Guia temàtica Biblioteca ETSAB: Innovacions tecnològiques a l’arquitectura, la construcció i l’urbanisme

Postprint (author’s final draft)

The introduction of teaching innovations into the traditional teaching of construction and building materials

The traditional teaching methods used for training civil engineers are currently being called into question as a result of the new knowledge and skills now required by the labor market. In addition, the European Higher Education Area is requesting that students be given a greater say in their learning. In the subject called Construction and Building Materials at the Civil Engineering School of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, a path was set three academic years ago to lead to an improvement in traditional teaching by introducing active methodologies. The innovations are based on cooperative learning, new technologies, and continuous assessment. The writers’ proposal is to offer their experience as a contribution to the debate on how students can be encouraged to acquire the skills currently demanded from a civil engineer, though not overlooking solid, top-quality training. From the outcomes obtained, it can be concluded that using new teaching techniques to supplement a traditional approach provides more opportunities for students to learn while boosting their motivation. In our case, the introduction of these changes has resulted in an increased pass rate of 29% on average, when such a figure is considered in the light of the mean value of passes during the last decade.

Earth building materials in pre-historic domestic architectures on the south of Portugal

HERITAGE 2008 - World Heritage and Sustainable Development. Barcelos: Green Lines Institute for Sustainable Development, Vol. 2, p. 571-579

Evaporation from porous building materials and its cooling potential

Evaporative cooling is a traditional strategy to improve summer comfort, which has gained renewed relevance in the context of the transition to a greener economy. Here, the potential for evaporative cooling of two common porous building materials, natural stone and ceramic brick, was evaluated. The work has relevance also to the protection of built heritage becauseevaporation underlies the problems of dampness and salt crystallization, which are so harmful and frequent in this heritage. It was observed that the drying rate of the materials is, in some cases, higher than the evaporation rate of a free water surface. Surface area measurements by a three-dimensional optical technique suggested, as probable cause of this behavior, that surface irregularity gives rise to a large effective surface of evaporation in the material. Surface temperature measurements by infrared were performed afterward during evaporation experiments outside during a hot summer day in Lisbon. Their results indicate that ordinary building materials can be very efficient evaporative media and, thus, may help in achieving higher energy efficiency while maintaining a simultaneous constructive or architectural function.

The late adopter scale: A measure of late adopters of technological innovations

Diffusion of Innovation is a topic of interest for researchers and practitioners. Although substantial research is conducted on user categories, researchers often focus on the first half of the curve, ignoring the late adopters. We conduct two studies to measure the attributes of late adopters. In our first study of mobile phone users, we develop the Late-Adopter Scale. We then test it on a sample of laptop users. This scale is multi-dimensional, presents nomological and discriminant validity and has three dimensions: 1) rate of adoption, 2) resistance to innovation, and 3) skepticism. Findings reveal that all three Late Adopter Scale dimensions are significantly associated with low price preference. Moreover, in both samples skepticism is associated with high preference for simple products, lower leading edge status, and lower product involvement. Discussion focuses on implications of this new scale to theory and practice of new product development and diffusion of innovation.

Dangote Cement Plc building materials

Equity research report

Toxicity measurement techniques for building materials with wastes

The innovative Horizon 2020 program sponsored by the European Union (EU) aims to promote and develop processes of waste integration in construction materials. However, several potential health hazards caused by building materials have been identified and, there-fore, there is an ongoing need to develop new recycling methods for hazardous wastes and effi-cient barriers in order to prevent toxic releases from the new construction solutions with wastes. This paper presents an overview that focus on two main aspects: the identification of the health risks related to radioactivity and heavy metals present in building materials and identification of these toxic substances in new construction solutions that contain recycled wastes. Different waste materials were selected and distinct methodologies of toxicity evaluation are presented to analyse the potential hazardous, the feasibility of using those wastes and the achievement of op-timal construction solutions involving wastes.

The influence of building materials on the residual action of BHC

Residual insecticide activity of BHC vapors from various building materials in controlled humidity chambers in the laboratory were significantly different. Laboratory-reared, first instar nymphs of Dipetalogaster maximus were exposed to vapors of BHC which were being released from the treated surfaces of building materials taken from Mambaí, Goiás.

Receipt for building materials bought by Samuel Woodruff for E. Riddle, signed by Mr. Kiddee

Receipt for building materials bought by Samuel Woodruff for E. Riddle, signed by Mr. Kiddee, Aug. 5, 1876.

Sustainable Building Materials in Kerala – An Overview

Kerala, God’s own country is blessed with immense natural resources. It’s high time that the state’s natural resources being utilized effectively. While sustainable development is the need of the hour, we have to take lead in initiating activities that would minimize the exploitation of our natural resources resulting in their effective utilization. This paper narrates an overview of innovative building materials especially using natural fibres available in Kerala and discusses the feasibility of utilising such fibres in the context of sustainable building materials in Kerala. The paper also discusses how these materials can be effectively utilized to reduce the huge investment in the construction industry

Patented biologically-inspired technological innovations: A twenty year view

Publication rate of patents can be a useful measure of innovation and productivity in fields of science and technology. To assess the growth in industrially-important research, I conducted an appraisal of patents published between 1985 and 2005 on online databases using keywords chosen to select technologies arising as a result of biological inspiration. Whilst the total number of patents increased over the period examined, those with biomimetic content had increased faster as a proportion of total patent publications. Logistic regression analysis reveals that we may be a little over half way through an initial innovation cycle inspired by biological systems.