Internationalization venture analysis of NMusic to the Spanish market

Field lab: Entrepreneurial and innovative ventures

An Approach to Manage Reconfigurations and Reduce Area Cost in Hard Real-Time Reconfigurable Systems

This article presents a methodology to build real-time reconfigurable systems that ensure that all the temporal constraints of a set of applications are met, while optimizing the utilization of the available reconfigurable resources. Starting from a static platform that meets all the real-time deadlines, our approach takes advantage of run-time reconfiguration in order to reduce the area needed while guaranteeing that all the deadlines are still met. This goal is achieved by identifying which tasks must be always ready for execution in order to meet the deadlines, and by means of a methodology that also allows reducing the area requirements.

MULTIMODAL PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF THE PIERRE AUGER OBSERVATORY NORTH SITE

The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory North site employs a large array of surface detector stations (tanks) to detect the secondary particle showers generated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Due to the rare nature of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, it is important to have a high reliability on tank communications, ensuring no valuable data is lost. The Auger North site employs a peer-to-peer paradigm, the Wireless Architecture for Hard Real-Time Embedded Networks (WAHREN), designed specifically for highly reliable message delivery over fixed networks, under hard real-time deadlines. The WAHREN design included two retransmission protocols, Micro- and Macro- retransmission. To fully understand how each retransmission protocol increased the reliability of communications, this analysis evaluated the system without using either retransmission protocol (Case-0), both Micro- and Macro-retransmission individually (Micro and Macro), and Micro- and Macro-retransmission combined. This thesis used a multimodal modeling methodology to prove that a performance and reliability analysis of WAHREN was possible, and provided the results of the analysis. A multimodal approach was necessary because these processes were driven by different mathematical models. The results from this analysis can be used as a framework for making design decisions for the Auger North communication system.

Ordonnancement des opérations dans une unité d’extrusion

Les travaux de ce mémoire traitent du problème d’ordonnancement et d’optimisation de la production dans un environnement de plusieurs machines en présence de contraintes sur les ressources matérielles dans une usine d’extrusion plastique. La minimisation de la somme pondérée des retards est le critère économique autour duquel s’articule cette étude car il représente un critère très important pour le respect des délais. Dans ce mémoire, nous proposons une approche exacte via une formulation mathématique capable des donner des solutions optimales et une approche heuristique qui repose sur deux méthodes de construction de solution sérielle et parallèle et un ensemble de méthodes de recherche dans le voisinage (recuit-simulé, recherche avec tabous, GRASP et algorithme génétique) avec cinq variantes de voisinages. Pour être en totale conformité avec la réalité de l’industrie du plastique, nous avons pris en considération certaines caractéristiques très fréquentes telles que les temps de changement d’outils sur les machines lorsqu’un ordre de fabrication succède à un autre sur une machine donnée. La disponibilité des extrudeuses et des matrices d’extrusion représente le goulot d’étranglement dans ce problème d’ordonnancement. Des séries d’expérimentations basées sur des problèmes tests ont été effectuées pour évaluer la qualité de la solution obtenue avec les différents algorithmes proposés. L’analyse des résultats a démontré que les méthodes de construction de solution ne sont pas suffisantes pour assurer de bons résultats et que les méthodes de recherche dans le voisinage donnent des solutions de très bonne qualité. Le choix du voisinage est important pour raffiner la qualité de la solution obtenue. Mots-clés : ordonnancement, optimisation, extrusion, formulation mathématique, heuristique, recuit-simulé, recherche avec tabous, GRASP, algorithme génétique

Conceptualization of an Electric Compact SUV for the American and Italian Market using the IDeS Method

Electric cars are increasingly popular due to a transition of mobility towards more sustainable forms. From an increasingly green and pollution reduction perspective, there are more and more incentives that encourage customers to invest in electric cars. Using the Industrial Design and Structure (IDeS) research method, this project has the aim to design a new electric compact SUV suitable for all people who live in the city, and for people who move outside urban areas. In order to achieve the goal of developing a new car in the industrial automotive environment, the compact SUV segment was chosen because it is a vehicle very requested by the costumers and it is successful in the market due to its versatility. IDeS is a combination of innovative and advanced systematic approaches used to set up a new industrial project. The IDeS methodology is sequentially composed of Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Benchmarking (BM), Top-Flop analysis (TFA), Stylistic Design Engineering (SDE), Design for X, Prototyping, Testing, Budgeting, and Planning. The work is based on a series of steps and the sequence of these must be meticulously scheduled, imposing deadlines along the work. Starting from an analysis of the market and competitors, the study of the best and worst existing parameters in the competitor’s market is done, arriving at the idea of a better product in terms of numbers and innovation. After identifying the characteristics that the new car should have, the other step is the styling part, with the definition of the style and the design of the machine on a 3D CAD. Finally, it switches to the prototyping and testing phase to see if the product is able to work. Ultimately, intending to place the car on the market, it is essential to estimate the necessary budget for a possible investment in this project.