Digital Commons Network^™

An Introduction To Theatrical Scent Design As Compared To Traditional Design Areas With A Consideration For The Scientifically Notated Physical And Emotional Effects On The Human Body As It Potentially Relates To Future Creative Endeavors: A Framework, Katherine R. Holland

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional areas of theatrical design are established to the point of having a solid foundation for current and future designers to rely on as they strive to innovate. The same cannot be said for scent. I believe that art, like science, is a sector where the imagination is used to push the boundaries of what we currently know and can do. Artists are therefore entrusted with the responsibility to continue testing those boundaries, and that is what my topic lays the foundation for when it comes to scent. With my topic, I plan to look at the practical and ethical …

Practical Requirements Elicitation In Modern Product Development: A Multi-Case Study In Discontinuous Innovation, Michael King

Theses and Dissertations

Practical modern product development, specifically rapid, lean efforts to create new disrupting or specialized products, face constraints that require modified requirements elicitation (RE) techniques. Requirements elicitation conventions have not been updated to address the challenges of these approaches, and industry practitioners lack the tools to select the most efficient techniques. This study examines the RE approaches performed by three resource-limited teams conducting discontinuous new product development through a multi-case study to identify gaps between the literature and practice, with suggestions to fill them. Our findings suggest modern RE practices and challenges closely reflect those found by studies on RE in …

Design, Development, And Control Of A Robotic Gripper For Activities Of Daily Living (Adl) Assistance., Jaime Rafael Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

This research contributes to developing a robotic gripper designed to improve the performance of assistive robots to help people with upper limb impairment due to stroke, injury, and other trauma. As developed in this research, the gripper for assistive robots (GAR) can be an alternative solution to the existing robotic grippers increasing the benefits in different ways, including the cost/benefits ratio and the range of graspable objects.

The GAR has been designed with simplicity in mind with a minimum viability approach. The design, construction, control, and operation of this robotic hand have been simplified with a minimal number of custom-made …

Break Time, Quinlan Maggio

Theses and Dissertations

In this graduate thesis artist Quinlan Maggio describes their two-part art project in which they create site-specific private/public spaces and encounters within a larger public, specifically, that of the Hunter MFA community and its art-viewing audience.

Costume Design And Technology – A Process Of Growth During A Global Pandemic, Heather Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

In the best of circumstances, obtaining a Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design and Technology requires dedication and persistence. However, another layer of complication is added when the world shuts down due to a global pandemic. This thesis provides a look at three realized designs and delves into the way in which the pandemic affected my process for each of the designs. I also discuss my growth technologically as a costumer as I examine the class projects and shop work completed. Additionally, I review my growth artistically, and my professional experiences. My thesis provides a look at each facet …

Designing Online Collaborative Professional Development, Bohdana Allman

Theses and Dissertations

Trends in teacher education increasingly emphasize the need for quality ongoing teacher professional development that is accessible, flexible, fosters advanced skillset development, and has the power to change teachers' practice. Participatory approaches to learning that are situated, collaborative, dialogic, and inquiry-oriented promote the development of such knowledge, skills, and practices within professional communities of practice and form a foundation for quality teacher professional development. Current online and collaborative technologies offer significant access, flexibility, and economic advantages and afford individuals ways to connect with others without time and space restrictions, making online teacher professional development possible. Online learning environments where deep …

Brand New: How Visual Context Shapes Initial Response To Logos And Corporate Visual Identity Systems, Robert A. Wertz

Theses and Dissertations

When a new logo is released, it does not have an established meaning in the mind of the viewer. As logos have become more highly scrutinized by consumers and critics, it has become more important to understand consumers’ initial response to logos. While other studies have researched the impact of aesthetic choices on viewer reaction to logos, few researchers have attempted to understand the effect of the surrounding visual identity system when a new logo is introduced. This study combines a content analysis of the logo review website Brand New with the voting data from their polls to understand how …

The Institute For Storytelling & Healthcare Design Research, Ruth E.P. Deibler

Theses and Dissertations

STORYTELLING, HEALTHCARE, INTERIOR DESIGN EDUCATION & GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH:

THE TRIFECTA OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE IN HEALTHCARE DESIGN

A Comparison In Pediatric Dental Website Design From A Guardian And Pediatric Dentists’ Perspective., David M. Voth

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: This project aims to determine which aspects of pediatric dental practice websites are preferable to the guardians of pediatric dental patients and which of these aspects are currently available to guardians on the websites of pediatric dental practices across the United States. The comparison will reveal if practice websites are meeting the needs of the guardians of pediatric dental patients. Our hope is to provide meaningful guidance to pediatric dentists designing new practice websites and to provide the guardians of pediatric dental patients with an appealing online experience during their use of the aforementioned websites. Methods: A survey with …

Arabic Beyond Arabic, Abir Zakzok

Theses and Dissertations

Arabic is the best and the most complicated language of all time!” Even though this statement seems like an exaggeration, it is what I grew up hearing; from my Arab parents as a child, my Arab teachers as a student, and my Arab customers as a salesperson. The Arabic language has a significant role in Arabs’ identity, yet most Arabs only scratch the surface and do not fully grasp the embedded meaning of the language. I have long been fascinated by the relationship between language and community as well as how it translates to design - specifically, the relationship between …

Design Hub: Activating Community By Design, Ed Williams

Theses and Dissertations

MOTIVATION

At the turn of the century, Robert Putnam (2000, 27) wrote “...a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago that tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current.” Putnam is describing a loss of “social capital” throughout American society. Research suggests that many of our contemporary issues are the result of a decline in “social capital,” or “community.”

This pervasive lack of community is thought to be detrimental to “educational performance, safe neighborhoods, equitable tax collection, democratic responsiveness, everyday honesty, and even our health …

Hidden Gem: Realizing The Value Of Community In Healthcare Environments, Nicole Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Holistic approaches in healthcare address a problem from its root causes. The American healthcare model – both its treatment and distribution methods – is among the many issues that divides the nation. We have found ourselves with millions of uninsured people among a growing population where chronic illness is on the rise among adults and children, especially within low-income demographics (Goodman & Conway, 2016). Though this is a widespread epidemic, only recently has there been any effort to question and reform traditional healthcare.

The way that wellness is assessed in America has been detrimental to patient outcomes …

Non-Space: The Perception Of Reality, Carlos Limas

Theses and Dissertations

This is a formal study of real-world images that try to convey a clear approach to the way we look and relate to unexpected places that at first glance don’t exist in a metaphorical way or just don’t strike us as interesting or attractive. There’s no particular story to tell only the need to expose a different kind of beauty through my own personal subjective view and sensitivity expanding the criteria of my own esthetic values and context of a captured image in a particular scenario.

The perception of Non-Space relates directly to a well establish photography technique called Deadpan, …

Defense In Desolation, Dounia Bendris

Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses different forms of defense strategies in architecture throughout history as well as how a building’s function morphs over time in relation to the political and social climate that surrounds it. Both of these concepts provide a framework for understanding my thesis drawing, “Defense in Desolation,” which uses bunkers in abandonment as a reference to the psychological impact of architecture outside of functionality.

A Goal-Oriented, Inverse Decision-Based Design Method For Designing Football Helmets, Tate Russell Fonville

Theses and Dissertations

A goal-oriented, inverse decision-based design method to find satisficing solutions for multiple football helmet components that all work together to achieve a set of conflicting goals is presented. The efficacy of the method is illustrated with the design of the top region of an American football helmet. The prototype helmet was first constructed and tested with a twin-wire drop tower to study the different components effect on the system response. The inverse design method is used to design the foam liner to dissipate the maximum impact energy, and then the composite shell is designed to reduce the weight. The Concept …

Bantaba: Designing The Sacred Circle, Tashiara Scott

Theses and Dissertations

MOTIVATION In Richmond, there are 1.21 times as many African Americans as any other ethnic group. Yet 63.4% of African Americans live in poverty (Richmond, VA). African Americans face greater exposure to stress due to low socioeconomic status and poverty. In these communities, “discrimination and deprivation undermine individuals’ ability to accumulate the social and material resources to mitigate the effects of stress” (Brondolo, 2018). In this city’s African American community, where stress levels are high and consequential health concerns are prevalent, dance can be a remedy for managing stress and improving health (Hanna, 2006).

DESIGN PROBLEM How can an intentionally …

Light In Community: A Study In The Adaptive Reuse Of Sacred Space, Abigail Barras

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

MOTIVATION
American life is increasingly fragmented, leading to a sense of restlessness and disconnection. Much of that fragmentation can be traced to our pattern of architectural and sociological development, namely, the rise of the automobile suburbs in the 1950s and 60s and the abandonment of densely populated, human- scaled environments like that of the small town or city center (Oldenberg, 1999).

PROBLEM
Large numbers of architecturally significant buildings have fallen into disrepair over the years following the “white flight” of the 1960s and 70s, during which significant segments of investment dollars left city centers and followed to the suburbs …

The Walls We Put Up - Loneliness And Belonging In Urban Co-Living, Richard Rozewski

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Concurrent issues of social isolation and loneliness have long been recognized as problems that affect seniors but it is also being proven to affect young people as well, specifically with the rise of new technologies and a perception of connectedness. Co-living provides one alternative design solution to traditional housing models which can unlock a range of social benefits.

MOTIVATION

Loneliness is an unfortunate reality of modern life and it is something that most people experience at least once in their life (Cacioppo & Patrick, 2008). A study carried out by Berguno, Leroux McAinsh, Shaikh (2004), showed that 80% of …

Tone And Texture, Leather And Lace : A Case For Making Strong Choices In The Costume Design For The Three Musketeers., Emily L. Tappan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores and describes key factors in the design process leading to production of The Three Musketeers by Catherine Bush. The document encompasses the justification and discussion of the choices made during the research, design, and production stages of developing the play for the stage, as well as impressions gained throughout the process to use in future design projects.

Design Optimization Of A Magnesium Subframe, Michelle Price

Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes the design methodology of a cast magnesium subframe of a Subaru BRZ using finite element analysis in which the design objective was light-weighting. A simulation based design using Solidworks and ABAQUS was experimentally validated. The final design was developed by optimizing weight and the geometry through multiple iterations of finite element analysis. The fundamentals of this computational design process were to create a way to develop a working physical prototype. Once the design was completed, it was sand cast using an AZ91 magnesium alloy. Experimental validation was performed to confirm the computational results. Through this simulation based …

Origami-Based Design Of Fold States And Stability, Alex Avila

Theses and Dissertations

Origami is a potentially elegant and powerful source of inspiration for many engineering designs. The viable shapes (fold states) of a single device allow it to perform multiple, seemingly contradictory, functions. The fold state is a large factor in the device's performance, but there are challenges in selecting and maintaining those fold states. In this thesis we analyze existing concepts for overcoming these challenges. Those concepts are compared with those that occur in origami-based devices. From this analysis fundamental gaps were identified, specifically, shortcoming in the terminology used to refer to (1) non-flat origami states and (2) sets of facets …

The Moral Realism Of Student Question-Asking In Classroom Practice, Susan Peterson Gong

Theses and Dissertations

Question-asking has long been an integral part of human learning. In scholarly investigations over the past several decades, questions have been studied in terms of the answers they generate, their grammatical structure, their cognitive functions, their logical content, and their social dynamics. Studies of student classroom questioning have focused on science education and reading instruction particularly; they detail the reasons why students don't ask questions and explore a plethora of recommendations about teaching students how to question. This qualitative study addressed question-asking from a hermeneutic moral realist perspective, studying question-asking as it unfolded in the everyday practice of learning in …

Client-Driven Creation & Professional Patterns In Modern Design: A Case Study Of One Vanderbilt Avenue, Joshua J. Schmitz

Theses and Dissertations

Design, though intricately tied to art through craft, concept and media, is the base converse of art. That is to say, Design is externally motivated by a client’s needs. This case study focuses on my professional work with the companies of S.L. Green and Firespring on the New York City skyscraper One Vanderbilt Avenue (OVA) and demonstrates how a creative concept can be altered through external factors, namely client input. My research will explain why a modern designer must occupy a production-oriented role and continuously leverage insight from an interdisciplinary team in a modern creative firm. The exhibition stemming from …

Flexibility – Designing For Optionality On Warehouse Modernization Projects, Stephen T. Lane

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense relies upon a vast network logistics facilities and capabilities across the planet. Assets are largely sourced from the Defense Logistics Agency, which is considering a modernization project for their Eastern Distribution Center (EDC). It handles 25% of all materials that DLA supplies, and the facility is antiquated. In order to maximize their investment, flexible options for the modernization should be considered. This research was conducted as a case study of the EDC in order to develop a framework of flexibility for DoD decision makers going forward. This case study gathers subject matter expert knowledge from government …

Partition Pause, Michael Scribner

Theses and Dissertations

MOTIVATION Mindfulness is the active pursuit of focused attention, and through practice has been shown to benefit psychological and physical well-being. While mindfulness is not a new idea, it has only tangentially been linked to Interior Design such as through performative objects (Niedderer, 2007 and 2014) which promote personal reflection before enacting a choice. If mindfulness is the active pursuit of mental presence, then Attention Restoration Theory (ART) is a passive route by which environmental cues imbue a resurgence in attention capacity (Kaplan, 2001). ART studies exemplified successful restoration through scenes of nature, and unsuccessfully in outdoor urban scenes (Berto, …

The Design, Development, And Evaluation Of A Usable And Privacy-Enhanced Telepresence Interface For Older Adults, Xian Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Maintaining health and wellness while aging-in-place independently is crucial for older adults. Telepresence technology can be potentially beneficial for this target population to stay socially connected. However, this technology is not specifically designed for older adults. For this target population to adopt such technology successfully, it is important to ensure that they do not experience usability barriers. This research uses HCI/HRI concepts and technology design principles for older adults to design, develop and test telepresence user interfaces (UI). This addresses the following research questions: 1): What are the essential usability and privacy-enhanced features needed to inform the design and development …

Design, Synthesis, Characterization, And Applications Of Matrix Free Polymer Nanocomposites, Yucheng Huang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the design, synthesis, characterization and application of matrix free polymer nanocomposites. Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization was used to synthesize block copolymers and polymer grafted silica nanoparticles with precise control over architectures.

In the first chapter, thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) grafted nanoparticles were prepared by grafting block copolymer poly(styrene-block-(n-butyl acrylate)) onto silica nanoparticles (NPs) (~15nm) via surface initiated RAFT polymerization. The effects of polymer chain length and graft density on the mechanical properties were investigated using films made solely from the grafted NPs. The ultimate tensile stress and elastic modulus increased with the increase of PS …

Anxious?: Re-Designing Women’S Jewelry To Help Manage Symptoms Of Anxiety Disorders, Nourbanu Feras Hijazi

Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety is a common and often stigmatized condition. Destigmatizing mental disorders can positively impact people’s interaction and communication with others and can prompt conversations in which people share their experiences with mental health, leading to improved societal understanding and perception.

My design solution tackles behavioral symptoms of anxiety, specifically two conditions that fall under obsessive-compulsive behavior: Dermatillomania and Trichotillomania. By redesigning women’s jewelry to specialized accessories, my intention is for these objects to help destigmatize these conditions and relieve symptoms of maladaptive behaviors and hurtful impulses. By redirecting these irresistible urges to an external artifact, the objects are designed to …

Design, Synthesis, And Characterization Of Monometallic And Bimetallic Catalysts, Sonia Eskandari

Theses and Dissertations

Supported catalysts are used extensively in a variety of heterogeneously catalyzed reactions for industrial processes. Techniques for preparing supported noble metal catalysts are typically chosen to achieve high metal dispersions in order to obtain high activity for a given metal loading. Enhancing the catalytic performance of heterogeneous catalysts can be done by increasing active site count as well as modification of the physico-chemical characteristics of the catalyst material. For supported metal nanoparticles this can be achieved by decreasing particle size, thus increasing dispersion or metal utilization on the surface of the particles, while modification of metal properties can be attained …

A Cape As Red As Blood And A Slipper As Pure As Gold: Vision And Visuality In The Costume Design Of Into The Woods, Hannah E. Chalman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the costume design for Theatre VCU’s 2018 production of Into the Woods. It outlines my concept for the design focusing on the origins of these archetypes. This concept is further expanded on by discussing Cinderella and the Witch characters and analyzing the choices within their costumes. This thesis also includes renderings, swatches, and photos.