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Deacon, M. "Distributed Collaboration: Engineering Practice Requirements." Thesis, Linkt to the online version, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/755.
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Grützner, Ines, Patrick Waterson, Carsten Vollmers, Sonja Trapp, and Thomas Olsson. "Requirements Engineering für Communities of Practice." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2014. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-155494.
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Eine der Herausforderungen des Requirements Engineering (RE) ist, dass bei der Entwicklung eines Software-Systems sowohl die technischen Einzelheiten als auch der Kontext des Einsatzes berücksichtigt werden müssen. Wie schon andere Autoren bemerkt haben, ist RE ein sozio-technisches Unterfangen. Bei der Entwicklung von Desktop-Software zum Beispiel ist zu berücksichtigen, wie der einzelne Benutzer die Anwendung einsetzen wird. Im Bereich Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) ist der Einsatzkontext komplizierter, da Kommunikation und Interaktion zwischen Benutzern ebenfalls berücksichtigt werden müssen. Bei der Entwicklung einer Community of Practice (CoP) muss der Kontext noch weiter ausgedehnt werden, da Dinge wie Kooperation, Gruppenbildung bzw. Bildung von Netzwerken, Lernen etc. auch in die Anforderungen einfließen.
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Hebig, Regina. "Evolution of model-driven engineering settings in practice." Phd thesis, Universität Potsdam, 2014. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2014/7076/.
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Nowadays, software systems are getting more and more complex. To tackle this challenge most diverse techniques, such as design patterns, service oriented architectures (SOA), software development processes, and model-driven engineering (MDE), are used to improve productivity, while time to market and quality of the products stay stable. Multiple of these techniques are used in parallel to profit from their benefits. While the use of sophisticated software development processes is standard, today, MDE is just adopted in practice.
However, research has shown that the application of MDE is not always successful. It is not fully understood when advantages of MDE can be used and to what degree MDE can also be disadvantageous for productivity. Further, when combining different techniques that aim to affect the same factor (e.g. productivity) the question arises whether these techniques really complement each other or, in contrast, compensate their effects. Due to that, there is the concrete question how MDE and other techniques, such as software development process, are interrelated. Both aspects (advantages and disadvantages for productivity as well as the interrelation to other techniques) need to be understood to identify risks relating to the productivity impact of MDE.
Before studying MDE's impact on productivity, it is necessary to investigate the range of validity that can be reached for the results. This includes two questions. First, there is the question whether MDE's impact on productivity is similar for all approaches of adopting MDE in practice. Second, there is the question whether MDE's impact on productivity for an approach of using MDE in practice remains stable over time. The answers for both questions are crucial for handling risks of MDE, but also for the design of future studies on MDE success.
This thesis addresses these questions with the goal to support adoption of MDE in future. To enable a differentiated discussion about MDE, the term MDE setting'' is introduced. MDE setting refers to the applied technical setting, i.e. the employed manual and automated activities, artifacts, languages, and tools. An MDE setting's possible impact on productivity is studied with a focus on changeability and the interrelation to software development processes. This is done by introducing a taxonomy of changeability concerns that might be affected by an MDE setting. Further, three MDE traits are identified and it is studied for which manifestations of these MDE traits software development processes are impacted. To enable the assessment and evaluation of an MDE setting's impacts, the Software Manufacture Model language is introduced. This is a process modeling language that allows to reason about how relations between (modeling) artifacts (e.g. models or code files) change during application of manual or automated development activities. On that basis, risk analysis techniques are provided. These techniques allow identifying changeability risks and assessing the manifestations of the MDE traits (and with it an MDE setting's impact on software development processes).
To address the range of validity, MDE settings from practice and their evolution histories were capture in context of this thesis. First, this data is used to show that MDE settings cover the whole spectrum concerning their impact on changeability or interrelation to software development processes. Neither it is seldom that MDE settings are neutral for processes nor is it seldom that MDE settings have impact on processes. Similarly, the impact on changeability differs relevantly. Second, a taxonomy of evolution of MDE settings is introduced. In that context it is discussed to what extent different types of changes on an MDE setting can influence this MDE setting's impact on changeability and the interrelation to processes. The category of structural evolution, which can change these characteristics of an MDE setting, is identified. The captured MDE settings from practice are used to show that structural evolution exists and is common. In addition, some examples of structural evolution steps are collected that actually led to a change in the characteristics of the respective MDE settings. Two implications are: First, the assessed diversity of MDE settings evaluates the need for the analysis techniques that shall be presented in this thesis. Second, evolution is one explanation for the diversity of MDE settings in practice.
To summarize, this thesis studies the nature and evolution of MDE settings in practice. As a result support for the adoption of MDE settings is provided in form of techniques for the identification of risks relating to productivity impacts.<br>Um die steigende Komplexität von Softwaresystemen beherrschen zu können, werden heutzutage unterschiedlichste Techniken gemeinsam eingesetzt. Beispiele sind, Design Pattern, Serviceorientierte Architekturen, Softwareentwicklungsprozesse oder modellgetriebene Entwicklung (MDE). Ziel dabei ist die Erhöhung der Produktivität, so dass Entwicklungsdauer und Qualität stabil bleiben können. Während hoch entwickelte Softwareentwicklungsprozesse heute schon standardmäßig genutzt werden, fangen Firmen gerade erst an MDE einzusetzen.
Jedoch zeigen Studien, dass der erhoffte Erfolg von MDE nicht jedes Mal eintritt. So scheint es, dass noch kein ausreichendes Verständnis dafür existiert, inwiefern MDE auch Nachteile für die Produktivität bergen kann. Zusätzlich ist bei der Kombination von unterschiedlichen Techniken damit zu rechnen, dass die erreichten Effekte sich gegenseitig negieren anstatt sich zu ergänzen. Hier entsteht die Frage wie MDE und andere Techniken, wie Softwareentwicklungsprozesse, zusammenwirken. Beide Aspekte, der direkte Einfluss auf Produktivität und die Wechselwirkung mit anderen Techniken, müssen aber verstanden werden um den Risiken für den Produktivitätseinfluss von MDE zu identifizieren. Außerdem, muss auch die Generalisierbarkeit dieser Aspekte untersucht werden. Das betrifft die Fragen, ob der Produktivitätseinfluss bei jedem Einsatz von MDE gleich ist und ob der Produktivitätseinfluss über die Zeit stabil bleibt. Beide Fragen sind entscheidend, will man geeignete Risikobehandlung ermöglichen oder künftige Studien zum Erfolg von MDE planen.
Diese Dissertation widmet sich der genannten Fragen. Dafür wird zuerst der Begriff MDE Setting'' eingeführt um eine differenzierte Betrachtung von MDE-Verwendungen zu ermöglichen. Ein MDE Setting ist dabei der technische Aufbau, inklusive manueller und automatische Aktivitäten, Artefakten, Sprachen und Werkzeugen. Welche Produktivitätseinflüsse von MDE Settings möglich sind, wird in der Dissertation mit Fokus auf Änderbarkeit und die Wechselwirkung mit Softwareentwicklungsprozessen betrachtet. Dafür wird einerseits eine Taxonomie von Changeability Concerns'' (potentiell betroffene Aspekte von Änderbarkeit) vorgestellt. Zusätzlich, werden drei MDE Traits'' (Charakteristika von MDE Settings die unterschiedlich ausgeprägt sein können) identifiziert. Es wird untersucht welche Ausprägungen dieser MDE Traits Einfluss auf Softwareentwicklungsprozesse haben können. Um die Erfassung und Bewertung dieser Einflüsse zu ermöglichen wird die Software Manufaktur Modell Sprache eingeführt. Diese Prozessmodellierungssprache ermöglicht eine Beschreibung, der Veränderungen von Artefaktbeziehungen während der Anwendung von Aktivitäten (z.B. Codegenerierung). Weiter werden auf Basis dieser Modelle, Analysetechniken eingeführt. Diese Analysetechniken erlauben es Risiken für bestimmte Changeability Concerns aufzudecken sowie die Ausprägung von MDE Traits zu erfassen (und damit den Einfluss auf Softwareentwicklungsprozesse).
Um die Generalisierbarkeit der Ergebnisse zu studieren, wurden im Rahmen der Arbeit mehrere MDE Settings aus der Praxis sowie teilweise deren Evolutionshistorien erhoben. Daran wird gezeigt, dass MDE Settings sich in einem breiten Spektrum von Einflüssen auf Änderbarkeit und Prozesse bewegen. So ist es weder selten, dass ein MDE Setting neutral für Prozesse ist, noch, dass ein MDE Setting Einschränkungen für einen Prozess impliziert. Ähnlich breit gestreut ist der Einfluss auf die Änderbarkeit.Zusätzlich, wird diskutiert, inwiefern unterschiedliche Evolutionstypen den Einfluss eines MDE Settings auf Änderbarkeit und Prozesse verändern können. Diese Diskussion führt zur Identifikation der strukturellen Evolution'', die sich stark auf die genannten Charakteristika eines MDE Settings auswirken kann. Mithilfe der erfassten MDE Settings, wird gezeigt, dass strukturelle Evolution in der Praxis üblich ist. Schließlich, werden Beispiele aufgedeckt bei denen strukturelle Evolutionsschritte tatsächlich zu einer Änderung der Charakteristika des betreffenden MDE Settings geführt haben. Einerseits bestärkt die ermittelte Vielfalt den Bedarf nach Analysetechniken, wie sie in dieser Dissertation eingeführt werden. Zum Anderen erscheint es nun, dass Evolution zumindest zum Teil die unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen von MDE Settings erklärt.
Zusammenfassend wird studiert wie MDE Settings und deren Evolution in der Praxis ausgeprägt sind. Als Ergebnis, werden Techniken zur Identifikation von Risiken für Produktivitätseinflüsse bereitgestellt um den Einsatz von MDE Settings zu unterstützen.
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Denley, Ian Sean. "Dialectic approach to multidisciplinary practice in requirements engineering." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1999. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1318020/.
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This thesis develops an approach that supports multidisciplinary practice in requirements engineering. It is argued that multidisciplinary requirements engineering practice is ineffective, and some specific problems for multidisciplinary practice are identified. It is also suggested that the incommensurability of conflicting paradigms is an underlying cause of the problems in multidisciplinary practice, and a number of criteria for support to overcome such problems are proposed. A form of methodological support, which it is claimed may help overcome some of the problems associated with multidisciplinary practice in requirements engineering, is developed. This methodological support takes the form of a dialectic process, and its associated products, which is conceptualised and then operationalised. As an illustration of the methodological support offered to multidisciplinary practice, the operationalisation of the dialectic process is applied to requirements constructed by the use of two different requirements engineering techniques from two different disciplines (representing two different paradigms), in the domain of Accident and Emergency healthcare. Finally, the application of the operationalisation of the dialectic process is assessed with respect to the criteria for support for multidisciplinary practice proposed earlier, and this assessment is used to reconceptualise the dialectic process. The limitations of the research are identified, and possibilities for future work proposed. This thesis is aimed primarily at the requirements engineering community, and in particular the practising requirements engineer. It makes two contributions to knowledge supporting the practices of requirements engineering. First, the thesis contributes two types of substantive discipline knowledge: an explanation of why multidisciplinary practice in requirements engineering is problematic; and the proposal of criteria for support to allay the difficulties of multidisciplinary practice. It is suggested that these criteria might be used in the development of new types of support to overcomes such difficulties, or in the assessmment of new requirements engineering techniques that claim to address multidisciplinary practice. Second, the thesis contributes methodological knowledge in the form of a dialectic approach that offers a new way of reasoning about requirements engineering. This methodological knowledge takes two forms: a generic dialectic approach that might be applied by requirements engineering practitioners to requirements, generated by a wide range of requirements engineering techniques, representing alternative paradigms; and a specific instantiation of the dialectic approach using the MUSE method and the Grounded Theory method, that might be used in its current form by requirements engineering practitioners to support their own multidisciplinary practice.
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DelGizzi, Jesse D. "Zydeco Aesthetics| Instrumentation, Performance Practice, and Sound Engineering." Thesis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10816360.
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<p>This thesis examines aesthetics, sonic characteristics, and performance practices of zydeco music as heard in south Louisiana today. The first chapter describes the roles of instruments in a zydeco band, focusing specifically on the importance of the kick drum and the snare drum. It also details the evolution of the modern zydeco sound and how certain instruments, their modifications, and their timbres came to characterize the style especially prevalent among a group of artists who play for zydeco trail rides. The second chapter examines the tempo of modern zydeco music through quantitative analysis of musical recordings. This chapter also elucidates the use of beat patterns and drumming techniques within the genre, providing evidence for a current preference for the boogaloo beat over the on-the-one and the double beats. The third chapter discusses sonic goals and values of the sound engineer in zydeco music in live performance. This chapter also includes analysis of the frequency spectrum profiles of live zydeco recordings which depict how sound reinforcement practices, instrument modifications, and playing techniques discussed in the thesis are manifested in these performances. Research methods employed for this thesis include interviews with zydeco musicians, empirical analysis of live musical recordings, and examination of spectrograms.
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Wolff, Karin Elizabeth. "Negotiating disciplinary boundaries in engineering problem-solving practice." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16937.
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Includes bibliographical references<br>The impetus for this research is the well-documented current inability of Higher Education to facilitate the level of problem solving required in 21st century engineering practice. The research contends that there is insufficient understanding of the nature of and relationship between the significantly different forms of disciplinary knowledge underpinning engineering practice. Situated in the Sociology of Education, and drawing on the social realist concepts of knowledge structures (Bernstein, 2000) and epistemic relations (Maton, 2014), the research maps the topology of engineering problem-solving practice in order to illuminate how novice problem solvers engage in epistemic code shifting in different industrial contexts. The aim in mapping problem-solving practices from an epistemological perspective is to make an empirical contribution to rethinking the theory/practice relationship in multidisciplinary engineering curricula and pedagogy, particularly at the level of technician. A novel and pragmatic problem-solving model - integrated from a range of disciplines - forms the organising framework for a methodologically pluralist case-study approach. The research design draws on a metaphor from the empirical site (modular automation systems) and sees the analysis of twelve matched cases in three categories. Case-study data consist of questionnaire texts, re-enactment interviews, expert verification interviews, and industry literature. The problem-solving model components (problem solver, problem environment, problem structure and problem-solving process) were analysed using, primarily, the Legitimation Code Theory concept of epistemic relations. This is a Cartesian plane-based instrument describing the nature of and relations between a phenomenon (what) and ways of approaching the phenomenon (how). Data analyses are presented as graphical relational maps of different practitioner knowledge practices in different contexts across three problem solving stages: approach, analysis and synthesis. Key findings demonstrate a symbiotic, structuring relationship between the 'what' and the 'how' of the problem in relation to the problem-solving components. Successful problem solving relies on the recognition of these relationships and the realisation of appropriate practice code conventions, as held to be legitimate both epistemologically and contextually. Successful practitioners engage in explicit code-shifting, generally drawing on a priori physics and mathematics-based knowledge, while acquiring a posteriori context-specific logic-based knowledge. High-achieving practitioners across these disciplinary domains demonstrate iterative code-shifting practices and discursive sensitivity. Recommendations for engineering education include the valuing of disciplinary differences and the acknowledgement of contextual complexity. It is suggested that the nature of engineering mathematics as currently taught and the role of mathematical thinking in enabling successful engineering problem-solving practice be investigated.
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Carbonell, Ballestero Max 1988. "Engineering principles for synthetic biology : from concept to practice." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/385923.
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Synthetic Biology is a relatively new and multi-faceted interdisciplinary emergent field of research that combines biology with technology in novel and exciting ways. One of its main branches aims to see living systems engineered in a rational and straightforward bottom-up approach, like in other engineering disciplines. The inherent complex nature of living systems turns them into a difficult and challenging substrate where to apply common engineering principles such as standardization, abstraction and modularity. Efforts to overcome these limitations and adapt such principles for working upon living systems have been devoted, though yet with relative success. The aim of this Thesis is to critically explore what is Synthetic Biology and how far it is from a veritable engineering discipline. In this Thesis, we first present a review that thoroughly explores and discusses this scenario. Then, we present two works that shall contribute to this ambitious and hard goal. First, within the context of standardization, we address the need for better genetic parts characterization by providing an example of a biologically grounded framework inspired by classical enzymology theory. Second, and in relation with the principle of
modularity, we provide a theoretical framework, in this case inspired by the Ohm’s law of electric theory, that describes the unintended coupling of the coexisting genetic loads within a given host cell due to sharing a limited common pool of machinery and resources. Together, both works contribute, on one hand, to increase our understanding of the organizing principles of living systems, and on the other hand, to improve how engineering principles are applied to synthetic circuit design. Finally, these works emphasize the need to find better experimentally backed-up theoretical frameworks or models that should allow us to jump from the current time-consuming, trial-error and ad hoc Synthetic Biology to a well-established engineering discipline as fruitful and efficient with the living systems realm as other engineering disciplines are.<br>La Biologia Sintètica és un camp de recerca emergent relativament nou i multi-facètic que combina la biologia amb la tecnologia de formes innovadores i emocionants. Una de les seves principals branques té com a objectiu aconseguir ingenieritzar els sistemes vius des d’abaix de manera racional i senzilla, tal com passa en altres tipus d’enginyeria. La naturalesa inherentment complexa dels éssers vius els converteix en un substrat difícil sobre el qual aplicar principis d’enginyeria com l’abstracció, l’estandardització i la modularitat. S’han dedicat esforços per superar aquestes limitacions i adaptar aquests principis perquè funcionin sobre sistemes vius, tot i que encara que amb un èxit relatiu. L’objectiu d’aquesta tesi és explorar críticament què és la Biologia Sintètica i quan lluny està de ser una veritable enginyeria. En aquesta tesi, primer presentem un article de revisió que explora i discuteix a fons aquest escenari. Després presentem dos treballs que han de contribuir a aquest ambiciós i difícil objectiu. En primer lloc, en el context de l’estandardització, adrecem la necessitat d’una millor caracterització de les parts genètiques oferint un exemple de marc teòric amb fonaments biològics que esta inspirat en teoria enzimològica clàssica. En segon lloc, i relacionat amb el principi de modularitat, oferim un marc teòric, aquest cop inspirat en la llei de Ohm de la teoria elèctrica, que descriu l’aparellament no intencionat de les carregues genètiques coexistents dins d’una cèl.lula hoste qualssevol degut al fet de compartir un conjunt comú limitat de recursos i maquinària cel•lular. Ambdós treballs contribueixen, per un cantó, a incrementar el nostre coneixement sobre els principis d’organització dels éssers vius, i per l’altre, a millorar com s’apliquen els principis d’enginyeria pel disseny de circuits sintètics. Finalment, aquests treballs emfatitzen la necessitat de trobar millors marcs teòrics o models recolzats experimentalment que haurien de permetre’ns fer un salt des de l’actual Biologia Sintètica ad hoc, farregosa i basada en assaig-error, a un tipus d’enginyeria ben establerta que pugui ser tan profitosa i eficient en el reialme dels éssers vius com ho són les altres enginyeries.
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Yiu, Wai-kei Ricky. "Mini piles design and construction in current engineering practice." View the Table of Contents & Abstract, 2001. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B3010757X.
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Yiu, Wai-kei Ricky, and 姚偉基. "Mini piles design and construction in current engineering practice." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2001. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B43894665.
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Diedrich, Andreas. "Engineering knowledge : how engineers and managers practice knowledge management /." Göteborg : BAS publ, 2004. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb39983743r.
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Al-Ghamdi, Khalid A. "Improving the practice of experimental design in manufacturing engineering." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2011. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3133/.
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Design of Experiments (DOE) is a powerful technique for understanding, characterising and modelling products and processes and improving their performance. Whilst the bulk of its literature revolves around how it should be applied, little attention, if any, is devoted to the manner in which it is being implemented in practice particularly in manufacturing. One objective of this study was to bridge this gap by reviewing practical applications in three manufacturing journals. This revealed not only limited use but also multiple deficiencies. Many of these concerned a lack of familiarity with the concept of aliasing; the use of fractional factorial designs and pooling methods to analyse unreplicated trials; and a misunderstanding of the concepts underpinning the use and interpretation of p-values and factorial effects’ importance measures. With respect to aliasing, a novel simple method for generating its pattern is proposed. Besides its ease of application, it can be linked to the three main criteria for measuring the degree of aliasing (maximum resolution, minimum aberration and generalised minimum aberration) in a manner devoid of mathematical complications. Regarding the use of fractional factorial designs and pooling methods, simulation experiments were used to assess the performance of certain experimentation strategies to arrive at the same conclusions had a full factorial trial been performed. In the context of two-level designs, the L\(_{16}\) together with the Pooling Up method or the Half Normal Probability plot yielded a satisfactory performance. Similarly, the strategy of using the Best Subset selection procedure in conjunction with the L\(_{18}\) design was the best among the examined three-level ones. To attain a robust performance, it was found that the use of small designs such as the L\(_8\) and the L\(_9\) should, as far as possible, be avoided. The concepts concerning the use of the p-values and the effect’s importance measures are clarified and to facilitate communication between Engineers, Managers and Statisticians, an importance measure that can be related to three quality engineering techniques is suggested.
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Ainsworth, John David. "Re-engineering healthcare systems to use evidence from practice." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/reengineering-healthcare-systems-to-use-evidence-from-practice(5fbb474d-ea68-42f4-883e-1a930868935c).html.
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Health and care services need to be optimised to meet the future demand that will be placed on them. This will require a closer coupling of service and research, whereby innovations in services can be rapidly tested and evaluated, and feed back into a continual process of service optimisation. The timely delivery of information from services into research is critical to this cycle. However, there are serious problems with the evidence on which healthcare and public health practice is based: it is expensive to produce; it takes a long time to produce; it takes a long time to influence professional practice; it is crude, relating to the average participant and simple treatment definitions under ideal conditions. In other words, it gives a low-resolution picture of how a patient might respond to treatment or a how a sub-group of the community might respond to a public health intervention. This work is an exploration of informatics solutions to these problems with an aim to re-engineer health care systems to make best use of the evidence available.
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Arnold, S. "Transforming systems engineering principles into integrated project team practice." Thesis, Engineering Systems Department, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1826/3033.
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This investigation considers the composition, status, principles and defence acquisition setting of systems engineering. From these some opportunities for enhancement of its practice are considered.
It opens with a re-assessment of the disciplinary essence of systems engineering. Systems engineering is considered as an amalgam of three components – systems reasoning, engineering and management – that form a coherent and distinctive discipline. It is advanced that a fresh balance of system-related factors, characterised in this text as systems reasoning, is the distinguishing essence of systems engineering. It conveys a rationale for present-day practice and provides a basis for advancements.
Consideration is given to the construction of a systems engineering framework, built from a re-interpretation of engineering and management science constructs. A triptych of viewpoints of systems engineering, comprising connected representations of business process, organisational capability and individual competence, is proposed and outlined. These three essential views define a paradigm of systems engineering able to structure present-day engineering complexities and risks, and permit project and enterprise control of business achievement and risk exposure.
An analysis of the UK MOD acquisition setting for systems engineering, and an Integrated Project Team Leader survey of prevailing system engineering attitudes, experiences, expectations and concerns, set the scene for practice advancements. The first of these is based on a rigorous view of what capability means and how this impacts IPT technical contributions and responsibilities. The effectiveness of the current MOD acquisition cycle is then considered. An alternative, that might better serve the changing nature of investment constraints and effective capability delivery, is presented. Approaches to systems engineering planning are then analysed and a conclusion drawn regarding a planning instrument for IPTs that balances prescription, guidance and didacticism.
An assessment of how requirements assist and hinder working with customers and suppliers dissects the intent and content of requirements, including their contrasting technical and commercial purposes. System descriptions, their relationship and their concordance are then considered in a detailed look inside the technical processes, and this includes the principles and methods employed to design architecture. The resolution of current conflicts and confusions over architecture is seen to lie in observance of disciplined systems engineering principles. Finally the systems engineering views of humans inside and outside the system boundary are explored, and the investigation closes with a consideration of the degree to which systems engineering may reasonably address social influences.
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Arnold, Stuart. "Transforming systems engineering principles into integrated project team practice." Thesis, Cranfield University, 2008. http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/3033.
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This investigation considers the composition, status, principles and defence acquisition setting of systems engineering. From these some opportunities for enhancement of its practice are considered. It opens with a re-assessment of the disciplinary essence of systems engineering. Systems engineering is considered as an amalgam of three components – systems reasoning, engineering and management – that form a coherent and distinctive discipline. It is advanced that a fresh balance of system-related factors, characterised in this text as systems reasoning, is the distinguishing essence of systems engineering. It conveys a rationale for present-day practice and provides a basis for advancements. Consideration is given to the construction of a systems engineering framework, built from a re-interpretation of engineering and management science constructs. A triptych of viewpoints of systems engineering, comprising connected representations of business process, organisational capability and individual competence, is proposed and outlined. These three essential views define a paradigm of systems engineering able to structure present-day engineering complexities and risks, and permit project and enterprise control of business achievement and risk exposure. An analysis of the UK MOD acquisition setting for systems engineering, and an Integrated Project Team Leader survey of prevailing system engineering attitudes, experiences, expectations and concerns, set the scene for practice advancements. The first of these is based on a rigorous view of what capability means and how this impacts IPT technical contributions and responsibilities. The effectiveness of the current MOD acquisition cycle is then considered. An alternative, that might better serve the changing nature of investment constraints and effective capability delivery, is presented. Approaches to systems engineering planning are then analysed and a conclusion drawn regarding a planning instrument for IPTs that balances prescription, guidance and didacticism. An assessment of how requirements assist and hinder working with customers and suppliers dissects the intent and content of requirements, including their contrasting technical and commercial purposes. System descriptions, their relationship and their concordance are then considered in a detailed look inside the technical processes, and this includes the principles and methods employed to design architecture. The resolution of current conflicts and confusions over architecture is seen to lie in observance of disciplined systems engineering principles. Finally the systems engineering views of humans inside and outside the system boundary are explored, and the investigation closes with a consideration of the degree to which systems engineering may reasonably address social influences.
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Mahmud, Mohd Nazri. "Interdisciplinary learning in engineering practice : an exploratory multi-case study of engineering for the life sciences projects." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/277441.
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Preparing engineering students for interdisciplinary practice in the workplace requires a meaningful understanding of interdisciplinary learning in engineering practice. Such an understanding could help to address the ongoing issues and concerns of the interdisciplinary learning of engineering students. The review of literature on interdisciplinary engineering education raises a major concern of the speculative approach to formulating learning outcomes of interdisciplinary engineering education, which results from the lack of understanding of how practising engineers engage in interdisciplinary learning in their workplaces. This thesis directly addresses this concern by providing the empirical evidence for a number of learning outcomes, and by identifying the associated learning practices found in three cases of interdisciplinary collaborations between engineers and life science practitioners. It also enhances the understanding of interdisciplinary learning in engineering practice by providing a detailed explanation of why engineers are more likely to engage in those learning practices and how they are more likely to achieve the learning outcomes. The main contribution of this thesis is in assembling the identified learning outcomes and the associated learning practices into one theoretical framework that embodies both the description and the explanation of interdisciplinary learning in engineering practice for a particular subclass – engineering for the life sciences. The framework describes interdisciplinary learning in terms of four epistemic practices and four learning outcomes. Additionally, it includes a contingent causal explanation for those practices and outcomes by validating the underlying causal relationships. The findings of this research could inform the formulation of learning outcomes and the deployment of learning practices in interdisciplinary engineering curricular. In addition, the generalisation of the findings to the education domain suggests practices that can help university students in their intellectual development.
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Sadri, Mahnaz. "Social and cultural sustainable development and education and engineering practice." Thesis, McGill University, 2013. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=114294.
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Sustainable development, as it is understood and accepted presently, has been embraced by nearly the entire world; however, the complexities of economic, environmental, social, cultural and other related issues and the interactions between them have not yet been fully comprehended. While the economic and environmental aspects of sustainable development have received much attention since the introduction of the concept, the socio-cultural aspects remain conceptually less developed. The objective of this thesis is to explore the notion of social sustainability as well as the role of culture in sustainable development. Elimination of the conceptual and analytical barriers of socio-cultural aspects of sustainable development along with the integration of social sustainability and incorporation of culture into the sustainable development agenda are needed to address the main challenges of sustainable development, especially in developing countries. Furthermore, education has been identified as a key social strategy for promoting sustainable development. By fundamentally changing the educational system at all levels to incorporate the principles, values and lifestyles required for sustainable development, a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society can be created. Engineering education, particularly at higher levels for decision-makers, researchers and teachers needs to be reoriented towards sustainable development aimed at cultivating environmentally-aware attitudes, skills and behaviour patterns, as well as a sense of ethical responsibility. Over the last two decades the world has witnessed an increase in frequency and impact of natural and man-made disasters. By increasing the capacity of nations to prepare for or cope with these disasters, the international community can limit the major loss of human lives and livelihoods, the destruction of economic and social infrastructure, as well as environmental damages, It can also progress more effectively towards the achievement of sustainable development. The significance of the socio-cultural aspects of sustainable development as well as the role of education for building a culture of safety and resilience have been presented as a case study of Haiti.<br>Le développement durable, comme il est compris et accepté présentement, a été adopté par presque tout le monde entier; mais les complexités économiques, environnementales, sociales, culturelles et autres sujets connexes et leurs interactions n'ont pas encore entièrement compris. Les aspects économique et environnemental du développement durable ont reçu assez d'attention depuis l'introduction de l'idée, mais l'aspect socioculturel reste pratiquement moins développé. L'objectif de cette thèse est de découvrir l'idée de durabilité sociale et le rôle de la culture dans le développement durable. On croit que l'élimination des obstacles conceptuels et analytiques de l'aspect socioculturel en développement durable, avec l'intégration de durabilité sociale et l'incorporation de la culture dans le programme du développement durable, sont les clés pour faire face aux défis principaux du développement durable surtout dans les pays en développement. En outre, l'éducation a été identifiée comme une clé stratégique sociale pour promouvoir le développement durable. En changeant foncièrement le système de l'éducation en tous les nivaux pour intégrer les propres principes, valeurs et modes de vie nécessaires pour le développement durable, aussi un avenir plus durable en matière de l'intégrité environnementale, viabilité économique et société juste peut être crée. L'éducation de l'ingénierie, surtout au niveau de prendre des décisions, les chercheurs et les enseignants ont besoin de se diriger vers le développement durable avec le but de renseigner une conscience, des compétences et des habitudes écologiques, ainsi un sens de responsabilité éthique. A travers les deux derniers décennies le monde a témoigne une croissance dans la fréquence et l'impact des catastrophes naturelles et les catastrophes causées par les être-humains. En augmentant la capacité des pays à se préparer contre et faire face aux catastrophes, la commaunite international ne peut pas se limiter aux pertes majeures des vies et alimentations, des dommages économiques et sociales, et les dégâts en l'environnent, mais aussi plus effectivement vers le chemin du développement durable. L'importance de l'aspect socioculturel du développement durable et le rôle de l'éducation pour établir une culture de sécurité et une résistance contre les risques, sont présentés dans l'étude de cas sur la catastrophe en Haïti.
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Redfearn, Brady Edwin. "User Experience Engineering Adoption and Practice: A Longitudinal Case Study." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2013. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3762.
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User Experience Engineering (UxE) incorporates subject areas like usability, HCI, interaction experience, interaction design, "human factors", ergonomics", cognitive psychology", behavioral psychology and psychometrics", systems engineering", [and] "computer science," (Hartson, 1998). It has been suggested that UxE will be the main success factor in organizations as we enter the "loyalty decade" of software development, where the repeat usage of a product by a single customer will be the metric of product success (Alghamdi, 2010; Law & van Schaik, 2010, p. 313; Nielsen, 2008; Van Schaik & Ling, 2011). What is relatively unknown in the current academic literature is whether existing UxE methodologies are effective or not when placed in a longitudinal research context (Law & van Schaik, 2010). There is room for the exploration of the effects of long-term UxE practices in a real-world case study scenario. The problem, addressed in this study, is that a lack of the application of UxE-related processes and practices with an industrial partner had resulted in customer dissatisfaction and a loss of market share. A three-year case study was performed during which 10 UxE-related metrics were gathered and analyzed to measure the improvements in the design of the customer's experience that long-term UxE practices could bring to a small corporate enterprise. The changes that occurred from the corporate and customer's point of view were analyzed as the customer's experience evolved throughout this long-term UxE study. Finally, an analysis of the problems and issues that arose in the implementation of UxE principles during the application of long-term UxE processes was performed. First-hand training between the research team and company employees proved essential to the success of this project. Although a long-term UxE process was difficult to implement within the existing development practices of the industrial partner, a dramatic increase in customer satisfaction and customer engagement with the company system was found. UxE processes led to increased sales rates and decreased development costs in the long-term. All 10 metrics gathered throughout this study showed measurable improvements after long-term UxE processes and practices were adopted by the industrial partner.
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Grützner, Ines, Patrick Waterson, Carsten Vollmers, Sonja Trapp, and Thomas Olsson. "Requirements Engineering für Communities of Practice: Aufbau der ReqMan Community." Technische Universität Dresden, 2005. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A28382.
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Eine der Herausforderungen des Requirements Engineering (RE) ist, dass bei der Entwicklung eines Software-Systems sowohl die technischen Einzelheiten als auch der Kontext des Einsatzes berücksichtigt werden müssen. Wie schon andere Autoren bemerkt haben, ist RE ein sozio-technisches Unterfangen. Bei der Entwicklung von Desktop-Software zum Beispiel ist zu berücksichtigen, wie der einzelne Benutzer die Anwendung einsetzen wird. Im Bereich Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) ist der Einsatzkontext komplizierter, da Kommunikation und Interaktion zwischen Benutzern ebenfalls berücksichtigt werden müssen. Bei der Entwicklung einer Community of Practice (CoP) muss der Kontext noch weiter ausgedehnt werden, da Dinge wie Kooperation, Gruppenbildung bzw. Bildung von Netzwerken, Lernen etc. auch in die Anforderungen einfließen.
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Deck, Anita Sue. "Enhancing Elementary Teacher Practice Through Technological/Engineering Design Based Learning." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/71656.
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As widespread as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) initiatives and reforms are today in education, a rudimentary problem with these endeavors is being overlooked. In general, education programs and school districts are failing to ensure that elementary teachers who provide children's early academic experiences have the appropriate knowledge of and proclivity toward STEM subjects. This issue is further compounded by the focus centered on mathematics due to accountability requirements leaving very little emphasis on science, and most often, the exclusion of technology and engineering instruction from the curriculum (Blank, 2012; Cunningham, 2009; Lederman and Lederman, 2013; Lewis, Harshbarger, and Dema, 2014; Walker, 2014). At the elementary level, the lack of science instruction and professional development generates a weakness for both pre- and in-service teachers and prompts elevated concerns about teaching science (Goodrum, Cousins, and Kinnear, 1992; Anderson, 2002). Research (Lewis, 1999/2006; Wells, 2014) suggests that one way to address this weakness is through the technological/engineering designed-based approach within the context of integrative STEM education.
The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of change in science instructional content and practice through professional development that educates elementary teachers to implement Technological/Engineering Design Based Learning (T/E DBL) as part of teaching science. The research design was a multiple case study which adhered to a concurrent mixed method approach (Teddlie, and Tashakkori, 2006; Yin, 2003),with four participants who were recruited because of their availability and their grade level teaching assignment that correlated to an analysis of the 2013 science state accountability test, Standards of Learning (Pyle, 2015). Data collected from surveys were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. These data were corroborated with a sweep instrument and assessment rubric analyses, and interview responses to validate the results.
Findings from this study revealed that professional development model used in this study was clearly effective in getting elementary teachers to implement T/E DBL. The participants were better able to integrate T/E DBL when planning and designing instructional units and had an improved understanding of the science concepts they were teaching.<br>Ed. D.
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Rönkkö, Kari. "Software Practice from the Inside : Ethnography Applied to Software Engineering." Licentiate thesis, Karlskrona : Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2002. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-00234.
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Empirical methodologies have recently attracted increasing attention from the broader software engineering community. In particular, organisational issues and the human role in software development have been addressed. Qualitative research approaches have been identified as necessary for understanding human nature. One qualitative methodology which has become increasingly recognised in the software engineering community is ethnography. It is also the qualitative approach that is addressed in this thesis, i.e. ethnography in relation to software engineering. Ethnography emphasises the members point of view in an effort to understand the organisation of a social, cultural and technical setting. Until now, only a handful of ethnographic studies focusing on software engineering have been carried out in accordance with the original conception of ethnography; these studies have traditionally been performed by sociologists. The understanding and application of ethnography by software engineers differ from that of sociologists as it gives up the studied people's point of view in the analysis of data. The thesis is based on two independent ethnographic studies where the ‘inside’ perspective which complies with the original understanding of the methodology is applied. Using these examples as a basis, the relation between ethnography and software engineering research is explored. The objective of this thesis is to promote ‘ethnographic knowledge’ by giving an overview of ethnographic work within software engineering, presenting an original understanding of ethnography, comparing software engineers' understanding of ethnography with the original understanding of ethnography, demonstrating how the different implicit research attitudes of ethnographers and software engineers produce different research discourses, and finally pointing to an opportunity to combine ethnography, which contributes an ‘inside perspective’, with software engineering's need for constant improvement.
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Mattaparthy, Jaya Vinay. "Cognitive work analysis for design of instructional practice in engineering education." To access this resource online via ProQuest Dissertations and Theses @ UTEP, 2008. http://0-proquest.umi.com.lib.utep.edu/login?COPT=REJTPTU0YmImSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=2515.
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Schmid, Felix. "A practice based learning environment for engineering students : acquiring competencies for working on advanced manufacturing engineering." Thesis, Brunel University, 1995. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5412.
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In this thesis the author describes the design and operation of a learning environment aimed at imparting technical, technological and managerial knowledge, developing understanding of the underlying issues and enhancing team work skills for an advanced technology future. He offers an analysis of learning, education and training and compares group work with individual tasks, presents a major case study and illustrates the features which distinguish the approach from role play, simulation and experiential learning. When staff at Brunel University were faced with the problem of teaching Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) to engineering students on thin sandwich type undergraduate degree programmes the writer suggested the use of an approach he would later describe as 'practice based learning' or 'real life simulation'. The fourth year course in CIM is designed as a double option for the complementary undergraduate courses, Brunel Manufacturing Engineering (BME) and Special Engineering Programmes (SEP). It is an extension of the Manufacturing Design and Practice course in years one to three of the BME course and of the Design strand on SEP, both of which restrict students' work to the use of individual machine tools and stand alone computing facilities. A wide range of teaching methods is used on the CIM course, including lectures by course staff, presentations by experts and, as the major element, a large group project involving all the students on the course, organised in a management matrix, coordinated by the students and supported by the staff acting as experts. The students also undertake assignment work alongside the technical tasks, to focus their thinking and to improve written communication skills. While the course described cannot replace more than a small proportion of the more conventional lecture, laboratory and tutorial teaching on an engineering programme, it provides a setting where students can experiment and learn about their own strengths and weaknesses in a realistic situation and in the context of teamwork. It also offers a space where they can make quite serious mistakes without direct consequences to their careers. The experience of seven years leads the author to believe that advanced manufacturing technologies and the associated management techniques should be taught in a project based environment with clear and real targets and realistic constraints, offering students challenges to which they can only rise through close and creative team work. The management of task execution must be left largely in the students' own hands. A high level of "consultant" type support is essential though, allied to an assessment scheme which promises and ensures fair treatment of the individual. The different parts of the thesis will be relevant to readers depending on their interest and background. Chapter 1 sets the scene and outlines the approach taken. Following this broad outline of the scope of the dissertation the author places Computer Integrated Manufacturing in a wider context in chapter 2, by providing an introduction to the underlying issues of computer integration and human factors. He puts forward a case for new approaches to the education and training of engineers and managers who will be working in Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Advanced Manufacturing Environments in general. Chapter 3 is devoted to the management of projects while chapter 4 is used to question the role of the engineer. Chapters 5 and 6 provide an introduction to theories of knowledge, teaching, learning and motivation. Chapters 7 and 8 are devoted to particular aspects of engineering education, while chapter 9 reviews the approach used at Brunel University. The topical issues of competence and its relevance to engineering education is discussed in chapter 10, leading into chapters 11 and 12 which deal with aspects of the CIM course. Chapters 13 and 14 are devoted to case-studies and particular tools. The key question of assessment of a practice oriented and team based course is addressed in chapter 15, followed by an evaluation of the CIM process and its application to engineering education of a full time nature which is included in chapters 17 and 18.
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Boston, Oliver. "Technical liaisons in engineering design : understanding by modelling." Thesis, University of Bath, 1998. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.266470.
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Gewirtz, Christopher Aaron. "Twelve Tales of Engineering in the "Real World:" Narratives of Newcomers' Agency in Transitions to Engineering Work." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/104897.
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Reports that call for change in engineering education date back to the Mann report (1918), but more recent reports like "The Engineer of 2020" (NAE, 2004), and "Lean Engineering Education," (Flumerfelt et al., 2015) describe the need for engineers who are creative leaders, who have sustainability and ethics skills. Two narrative threads emerge from these reports: that engineering education does not adequately prepare engineers with the skills needed for industry, and that preparation for industry is imperative in order to address problems in society. However, these threads conflict with research from engineering education, science and technology studies, and higher education. There may not be a gap between school and work (Modestino, Shoag and Balance, 2016), and if there is one, it might be a socio-cultural gap that is unreasonable for universities to accept the full responsibility of narrowing. More problematic is that establishing "preparation-for-work" as the purpose for education threatens the goal of preparing students for life outside of work and does not necessarily prepare them to act towards benefit for society.
The goal of this study was to critique these narratives using narratives of newcomer engineers' lived experiences. I had two research questions: 1) Who are new engineers asked to be at work? 2) Who do new engineers choose to be in response? I answered these by constructing and analyzing narratives of 12 newcomer engineers, based on interviews collected as part of the Capstone to Work study (Paretti et al., 2021). Using the figured worlds framework of identity development (Holland et al., 1998), I investigated the structures of work, which constrained who newcomers could become, and newcomers' agency, which they used to improvise identities within those constraints.
The structures of engineering work that I examined required newcomers to acclimate to ongoing practices at their companies, which did not conform to newcomers' expectations of creative engineering work. Newcomers were objectified: their value and identity was often defined in terms of how much money they made for their company. They were alienated: their engineering problems were rarely defined in terms of their societal impact. The faced sexism: they were denied respectable identities based on gender. In response, some newcomers sought the identity of "asset" for their companies. Other newcomers sought new jobs that would give them opportunities for creativity, growth or societal benefit. And some newcomers worked to create opportunities at their jobs to be who they wanted: leaders, engineers working for environmental benefit, whole persons outside and inside of work.
The results of this study suggest limitations of preparation narratives: They do not account for objectification, alienation, and sexism that newcomers face. Engineers also may unfortunately be prepared with stereotypes that do not match the realities of engineering work. This study suggests that we need to educate engineers in a way that recognizes them as human and prepares them for these realities. It also shows us that socio-technical change requires change at the structural level and cannot be limited to changes in education.<br>Doctor of Philosophy<br>Reports like "The Engineer of 2020", and "Lean Engineering Education," describe the need for engineers who are creative leaders, and who have sustainability and ethics skills. Engineering education researchers and practitioners use these preparation narratives to justify their funding to grant-awarding institutions, to develop research agendas, and to align their education efforts with these national calls.
Two threads emerge from typical preparation narratives: that engineering education does not adequately prepare engineers with the skills needed for industry, and that preparation for industry is necessary for engineering to address societal problems. These, however, conflict with research from engineering education, science and technology studies, and higher education. If there is a gap between school and work, it might be a socio-cultural gap that is unreasonable for universities to accept the full responsibility of narrowing. More problematic is that establishing "preparation-for-work" as the primary purpose of education threatens the goal of preparing students for life outside of work and does not necessarily prepare them to act towards benefit for society.
This study critiques these narratives by referring to newcomer engineers' lived experiences and identity development. I had two research questions: 1) Who are new engineers asked to be at work? 2) Who do new engineers choose to be in response? I answered these by constructing and analyzing narratives of 12 newcomer engineers, based on interviews collected as part of the Capstone to Work study. Using the figured worlds framework of identity development, I investigated the structures of work, which constrained who newcomers could become, and newcomers' agency in becoming different kinds of engineers within those constraints.
Newcomers were generally required to acclimate to ongoing practices at their companies, which did not conform to their expectations of creative engineering work. Newcomers were objectified: their value and identity was often defined in terms of how much money they made for their company. They were alienated: their engineering problems were rarely defined in terms of their societal impact. The faced sexism: they were denied respectable identities based on gender. In response, some newcomers sought the identity of "asset" for their companies. Other newcomers sought new jobs that would give them opportunities for creativity, growth or societal benefit. And some newcomers worked to create opportunities at their jobs to be who they wanted.
The results of this study suggest limitations of preparation narratives: they do not account for objectification, alienation, and sexism that newcomers face. Engineers also may unfortunately be prepared with stereotypes that do not match the realities of engineering work. Engineers should be educated in a way that recognizes them as human and prepares them for the realities of work. The study also confirms that efforts for socio-technical change cannot be limited to educational changes, because of structural constraints.
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Lam, Tommy Kwok Wing. "The project management practice in engineering project department in CLP Power." access full-text access abstract and table of contents, 2005. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/ezdb/dissert.pl?msc-meem-b19912961a.pdf.
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Thesis (M.Sc.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005.<br>Title from title screen (viewed on Jan. 10, 2006) "This is to certify that the above dissertation has been assessed by the following examiners to be satisfactory and accepted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering Management." Includes bibliographical references.
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Prescott, Lisa. "The minimum acceptable rate of return, engineering economic theory and practice." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape7/PQDD_0020/MQ47082.pdf.
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Winkelman, Paul. "Beyond science, an exploration of values in engineering education and practice." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq64892.pdf.
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Salvestrin, Helen. "Sustainable livelihoods approach and community development in practice in engineering organisations /." Electronic version, 2006. http://adt.lib.uts.edu.au/public/adt-NTSM20060907.174848/index.html.
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Nuccitelli, Saul A. (Saul Augustine). "Design education--theories and practice." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/12309.
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Riddle, Steve. "Viewpoints in practice : explanations explained." Thesis, University of Bath, 1997. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.338404.
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Kress, Juergen Marcus. "Adaptive case managment in practice." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UnB, 2016. http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/22409.
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Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, 2016.<br>Submitted by Camila Duarte (camiladias@bce.unb.br) on 2017-01-09T16:24:10Z
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2016_JüergenMarcusKress.PDF: 2470719 bytes, checksum: c056bb15fca3124e12520f285ae82361 (MD5)<br>Esta dissertação tem como objetivo desenvolver e validar uma nova metodologia de engenharia de software para Gerenciamento de Casos Adaptativos (ACM). ACM é um padrão de projeto (design pattern), relativamente novo, utilizado para apoiar, de forma mais adequada, cenários de trabalho em que um fluxo de trabalho preciso não pode ser definido de maneira rigorosa. Em tais cenários, o trabalho é altamente dependente de decisões baseadas no conhecimento sobre as atividades e resultados, levando a várias regras de negócio e possibilidades de fluxo de atividades que podem tornar a modelagem e a automatização bastante complexas ou, até mesmo, inviável. Conceitos e pesquisas sobre Gerenciamento de Casos Adaptativos, também apresentados neste trabalho, ainda estão evoluindo e amadurecendo. O estado-da-arte atual em ACM carece de metodologia descrita formalmente e comprovada para o desenvolvimento de soluções ACM. O objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir para o preenchimento dessa lacuna. A proposta de metodologia ACM é baseada em cinco fases, que abrange as seguintes disciplinas típicas de engenharia de software: Modelagem de Negócio, Visualização, Análise, Projeto e Implementação. Novos modelos de artefatos de software para interfaces de usuário ACM (ACM Workspace) e análise e projeto de solução ACM (ACM Canvas) também estão entre as contribuições deste trabalho. O projeto em ACM utiliza a recentemente criada Notação para Modelagem de Gerenciamento de Casos Adaptativos (Case Management Modeling Notation - CMMN). Modelos para artefatos de software, desenvolvidos para cada fase metodologia, também são apresentados. Tudo isso suporta um resultado orientado e garante o progresso e sucesso de projetos. Essa metodologia foi desenvolvida ao longo dos últimos dois anos de trabalho e análise de projetos ACM reais em diferentes indústrias. Nesta dissertação, um estudo de caso completo é descrito e implementado, como uma prova de conceito para a metodologia proposta.<br>This dissertation aims at developing and validating a new software engineering methodology for Adaptive Case Management (ACM). ACM is a relatively new design pattern used to support work that is well suited for work scenarios where a precise workflow cannot be strictly defined. In such scenarios, work is highly dependent on knowledge-based decisions about activities and outcomes, leading to multiple work paths and business rules that can become quite complex or even unfeasible to model and completely automate. Concepts and research on Adaptive Case Management, also reviewed in this work, are still evolving and maturing. Current ACM state-of-art lacks of formally described and proven methodology for development of ACM solutions. The goal of this work is to contribute with fulfilling this gap. The proposed ACM Methodology is based on the five phases, which covers typical software engineering disciplines: Business Modeling, Visualization, Analysis, Design and Implementation. New software artifact models for ACM user interfaces (ACM Workspace) and ACM solution analysis and design (ACM Canvas) are also among the contributions of this work. ACM design leverages the recently established Case Management Modeling Notation (CMMN v1.1). Templates of software artifacts, developed for each methodology phase, are also presented. These support a guided outcome and ensure projects progress and success. The methodology was developed over the past two years from work and analysis of actual ACM projects in different industries. In this dissertation, a Case Study is completely described and implemented, as a proof-of-concept for the proposed methodology.
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Doherty, Grant E. "How BIM and integrated practice may change architectural, engineering, and construction education." Laramie, Wyo. : University of Wyoming, 2009. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1944186301&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=18949&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Chilvers, A. J. "Engineers and values : ethnographic studies of the normative shaping of engineering practice." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2013. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1396992/.
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Engineers mediate processes that translate contextual social aims into infrastructures that shape our daily lives. Yet what engineers do is contested, context-bound and mediated at various scales. This work contributes a series of ethnographic studies which form a narrative on the global engineering and design consultancy, Arup, and considers how engineers should understand and engage with the appropriation of values in and through their practices. Analysis of the moral and theoretical positions of Arup’s founder, Sir Ove Arup, offers context for examining high-level organisational discourses. These are then set in analytical contrast with the practices revealed by two project ethnographies chosen as archetypes of two modes of consultancy as follows: Monodisciplinary Design Services: The provision of structural engineering services for the design of a public building and amenity space. Knowledge Production and Solutions Broking: The development of an electronic risk assessment tool for the management of water supply to remote, indigenous communities in Australia. While the former is found to be highly structured by external prescriptions of method and performance criteria, engineers still shape the values appropriated through design in the judgement spaces that do adhere to them. They also require moral imagination in order to recognise when professionally legitimate practices are no longer congruent with all morally salient facts. The latter case finds engineers producing new knowledge rather than simply applying pre-existing knowledge. These engineers are active originators and mediators of the values appropriated through their work, yet the resources for supporting engineers’ moral imagination are found to be lacking. Strategies for normative engagement are considered. Successful engagement ultimately requires a move away from views of organisation as fully rational, to recognising the contingent nature of knowing and acting at the level of practice, and careful attention to the diversity of experiences that result.
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Kennedy, Paul. "Design practice : routine creativity." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2002. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1847/.
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The aim of this research is to understand and explain designers - what makes them tick, what motivates them and why they do things in the way that they do. A research approach specific to people, being designers, and the social science framework associated with Pierre Bourdieu has been rigorously engaged. Designers have been spoken to face-to-face and given the opportunity to raise their concerns so that their engagement with design production is illuminated and considered. A series of interviews has been carried out with practising designers. The early interviews exposed areas of interest that could best be investigated by targeting older designers who could recount the changes in design production they had witnessed during their working lives. This life history approach has yielded social as opposed to technical descriptions of design practice and has identified significant technological and organisational changes that have affected designers in the past 30 years. The design habitus is a system of dispositions that enables designers to act as they do and be successful in such a complex, interactive activity as designing. Designers display the habitus through their practice and their interactions with other people, with the products they design and the machinery they use when designing. They make distinctions about the products of their activity on through designers’ continuous physical engagement with the objects of their work and their design colleagues. Their attitude to technology is typified by a willingness to embrace the new; they create new things themselves and this leads them to adopt new tools and adapt them to do their job.
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Halevi, Shai. "Theory and practice of secret commitment." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42661.
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Fletcher, Christopher W. (Christopher Wardlaw). "Oblivious RAM : from theory to practice." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105668.
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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2016.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 117-122).<br>Privacy of data storage has long been a central problem in computer security, having direct implications for many Internet-era applications such as storage/computation outsourcing and the Internet of Things (IoT). Yet, the prevailing way we protect our data - through encryption techniques - doesn't protect where we read or write in our data. This additional information, the access pattern, can be used to reverse-engineer proprietary programs as they run, reveal a user's physical location or health information, and more, even if data is correctly encrypted. This thesis studies a cryptographic primitive called Oblivious RAM (ORAM) which provably hides a client's access pattern as seen by untrusted storage. While ORAM is very compelling from a privacy standpoint, it incurs a large performance overhead. In particular, ORAM schemes require the client to continuously shuffle its data in untrusted storage. Early work on ORAM proves that this operation must incur a client-storage bandwidth blowup that is logarithmic in the dataset size, which can translate to > 100x in practice. We address this challenge by developing new tools for constructing ORAMs that allow us to achieve constant bandwidth blowup while requiring only small client storage. A reoccurring theme is to grant untrusted storage the ability to perform untrusted computation on behalf of the client, thereby circumventing lower bound results from prior work. Using these tools, we construct a new ORAM called Ring ORAM, the first small client storage ORAM to achieve constant online bandwidth blowup. At the same time, Ring ORAM matches or improves upon the overall bandwidth of all prior ORAM schemes (given equal client storage), up to constant factors. Next, we more heavily exploit computation at the storage to construct Onion ORAM, the first scheme with constant worst-case and overall bandwidth blowup that does not require heavy weight cryptographic primitives such as fully homomorphic encryption (FHE). Instead, Onion ORAM relies on more efficient additively or somewhat homomorphic encryption schemes. Finally, we demonstrate a working ORAM prototype, built into hardware and taped-out in 32 nm silicon. We have deployed the design as the on-chip memory controller for a 25 core processor. This proves the viability of a single-chip secure processor that can prevent software IP or data theft through a program's access pattern to main memory (having applications to computation outsourcing and IoT). From a technical perspective, this work represents the first ORAM client built into silicon and the first hardware ORAM with small client storage, integrity verification, or encryption units. We propose a number of additional optimizations to improve performance in the hardware setting.<br>by Christopher W. Fletcher.<br>Ph. D.
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Andrieux, Patrick. "Methods and practice of blast-induced vibration monitoring." Thesis, McGill University, 1996. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23860.
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Regardless of the objective sought, the conclusions drawn from seismic monitoring can only be as good as the quality of the recorded data: the importance of properly capturing relevant raw vibrational information in the first place is thus absolutely crucial. The difficulty is that blast-induced vibration monitoring is site specific and that general formulas do not apply: every situation will correspond to a unique combination of objectives, ground conditions, blast design and explosive types, and will need to be monitored accordingly. To adequately acquire all the pertinent seismic information, a number of points must be successfully addressed, such as the choice of sensors, their location, number, orientation and anchoring, the transmission of the captured signals from these gauges to the recording equipment, and the choice and set-up of the data acquisition system.<br>It is the purpose of this thesis to address these questions in some detail, in an attempt to provide the reader with an understanding of how all the components involved in blast-induced vibration monitoring interact, and on how the choices made at each step can significantly affect overall results. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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Ho, Chau-man, and 何秋文. "Idealisation for mathematical modelling in geotechnical practice." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2005. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B45014280.
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Unander, Andrew J. (Andrew James). "Optimization of composite floors : theory and practice." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111522.
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Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2017.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 28-29).<br>In this paper optimized weight values for a composite metal deck floor system are compared to existing buildings to evaluate current industry performance in regards to material efficiency in steel structures. This comparison is made to demonstrate how optimization can be used to reduce material usage in buildings, thereby driving down the embodied carbon of structures and potentially reducing costs. It is shown that on average, recently constructed buildings contain nearly twice as much structural material as required by structural constraints consistent with a typical office building in North America. A wide range of rectangular bays are examined to demonstrate trends within the flooring system and to yield information that can be applied directly to practice. Existing building information is extracted from a database containing structural material quantities for 640 buildings normalized by their floor area. Optimized values are adjusted to account for the contributions of foundations and lateral resisting systems to the total weight. This results in full building weights of 266 - 342 kg/m² (55 - 70 psf) which are much less than an average 808 kg/m² (166 psf) for the steel commercial buildings surveyed. Finally, hypotheses are proposed to explain the continued disparity between theory and practice.<br>by Andrew J. Unander.<br>M. Eng.
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Adams, Ryan, and s200866s@student rmit edu au. "Evaluation of computerised methods of design optimisation and its application to engineering practice." RMIT University. Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, 2006. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20070130.122013.
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The ongoing drive for lighter and more efficient structural components by the commercial engineering industry has resulted in the rapid adoption of the finite element method (FE) for design analysis. Satisfied with the success of finite elements in reducing prototyping costs and overall production times, the industry has begun to look at other areas where the finite element method can save time, and in particular, improve designs. First, the mathematical methods of optimisation, on which the methods of structural design improvement are based, are presented. This includes the methods of: topology, influence functions, basis vectors, geometric splines and direct sensitivity methods. Each method is demonstrated with the solution of a sample structural improvement problem for various objectives (frequency, stress and weight reduction, for example). The practical application of the individual methods has been tested by solving three structural engineering problems sourced from the automotive engineering industry: the redesign of two different front suspension control arms, and the cost-reduction of an automatic brake tubing system. All three problems were solved successfully, resulting in improved designs. Each method has been evaluated with respect the practical application, popularity of the method and also any problems using the method. The solutions presented in each section were all solved using the FE design improvement software ReSHAPE from Advea Engineering Pty. Ltd.
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Dawson, Linda Louise 1954. "An investigation of the use of object-oriented models in requirements engineering practice." Monash University, School of Information Management and Systems, 2001. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8031.
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Hebig, Regina [Verfasser], and Holger [Akademischer Betreuer] Giese. "Evolution of model-driven engineering settings in practice / Regina Hebig. Betreuer: Holger Giese." Potsdam : Universitätsbibliothek der Universität Potsdam, 2014. http://d-nb.info/1053559968/34.
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Lopez, Alejandro, and Mario Garcia. "Simulator-Based Design in Practice." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-12164.
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<p>The automotive field is becoming more and more complex and cars are no longer just pure mechanical artifacts. Today much more than 50 % of the functionality of a car is computerized, so, a modern car system is obviously based on mixed technologies which emphasize the need for new approaches to the design process compared to the processes of yesterday. A corresponding technology shift has been experienced in the aerospace industry starting in the late sixties and today aircraft could not fly without its computers and the pilots’ environment has turned to a so called glass cockpit with no iron-made instrumentation left. A very similar change is still going on in the automotive area.</p><p>Simulator-Based Design (SBD) refers to design, development and testing new products, systems and applications which include an operator in their operation. Simulator-Based Design has been used for decades in the aviation industry. It has been a common process in this field. SBD may be considered as a more specific application of simulation-based design, where the specific feature is a platform, the simulator itself. The simulator could consist of a generic computer environment in combination with dedicated hardware components, for instance a cockpit. This solution gives us the possibility of including the human operator in the simulation.</p><p>The name of the project is Simulator-Based Design in Practice. The purpose of this master thesis is to get a complete practice in how to use a human-in-the-loop simulator as a tool in design activities focusing on the automotive area. This application area may be seen as an example of systems where an operator is included in the operation and thus experience from the car application could be transferred to other areas like aviation or control rooms in the process industry.</p><p>During the performance of the project we have gone through the main parts of the SBD process. There are many steps to complete the whole cycle and many of them have iterative loops that connect these steps with the previous one. This process starts with a concept (product/system) and continues with a virtual prototyping stage followed by implementation, test design, human-in-the-loop simulation, data analysis, design synthesis and in the end a product/system decision. An iterative process approach makes the cycle flexible and goal oriented.</p><p>We have learnt how to use the simulator and how to perform the whole cycle of SBD. We first started getting familiar with the simulator and the ASim software and then we were trying to reduce the number of computers in the simulator and changing the network in order to find good optimization pf the computer power. The second step has been to implement a new application to the simulator. This new application is the rear mirror view and consists of a new LCD monitor and the rear view vision that must be seen in the new monitor. Finally we updated the cockpit to the new language program Action Script 3.0.</p><p>The information gathering consisted of the course Human-System interaction in the University, the introduction course to ASim software and the course of Action Script 3.0.</p>
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Thompson, Geoffrey. "Best practice of crane support structures design : an expert survey." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1904.
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Thesis (MScEng (Civil Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007.<br>Research on cranes and crane support structures has been completed at Stellenbosch University’s
Structural Division. In order to link the research already completed with that which is practically
relevant, an industry related expert survey was proposed. Consequently, the research title is “Best
Practice of Crane Support Structures Design – An Expert Survey”.
The primary objective of the study is to complete research, which can be used at a later stage to
compile a “best practice” guideline for support structures design. The expert survey allows
practical experience and opinion to be gathered from experts. The primary drawback being the
uncertainty involved in such opinionated research material. For this reason an attempt is made in
the thesis to apply a scientific approach, in order to attain rationally defendable results.
The survey was conducted using interviews with experienced crane support structure designers and
crane manufacturers in South Africa. The experts were then rated according to their answers to
seeded questions, the number of colleague recommendations they each received and the years of
experience each expert has. The expert opinion was subsequently combined using the expert
ratings as weights. To further improve the scientific rationale behind the results, several of the
topics mentioned by the experts were verified using related literature - thereby validating the use of
the combined expert opinion for this research.
The results obtained from the survey and verification process are regarded as useful to the
objectives of the study. Information concerning pre-design specifications, loads and actions,
structural analysis, design, design details and fatigue was compiled. The direct results are tabulated
in an appendix and commentary, based on the expert opinions, is provided.
A failure investigation was also completed with less success than initially intended. This was due,
in part, to confidentiality issues and a lack of failure information easily accessible to the experts.
For this reason the results of the failure investigation focuses more on various failure mechanisms. The success of the survey indicates that expert opinion is a useful tool for research. Furthermore,
the minor differences in expert opinion, when compared to information obtained from crane support
structure literature, indicates that the expertise in the South African crane support structure design is
at an international standard.
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Sandberg, Martin. "Continuous Integration - A comparison between theory and practice." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för datavetenskap, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-117033.
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To develop software in a larger scale, some kind of software development method is needed to organize the development. Many different software development methods have emerged since the beginning of software development, and Continuous Integration (CI) is one of them. Many companies have applied, or tried to apply CI in their business. Some companies were successful, some were not. This thesis examines what CI is in the theory, and compare it to how it works in the practice in the department ”Product Development Traffic Control” (PD TC) which is a part of the ”Product Development Unit LTE Multistandard Radio” (PDU LMR) within Ericsson. The theory of CI is examined mostly through literature studies. CI in practice was examined through interviews with developers and employees working with the CI-machinery at PD TC. The comparison between the theory and the studied company revealed that it is difficult to adapt CI perfectly to a large organization. This does not imply that CI is implemented in the wrong way, but the benefits of implementing CI in large projects may not be as enormous in comparison with smaller projects.
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Gennaro, Rosario. "Theory and practice of verifiable secret sharing." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/11014.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-135).<br>by Rosario Gennaro.<br>Ph.D.
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Gawlick, Rainer. "Admission control and routing : theory and practice." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36636.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1995.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 183-190).<br>by Rainer Gawlick.<br>Ph.D.
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Al-Hassanieh, Haitham (Haitham Zuhair). "The sparse fourier transform : theory & practice." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103715.
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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2016.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-250).<br>The Fourier transform is one of the most fundamental tools for computing the frequency representation of signals. It plays a central role in signal processing, communications, audio and video compression, medical imaging, genomics, astronomy, as well as many other areas. Because of its widespread use, fast algorithms for computing the Fourier transform can benefit a large number of applications. The fastest algorithm for computing the Fourier transform is the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) which runs in near-linear time making it an indispensable tool for many applications. However, today, the runtime of the FFT algorithm is no longer fast enough especially for big data problems where each dataset can be few terabytes. Hence, faster algorithms that run in sublinear time, i.e., do not even sample all the data points, have become necessary. This thesis addresses the above problem by developing the Sparse Fourier Transform algorithms and building practical systems that use these algorithms to solve key problems in six different applications. Specifically, on the theory front, the thesis introduces the Sparse Fourier Transform algorithms: a family of sublinear time algorithms for computing the Fourier transform faster than FFT. The Sparse Fourier Transform is based on the insight that many real-world signals are sparse, i.e., most of the frequencies have negligible contribution to the overall signal. Exploiting this sparsity, the thesis introduces several new algorithms which encompass two main axes: * Runtime Complexity: The thesis presents nearly optimal Sparse Fourier Transform algorithms that are faster than FFT and have the lowest runtime complexity known to date. " Sampling Complexity: The thesis presents Sparse Fourier Transform algorithms with optimal sampling complexity in the average case and the same nearly optimal runtime complexity. These algorithms use the minimum number of input data samples and hence, reduce acquisition cost and I/O overhead. On the systems front, the thesis develops software and hardware architectures for leveraging the Sparse Fourier Transform to address practical problems in applied fields. Our systems customize the theoretical algorithms to capture the structure of sparsity in each application, and hence maximize the resulting gains. We prototype all of our systems and evaluate them in accordance with the standard's of each application domain. The following list gives an overview of the systems presented in this thesis. " Wireless Networks: The thesis demonstrates how to use the Sparse Fourier Transform to build a wireless receiver that captures GHz-wide signals without sampling at the Nyquist rate. Hence, it enables wideband spectrum sensing and acquisition using cheap commodity hardware. * Mobile Systems: The thesis uses the Sparse Fourier Transform to design a GPS receiver that both reduces the delay to find the location and decreases the power consumption by 2 x. " Computer Graphics: Light fields enable new virtual reality and computational photography applications like interactive viewpoint changes, depth extraction and refocusing. The thesis shows that reconstructing light field images using the Sparse Fourier Transform reduces camera sampling requirements and improves image reconstruction quality. * Medical Imaging: The thesis enables efficient magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), a new medical imaging technique that can reveal biomarkers for diseases like autism and cancer. The thesis shows how to improve the image quality while reducing the time a patient spends in an MRI machine by 3 x (e.g., from two hours to less than forty minutes). * Biochemistry: The thesis demonstrates that the Sparse Fourier Transform reduces NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) experiment time by 16 x (e.g. from weeks to days), enabling high dimensional NMR needed for discovering complex protein structures. * Digital Circuits: The thesis develops a chip with the largest Fourier Transform to date for sparse data. It delivers a 0.75 million point Sparse Fourier Transform chip that consumes 40 x less power than prior FFT VLSI implementations.<br>by Haitham Al Hassanieh.<br>Ph. D.
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Kernan, Riana Larissa. "Denitrification in a best management practice bioretention system." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90022.
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Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2014.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 37-38).<br>This study investigates the occurrence of denitrifying soil bacteria in a bioretention system located in Singapore and containing a saturated anoxic zone intended to facilitate denitrification. Soil samples were collected from six depths within the rain garden, four of which were within the saturated anoxic zone. These samples were analyzed using endpoint PCR, targeting total bacterial 16S rRNA or a denitrification gene (nosZ) in order to determine presence or absence of denitrifying bacteria. Three dilutions were used to produce semiquantitative results for the abundance of denitrifying bacteria in a sample relative to samples from other depths. The highest numbers of nosZ amplicons per gram of soil were observed in the deeper levels of the saturated anoxic zone as well as within the root zone of the rain garden. Subsurface water samples from the saturated anoxic zone were also analyzed for oxidation-reduction potential, dissolved oxygen, and nitrogen and phosphorus species. Concentrations of nitrate and nitrite were below the detection limit for most samples, indicating consumption by denitrifying bacteria and high rates of removal for long detention times. Ammonia and phosphorus concentrations are of potential concern because they appear to increase within the saturated anoxic zone.<br>by Riana Larissa Kernan.<br>M. Eng.
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Churchill, W. S. "Experience based navigation : theory, practice and implementation." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:729f7487-4a48-4886-938f-058daa4ade89.
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For robotic systems to realise lifelong autonomy they must be able to navigate accurately in changing environments. In this thesis we describe, implement and validate a new approach to the problem of long-term navigation. To begin, we present our stereo visual odometry system which provides highly accurate pose estimation. Our approach combines several techniques found in existing implementations and a recently published image descriptor that simplifies the solution architecture. The performance and versatility of our system is demonstrated through testing on multiple datasets. Equipped with our visual odometry system, we describe a new approach to the problem of lifelong navigation. We learn a model whose complexity varies naturally in accordance with the variation of scene appearance. As the robot repeatedly traverses its workspace, it accumulates distinct visual experiences that, in concert, implicitly represent the scene variation - each experience captures a visual mode. When operating in a previously visited area, we continually try to localise in these previous experiences while simultaneously running the visual odometry. Failure to localise in a sufficient number of prior experiences indicates an insufficient model of the workspace and instigates the laying down of the live image sequence as a new distinct experience. In this way, over time we can capture the typical temporally varying appearance of an environment and the number of experiences required tends to a constant. Although we focus on vision as a primary sensor, the ideas we present here are equally applicable to other sensor modalities. We demonstrate our approach working on a road vehicle operating over a three month period at different times of day, in different weather and lighting conditions.