Category Archives: Cases

Cases

RAPY, a DC motor 3D printer

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DML_3D printerEveryone has dreams but only few pursue them. I love the anecdote of the inventors of the world’s first DC motor 3D printer, RAPY (Rapid Advanced Printing sYstem). I decide to support it at the Kickstarter. I learn how to use this machine now and hope to “play” with it soon. The following is what RAPY is about on the Kickstarter.

… The story goes back to twenty years ago.

In 1993, we were students in an engineering school and obsessed in robots. We organized a group of robot builders. We studied hard and enjoyed school life including group activities. After graduation we were all scattered in diverse areas and experienced how big industries run from products and service planning to launch and after service. After decades of practical experience in industries, we realized that we might build our own 3D printer by ourselves with expertise in control. Decades of industrial experience definitely helped a lot in designing, developing and planning for a production. Robots can be defined as a machine to perform pre-programmed activity and adjust its action in accordance with environmental change. By this sense, RAPY system is a robot. Now we are stepping our first foot in making robots. With our system we continue to push our limits to bring more sophisticated system within our lives.

With the help of position feedback control system, RAPY has an ability of disturbance rejection, which means it can resists against not only external shock but also internal mis-tracking caused by build up errors. 3D printers operate not only for a couple of minutes but for several hours to print out a single object.  As a result your printer may run dozens of hundreds of hours in total to meet your need. The situation is quite different from that of using 2D printers. This is why 3D printers need a rigid structure for its stability against long run.

 

Cases

Ski lift ticket: Canada vs. Korea

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DML_Gleneden
DML_Gleneden

At the Gleneden ski resort, lift tickets (above) contain full information only on one side. Date, type, and bar-code number are above and the legal notice is in the bottom. Then, skiers fold the other half of the lift ticket over so the sticky sides stick together over the wicket. 

Interestingly, at the Yong pyong ski resort, one of the biggest ski resorts in Korea, lift tickets (below) contain information on the front as well as the back side. Instead of using sticky glue and wicket, skiers simply use plastic to attach it to their ski wears. Yongpyong resort seems to deliver more detailed information to its skiers by changing the design of the lift ticket; date, type, hour, price, and tax information are printed in the front side, and usage information, notice, emergency contact, and resort phone number are printed in the back.

DML_Yongpyong
DML_Yongpyong
Cases

At the first there was drive-me-to card

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DML_Bangkok Taxi (1) DML_Bangkok Taxi (2)

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]Using taxi is tough where its fare has been traditionally determined by negotiation (e.g., Tuk tuk in Thailand). Even when the taxi driver turns on the meter, foreigners sometimes arrive at a wrong destination because they cannot speak local language. In order to relieve these concerns from the international travelers, some Bangkok hotels provide an interesting concierge service.

When a traveler asks a hotel employee for taxi, the concierge asks where the traveler wants to go. Then he checks the destination on the list or writes it down in the bottom in English as well as in Thai. When a taxi arrives, he writes down the taxi plate number, speaks loudly to the driver the destination, and then passes the card to the traveler. Although the card plays nothing, many foreign travelers mentioned that simply keeping it with them while sitting in the taxi helps them feel safe and secure.

Alternatively, Uber now eliminates all these hassles. 🙂

Cases

Marketing in Chinese Language

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DML_Window of the world DML_Marketing in Chinese

I have long believed that marketing is a unique business discipline because it cannot be translated into Chinese. Different from Marketing, other business disciplines have their own Chinese names: Accounting is 會計, Finance is 財務, Manufacturing is 生產, OB/HRM is 組織/人事, and Strategy is 戰略.

Interestingly, I have recently met the sign of the marketing department at the Window of the world (世界之窗) in Shenzhen, China, saying market (市場) department. However, marketing clearly differs from market; marketing helps people understand and change a given market and create a new market. I wish Chinese marketers either accept the English name of marketing or invent a new name of it in Chinese. 🙂

Cases

Helmet-shaped booth of an insurance company

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DML_AIA

DML_AIA

OOH (Out-Of-Home) advertising is any type of advertising that reaches the consumer while he or she is outside the home. Since this medium is in contrast with broadcast, print, and Internet advertising, it is focused on marketing to consumers when they are “on the go” in public places, in transit, waiting (such as in a medical office), and/or in specific commercial locations (such as in a retail venue) (see more in Wikipedia).

While staying in Bangkok, I met a creative OOH advertising made by AIA (Chinese: 友邦保險), a Hong Kong-based insurance company who has offices in many Asia-Pacific countries. I found many helmet-shaped booths standing on the street: some are used for bikers or cyclists to take some breaks and others are used for simple demonstration. Although the booths may not enhance the real security of the street, I felt safe when I saw them, which is similar to when I saw Starbucks or Tim Hortons on the street. More importantly, I inferred my psychological security from the real security; I considered AIA as a company who can protect me from a dangerous financial market. Nicely done! 🙂

Cases

TCDC, Design center at Bangkok, Thailand

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Bangkok is well-known for Kao San Road, Pad Thai, and foot massage. Like other Asian cities, however, it has an upscale design center. Thailand Creative & Design Center (TCDC) is located on the top floor in the Emporium shopping complex, a luxurious shopping mall in Bangkok. As this center is located at the heart of the city (Phrom Phong BTS station) and provides a wide variety of learning resources, it was crowded with young Thailand students who read books, discussed group projects, and participated in exhibitions about, for instance, 3D printing.

DML_Design center in Bangkok

DML_Design center in Bangkok

Interestingly, a huge red board stands in front of the TCDC and it contains many business cards. This board might play a role as a market; people who look for their partners or who need help, they can contact with other experts such as manufacturers, suppliers, traders, investors, consultants, etc.

DML_Design center in Bangkok

DML_Design center in Bangkok

DML_TCDC brochure

Cases

Teaching design in the business school

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Some business schools offer design courses. The first business school that I introduce is the College of William & Mary’s Mason School of Business. According to the 2013 Bloomberg Businessweek Best Undergraduate Business-Schools ranking, it is the best in the nation for marketing (see the article here). In this school, undergraduate students learn and experience “design process” in their design courses such as “Creativity & Innovation,” “Sustainability Inspired Design,” or “Design as Strategy” led by two marketing professors, Scott Swan and Michael Luchs.

20130802_@ Williamsburg (2)

This business school has many top-notch marketing researchers, has a close relationship with other institutions and firms in Virginia, and has a brand new building. However, what truly makes this school stands out among a long list of US business schools includes its interdisciplinary courses and a unique space called Design Studio.

20130803_@ Williamsburg (4)

With Jim Olver, Scott Swan and Michael Luchs spent enormous effort in redesigning a relatively detached, corner space in this building. They flattened the floor, made the moving boards by fastening the plates and metals with ropes, purchased square black cushions, and placed the table tops on top of the carts for moving carts.

20130803_@ Williamsburg (8)

20130803_@ Williamsburg (10)

20130803_@ Williamsburg (7)

Their hard work paid off. When they run design courses in this Design Studio, students have lively brainstorming discussions, instantly review new concepts, and actually build the mock-ups of their outcomes.

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Teaching design to high school students

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DML_Martin Linder

Martin Linder, Industrial Design Professor at San Francisco State University, gave a speech at Yonsei University on his unique program called iDo. iDo started in 1993 with 6 mentors; now it runs with more than 25 mentors for 40 weeks of five-weekly classes. According to the webpage:

Industrial Design Outreach (iDo) promotes the field of industrial design and uses its methodologies to enhance the education of both high school and university students. Through hands-on interdisciplinary design projects, iDo provides high school students with experiences that foster curiosity, promote creativity, and build self-confidence. By developing and delivering design curriculum to high school students, university students gain experiences that promote teamwork; enhance communication, organization, and improve presentation skills; and provide a forum for participants to give back to their community.

The Industrial Design Outreach institute is an educational enrichment program that introduces students to a number of educational opportunities in areas of industrial and graphic design, computer software tools, and traditional and modern manufacturing systems. The mission of iDo is to promote the field of industrial design and use its methodologies to enhance education. iDo provides high school participants with a no-cost introduction to design. Participants and San Francisco State University (SF State) students majoring in design collaborate on developing and delivering hands-on interdisciplinary design projects. These experiences foster curiosity in youth participants, promote creativity, build self-confidence, and allow participants to develop valuable vocational and college skills. In turn, college students learn to build and deliver curriculum, which enhances their communication, organization, presentation, team building, and design skills.

University students involved in this project visit high schools and teach design basics such as tools and materials and design process such as research, ideation, and prototyping. In most cases, they work together with high school students and create tangible products such as pencil boxes, clocks, and even kites.

DML_Martin Linder

Cases

Ground level traffic lights help pedestrians be safe

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Tactile paving is a system of textured ground surface indicators. It aims to assist pedestrians who are blind or visually impaired (see Wikipedia) and is also called truncated domes, detectable warnings, Tactile Ground Surface Indicators, or detectable warning surface. In Seoul, Korea, some of the tactile pavings light up at night. Interestingly, its color turns the same color with the traffic light; it turns red when the traffic light is red, and it is green when the traffic light is green.

DML_tactitle paving 01   DML_tactitle paving 02   DML_tactitle paving 03

This lighting system will not only benefit visually impaired pedestrians; it will also enhance the safety of the pedestrians who are distracted by their own tasks (e.g., listening music by earphones or sending text messages by their smart phones)!

Cases

How can we learn and acquire skills?

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20131014_Stellan Ohlsson @ SKKU_Skill acquisition (2)

Stellan Ohlsson, Professor in Psychology at University of Illinois at Chicago visited COGENG (Cognitive Engineering Lab) at SKKU and gave a speech on skill acquisition. He introduced his own work of learning from errors in which he argues that, in order to acquire or specializes in a certain skill (e.g., changing a lane to the left while driving), people should not only perform a certain task (e.g., turning the steering wheel to the left) but also detect and correct errors (e.g., turning the steering wheel to the left only when a car behind approaches). According to his constraint based approach, a skill is acquired only when a certain action with a negative outcome is unlearned (e.g., turning the steering wheel to the left slowly so that being hit by the car behind).

Certainly, there are many more ways to acquire skills. According to his review paper published in 2008, there are at least nine different ways of how people acquire skills.

1. Internalize direct instructions

2. Generalize from specific examples

3. Analogize to prior skill knowledge

4. Reason from prior declarative knowledge

5. Encode results of heuristic search

6. Strengthen positive outcomes

7. Unlearn actions with negative outcomes

8. Discover short cuts in execution histories

9. Accumulate statistical information