E-MATURITY OF CONSTRUCTION STAKEHOLDERS FOR A WEB-BASED E-PROCUREMENT PLATFORM IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

It is been over 40 years since the introduction of ICT tools and systems into the construction industry, yet construction organizations are still unable to obtain the many potential benefits of ICT investment. The purpose of the study was to investigate the e-maturity of construction stakeholders for a web-based e-procurement platform in the construction industry. The study utilized an attitudinal survey research design and the design of a web-based e-procurement platform. Using a system block design and a use case diagram in relation with PHP programming language, MySQL, CSS and HTML a web-based e-procurement platform for tendering purposes in the construction process was developed. The study was conducted within a private tertiary institution in South-Western Nigeria that has the desire to exploit the potentials of a web-based e-procurement system. The sample size of one hundred (100) respondents were selected through a non-probabilistic sampling method, while a questionnaire instrument was administered. Statistical tools such as Stacked Bar chart, percentage, Wilcoxon signed rank test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were used to analyze the data obtained. The study revealed that there is no significant difference in the e-maturity between client and contractor for a web-based e-procurement platform for tendering purposes within the institution. The study showed that the tertiary institution and its registered contractors have the same positive perspective on the benefits of utilizing a web-based e-procurement solution for tendering purposes. In conclusion, the study developed a prototype web-based e-procurement platform for tendering purposes that can be utilized for construction works within the tertiary institution. The study recommended the use of web-based e-procurement platforms due to the many benefits that can be acquired from its use. In addition, the construction industry should readily embrace ICT solutions in order to solve diverse challenges pervading the industry

Designing and implementing a GPS-based vehicle navigation application for Eclipse Kuksa

Abstract. With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), connected cars are rapidly becoming an essential milestone in the design of intelligent transportation systems and a key element in smart city design. Connected cars use a three-layer client-connection-cloud architecture, and car sensors are located at the client layer. This architecture provides the driver with a large amount of data about the external environment, which reduces the number of traffic accidents and helps the car drive safely. Driving safety is the most critical design factor for next-generation vehicles. The future vision of the automotive industry is self-driving cars. However, it faces some challenges. Eclipse Kuksa provides solutions to challenges in the field of connected cars. A comprehensive ecosystem includes a complete tool stack for connected vehicles, including a vehicle platform, a cloud platform, and an application development Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Its essential function is to collect, store, and analyze vehicle data and transmit various information in the cloud. This master’s thesis aims to investigate a Global Positioning System (GPS) -based vehicle navigation application on the vehicle and cloud platforms of Eclipse Kuksa, understand how to develop a GPS-based vehicle navigation application using the Eclipse Kuksa software platform, and discuss the advantages and challenges of using Eclipse Kuksa to develop vehicle applications. The research methods are Design Science Research (DSR) and literature review. System development is carried out following the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) Process, developed and evaluated on the vehicle navigation application. The application artifact consists of the Eclipse Kuksa vehicle platform and cloud platform. The steps described in this paper can be used to build vehicle applications in Eclipse Kuksa. This paper also explains the benefits and challenges of using Eclipse Kuksa to develop vehicle applications. The main benefit is that open source solutions break the long-term closed development model of the automotive industry and establish a vehicle-to-cloud solution standard to meet the IoT challenges to the automotive industry. Simultaneously the challenge of using Eclipse Kuksa is the complexity of environment construction and the software and hardware compatibility

Evaluation of the Merits and Demerits Associated with a DIY Web-Based Platform for e-commerce Entrepreneurs

Web programmers no longer have the sole right to develop websites for entrepreneurs. This is because web creation has been simplified by do-it-yourself (DIY) website builders with ready-made design templates. In light of this, the study evaluated the merits and demerits associated with a DIY web-based platform for e-commerce entrepreneurs. The study utilized a quantitative approach using a cross-sectional survey method on entrepreneurs trained to build MVP using a DIY website builder and other free tools. The data obtained were analyzed using statistical tools of mean scores, principal component analysis (PCA), and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result showed that a DIY website builder’s essential features were the availability of designer-made templates, e-commerce functionalities, and access to an endless stock of images. The perceived benefits associated with a DIY web-based platform were mainly its ease of use, design flexibility, and the requirement of zero coding skills. These perceived benefits are further categorized into ease benefits, design benefits, and storage benefits. The occurrence of poor or slow internet connection, inability to edit website via a mobile device, and fear of customer/payment information safety were the significant challenges associated with a DIY web design platform. In conclusion, the study showed a significant difference in the challenges associated with a DIY web design platform among the entrepreneurs in terms of paying more for each branded email accounts and freezing screen during web design. The study recommended that there is a need to increase awareness and training on a DIY web design capacity among entrepreneurs. In the age of technological advancement and already made templates for web designs, entrepreneurs can tap into the Internet’s merits to increase their visibility and attract potential clients/customers

CoRide: Joint Order Dispatching and Fleet Management for Multi-Scale Ride-Hailing Platforms

How to optimally dispatch orders to vehicles and how to tradeoff between immediate and future returns are fundamental questions for a typical ride-hailing platform. We model ride-hailing as a large-scale parallel ranking problem and study the joint decision-making task of order dispatching and fleet management in online ride-hailing platforms. This task brings unique challenges in the following four aspects. First, to facilitate a huge number of vehicles to act and learn efficiently and robustly, we treat each region cell as an agent and build a multi-agent reinforcement learning framework. Second, to coordinate the agents from different regions to achieve long-term benefits, we leverage the geographical hierarchy of the region grids to perform hierarchical reinforcement learning. Third, to deal with the heterogeneous and variant action space for joint order dispatching and fleet management, we design the action as the ranking weight vector to rank and select the specific order or the fleet management destination in a unified formulation. Fourth, to achieve the multi-scale ride-hailing platform, we conduct the decision-making process in a hierarchical way where a multi-head attention mechanism is utilized to incorporate the impacts of neighbor agents and capture the key agent in each scale. The whole novel framework is named as CoRide. Extensive experiments based on multiple cities real-world data as well as analytic synthetic data demonstrate that CoRide provides superior performance in terms of platform revenue and user experience in the task of city-wide hybrid order dispatching and fleet management over strong baselines.Comment: CIKM 201

Transformation of a traditional face-to-face engineering study program into a digital online program - A case study of global production engineering

The need for Digital Education (DE) in higher education has been growing for the past years, as the landscape of education became more diverse and global. It has become apparent with the COVID-19 pandemic that, in terms of width, DE had been mostly neglected so far. In the past year, the master program Global Production Engineering (GPE) at Technische Universität Berlin has been enhanced by a complete digital track, called GPE-Digital. In order to design this online study program a student survey was conducted and lecturers have been interviewed. The results were analysed and requirements for both lecturers and students were identified. Chances and challenges have been identified and a “tool box” for teaching and learning was developed. It contains a multimedia studio, a learning platform, a cloud platform et cetera. Lecturers are supported to develop and adapt their lecture-concepts and to choose the tools needed, which led to a variance of teaching-concepts. In this paper, after presenting the findings of both the interviews and the survey, the “tool box” is presented and its various possibilities for implementation are shown by the example of four different courses offered at GPE-Digital. These examples contain both synchronous and asynchronous teaching and different approaches of preparing joint sessions and lectures. Finally, based on the courses the benefits and challenges are discussed and rough approaches for exploiting the benefits and tackling the challenges are given

Benefits and Challenges of the Educational Metaverse: Evidence from Quantitative and Qualitative Data

The metaverse, as a more advanced form of virtual reality, has great potential for education because of its unique affordances for enhancing immersion, interaction, and presence. However, because its development is still in its infancy, there are few empirical studies on the application of metaverse in education, with insufficient empirical evidence from the literature regarding its effectiveness and valued design features, as well as its advantages and disadvantages as a technology-enhanced learning environment. Utilizing the case study method, this study designed and implemented a 40-minute psychology course with 31 undergraduate students in the metaverse using the Virbela platform and collected both quantitative and qualitative data to empirically explore the benefits and challenges of the educational metaverse. The quantitative results showed that the students reported good learning experiences in the metaverse, but their learning outcomes were unsatisfactory, just over the passing level. The qualitative results revealed useful design features and common technical challenges of the educational metaverse. Based on the results, several implications for designing and developing effective courses in the educational metaverse were proposed

An End-to-End Big Data Analytics Platform for IoT-enabled Smart Factories: A Case Study of Battery Module Assembly System for Electric Vehicles

Within the concept of factories of the future, big data analytics systems play a critical role in supporting decision-making at various stages across enterprise processes. However, the design and deployment of industry-ready, lightweight, modular, flexible, and low-cost big data analytics solutions remains one of the main challenges towards the Industry 4.0 enabled digital transformation. This paper presents an end-to-end IoT-based big data analytics platform that consists of five interconnected layers and several components for data acquisition, integration, storage, analytics and visualisation purposes. The platform architecture benefits from state-of-the-art technologies and integrates them in a systematic and interoperable way with clear information flows. The developed platform has been deployed in an Electric Vehicle (EV) battery module smart assembly automation system designed by the Automation Systems Group (ASG) at the University of Warwick, UK. The developed proof-of-concept solution demonstrates how a wide variety of tools and methods can be orchestrated to work together aiming to support decision-making and to improve both process and product qualities in smart manufacturing environments

A solvent resistant lab-on-chip platform for radiochemistry applications

The application of microfluidics to the synthesis of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) tracers has been explored for more than a decade. Microfluidic benefits such as superior temperature control have been successfully applied to PET tracer synthesis. However, the design of a compact microfluidic platform capable of executing a complete PET tracer synthesis workflow while maintaining prospects for commercialization remains a significant challenge. This study uses an integral system design approach to tackle commercialization challenges such as the material to process compatibility with a path towards cost effective lab-on-chip mass manufacturing from the start. It integrates all functional elements required for a simple PET tracer synthesis into one compact radiochemistry platform. For the lab-on-chip this includes the integration of on-chip valves, on-chip solid phase extraction (SPE), on-chip reactors and a reversible fluid interface while maintaining compatibility with all process chemicals, temperatures and chip mass manufacturing techniques. For the radiochemistry device it includes an automated chip-machine interface enabling one-move connection of all valve actuators and fluid connectors. A vial-based reagent supply as well as methods to transfer reagents efficiently from the vials to the chip has been integrated. After validation of all those functional elements, the microfluidic platform was exemplarily employed for the automated synthesis of a Gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRP-R) binding the PEGylated Bombesin BN(7-14)-derivative (F-18]PESIN) based PET tracer

"Nudes? {S}houldn't {I} charge for these?" : {E}xploring What Motivates Content Creation on {OnlyFans}

Social media platforms are increasingly considering models to incentivize creators to publish high quality content on their platforms. As a result, social media content creation has transformed into a form of gig work for some creators. In order to better design social media platforms to support this labor, we need to understand professional creators' motivations. In this work, we present a qualitative interview study of the motivations of $22$ U.S. OnlyFans creators. OnlyFans is a subscription-based social media platform that is unique in that it is primarily associated with sexual content (although it is not marketed as such) and thus creators are positioned at the intersection of professional content creation and sex work, exposing them to a unique set of potential challenges. Beyond the typical motivations for pursuing other forms of gig work (e.g., flexibility, autonomy) our findings highlight three key factors explaining the rapid growth of OnlyFans despite the potential stigma of sexual content creation: (1) societal visibility and mainstream acceptance of OnlyFans, created through a combination of celebrity hype and the design of the platform itself; (2) platform design: affordances for boundary setting with clients, privacy from the public, and content archives, which together create a labor environment participants viewed as better than other forms of gig work, a natural avenue for sexual expression, and enabling monetization of existing content, audiences, and skills; and (3) the pandemic, which led to both high demand for immediate income while waiting for -- or after running out of -- unemployment benefits, and increased free time, which increased general demand for pornographic content