findings from a detailed study on bracket connection with a single case study in a Swedish multi-storey house building company. The proposed method offers flexibility in modelling ETO building components, facilitates design automation, and shows a 20-times improvement in the modelling process. This approach can be used in any building system with ETO-based components by identifying, formalising, and reusing connected design assets. A key finding is that the ETO components can be shifted towards configurable solutions to achieve platform-based design.

A STEAM Practice Approach to Integrate Architecture, Culture and History on a Mathematical Problem-Solving Basis

In this paper we propose STEAM practices that would foster mathematics learning through modelling architecture while connecting to culture and history. The architectural modelling process is applied by the teachers as participants of these practices from different countries allowing a broad cultural and historical connection to mathematics education. The modelling is implemented in GeoGebra platform as it is an open-source platform to allow teachers to model on a mathematics basis. The architectural modelling process does not provide participants with steps to follow but rather allows them to explore the architectural models’ components and construct them with various approaches which may foster problem solving techniques. We aim to investigate how different phases of this approach (such as motivation, modeling, and printing process) reflect on opportunities of learning in STEAM education, with a particular lens in mathematical development from open tasks. This paper will show two use cases that took place in Upper Austria and the MENA region.

Introduction

Population processes, including migration, are complex and uncertain. We begin this book by providing a rationale for building Bayesian agent-based models for population phenomena, specifically in the context of migration, which is one of the most uncertain and complex demographic processes. The main objectives of the book are to pursue methodological advancement in demography and migration studies through combining agent-based modelling with empirical data, Bayesian statistical inference, appropriate computational techniques, and psychological experiments in a streamlined modelling process, with the overarching aim to contribute to furthering the model-based research agenda in demography and broader social sciences. In this introductory chapter, we also offer an overview of the structure of this book, and present various ways in which different audiences can approach the contents, depending on their background and needs.

Towards More Realistic Models

This chapter is devoted to the presentation of a more realistic version of the model, Risk and Rumours, which extends the previous, theoretical version (Routes and Rumours) by including additional empirical and experimental information following the process described in Part II of this book. We begin by offering a reflection on the integration of the five elements of the modelling process, followed by a more detailed description of the Risk and Rumours model, and how it differs from the previous version. Subsequently, we present selected results of the uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, enabling us to make further inference on the information gaps and areas for potential data collection. We also present model calibration for an empirically grounded version of the model, Risk and Rumours with Reality. In that way, we can evaluate to what extent the iterative modelling process has enabled a reduction in the uncertainty of the migrant route formation. In the final part of the chapter, we reflect on the model-building process and its implementation.

Conclusions: Towards a Bayesian Modelling Process

In the concluding chapter we summarise the theoretical, methodological and practical outcomes of the model-based process of scientific enquiry presented in the book, against the wider background of recent developments in demography and population studies. We offer a critical self-reflection on further potential and on limitations of Bayesian model-based approaches, alongside the lessons learned from the modelling exercise discussed throughout this book. As concluding thoughts, we suggest potential ways forward for statistically-embedded model-based computational social studies, including an assessment of the future viability of the wider model-based research programme, and its possible contributions to policy and decision making.

Coming and Going in Loops: Participatory Modelling of a System with All its Complexity

Social marketing is currently involved in pursuing several important theoretical and methodological goals pertaining to wide-scale behavior change. The lack of complex system understanding via highly participatory processes and feedback loops is a major impediment for systemic behavior change. The purpose of this paper is to show how the implementation of participatory modelling to explore networks of feedback loops can empower social marketing in capturing system complexity. As a case study, a group of system stakeholders qualitatively modelled a cycling system in a city setting to uncover the system's core behavioral dynamics. This participatory modelling process revealed that the interactions within and between three feedback loops were mainly responsible for the cycling system issues. These feedback loops were: (a) output-based and autocratic decision-making, (b) an abundance of conflicted interests and (c) the reinforcement of a car-dominant paradigm in people's minds. The paper contributes to understanding the potential of participatory modelling for multi-level behavior change.

MAD+. Introducing Misconceptions in the Temporal Analysis of the Mathematical Modelling Process of a Fermi Problem

This work describes how the combination of the mistakes committed by a group of pre-service teachers when solving a Fermi problem, with the representation of the temporal analysis of their resolutions, can offer more in-depth information about their conceptual misconceptions regarding mathematical and modelling concepts. The combined representation allows knowing when mistakes occur and provides a powerful tool for instructors to adapt the teaching–learning processes of mathematics at all levels of education. Our study is based on a recent categorisation of students’ mistakes, together with the creation of a new representation tool, called MAD+, that can combine all this information. The macroscopic view provided by the MAD+ diagrams gives insight into the context in which the mistakes take place and makes the analysis of the resolution of a Fermi problem more efficient.

Understanding Early Mathematical Modelling: First Steps in the Process of Translation Between Real-world Contexts and Mathematics

The aim of this study is to provide data to better understand the processes of early mathematical modelling. According to this, an early mathematical modelling activity carried out by 21 Spanish schoolchildren aged 5–6 years is analysed, using the validated tool “Rubric for the Evaluation of Mathematical Modelling Processes” (REMMP). The results show that children link the content of the problem with their prior knowledge (understanding); identify the important data of the problem and simplify it (structuring); show some difficulties in substituting the elements of the real context for mathematical objects (mathematizing); use progressively mathematical objects and strategies in order to propose solutions for the problem (working mathematically); compare the solution with the initial problem (interpretation); justify the proposed model via valid arguments (validation); and also communicate the decisions taken throughout the modelling process and the concrete model obtained applied to the real context (presenting). We conclude that the description of this type of activities and the tools for their analysis could be used for grading and teaching tool in order to promote mathematic modelling in early childhood education.