Masonry - an old new building material with charm and innovation potential

Building an innovation factory.

New ideas are the precious currency of the new economy, but generating them doesn't have to be a mysterious process. The image of the lone genius inventing from scratch is a romantic fiction. Businesses that constantly innovate have systematized the production and testing of new ideas, and the system can be replicated by practically any organization. The best innovators use old ideas as the raw...

Seismic Mitigation of a Historic Masonry Building

This work presents an analysis of different proposals of rehabilitation of a masonry building, built around the beginning of the XX century for public schools, in the highest seismic risk zone of Argentine; and which was closed down after Mendoza`s Earthquake in 1985. The building has masonry walls of artisanal ceramic bricks and wood-framed roof but it does not have lateral ties. Currently, it...

New Technologies, Old Habits: Automation without Innovation

This research investigated the underuse of technological tools by innovative organizations which are acknowledged for their use of and familiarity with new technologies. The research conducted an analysis of 58 institutional repositories (IRs) out of 43 educational and research institutions which are internationally renowned for excellence. The core aspect of the analysis was the use of IRs for...

Masonry and Earthquakes: Material Properties, Experimental Testing and Design Approaches

Enhancing Innovation Potential through Local Capacity Building in Education

Global technology education is largely dominated by Western universities. Students from developing countries face an enormous challenge when moving from their local education system into the competitive international education market. Their local knowledge gets lost in a foreign education system where the students are required to acquire a new set of skills. This paper presents a survey among i...