From redesigning patient hospital gowns to creating a greenhouse for the winter months, College of Design faculty and graduate students work on the forefront of design research.
This spring, faculty displayed some of their current research at our annual Faculty Research Poster Session. Get a closer look at their work in our round-up.
A Post-Occupancy Evaluation Study of the Impact of Daylighting and Electric Lighting in the Workplace
Team Members: Abimbola Asojo, Caren Martin, Suyeon Bae, Claudia Neuhauser
Post-occupancy evaluation studies are used to document occupants’ well-being and responses to indoor environmental quality (IEQ) factors such as thermal, lighting, and acoustic conditions. Lighting is one of the most visible, controllable, and functional IEQ attributes of the interior environment and, therefore, has been found to be highly predictive of occupant satisfaction and performance. In this study, the authors present an analysis of data collected from 30 workplace buildings on daylighting and electric lighting conditions to highlight the impact on occupant satisfaction.
Impact of an East African Mother-Daughter Physical Activity Program and Co-Designed Activewear
Team Members: Elizabeth Bye, Chelsey Thul, Robin Carufel, Muna Mohamed, Jennifer Weber
Mother-daughter physical activity interventions often increase physical activity attitudes, support, and behaviors among many racial/ethnic populations. However, few interventions have included East African mother-daughter dyads, which is problematic given that Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S. Our study fills this gap by including nine urban mother-daughter dyads in a two-year intergenerational physical activity program.
Methods and Tools for 3D Capture of Hands and Feet
Team Members: Robin Carufel, Linsey Griffin, Nokyeon Kim, Heajoo Lee, Emily Seifert
The purpose of this research was to develop a repeatable scanning protocol for the 3D scanning of hands and feet for a large anthropometric study, minimize user error, increase speed and scanning efficiency, and develop best practices to enable collaboration across multiple scanning sites. This research consisted of testing different landmark placements and tools, and the development and testing of stability/scanning platforms for the hand and foot. Testing each piece led us to create a repeatable scanning protocol for the 3D scanning of hands and feet for future anthropometric studies across multiple scanning sites.
Integration at Its Finest: Success in High-Performance Building Design and Project Delivery in the Federal Section
Team Members: Renee Cheng, Pratibha Chauhan, Carrie Sturts Dossick, Laura Osburn
This case study investigates project teams that achieved extraordinarily high-performance goals for federal projects and examines what made these projects so successful.
AIA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Guide to Best Practices
Team Members: Renee Cheng, Andrea Johnson, Cozy Hannula, Nancy Alexander
In collaboration with the American Institute of Architects, the research team is developing guides with best practices for how the architectural profession can address issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion. This research is ongoing.
Designing Controllable Heated Garments for Mediating Personal Microclimate
Team Members: Ellen Dupler, Nika Gagliardi, Esther Foo, Simon Ozbek, Nicholas Schleif, Lucy Dunne
Applied, on-body thermal systems have a variety of potential benefits. For instance, heat is often used in medical treatments, and for improved comfort in cold environments. Heating the body, the microclimate, can also reduce energy expended to heat the macroclimate (rooms and spaces). Further, a change in temperature in a defined on-body zone might act as a stimulus for a persuasive technology interface.
Human Health and Well-being: Built Environments
Author: Genell Ebbini
The goal of this project is to advance biophilic design in healthcare while developing a pedagogical method that fosters interdisciplinary research. Working with a team of designers and physicians, this research is a critical study of LEED-certified buildings in Jordan. Ebbini’s activity will be focused on studying building occupants’ health and well-being and making recommendations with the aim to address the immense need to improve opportunities for affordable and sustainable housing in the Middle East. This study is initiated by the U.S. Green Building Council.
ULI Minnesota Development Dialogue: I-94 Land Bridge
Team Members: Thomas Fisher, Joseph Hang, Bruce Jacobson, John Carmody, and Javkhlan Nyamjav
The Minnesota Design Center (MDC) is working with ReconnectRondo and the Urban Land Institute on a land bridge over I-94 that would reconnect the two parts of the neighborhood divided by the highway and create open space above the roadway and development opportunities on the current highway embankments. These drawings were developed for use in a national Technical Advisory Panel that the Urban Land Institute will lead in March 2018.
Framework for Planning and Implementation for the Towerside Innovation District
Team Members: Thomas Fisher, Joseph Hang, Bruce Jacobson, John Carmody, and Javkhlan Nyamjav
Working with the Towerside Innovation District, the MDC has developed urban design guidelines for the area east of the East Bank campus of the university, along the Green Line. The center has also worked for the University District Alliance on the granary corridor running along the northern edge of the district and on policy language about the innovation district for the comprehensive plans of both Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Subjective Comfort and Emotional Effects of On-body Compression
Team Members: Esther Foo, J. Walter Lee, Simon Ozbek, Brad Holschuh
The sensation of touch is an important facet of haptic communication and is known to carry huge emotional significance. Current work in haptic communication focuses mainly on force feedback, taps, vibrations and point pressures but means of more distributed pressure such as compression is often overlooked. This study seeks to understand the subjective comfort and emotional effects when compression is applied to the body; specifically, the torso, upper body, and shoulder areas.
The Smart Wardrobe: Technology-Enabled Efficiency and Sustainability in Apparel Consumption and Use
Team Members: Nika R. Gagliardi, Heidi Woelfle, Kai Johndon, Smitha Sudheendra, Cade Zacharias, Lucy E. Dunne
Today’s consumers struggle with the paradox of owning more clothing than any generation before—while still feeling as if there is “nothing to wear.” The challenge of building good outfits out of the individual garments in a wardrobe may leave consumers with seemingly too few options. These dressing difficulties occur despite the numerous pieces and possible combinations existing in their wardrobes. Though closets burst with unworn clothing, consumers continue to shop. The task of finding good combinations from individual garments is well-suited to computational and artificially-intelligent systems. This research explores the question of how to describe, model, and predict the body, garment, and outfit level attributes that contribute to user satisfaction with an outfit.
Active-Contracting Textiles for Orthostatic Intolerance Garments
Team Members: Rachael Granberry, Kevin Eschen, Amy Ross, Julianna Abel, Brad Holschuh
We explore the suitability of active-contracting textiles for the design of compression garments for astronauts. This research summary evaluates the activation force of shape memory alloy (SMA) weft knits, fabrics that are capable of generating large, dynamic displacements and contractive forces across the fabric surface. Through this preliminary study, we estimate the pressure range that SMA knits could exert on the body when integrated into compression garment design.
Patient Hospital Gown: An Interdisciplinary Research Project
Team Members: Linsey Griffin, Nokyeon Kim, Justin Baker, Asiya Youngmark
There are profound deficiencies in both the functionality and aesthetics of commonly used patient hospital gowns. Patient hospital gowns are used worldwide, yet have remained virtually unchanged since their introduction into health-care systems. The hospital gown is frequently linked to the loss of dignity and feelings of vulnerability for patients due to the perceived lack of modesty caused by the open back feature, thin material and difficult closures. This research aims to take a user-centered approach to creating a hospital gown that is functional for caregivers, dignified for patients, and cost-effective for healthcare organizations.
The Native Experience: Toward Appropriate Transition Environments for Youth Victims of Trafficking
Team Members: Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, Soo Jin Kang
Minneapolis has been identified as one of thirteen American cities with a large concentration of child prostitution enterprises. An estimated 27 million people, mostly girls and women, are trafficked each year globally and in Minnesota close to 250 teens are sold an average of five times a day. Minnesota’s Native community has been hit hard by sex trafficking, with estimates that 60-80% of sexually exploited youth are Native. Given the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual abuse these youth have experienced, transition housing that restores their belief in the world and themselves is crucial to recovery. This study uses literature review and three case studies to propose a set of design guidelines that can be used in the development of appropriate housing for Native youth victims of trafficking.
Toward Culturally Enriched Communities
Team Members: Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, Gabrielle Clowdus, Maxwell Dickson
Positioning Minnesota for a vibrant and prosperous future is tied to demographic projections that by 2040, close to 40% of Minnesota’s population will be people of color, many of them international immigrants. Part of the challenge is that although Minnesota enjoys high ranks in many quality of life indicators, it also experiences disparities in health, education, and income between whites and people of color. This study is centered on the question of what would it take for Minnesota to continue to prosper and flourish in the future and what role can the design of the built environment play in the process? Through a collaboration with the Urban Land Institute MN and the Regional Council of Mayors, this study uses interviews with local organizations and institutions along with mayors and city planners of suburbs, small towns, and rural areas around the state to identify best practices and challenges for the creation of Culturally Enriched Communities. The full report can be found here.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Infusing Person-environment Questions in Studies of Mental Health
Team Members: Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, Julie Irish, and Julia Robinson
Exploring the multiple ways diverse users experience the built environment has long been one of the primary focuses of environment-behavior research. However, when it comes to children and mental health, knowledge of how environmental parameters intersect with daily living has been limited. Research that expands the understanding of people-environment relationships must engage with study participants in a way that can reveal insights that may remain hidden when using conventional research approaches. Drawing from an interdisciplinary collaboration between environment-behavior scholars, psychiatrists, and computer scientists, this study used video recordings and subsequent computer vision analysis, to expose the nuances of how patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) engaged with elements of interiors while completing everyday activities.
Passive Solar Design for Winter Food Production
Team Members: Daniel Handeen, Jane Davidson, Kathy Draeger, Carol Ford, Brandon Hathaway, Greg Schweser
Deep Winter Greenhouses have been steadily growing in number across the upper Midwest as a means of providing local, fresh, nutritious foods with a minimum of finite fuel inputs. With seed funding from a U of MN Extension Renewable Sustainable Development Partnerships block grant, the Center for Sustainable Building Research used verified results and consultation to drive the design of a simple, efficient, and affordable Deep Winter Greenhouse with optimized energy management named the DWG v2.0.
Innovative, Affordable, High-Performance, Moisture-Managed Building Enclosure Systems
Team Members: Daniel Handeen, Pat Huelman, Garrett Mosiman, Rolf Jacobson, Tom Schirber
There are two primary aspects of the study. The first is to compare cost, constructability, and in situ performance of identical houses that utilize two Zero Energy Ready high-performance wall assemblies against houses using EnergyStar v3 and MN code base wall assemblies. The second is to identify ways to optimize the delivery of the SEP-ETMMS wall assembly using a single enclosure contractor, and train builders in this delivery method.
Toward Net Zero Housing: A Multifamily Prototype Study
Author: Rolf Jacobson
The Passive House standard is gaining popularity across the country and in Minnesota, with two local Passive House multifamily projects currently in the design phase. This research examines the potential for Passive House design in a cold climate at three scales of multi-family housing: townhome, low-rise, and mid-rise. Prototypes based on existing affordable housing projects were developed at each scale and modeled using three different software packages – WUFI Passive, IES-VE, and REM/Rate. This comparison was used to determine the plausibility of net-zero energy buildings and resilience in the case of power outages at each of these project scales. While a Passive House townhome was found to easily achieve net-zero site energy, a 3-story low-rise multifamily building was very challenging. A 4-5 story mid-rise multifamily building could not achieve net-zero site energy with rooftop PV, even at Passive House performance levels.
Do Men Bias Their Own Ideas More Than Women? Examining the Role of Gender in the Creative Idea Selection Process
Team Members: Frances Jedrzejewski and Barry Kudrowitz
There is a commonly known stereotype that men are more confident than women (sometimes in varying levels of intensity). This can come into play in many different scenarios, but one that is of great importance is in the workplace. In the design realm, the process of selecting the most creative idea is already a harrowing task. Is it possible that this process is made even more complex by exhibiting gender biases? This study aims to examine if males are more likely than females to vote in favor of their own ideas over others’ ideas.
Retail Assistance Program for the Rural Community
Team Members: Hye-Young Kim, Neil Linscheid, Hyunjoo Im, Claire Whang, Sanga Song, and Amanda Phillips
This project is an extension project to connect faculty expertise and student knowledge with rural Minnesotan communities by identifying retail business problems and providing solutions to the problems. In this project, retail merchandising undergraduate students analyzed the store design problem and implemented a new experience design in a rural retail store.
A Three-Dimensional Assessment of Hand Dynamics: A Pilot Study of Seven Hand Positions
Team Members: Nokyeon Kim, Robin Carufel, Linsey Griffin
Personal protective equipment, such as gloves, should be designed to provide users with comfort and dexterity to ensure their safety while on the job. This requires detailed analysis of the hand in motion. Current methods of glove design use outdated two-dimensional measurement methods which do not fully factor in the dynamic hand. New technology now enables us to capture the three-dimensional dynamic hand for quantitative evaluation of anthropometric measurements across a variety of positions.
Good Idea or Good Presentation: Examining the Effect of Presentation on Perceived Quality of Concepts
Team Members: Jieun Kwon and Barry Kudrowitz
In the product design realm, designers often use presentations to convey certain ideas about a product or a specific stage of the design process. The popular forms of presentation include verbal pitching, 2D drawing, and prototyping. Related articles show that audiences are heavily influenced by the quality of presentation when evaluating the worth of product being presented. In this study, we examine if the audience is able to discriminate between the quality of the presentation and the quality of the idea being presented.
Surface-Mount Fabrication of Stitched E-Textile Circuits for Garment-Integrated Technologies
Team Members: Md. Tahmidul Islam Molla, Steven Goodman, Crystal Compton, Nicholas Schleif, Mary Ellen Berglund, Cade Zacharias, and Lucy E. Dunne
Durable, reliable, and scalable fabrication of garment-integrated technologies are the major barriers to large-scale applications for the wearable technology. While integrating electronic circuits into clothing has several benefits, fabricating stiff and rough electronics on substrates as flexible and complex as textiles remains difficult. In our lab, we have developed a manufacturing method of electronic-textiles where traces and interconnects are stitched to a textile substrate, and surface-mount components are populated using reflow soldering processes. Stitched method of electronic-textiles fabrication offers durability and flexibility benefits, as well as relatively un-constrained layout patterns. This will lower the barrier-to-entry to wearable technologies while maintaining the comfort and aesthetics of the garment-integrated architectures. A simulated high-intensity wear test and a long-term launderability test ensured that the method can produce highly durable garment-integrated textiles. Further, we implement the manufacturing technique in an LED matrix display application, a motion responsive visual display shirt, and a sensing garment.
The Impact of Product Design, Environment, and Media on User Response
Author: Ehsan Naderi
This study examines the influence of product design, environment, and virtual reality systems on users’ cognitive and affective responses. These three factors were systematically manipulated in a 2x2x2 full-factorial experiment. The results from statistical analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that higher quality of product design and environment congruence did lead to a more positive cognitive and effective response. Moreover, it was confirmed that media richness significantly predicted three dimensions of users’ cognitive response.
Where Do Museum Exhibitions Come From?
Team Members: Lin Nelson-Mayson
Exhibitions are communication methods for informal learning. They tell a story that begins with a good idea. What will ultimately become an exhibition depends on a number of factors, including the museum’s mission and the intended audience. The Goldstein Museum of Design’s mission is to use the power of design to foster improved quality of life for individuals and communities. Our audiences are the students, faculty, and staff of the College of Design, the wider design community, and the general public. The ultimate goal of the exhibition is to answer the question: So What?
Tension-Controlled Active Compression Garment for Treatment of Orthostatic Intolerance
Team Members: Robert Pettys-Baker, Nicholas Scleif, J. Walter Lee, Sophia Utset-Ward, Mary Ellen Berglund, Lucy E. Dunne, Brad Holschuh, Christopher Johnson, Kevin Kelly, Bruce Johnson, Michael Joyner
Our fifth iteration of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) compression garment is developed in this project. This garment includes a set of calf and leg sleeves that generate compression when SMA coils contract with applied current. This aids in treating conditions such as orthostatic intolerance, which cause blood to pool in the legs. The major improvements over previous iterations include: simplifying the overall system, adding a set of tension management switches, and addressing some factors related to body shape variation.
Dutch Complex Housing
Team Members: Julia Robinson, Goldielyn Lopez, Nathan Ehrlich
This poster documents three activities: the book Complex Housing, the exhibition Dutch Complex Housing, and the symposium, Complexity: Dutch and American Housing. The book and exhibition introduce, describe and analyze a special form of housing that was built in the Netherlands between 1990 and 2010, here called “complex housing.” The symposium was created to facilitate discussion between Dutch and Americans interested in better housing, and to generate an understanding of the Dutch innovations as they relate to our own housing community. More than 30 graduate and undergraduate research assistants contributed to these projects. The symposium was sponsored by many University and private contributors and organized by 40 volunteers from the housing community (design, development, academic, government, financing and residents).
National Loon Center: Masterplan and Building Design
Team Members: Virajita Singh and Joe Polacek
The Center for Sustainable Building Research’s Design for Community Resilience program facilitated a research and participatory design process and developed a Masterplan and Building Design for a National Loon Center in Crosslake, MN. The project was funded by the Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (CRSDP) and the National Joint Powers Alliance (NJPA). The National Loon Center (NLC) will provide education, programming, and activities related to loons and their habitat in central Minnesota and serve a local, regional and national audience/stakeholders.
Thief River Falls: New Vision for Downtown
Team Members: Virajita Singh and Joe Polacek
The Center for Sustainable Building Research’s Design for Community Resilience program facilitated a research and participatory design process to develop a Community Masterplan for Thief River Falls community. The project was funded by the Northwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (NWRSDP), the Northwest Minnesota Foundation, Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) and the TRF Chamber of Commerce. Goals of the project were to promote a business climate that enhances economic vitality and improves the quality of life for all residents and to develop a master plan with community engagement that creates a unified, welcoming environment and provides documents that can be used for fundraising and implementation of the master plan.
Smart Wearable Systems to Support and Measure Movement in Children With and Without Mobility Impairments
- University of Minnesota Team Members: Sophia Utset-Ward, Ellen Dupler, Esther Foo, Noah Garon, Arin Ellingson, Brad Holschuh, Lucy Dunne
- University of Delaware Team Members: Michele Lobo
- Virginia Tech Team Members: Mark Jones, Tom Martin
The University of Minnesota Wearable Technology Lab (WTL) is collaborating with Virginia Tech and the University of Delaware to develop a wearable system to aid the movements of children with and without mobility impairments. The study involves sensing, analyzing, and actuating movements. Currently, the WTL team is investigating sensing and actuation methods, focusing on sensing via integrated textile based stretch sensors and actuation provided by Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs). The poster presented outlines the development and future work of the project.
Effects of Integration Quality Perception and Attitude toward Information Seeking on Perceived Shopping Value in Omnichannel Shopping Experience
Team Members: Do Yuon Kim and Hyunjoo Im
Omni-channel shopping experience involves not only simultaneous use of multiple shopping channels but the integrated connection of them. Omni-channel retailing has become imperative when more than 80% of smartphone shoppers use their mobile phone during in-store shopping and 67% of consumers start shopping across channels. Considering the extended service connections with mobile devices and the blurred boundary between channels, the channel integration needs to be understood in an omnichannel environment. Thus, this online survey study aims to investigate how perceived integration quality and a personal disposition character, information seeking tendency, influence shopping values in an omnichannel shopping context.
This February, members of the University got to view ongoing work at the College of Design’s annual Research and Creative Scholarship Showcase.
This week Executive Vice President and Provost Karen Hanson announced the launch of phase two in the University of Minnesota’s Driving Tomorrow Initiative. The second phase of the initiative targets two of the University’s five Grand Challenges focus areas: Ensuring Clean Water and Sustainable Ecosystems and Fostering Just and Equitable Communities.
The American Institute of Architects Foundation, along with the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, announced that they have selected our Center for Sustainable Building Research as the upper Midwest hub of the National Resilience Initiative (NRI) network.
