An environmental monitoring system based on ZigBee wireless sensor network technology was researched in detail in this paper. Firstly, the technology working principle of ZigBee and its characteristics were introduced, and the characteristics of wireless sensor network and its application advantages were analyzed in comparison with the traditional network. Secondly, the overall scheme of the en...

The purpose for this article is to explore technology education from the perspective of the academic rationalist. Such an exploration is intended to provide information for technology educators who are grappling with education reform since it appears that the reforms of the 1980s are based on academic rationalism curriculum theory. This exploration includes consideration of the theoretical pers...

One of the products of engineering, besides constructed artifacts, is design documentation. To understand how design participants use documentation, we interviewed designers and typical documentation users and also took protocols of them both creating and using design documentation. Our protocols were taken from realistic projects of preliminary design for heating, ventilation and air condition...

Thickness accuracy of plate production depends on Automatic Gauge Control (AGC) in the plate mill area. A typical modern thickness control system design and implementation of a steel plate mill is discussed together with the impact on the design of process models, available measurements, available control actuators and material properties. A highlevel software design approach provides the abili...

This paper summarizes the rationale behind revision of an electronic design automation course and the resulting learning objectives and course model. Early experiences are highlighted.

Stories capture the characteristics of the design space and audience that designers and engineers need to understand to build a complete and useful software experience. A story is a design communication tool that transcends the cultural divides of multidisciplinary teams and intertwines a technology with its user’s goals. This article describes how stories are powerful tools in software design,...

One of the main advantages claimed for software design patterns is improved team communication. This paper reports on an experiment that tests this hypothesis. Team communication among pairs of designers with and without design pattern knowledge is observed in a maintenance setting and analyzed by protocol analysis. The results indicate that shared pattern knowledge leads to a more condensed ex...

Design patterns provide reusable solutions for recurring design problems. They constitute an important tool for improving software quality. However, correct usage of design patterns depends to a large extent on the designer. Design patterns often include models that describe the suggested solutions, while other aspects of the patterns are neglected or described informally only in text. Furtherm...

Although constructs have been developed for designing the features of Behavior Change Support Systems (BCSSs), detailed descriptions and guidelines for their software level implementation are lacking. Through developing software design patterns one is able to examine BCSSs at a more intricate technical level instead of merely a black-box approach to them. In this paper, we present a software de...