Market-Driven Innovation

A new method for starting the iterative innovation process from the market side based on a sociological trend has been developed. It eliminates the traditional difference between the innovators and the sociological group that carries this trend, which can only be achieved by combining real-world innovation with innovation education. The method for market need discovery is presented as a step-by-step process with detailed reasoning, followed by a real-world example that details the outcomes at every step along the way. The example concludes with a detailed description of the outcome after the first innovation iteration cycle. The richness of the resulting concept demonstrates that an innovation process can be successfully started from the market side via the proposed method

Robust PCA as Bilinear Decomposition with Outlier-Sparsity Regularization

Principal component analysis (PCA) is widely used for dimensionality reduction, with well-documented merits in various applications involving high-dimensional data, including computer vision, preference measurement, and bioinformatics. In this context, the fresh look advocated here permeates benefits from variable selection and compressive sampling, to robustify PCA against outliers. A least-trimmed squares estimator of a low-rank bilinear factor analysis model is shown closely related to that obtained from an $\ell_0$-(pseudo)norm-regularized criterion encouraging sparsity in a matrix explicitly modeling the outliers. This connection suggests robust PCA schemes based on convex relaxation, which lead naturally to a family of robust estimators encompassing Huber's optimal M-class as a special case. Outliers are identified by tuning a regularization parameter, which amounts to controlling sparsity of the outlier matrix along the whole robustification path of (group) least-absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) solutions. Beyond its neat ties to robust statistics, the developed outlier-aware PCA framework is versatile to accommodate novel and scalable algorithms to: i) track the low-rank signal subspace robustly, as new data are acquired in real time; and ii) determine principal components robustly in (possibly) infinite-dimensional feature spaces. Synthetic and real data tests corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed robust PCA schemes, when used to identify aberrant responses in personality assessment surveys, as well as unveil communities in social networks, and intruders from video surveillance data.Comment: 30 pages, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Team-Based Learning in Law

Used for over thirty years in a wide variety of fields, Team-Based Learning is a powerful teaching strategy that improves student learning. Used effectively, it enables students to actively engage in applying legal concepts in every class -- without sacrificing coverage. Because this teaching strategy has been used in classes with over 200 students, it also provides an efficient and affordable way to provide significant learning. Based on the principles of instructional design, Team-Based Learning has built-in student accountability, promotes independent student preparation, and fosters professional skills. This article provides an overview of Team-Based Learning, reasons to adopt this teaching strategy in light of Best Practices for Legal Education and the Carnegie and MacCrate reports, concrete methods to use Team-Based Learning in Law School, and ways to address challenges to this teaching strategy. Co-authors Sophie M. Sparrow and Margaret Sova McCabe provide examples from their years of teaching a variety of courses using Team-Based Learning

Impact of cultural factors on transnational teams: Diversity, adaptation, communication quality, and trust

The present research proposes a general model of Transnational Teams (TNTs) to investigate how value placed on cultural diversity, cultural adaptation, communication quality, and trust affect the performance of TNTs and their interaction to each other. TNTs contribute to decisions about a firm\u27s total portfolio of transnational interests, global brands and products, organizational configuration, and global sourcing strategy. Qualitative and quantitative methods are applied in this study of thirty members of TNTs from diverse teams. Based on the qualitative and quantitative analysis, relationships between theory and practice are examined. The analysis shows that there is a strong relationship between trust and performance of TNTs

Diversity and Novelty: Measurement, Learning and Optimization

The primary objective of this dissertation is to investigate research methods to answer the question: ``How (and why) does one measure, learn and optimize novelty and diversity of a set of items?" The computational models we develop to answer this question also provide foundational mathematical techniques to throw light on the following three questions: 1. How does one reliably measure the creativity of ideas? 2. How does one form teams to evaluate design ideas? 3. How does one filter good ideas out of hundreds of submissions? Solutions to these questions are key to enable the effective processing of a large collection of design ideas generated in a design contest. In the first part of the dissertation, we discuss key qualities needed in design metrics and propose new diversity and novelty metrics for judging design products. We show that the proposed metrics have higher accuracy and sensitivity compared to existing alternatives in literature. To measure the novelty of a design item, we propose learning from human subjective responses to derive low dimensional triplet embeddings. To measure diversity, we propose an entropy-based diversity metric, which is more accurate and sensitive than benchmarks. In the second part of the dissertation, we introduce the bipartite b-matching problem and argue the need for incorporating diversity in the objective function for matching problems. We propose new submodular and supermodular objective functions to measure diversity and develop multiple matching algorithms for diverse team formation in offline and online cases. Finally, in the third part, we demonstrate filtering and ranking of ideas using diversity metrics based on Determinantal Point Processes as well as submodular functions. In real-world crowd experiments, we demonstrate that such ranking enables increased efficiency in filtering high-quality ideas compared to traditionally used methods

Analysis of Cross-Cultural Training Efforts, Competencies and Implications, and how Cross-Cultural Competency Affects the Success of Construction Projects on Air Force Installations Overseas

US Air Force (AF) Civil Engineer (CE) Officers stationed at overseas bases lead and manage construction and engineering efforts for projects totaling billions of dollars annually. Budget overruns in the Department of Defense (DoD) and specifically the AF, have been under stringent investigation by government officials in recent years. 92% of CE Officers overseas work with local nationals (LN) and the host nation weekly or daily, but most receive less than 2 hours of formal cross-cultural training prior to arrival overseas. Host nation partners include foreign military, local contractors, LN workforce and local government agencies. Based on a previous Delphi study, 60% of officers received some sort of cultural training, the majority of which was administered via Computer Based Training (CBT) or on the job training (OJT). Of those that received training, 40% felt it was inadequate to prepare them for their job duties. This second iteration, two survey study aims to better understand where cross cultural competence (3C) gaps lie for AF CE Officers. The first study is given to CE Officers with recent overseas experience and the second given to host nation partners at overseas bases. This research investigates the negative impacts on construction project success in overseas base locations due to a lack in 3C. The study also includes a thorough investigation of current practices and available resources. The goal is to inform the AF Language, Regional Expertise and Culture (LREC) training implementation process, an initiative set out by the AF Chief of Staff in 2012. The implications of this study will not only help better prepare CE Officers, and the alike, to perform duties overseas, but also promote a healthy environment when working with host nation partners around the world furthering the AF mission

Collaborative decision making in complex work settings: a process of managing inter dependencies

There exists disparity between the conceptualization and occurrence of Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) in everyday work activities of complex work settings. Current notions in the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) based on studies of decision making in groups typically portray CDM as an isolated event in which multiple personnel jointly undertake decision making. In the real world, however, decisions are made during work performance and interlaced with other processes and activities. Moreover, the complex work setting is a cooperative arrangement in which decision making is distributed. This research aims to alleviate the disparity by investigating how people in a complex working environment make decisions collaboratively. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is the theory of CDM as a process of managing interdependencies. Field-studies conducted in an airport to examine the way CDM is undertaken during Air Traffic Control operations inform theory development. The study takes a qualitative approach and is guided by Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM). The findings of this research indicate that undertaking decision making in the cooperative arrangement of complex work settings requires managing the distributions and interconnections inherent in this setup. In addition, participation and contribution of personnel in decision making is found to be structured by the dependencies between their activities. These findings form the central focus of the theory leading to the depiction of CDM as a process of managing interdependencies. The theory presented in this thesis clarifies and extends existing views by explicating the differentiated process of CDM in the cooperative arrangement of a complex work setting. Based on this a new definition of CDM is formulated. In addition, a conceptual framework of ten parameters is derived to serve as a tool for analysing CDM taking place in a particular work setting. Application of this framework is demonstrated by analysing an aircraft accident report to draw insights about the occurrence of CDM in this setting