Boundary negotiating mock-ups

Designing usable smart products is a multidisciplinary effort that requires people with very diverse knowledge to collaborate. Collaboration is challenging because knowledge from various design stakeholders with different needs and constraints has to be integrated in a design. Design mock-ups are used by designers to facilitate the collaboration. Design mock-ups help integrate different perspectives because they evoke different things to different stakeholders and help them negotiate the limits within which they can agree on a design. Literature suggests the analytical boundary object concept as a theory to explain how mock-ups support the integration of knowledge in design collaboration. I review the literature on the boundary object concept and iterate it with the data collected from a one year ethnographic study of a multidisciplinary product development project to design a smart usable device.I discuss that the boundary object concept fails to conceptualize how mock-ups support negotiation and suggest the concept of dynamic boundary objects as a more appropriate concept for the role of mockups in design collaboration. Design mock-ups iteratively support the boundary negotiation activities of self-explanation, inclusion, compilation and structuring. They act as a scaffold for the creation of a shared understanding

Re-designing knowledge production in the Post-Covid-19 era. A task-based approach

This paper seeks to single out what micro-level working activities may be more conducive of faster Covid-19 transmission. We do so from an innovation perspective, knowing that knowledge production has an important component rooted in tacit knowledge, whose sharing is heavily based on physical interaction. Specifically, we hypothesize that communication-intense working activities (including those needed to transfer tacit knowledge) may accelerate Covid-19 contagion, and must be re-designed with more urgency and attention than other working activities that apparently may look as dangerous, such as selling or training. We test this empirically employing data from 9 different sources relative to US Metropolitan Statistical Areas, and confirm our hypothesis, eventually elaborating policy and managerial implications for dealing with innovation (and beyond) during the pandemi

Perceção e arquitectura de software para robótica móvel

Doutoramento em Ciências da ComputaçãoWhen developing software for autonomous mobile robots, one has to inevitably tackle some kind of perception. Moreover, when dealing with agents that possess some level of reasoning for executing their actions, there is the need to model the environment and the robot internal state in a way that it represents the scenario in which the robot operates. Inserted in the ATRI group, part of the IEETA research unit at Aveiro University, this work uses two of the projects of the group as test bed, particularly in the scenario of robotic soccer with real robots. With the main objective of developing algorithms for sensor and information fusion that could be used e ectively on these teams, several state of the art approaches were studied, implemented and adapted to each of the robot types. Within the MSL RoboCup team CAMBADA, the main focus was the perception of ball and obstacles, with the creation of models capable of providing extended information so that the reasoning of the robot can be ever more e ective. To achieve it, several methodologies were analyzed, implemented, compared and improved. Concerning the ball, an analysis of ltering methodologies for stabilization of its position and estimation of its velocity was performed. Also, with the goal keeper in mind, work has been done to provide it with information of aerial balls. As for obstacles, a new de nition of the way they are perceived by the vision and the type of information provided was created, as well as a methodology for identifying which of the obstacles are team mates. Also, a tracking algorithm was developed, which ultimately assigned each of the obstacles a unique identi er. Associated with the improvement of the obstacles perception, a new algorithm of estimating reactive obstacle avoidance was created. In the context of the SPL RoboCup team Portuguese Team, besides the inevitable adaptation of many of the algorithms already developed for sensor and information fusion and considering that it was recently created, the objective was to create a sustainable software architecture that could be the base for future modular development. The software architecture created is based on a series of di erent processes and the means of communication among them. All processes were created or adapted for the new architecture and a base set of roles and behaviors was de ned during this work to achieve a base functional framework. In terms of perception, the main focus was to de ne a projection model and camera pose extraction that could provide information in metric coordinates. The second main objective was to adapt the CAMBADA localization algorithm to work on the NAO robots, considering all the limitations it presents when comparing to the MSL team, especially in terms of computational resources. A set of support tools were developed or improved in order to support the test and development in both teams. In general, the work developed during this thesis improved the performance of the teams during play and also the e ectiveness of the developers team when in development and test phases.Durante o desenvolvimento de software para robôs autónomos móveis, e inevitavelmente necessário lidar com algum tipo de perceção. Al em disso, ao lidar com agentes que possuem algum tipo de raciocínio para executar as suas ações, há a necessidade de modelar o ambiente e o estado interno do robô de forma a representar o cenário onde o robô opera. Inserido no grupo ATRI, integrado na unidade de investigação IEETA da Universidade de Aveiro, este trabalho usa dois dos projetos do grupo como plataformas de teste, particularmente no cenário de futebol robótico com robôs reais. Com o principal objetivo de desenvolver algoritmos para fusão sensorial e de informação que possam ser usados eficazmente nestas equipas, v arias abordagens de estado da arte foram estudadas, implementadas e adaptadas para cada tipo de robôs. No âmbito da equipa de RoboCup MSL, CAMBADA, o principal foco foi a perceção da bola e obstáculos, com a criação de modelos capazes de providenciar informação estendida para que o raciocino do robô possa ser cada vez mais eficaz. Para o alcançar, v arias metodologias foram analisadas, implementadas, comparadas e melhoradas. Em relação a bola, foi efetuada uma análise de metodologias de filtragem para estabilização da sua posição e estimação da sua velocidade. Tendo o guarda-redes em mente, foi também realizado trabalho para providenciar informação de bolas no ar. Quanto aos obstáculos, foi criada uma nova definição para a forma como são detetados pela visão e para o tipo de informação fornecida, bem como uma metodologia para identificar quais dos obstáculos são colegas de equipa. Além disso foi desenvolvido um algoritmo de rastreamento que, no final, atribui um identicador único a cada obstáculo. Associado a melhoria na perceção dos obstáculos foi criado um novo algoritmo para realizar desvio reativo de obstáculos. No contexto da equipa de RoboCup SPL, Portuguese Team, al em da inevitável adaptação de vários dos algoritmos j a desenvolvidos para fusão sensorial e de informação, tendo em conta que foi recentemente criada, o objetivo foi criar uma arquitetura sustentável de software que possa ser a base para futuro desenvolvimento modular. A arquitetura de software criada e baseada numa série de processos diferentes e métodos de comunicação entre eles. Todos os processos foram criados ou adaptados para a nova arquitetura e um conjunto base de papeis e comportamentos foi definido para obter uma framework funcional base. Em termos de perceção, o principal foco foi a definição de um modelo de projeção e extração de pose da câmara que consiga providenciar informação em coordenadas métricas. O segundo objetivo principal era adaptar o algoritmo de localização da CAMBADA para funcionar nos robôs NAO, considerando todas as limitações apresentadas quando comparando com a equipa MSL, principalmente em termos de recursos computacionais. Um conjunto de ferramentas de suporte foram desenvolvidas ou melhoradas para auxiliar o teste e desenvolvimento em ambas as equipas. Em geral, o trabalho desenvolvido durante esta tese melhorou o desempenho da equipas durante os jogos e também a eficácia da equipa de programação durante as fases de desenvolvimento e teste

HIVE-MIND SPACE: A META-DESIGN APPROACH FOR CULTIVATING AND SUPPORTING COLLABORATIVE DESIGN.

The ever-growing complexity of design projects requires more knowledge than any individual can have and, therefore, needs the active engagement of all stakeholders in the design process. Collaborative design exploits synergies from multidisciplinary communities, encourages divergent thinking, and enhances social creativity. The research documented in this thesis supports and deepens the understanding of collaborative design in two dimensions: (1) It developed and evaluated socio-technical systems to support collaborative design projects; and (2) It defined and explored a meta- design framework focused on how these systems enable users, as active contributors, to modify and further develop them. The research is grounded in and simultaneously extends the following major dimensions of meta-design: (1) It exploits the contributions of social media and web 2.0 as innovative information technologies; (2) It facilitates the shift from consumer cultures to cultures of participation; (3) It fosters social creativity by harnessing contributions that occur in cultures of participation; (4) It empowers end-users to be active designers involved in creating situated solutions. In a world where change is the norm, meta-design is a necessity rather than a luxury because it is impossible to design software systems at design time for problems that occur only at use time. The co-evolution of systems and users\u2bc social practices pursued in this thesis requires a software environment that can evolve and be tailored continuously. End-user development explores tools and methods to support end users who tailor software artifacts. However, it addresses this objective primarily from a technical perspective and focuses mainly on tailorability. This thesis, centered on meta-design, extends end-user development by creating social conditions and design processes for broad participation in design activities both at design time and at use time. It builds on previous research into meta- design that has provided a strategic overview of design opportunities and principles. And it addresses some shortcomings of meta-design, such as the lack of guidelines for building concrete meta-design environments that can be assessed by empirical evaluation. Given the goal of this research, to explore meta-design approaches for cultivating and supporting collaborative design, the overarching research question guiding this work is: How do we provide a socio-technical environment to bring multidisciplinary design communities together to foster creativity, collaboration, and design evolution? 8 To answer this question, my research was carried out through four different phases: (1) synthesizing concepts, models, and theories; (2) framing conceptual models; (3) developing several systems in specific application areas; and (4) conducting empirical evaluation studies. The main contributions of this research are: \uf0a7 The Hive-Mind Space model, a meta-design framework derived from the \u201csoftware shaping workshop\u201d methodology and that integrates the \u201cseeding, evolutionary growth, reseeding\u201d model. The bottom-up approach inherent in this framework breaks down static social structures so as to support richer ecologies of participation. It provides the means for structuring communication and appropriation. The model\u2bcs open mediation mechanism tackles unanticipated communication gaps among different design communities. \uf0a7 MikiWiki, a structured programmable wiki I developed to demonstrate how the hive-mind space model can be implemented as a practical platform that benefits users and how its features and values can be specified so as to be empirically observable and assessable; \uf0a7 Empirical insights, such as those based on applying MikiWiki to different collaborative design studies, provide evidence that different phases of meta-design represent different modes rather than discrete levels

Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World

The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk managemen

Role of stage gates in effective knowledge sharing during the product development process

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2002."February 2002."Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-139).Premise of the thesis is that in today's knowledge economy, competitive advantage comes from effective use of corporate knowledge. This thesis compares and contrasts current practices for knowledge sharing in Xerox with an idealized model of best practices for knowledge sharing. The study explores the hypothesis that stage gates in a product development process are important for sharing corporate knowledge across functions and organizations, and that the product development process itself serves as an infrastructure for knowledge sharing. This study involved an analysis of knowledge sharing practices during stage gates reviews and how they evolved over time after stage-gate reviews. To develop an idealized model of best practices for knowledge sharing, experts of knowledge management in academia and industry were interviewed, and an extensive literature review was completed. This served as a backdrop for analysis in the case study at Xerox. The case study at Xerox utilized a personal interview approach complemented by a survey through electronic mail, and assessment was done against the idealized model of best practices for knowledge sharing. Twenty-six senior managers at Xerox were interviewed/surveyed. Strengths of Xerox in knowledge sharing and areas of improvements were identified. Using open ended questions, a holistic view for the scope of Xerox efforts, as well as the depth and quality of the best practices during the product development process was compiled. Using Carlile's knowledge boundary framework and boundary objects, attempt was done to transform engineering knowledge from one domain to another. This framework also served as a basis for suggestions for future improvements in knowledge sharing at Xerox in the areas of improvements identified through the interviews/surveys. Though any single company has not discovered the mantra for knowledge management and sharing; several good practices, which were consistently enablers of perceived success, were identified. The effective enablers towards knowledge sharing were a synergistic gathering of "common sense" items such as morale, trust, common goals, value and criticality of knowledge, diversity, and structure, rewards/recognition, support and knowledge initiatives along multiple fronts. It was discovered, that the product managers perceive that Xerox has considerable success in promoting a knowledge culture and has an effective product development process. It was also found that knowledge boundary framework and boundary objects serve as a good vehicle to explain the difficulty of knowledge sharing across functional and organizational boundaries. Engineering tools such as critical parameter management could benefit by a uniform, standardized approach to bringing together subject matter experts from various domains and creating the environment for creating new knowledge and innovations. Systems processes like the Xerox platform approach, where the systems architecture is composed of common platform elements, and core competencies in the development of reusable components for the platform elements are the basis for the Xerox product development process. Using the knowledge acquired through practical experience and education and taking a holistic view of the product development process as the boundary framework for knowledge transfer, we used the eCPM (Engineering Critical Parameter Management Tool) to translate knowledge from a domain expert in mechanical engineering to a common semantic base for transformation into the domain of software engineering. Specific tacit knowledge on what makes a parameter critical and how it plays a role in mechanical aspects in the design of Xerox devices, such as the system itself, media and motion path, marker path and the control and image path, as well as how to control these designs is to be transformed into the domain of software engineering. It was found that use of the eCPM tool to develop similar meaning of parameters for tuning software resources such as CPU speeds, memory utilization and performance is possible. Attempt to create new knowledge in the domain of software will be proceeding with a larger number of domain experts. Specific new knowledge in establishment of which software parameters to be labeled as critical (versus design parameters allocated and controlled via Input /Output/ Constraint values), which parameters should be system control parameters (those which span over multiple subsystems, and have latitudes within which to be tweaked in various sub-systems), the failure modes and latitudes for the failure modes will be part of future work. This will be part of a knowledge sharing and management framework proposed in the thesis because of the diagnostic analysis done of the current state at Xerox.by Tulsi D. Ramchandani.S.M

Planning for Ethnic Tourism: Case Studies from Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China

Ethnic tourism has emerged as a means that is employed by many countries to facilitate economic and cultural development and to assist in the preservation of ethnic heritage. However, while ethnic tourism has the potential to bring economic and social benefits it can also significantly impact traditional cultures, ways of life and the sense of identity of ethnic groups. There is growing concern in many places about how to balance the use of ethnicity as a tourist attraction with the protection of minority cultures and the promotion of ethnic pride. Despite the fact that a substantial literature is devoted to the impacts of ethnic tourism, little research has been done on how to plan ethnic tourism attractions or to manage community impacts of tourism. This research addresses the need for more research on planning for ethnic tourism by exploring the status and enhancement of planning strategies for ethnic tourism development. Drawing upon existing literature, a conceptual framework was developed and adopted to study ethnic tourism in a well-known ethnic tourist destination in China – Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. The research analyzes how ethnic tourism has been planned and developed at the study site and examines associated socio-cultural and planning issues. The framework is employed to compare and evaluate the perspectives of four key stakeholder groups (the government, tourism entrepreneurs, ethnic minorities and tourists) on ethnic tourism through on-site observation, interviews with government officials, planners and tourism entrepreneurs, surveys of tourists and ethnic minority people, and evaluation of government policies, plans and statistics. Economic advantages have been a driving force in ethnic tourism development. The government and tourism entrepreneurs are the main powers in developing ethnic tourism, but most of them are not ethnic members. Their administrative and commercial involvement in tourism strongly shapes the ways of staging, packaging and representing ethnic culture in tourism sites. Authenticity of attractions is not determined by the resource providers, the ethnic minorities, but is shaped by decisions of government and entrepreneurs. The commodification of ethnic culture and the production of cultural events and other tourist products are manipulated to fit the interests of business and political mandates. Minority people are usually marginalized or disadvantaged economically and politically because they have limited control over tourism resources and activities. Most minority people employed in tourism hold only low-paying jobs. The findings show that the production and commodification of ethnic culture is often accompanied by tensions among economic, political and cultural goals. Economic motives often outweigh other goals in tourism development. Thus, the balance between the use of tourism as a form of economic development and the preservation of ethnic culture should be addressed in tourism planning. More effective planning is required to mitigate negative impacts and to reinforce the positive aspects of ethnic tourism