THE IST DESIGN STUDIO: a plan for action… by Manuel ... - In+

IST Design Studio October 2003_____________________________________________________________________________• Experimental fluid mechanics and thermal analysis.3. Electronics and MicrosystemsResearch will be developed to focus on the intersection of three key areas:microelectronics, wireless communications, and microelectromechanical systems(MEMS). This includes precision sensors, micropower circuits, wireless interfaces andwafer-level packaging, and the necessary interdisciplinary skills to produce engineeringleaders for the emerging microsystems field in order to allow considering the societalimpacts that these developments will have on how we live.This research area includes the following research subjects:• Systems design• MEMS (microelectromechanical systems)• Control4. SustainabilityThis area considers the necessary scientific and technological knowledge to support thedevelopment, engineering and social acceptance of sustainable, eco-efficient concepts(products, services and product-systems) that are produced for mass consumption or usein a professional context. This is because the economic success of firms depends ontheir ability to identify the needs of customers and to quickly create products that meetthese needs and can be produced at low cost, but also following proper environmentallimitations. The approach to be adopted is based on the concept of life cycle, as itconsiders manufacturing (including raw material processing), utilization, disposal, reutilizationand recycling strategies. This requires a multidisciplinary approach takinginto consideration that a product is engineered, and therefore product developmentcombines new engineering solutions, product design, marketing strategies andenvironmental considerations, amongst others. Main applications areas will include: Carcomponents Industry; Consumer Goods; Burning equipments.The following research subjects are considered:• Life cycle and impact assessment• Design for X• Eco-Design5. Simulation and Virtual PrototypingThe area of cooperative virtual environments has become strategically relevant, giventhe emergence of new interaction paradigms involving people and intelligent devices.Research will focus on virtual environments and ubiquitous computing architectures,supporting new modalities and paradigms for interaction and cooperative work. Thisinvolves the development of intelligent environments as well as the requiredinfrastructure to support concurrent engineering tasks using multimodal interactiontechniques, personal design assistants and tools for cooperative work. In addition,special emphasis will be given to virtual environments that provide an intuitive humanmachineinterface for the creation and manipulation of three-dimensional models in asemi-immersive design space. Immersive and semi-immersive environments hold thepotential to design new products entirely in a virtual environment, thus extending andcomplementing the use of physical models. .Main applications domains for our research14