From Business Understanding to Deployment: An application of Machine Learning Algorithms to Forecast Customer Visits per Hour to a Fast-Casual Restaurant in Dublin

This research project identifies the significant factors that affects the number of customer visits to a fast-casual restaurant every hour and proceeds to develop several machine learning models to forecast customer visits. The core value proposition of fast-casual restaurants is quality food delivered at speed which means they have to prepare meals in advance of customers visit but the problem with this approach is in forecasting future demand, under estimating demand could lead to inadequate meal preparation which would leave customers unsatisfied while over estimation of demand could lead to wastage especially with restaurants having to comply with food safety regulations whereby heated food not consumed within 90 minutes has to be discarded. Hourly forecasting of demand as opposed to monthly or even daily forecasting is important to help the manager of the fast-casual restaurant optimize resources and reduce wastage. Approaches to forecasting demand can be broadly categorized into qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitative methods can be further divided into time series and regression-based methods. The regression-based approach which is used for this study enabled the researcher to gather data on several factors hypothesized to have an impact on the number of customer visits to the fast-casual restaurant every hour, carry out an experiment to test for the significance of these factors and to develop several predictive machine learning models capable of predicting the number of customer visits every hour. The results of the experiments carried out shows that hour, day, public holidays, temperature, humidity, rain and windspeed are significant factors in predicting the number of hourly customer visits. Multiple linear regression, regression tree, random forest and gradient boosting machine learning algorithms were also trained to predict the number of customer visits with the Gradient boosting algorithm achieving the lowest Mean Absolute Percentage Error(MAPE) of 18.82%

An Automated Negotiation System for eCommerce Store Owners to Enable Flexible Product Pricing

If a store owner wishes to sell a product online, they traditionally have two options for deciding on a price. They can sell the product at a fixesd price like the products sold on sites like Amazon, or they can put the product in an auction and let demand from customers drive the final sales price like the products sold on sites like eBay. Both options have their pros and cons. An alternative option for deciding on a final sales price for the product is to enable negotiation on the product. With this, there is a dynamic nature to the price; each customer can negotiate with the store owner on the price which allows the final sales price to both change over time and on a customer by customer basis. The issue with enabling negotiation in the context of eCommerce is the time investment needed from the store owner. A store owner cannot negotiate every time an offer comes in from a potential customer, the potential time investment would not be acceptable. Using software agents to automate the process of negotiation for the seller is a potential solution to enabling negotiation in eCommerce for store owners. In this research, a system such as the one just described is developed in a way that mirrors real life negotiations more closely and after evaluation, is found to be a potential solution for the enabling of negotiation in eCommerce

Metaphor-based negotiation and its application in AGV movement planning

The theme of this thesis is "metaphor-based negotiation". By metaphor-based negotiation I mean a category of approaches for problem-solving in Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) that mimic some aspects of human negotiation behaviour. The research in this dissertation is divided into two closely related parts. Cooperative interaction among agents in a multiagent system (MAS) is discussed in general, and the discussion leads to a formal definition of metaphor-based negotiation. Then, as a specific application, a "spring-based" computational model for metaphor-based negotiation is developed as an approach to solving movement planning, specifically the AGV scheduling problem (AGVSP) — determing the timings of AGVs' activities, of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in a factory.By formally addressing the multi-agent cooperative interaction problem and assuming that agents in a MAS are rational, benevolent and fully informed, an initial strategy set of cooperative interaction can be reduced to a strategy set by eliminating strategies that are irrational in a group sense. However, it is proved in this dissertation that, in the remaining strategy set, no unique strategy can be found that is acceptable to all agents according their individual preferences. More specifically, in this smaller strategy set, if one agent moves from one strategy to another in an attempt to better its individual goal achievement, then there is at least one agent whose goal achievement will be negatively affected by such a move. So, the cooperative interaction problem can only be partially solved if no further knowledge is given to those agents. The idea of a common sense principle is introduced in this dissertation to overcome the deficiencies of the assumptions of rationality, benevolence and full-informedness.In reality, the assumption of full-informedness of agents may not be practical. Communication is needed for agents to (1) exchange their local problem solving information, and (2) exchange proposals for global problem solving, when their views are in conflict. Based on the discussion of cooperative interaction, a formal definition of metaphorbased negotiation is proposed to formally indicate what is a proposal and what is the condition for accepting a proposal from another agent. In this definition, the common sense principle is one of the most important features, not found in definitions of negotiation available so far in the literature, which guides agents to find an agreement when negotiation is running into difficulties.The AGVSP involves timing activities for each AGV in a AGV-based factory. The AGVSP is naturally distributed: the whole problem can be easily divided into several subproblems each of which involves timing of activities of one AGV. Therefore, it is intuitively straightforward for us to seek DAI approaches to solving the AGVSP. In spired by Kwa's Iterative Negotiation Model [Kwa 88b] [Kwa 88a] for the AGVSP, we developed a spring-based (metaphor-based) negotiation model for the AGVSP to overcome some vital problems in Kwa's model. The idea of the spring-based negotiation model is described below:The AGVSP can be regarded as a Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problem (DCSP) and solved in a MAS. Each agent in the MAS is designed to solve a subproblem — a local scheduling problem which is a small Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP). Conflicts exist when intra-agent constraints or inter-agent constraints are violated. These constraints can be classified into hard constraints— those that can not be relaxed at the agent level unless the system designer permits (e.g., by providing an arbitrator), and soft constraints — those that can be relaxed at the agent level when necessary. When agents are in conflict, i.e, when some inter-agent constraints are violated (or say, when one agent's timings of its activities overlap those of some other agents), these agents involved will resolve the conflicts through a (metaphor-based) negotiation procedure in which conflicts will be gradually resolved by each agent's relaxation of its intra-agent constraints, i.e, by yielding some amount of its initially allocated resources to other agents or by shifting its initially allocated resources. The negotiation can be viewed as a process of exchanging proposals (of cooperative strategies) between conflicting agents, where a cooperative strategy is a possible resolution to a conflict according to the viewpoint of the proposing agent. However, since agents are designed to be rational, each agent that is involved in the conflicts will try hard to relax its intra-agent constraints as little as possible. Further, it is reasonably acceptable that the more an intra-agent constraint has been relaxed the less the respective agent is willing to relax it further. This feature can be modeled by a spring — the more it has been compressed the harder it is to compress it further. Based on this inspiration, a spring-based computational model of metaphor-based negotiation is proposed: each agent's local schedule is represented by a local spring network in which each spring element represents a soft intra-agent constraint. Relaxation of an intra-agent constraint is likened to a spring being compressed by external forces from other agents. As a consequence, the compressed spring will also show a reacting force upon those compressing agents. An agreement will be reached when those forces and reacting forces are balanced. This is the common sense principle in the spring-based negotiation. The model solves some key issues, e.g., how to select negotiation techniques and skills during the process of negotiation, that have not been solved by Kwa's iterative negotiation model. Some experimental evidence of the value of this model is presented

Implications in productivity and employment

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020Recent developments in automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are leading to a wave of innovation in organizational design and changes in the workplace. Techno-optimists even named it the ‘second machine age’, arguing that it now involves the substitution of the human brain. Other authors see this as just a continuation of previous ICT developments. Potentially, automation and AI can have significant technical, economic, and social implications in firms. The paper will answer the question: what are the implications on industrial productivity and employment in the automotive sector with the recent automation trends, including AI, in Portugal? Our approach used mixed methods to conduct statistical analyses of relevant databases and interviews with experts on R&D projects related to automation and AI implementation. Results suggest that automation can have widespread adoption in the short term in the automotive sector, but AI technologies will take more time to be adopted. Findings show that adoption of automation and AI increases productivity in firms and is dephased in time with employment implications. Investments in automation are not substituting operators but rather changing work organization. Thus, negative effects about technology and unemployment were not substantiated by our results.publishersversionpublishe

Winning the SDG battle in cities : how an integrated information ecosystem can contribute to the achievement of the 2030 sustainable development goals

In 2015, the United Nations adopted an ambitious development agenda composed of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are to be reached by 2030. Beyond SDG 11 concerning the development of sustainable cities, many of the SDGs target activities falling within the responsibility of local governments. Thus, cities will play a leading role in the achievement of these goals, and we argue that the information systems (IS) community must be an active partner in these efforts. This paper aims to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs by developing a conceptual model to explain the role of IS in building smart sustainable cities and providing a framework of action for IS researchers and city managers. To this end, we conduct grounded theory studies of two green IS used by an internationally recognized smart city to manage water quality and green space. Based on these findings, we articulate a model explaining how an integrated information ecosystem enables the interactions between three interrelated spheres – administrative, political and sustainability – to support the development of smart sustainable cities. Moving from theory to practice, we use two real‐world scenarios to demonstrate the applicability of the model. Finally, we define an action framework outlining key actions for cities and suggest corresponding questions for future research. Beyond a simple call‐to‐action, this work provides a much‐needed foundation for future research and practice leading to a sustainable future for all

Tailored for the gram: a technocultural analysis of Nigerian Igbo women fashion designers' self-presentation on Instagram

Includes bibliographical references.2022 Fall.Using African Technocultural Feminist Theory, this study uncovered the ways Nigerian Igbo women fashion designers use Instagram and its affordances to perform digital identities online as well as examined their negotiation of patriarchal ideologies within Igbo culture. The Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) of Instagram posts and interview data revealed Nigerian Igbo women fashion designers employed self-promotion and cultural digitization of Igbo-centric fashion in their self-presentation online. Instagram's affordance of photos allowed them post visually appealing pictures which showcased the intricacies of their designs as well as facilitated the designers' cultural digitalization of Igbo-centric fashion while creating space to challenge patriarchal structures within Igbo culture. The analysis also showed Nigerian Igbo women fashion designers value building and maintaining professional relationships with their clients as they embodied visual aesthetics, relatability, and authenticity in their self-presentation online. Implications, recommendations, and limitations were discussed

The Internet of Torts: Expanding Civil Liability Standards to Address Corporate Remote Interference

Thanks to the proliferation of internet-connected devices that constitute the “Internet of Things” (“IoT”), companies can now remotely and automatically alter or deactivate household items. In addition to empowering industry at the expense of individuals, this remote interference can cause property damage and bodily injury when an otherwise operational car, alarm system, or implanted medical device abruptly ceases to function. Even as the potential for harm escalates, contract and tort law work in tandem to shield IoT companies from liability. Exculpatory clauses limit civil remedies, IoT devices’ bundled object/service nature thwarts implied warranty claims, and contractual notice of remote interference precludes common law tort suits. Meanwhile, absent a better understanding of how IoT-enabled injuries operate and propagate, judges are likely to apply products liability and negligence standards narrowly, in ways that curtail corporate liability. But this is hardly the first time a new technology has altered social and power relations between industries and individuals, creating a potential liability inflection point. As before, we must decide what to incentivize and who to protect, with an awareness that the choices we make now will shape future assumptions about IoT companies’ obligations and consumer rights. Accordingly, this Article proposes reforms to contract and tort law to expand corporate liability and minimize foreseeable consumer injury

A comparison of processing techniques for producing prototype injection moulding inserts.

This project involves the investigation of processing techniques for producing low-cost moulding inserts used in the particulate injection moulding (PIM) process. Prototype moulds were made from both additive and subtractive processes as well as a combination of the two. The general motivation for this was to reduce the entry cost of users when considering PIM. PIM cavity inserts were first made by conventional machining from a polymer block using the pocket NC desktop mill. PIM cavity inserts were also made by fused filament deposition modelling using the Tiertime UP plus 3D printer. The injection moulding trials manifested in surface finish and part removal defects. The feedstock was a titanium metal blend which is brittle in comparison to commodity polymers. That in combination with the mesoscale features, small cross-sections and complex geometries were considered the main problems. For both processing methods, fixes were identified and made to test the theory. These consisted of a blended approach that saw a combination of both the additive and subtractive processes being used. The parts produced from the three processing methods are investigated and their respective merits and issues are discussed

Reducing risk in pre-production investigations through undergraduate engineering projects.

This poster is the culmination of final year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (B.Eng.Tech) student projects in 2017 and 2018. The B.Eng.Tech is a level seven qualification that aligns with the Sydney accord for a three-year engineering degree and hence is internationally benchmarked. The enabling mechanism of these projects is the industry connectivity that creates real-world projects and highlights the benefits of the investigation of process at the technologist level. The methodologies we use are basic and transparent, with enough depth of technical knowledge to ensure the industry partners gain from the collaboration process. The process we use minimizes the disconnect between the student and the industry supervisor while maintaining the academic freedom of the student and the commercial sensitivities of the supervisor. The general motivation for this approach is the reduction of the entry cost of the industry to enable consideration of new technologies and thereby reducing risk to core business and shareholder profits. The poster presents several images and interpretive dialogue to explain the positive and negative aspects of the student process

Space resources. Volume 4: Social concerns

Space resources must be used to support life on the Moon and exploration of Mars. This volume, Social Concerns, covers some of the most important issues which must be addressed in any major program for the human exploration of space. The volume begins with a consideration of the economics and management of large scale space activities. Then the legal aspects of these activities are discussed, particularly the interpretation of treaty law with respect to the Moon and asteroids. The social and cultural issues of moving people into space are considered in detail, and the eventual emergence of a space culture different from the existing culture is envisioned. The environmental issues raised by the development of space settlements are faced. Some innovative approaches are proposed to space communities and habitats and self-sufficiency is considered along with human safety at a lunar base or outpost