This study explores user engagement and strategic interaction with a newly designed tangible game board- a 3x3x3 cube frame with 27 voids and 27 game pieces. 15 teams, each with 2 players, were provided with only the game set to develop their own game rules and strategies, encouraging participants to engage in the spatial and experiential aspects that the game board offers. Researchers observed how players approached the 3D structure and developed gameplay tactics without predefined rules, fostering creativity and exploration. Importantly, the study captured feedback on the structure’s versatility, with many participants developing new game rules, which implies its potential as a game platform. The experiments revealed that one of the emergences resulting from the affordances of the game platform is a game strategy for 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, amongst the many other possible games identified.

Bio-inspired designs offer innovative solutions for optimizing heat exchangers, though their complexity often exceeds the capabilities of traditional manufacturing methods. Additive manufacturing (AM) enables intricate geometries with enhanced surface areas for improved heat transfer. This study presents a modular algorithm to integrate internal structures into heat exchanger designs, balancing thermal performance and manufacturability. A case study demonstrates the design, simulation, and production of internal structures, identifying the “Diamond Radial” structure as the optimal choice due to its high R-factor and potential to improve efficiency. Future work includes exploring multi-material components and designs for hydrogen storage and fuel cell applications, paving the way for more efficient, application-specific systems.

The development of interdisciplinary Smart Products involves complex architectures and processes, which results in new challenges like managing heterogeneous and unstructured data causing inefficiencies. Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) addresses these issues through precise system modeling but encounters obstacles like a lack of model reuse and complexity. This paper introduces a novel framework integrating Artificial Intelligence into MBSE to enhance sustainability and circularity by automating model generation and reusing existing system models. Using ontology-based knowledge management and large language models, model creation, interoperability, and decision-making can be enhanced and automated and visualized in real-time. The framework's capabilities and benefits are demonstrated through the instantiation of a wireless charger system example.

Biodesign is an emerging field integrating design and science; its rise necessitates a reassessment of educational paths and working spaces for cross-disciplinary explorations, such as working with living materials and adhering to safety standards. The article examines laboratory environments dedicated to biodesign practice and education, varying from low-tech to high-tech setups and from university to community spaces, aiming to clarify the role of workspaces and infrastructures in supporting transdisciplinary research between design and science.

We surveyed Biodesign Laboratories worldwide, addressing the current status quo of various lab configurations and their unique spatial typologies to accommodate biodesign’s hybrid nature.

The result is an overview of the socio-technical topos of the laboratory as a literal breeding ground for (future) biodesigners. The qualitative data reported in this article aim to enhance the understanding of Biodesign Labs by analysing the potential of various laboratory configurations to accommodate biodesign’s hybrid nature, potentially developing unique spatial typologies.

We present a probabilistic method for assessing design reasoning in design problem settings using soundness and completeness as metrics. Building on how inference mechanisms are employed during latent need elicitation from product reviews, we compare human-led and Large Language Models (LLMs) via protocols, workshops, and surveys. We demonstrate that human reasoning patterns tend to leverage user opinions, achieving deeper coverage of need potential, whereas LLMs often produce narrower, categorically constrained needs. These findings highlight the importance of balancing inference mechanisms to ensure both coherent reasoning steps and comprehensive exploration of the design space. By formally framing reasoning during design problem-solving, we offer a foundation for developing design enabled AI and deepens our understanding of how complex reasoning unfolds in practice.

American Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS), founded as a black Baptist school in 1924, sprung from an unusual partnership between black and white Baptists in the Jim Crow South. The black National Baptist Convention (NBC) and white Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) jointly funded and governed the Nashville seminary, emphasizing from the outset the strength of their common Baptist identity, though persistent frictions reared up with regularity. The relationship between two leaders involved with ABTS in the mid-twentieth century – National Baptist David V. Jemison and Southern Baptist Eugene P. Alldredge – offers an intriguing lens for viewing the hopes and pitfalls that attended Baptist interracialism in the segregated South. Their correspondence in the 1940s reveals a growing friendship and fellowship as they collaborated in seminary work and bonded over their likeminded Baptist convictions, followed by an abrupt rift after Alldredge’s paternalistic meddling in NBC politics led Jemison to defend black Baptist autonomy. Thus, the Jemison–Alldredge relationship poignantly illustrates two conflicting realities facing such attempts at Baptist interracialism: Baptist identity did offer a legitimate nexus for interracial fellowship, yet the racial hierarchy and prejudices of a segregated society also circumscribed those efforts, as black Baptists walked a tightrope between assuaging white concerns and maintaining their own independence.

The overall quality of final Digital Twin (DT) solutions and their ability to produce useful insights are key considerations for researchers and for the industry to readily adopt them. However, validation of DTs is often neglected in existing research dedicated to their development. Further, there is a lack of methodologies for building bi-directional information exchanges between virtual and real spaces, potentially hindering effective decision-making. This work presents a comparative analysis of several quantitative metrics by implementing them on the Digital Twin of a railway braking system as a use case. Their suitability as performance measures for validation and as thresholds to support decision-making is assessed. Their integration into a novel DT structure is shown to contribute to a well-rounded validation procedure and a practical decision-making framework.

Research into the foundational theories and management of software design remains limited. A 2010 workshop was convened to explore professional software development practices. The workshop sought to foster collaboration between the software engineering and design communities by examining foundational aspects of software design. Building on that workshop’s objectives, this paper investigates contemporary professional software design practice and its management within organizational contexts. It is informed by findings from three interviews with experienced software design managers. This work addresses an important gap by examining software design management through the lens of design rather than solely from a project management perspective. Additionally, it contributes to the development of a general theory of software design by integrating diverse theoretical frameworks.

Understanding how Shared Mental Models (SMMs) develop within design teams has sparked interest in the design community of decades. But to date, there is still a lack of understanding of the factors that influence the development of these structures. This review examines the literature related to SMMs and the factors that impact collaborative efforts. Aiming to bring these two research fields together, this review proposes a new framework to help researchers better understand how SMMs develop and provide a foundation for new research and empirical evidence to establish the factors that influence the development of SMMs

Fingering instabilities readily occur if a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous fluid in a narrow gap due to the action of destabilising viscous forces. If the fluids are miscible, the instability can be suppressed in the limit of large advection as complicated flow structures are formed across the gap. Using a fluid to displace a monolayer of non-colloidal particles suspended in the same fluid, Luo et al. (2025 J. Fluid Mech. vol. 1011, A48) suppress the formation of the cross-gap structures and identify a new fingering mechanism which instead relies on long-range dipolar disturbance flows generated by the particle confinement.

Retrofitting aircraft cabins is characterized by a large number of documents created and required, most of which are currently processed manually. Engineers need to identify which documents include the information that is required for a specific task. This paper proposes an approach that builds upon a digital knowledge base and moves towards automatically processing the quantity-on-hand documents to reduce the work required to identify the required documents without the labour-intensive creation of the knowledge base in beforehand. After describing the scenario this work faces, comparable approaches and promising techniques are discussed. A process-chain that builds upon these fundamentals is presented, including a selection of feasible techniques and algorithms. Finally, the steps towards an implementation as part of the transformation towards a data-driven value chain are presented.

The humanitarian sector requires innovation to enhance emergency response efficiency and effectiveness. This paper examines the sector’s unique challenges, including complex emergencies, specialized products, diverse actors, and barriers to innovation. To address these, UNHRD has revamped its approach, blending accelerator initiatives with design-driven activities via its Innovation Lab. A task force of academics and experts is developing a tailored workflow integrating product design and business process management to improve decision-making. Efforts like market scouting, innovation contests, and in-house R&D aim to overcome current limitations, fostering collaboration among stakeholders. This approach offers a more adaptive and inclusive innovation ecosystem.

The importance of the circular economy as an alternative to today’s prevailing linear economy is recognised in both industry and research. Product designers are having a major influence on this transition by adapting the characteristics of physical products in the early phases of the product development process. However, most products follow a linear approach and are far from being circular. This paper aims to identify the challenges that product designers face when designing circular products. Building on a developed understanding of related terms in circular product design, an exploratory literature review is conducted. The results help to gain an overview and understanding of the challenges that need to be addressed. Therefore, further research directions are derived to support the transition from linear to circular products in the long term.

Determining the polynomials $D \in {\mathbb Z}[x]$ such that the polynomial Pell equation ${P^2-DQ^2=1}$ has nontrivial solutions $P,Q$ in ${\mathbb Q}[x]$ (and in ${\mathbb Z}[x]$) is an open question. In this article, we consider the generalized polynomial Pell equation $P^2-DQ^2=n$, where $D \in {\mathbb Z}[x]$ is a monic quadratic polynomial and n is a nonzero integer. For $n=1$, such an equation always has nontrivial solutions in ${\mathbb Q}[x]$, but for a non-square integer n, the generalized polynomial Pell equation $P^2-DQ^2=n$ may not always have a solution in ${\mathbb Q}[x]$. Depending on n, we determine the polynomials $D=x^2+cx+d$, for which the equation $P^2-DQ^2=n$ has nontrivial solutions in ${\mathbb Q}[x]$ and in ${\mathbb Z}[x]$. Taking $n=-1$, this allows us to solve the negative polynomial Pell equation completely for any such D. An interesting feature is that there are certain polynomials D for which the generalized polynomial Pell equation has nontrivial solutions in ${\mathbb Z}[x]$, but only finitely many, whereas the solutions in ${\mathbb Q}[x]$ are infinitely many. Finally, we determine the monic quadratic polynomials D for which the solutions of $P^2-DQ^2=n$ in ${\mathbb Z}[x]$ exhibit this finiteness phenomenon.

The transition to Industry 5.0 (I5.0) marks a shift toward human-centric, sustainable, and resilient manufacturing, leveraging technologies like collaborative robots (cobots) and AR/VR to enhance inclusivity, empowerment, and safety. This study investigates how Learning Factories (LFs) can effectively convey I5.0 principles to students and professionals. A simulated production line using AR/VR allowed participants to interact with virtual cobots, assessing key pillars of safety, inclusivity, and empowerment. A survey was used to assess the impact of this immersive environment on participants' perceptions and unconscious reactions. The findings demonstrate LFs' potential to prepare a workforce that integrates human creativity with technological innovation.

This paper presents an Integrated VDD Approach, formulated to address the lack of, and limitations associated with, work concerning the application of VDD to product families. The focus of the results obtained from the application of the Integrated VDD Approach, and the subsequent discussion, will be on the identification of break points to aid objective decision making early in the design process. Results include the identification of the most valuable common wingspan across three conventionally powered aircraft and the identification of the additional system mass which would render an aggressive electrification strategy to facilitate earlier electrification of an initially conventionally powered aircraft futile in comparison to a nominal electrification strategy.

In 1959 and 1960, Cameroonian women nationalists visited the People’s Republic of China. These members of the Union démocratique des femmes camerounaises (UDEFEC) practiced what I term a “diplomacy of intimacy,” which highlighted the effects of colonialism on their bodies, fertility, and intimate relationships to create a shared affective experience of anticolonial solidarity with their Chinese counterparts. Expanding the definition of “diplomat” to reflect how diplomacy functioned in the decolonizing world reveals that women played a much larger role than previously understood. These women diplomats remained largely invisible to the Western powers and to the postcolonial Cameroonian government, but Chinese sources provide a valuable vantage point on their diplomacy. By drawing on sources from Cameroon, China, France, and the UK, I demonstrate that during decolonization African nationalist women represented their parties on the world stage, exercising far more diplomatic power than appears in histories of decolonization focused on the West.