Sensing Aeropolis. Urban air monitoring devices in Madrid, 2006-2010

Esta tesis examina las implicaciones técnicas, políticas y espaciales del aire urbano, y en concreto, de la calidad del aire, para tenerlo en cuenta desde una perspectiva arquitectónica. En oposición a formas de entender el aire como un vacío o como una metáfora, este proyecto propone abordarlo desde un acercamiento material y tecnológico, trayendo el entorno al primer plano y reconociendo sus múltiples agencias. Debido a la escasa bibliografía detectada en el campo de la arquitectura, el objetivo es construir un marco teórico-analítico para considerar el aire urbano. Para ello el trabajo construye Aeropolis, una metáfora heurística que describe el ensamblaje sociotecnico de la ciudad. Situada en la intersección de determinadas ramas de la filosofía de la cultura, los estudios sobre ciencia y tecnología y estudios feministas de la ciencia este nuevo paisaje conceptual ofrece una metodología y herramientas para abordar el objeto de estudio desde distintos ángulos. Estas herramientas metodológicas han sido desarrolladas en el contexto específico de Madrid, ciudad muy contaminada cuyo aire ha sido objeto de controversias políticas y sociales, y donde las políticas y tecnologías para reducir sus niveles no han sido exitosas. Para encontrar una implicación alternativa con el aire esta tesis propone un método de investigación de agentes invisibles a partir del análisis de sus dispositivos epistémicos. Se centra, en concreto, en los instrumentos que miden, visualizan y comunican la calidad del aire, proponiendo que no sólo lo representan, sino que son también instrumentos que diseñan el aire y la ciudad. La noción de “sensing” (en castellano medir y sentir) es expandida, reconociendo distintas prácticas que reconstruyen el aire de Madrid. El resultado de esta estrategia no es sólo la ampliación de los espacios desde los que relacionarnos con el aire, sino también la legitimación de prácticas existentes fuera de contextos científicos y administrativos, como por ejemplo prácticas relacionadas con el cuerpo, así como la redistribución de agencias entre más actores. Así, esta tesis trata sobre toxicidad, la Unión Europea, producción colaborativa, modelos de computación, dolores de cabeza, kits DIY, gases, cuerpos humanos, salas de control, sangre o políticos, entre otros. Los dispositivos que sirven de datos empíricos sirven como un ejemplo excepcional para investigar infraestructuras digitales, permitiendo desafiar nociones sobre Ciudades Inteligentes. La tesis pone especial atención en los efectos del aire en el espacio público, reconociendo los procesos de invisibilización que han sufrido sus infraestructuras de monitorización. Para terminar se exponen líneas de trabajo y oportunidades para la arquitectura y el diseño urbano a través de nuevas relaciones entre infraestructuras urbanas, el medio construido, espacios domésticos y públicos y humanos y no humanos, para crear nuevas ecologías políticas urbanas (queer). ABSTRACT This thesis examines the technical, political and spatial implications of urban air, and more specifically "air quality", in order to consider it from an architectural perspective. In opposition to understandings of the air either as a void or as a metaphor, this project proposes to inspect it from a material and technical approach, bringing the background to the fore and acknowledging its multiple agencies. Due to the scarce bibliography within the architectural field, its first aim is to construct a theoretical and analytical framework from which to consider urban air. For this purpose, the work attempts the construction of Aeropolis, a heuristic metaphor that describes the city's aero socio-material assemblage. Located at the intersection of certain currents in cultural philosophy, science and technology studies as well as feminist studies in technoscience, this framework enables a methodology and toolset to be extracted in order to approach the subject matter from different angles. The methodological tools stemming from this purpose-built framework were put to the test in a specific case study: Madrid, a highly polluted city whose air has been subject to political and social controversies, and where no effective policies or technologies have been successful in reducing its levels of pollution. In order to engage with the air, the thesis suggests a method for researching invisible agents by examining the epistemic devices involved. It locates and focuses on the instruments that sense, visualise and communicate urban air, claiming that they do not only represent it, but are also instruments that design the air and the city. The notion of "sensing" is then expanded by recognising different practices which enact the air in Madrid. The work claims that the result of this is not only the opening up of spaces for engagement but also the legitimisation of existing practices outside science and policymaking environments, such as embodied practices, as well as the redistribution of agency among more actors. So this is a thesis about toxicity, the European Union, collaborative production, scientific computational models, headaches, DIY kits, gases, human bodies, control rooms, blood, or politicians, among many others. The devices found throughout the work serve as an exceptional substrate for an investigation of digital infrastructures, enabling to challenge Smart City tropes. There is special attention paid to the effects of the air on the public space, acknowledging the silencing processes these infrastructures have been subjected to. Finally there is an outline of the opportunities arising for architecture and urban design when taking the air into account, to create new (queer) urban political ecologies between the air, urban infrastructures, the built environment, public and domestic spaces, and humans and more than humans.

Relationship among research collaboration, number of documents and number of citations. A case study in Spanish computer science production in 2000-2009.

This paper analyzes the relationship among research collaboration, number of documents and number of citations of computer science research activity. It analyzes the number of documents and citations and how they vary by number of authors. They are also analyzed (according to author set cardinality) under different circumstances, that is, when documents are written in different types of collaboration, when documents are published in different document types, when documents are published in different computer science subdisciplines, and, finally, when documents are published by journals with different impact factor quartiles. To investigate the above relationships, this paper analyzes the publications listed in the Web of Science and produced by active Spanish university professors between 2000 and 2009, working in the computer science field. Analyzing all documents, we show that the highest percentage of documents are published by three authors, whereas single-authored documents account for the lowest percentage. By number of citations, there is no positive association between the author cardinality and citation impact. Statistical tests show that documents written by two authors receive more citations per document and year than documents published by more authors. In contrast, results do not show statistically significant differences between documents published by two authors and one author. The research findings suggest that international collaboration results on average in publications with higher citation rates than national and institutional collaborations. We also find differences regarding citation rates between journals and conferences, across different computer science subdisciplines and journal quartiles as expected. Finally, our impression is that the collaborative level (number of authors per document) will increase in the coming years, and documents published by three or four authors will be the trend in computer science literature.

Collaborative Engineering: an Airbus case study

This document introduces the main concepts of Collaborative Engineering as a new methodology, procedures and tools to design and develop an aircraft, as Airbus Military is implementing. Airbus designs and industrializes aircrafts under Concurrent Engineering techniques since decades with success. The introduction of new PLM methodologies, procedures and tools, mainly in the industrialization areas, and the need to reduce time-to-market conducted Airbus Military to push the engineering teams to do things in a different way. Traditional Engineering works sequentially, Concurrent Engineering basically overlaps tasks between teams using maturity states and taking assuming risks. Collaborative Engineering promotes a single team to develop product, processes and resources from the conceptual phase to the start of the serial production. The deliverable of the team is an iDMU (industrial DMU), a complete definition and verification of the virtual manufacturing of the product.

Collaborative Engineering Paradigm Applied to the Aerospace Industry

Airbus designs and industrializes aircrafts using Concurrent Engineering techniques since decades. The introduction of new PLM methods, procedures and tools, and the need to reduce time-to-market, led Airbus Military to pursue new working methods. Traditional Engineering works sequentially. Concurrent Engineering basically overlaps tasks between teams. Collaborative Engineering promotes teamwork to develop product, processes and resources from the conceptual phase to the start of the serial production. The CALIPSO-neo pilot project was launched to support the industrialization process of a medium size aerostructure. The aim is to implement the industrial Digital Mock-Up (iDMU) concept and its exploitation to create shop floor documentation. In a framework of a collaborative engineering strategy, the project is part of the efforts to deploy Digital Manufacturing as a key technology for the industrialization of aircraft assembly lines. This paper presents the context, the conceptual approach and the methodology adopted.