Although additive manufacturing (AM) has been maturing for some years, it has only recently started to capture the interest of the cost-sensitive construction industry. The research presented herein is seeking to integrate AM into the construction sector through the establishment of an automated end-to-end framework for the generation of high-performance AM structures, combining sophisticated optimization techniques with cutting edge AM methods. Trusses of tubular cross-section subjected to different load cases have been selected as the demonstrators of the proposed framework. Optimization studies, featuring numerical layout and geometry optimization techniques, are employed to obtain the topology of the examined structures, accounting for practical and manufacturing constraints. Cross-section optimization is subsequently undertaken, followed by a series of geometric operations for the design of free-form joints connecting the optimized members. Solid models of the optimized designs are then exported for wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM). Following determination of the optimal printing sequence, the trusses are printed and inspected. The efficiency of the optimized designs has been assessed by means of finite element modelling and compared against equivalent conventional designs. More than 200% increases in efficiency (reflected in the capacity-to-mass ratios) were achieved for all optimized trusses (when compared to their equivalent reference designs), demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed optimization framework.
This article reports on an undergraduate software engineering project in which, over a period of two years, four student teams from different cohorts developed a note-taking app for four academic clients at the students' own university. We investigated how projects involving internal clients can give students the benefits of engaging in real software development while also giving them experience of a student-staff collaboration that has its own benefits for students, academics, and the university more broadly. As the university involved is a Sino-Foreign university located in China, where most students are Chinese and most teaching staff are not, this 'student as co-producer' approach interacts with another feature of the project: cultural distance. Based on analysis of notes, reports, interviews, and focus groups, we recommend that students should be provided with communicative strategies for dealing with academics as clients; universities should develop policies on ownership of student-staff collaborations; and projects should include a formalised handover process. This article can serve as guidance for educators considering a 'students as co-producers' approach for software development projects.
The relationship between online media platforms in China and fan groups is a dynamic one when it comes to the distribution of international TV series and other media content, as media platforms incorporate user-generated content to encourage or foster audience engagement. Through a series of case studies, this article investigates how international TV series are acquired, distributed, marketed and curated on Chinese online video platforms. This helps to identify specific strategies and themes used by these platforms to promote international content and engage users. These marketing techniques, however, are not always as successful as expected, suggesting the need for a closer examination of the types of engagement sought by media platforms, and the ways in which Chinese audiences have responded within their cultural context.
How online video platforms could support China's independent microfilm (short film) makers and enhance the Chinese film industry. As with the US and EU media landscapes, the Chinese film industry is dominated by platforms similar to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, most notably in the form of the BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) companies that according to He (2015) are 'taking over the film industry'. These have been described as 'imperialistic' in the monopolization of their respective markets and in the use of their financial muscle to squeeze content creators' incomes (Jin, 2015). While in the western market this undermines the mainly middle-class professionals who drive creativity (Timberg, 2015), in China it limits the opportunities for new talent to grow. This paper will, therefore, give an overview of the Chinese microfilm (online short movies) industry and investigate how Chinese BAT companies and other online video providers could enhance the Chinese film industry by developing infrastructure to direct revenue of microfilms to the creators.
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