Developing indicators to measure Technology Institutes` performance

Technology institutes (TIs) are non-profit innovation and technology organisations aimed to encourage competitiveness of firms. They are a key organisation in the Spanish National Innovation System because of their size and closeness to the productive sector. Despite this, there is a lack of studies trying to measure their performance and its determinants. This work sheds some light on this. We study the influence of operative, financial, organisational, relational and general variables on three measures of results: selffinance, impact and added value. Our conclusions show the relevance of this approach and are confirmed by grouping TIs according to their service supply characteristics.Publicad

MUVOT - Establishing an International Vocational Training Program on the Topic of Measurement Uncertainty

Measurement results represent important information, which are necessary for evaluating and improving the quality of manufactured products and to control manufacturing processes. Furthermore, they build the basis for numerous decisions in the field of quality management, process and production automation or product development and design. Knowledge about the acquisition, evaluation and interpretation of measurement data as well as an understanding of the relevant influences on those measurement results are essential for employees working in the field of manufacturing metrology. Measurement results are always afflicted with deviations, due to a variety of causes. It follows that in order to assign a value to the reliability and quality of a measurement result its uncertainty must be determined and considered. However, employees in the field of quality management or metrology are often not familiar with methods for determination and interpretation of measurement uncertainty, because appropriate opportunities for training are missing in current vocational education. This need has led to the creation of the European project MUVoT, which will create a course for advanced vocational training in determining measurement uncertainty. The training course is based on a blended learning concept, combining self-dependent learning via a web-based platform and face-to-face workshops. This allows the adaption of individual knowledge and skills by self-controlled learning of abstract contents whilst the exercises enable the practical application of typical methods, which are generally considered as quite complex by many employees, and thus assure correct understanding. The featured Blended Learning concept facilitates the integration of the training into a workplace setting, thus the idea of Lifelong Learning is promoted in new fields of application. The curriculum and training concept for this newly developed training program have been designed such that the course can be applied internationally. To facilitate this, a harmonized scheme for course structure and contents has been defined albeit with inherent flexibility, allowing the adaptation to specific constraints

Software development: A paradigm for the future

A new paradigm for software development that treats software development as an experimental activity is presented. It provides built-in mechanisms for learning how to develop software better and reusing previous experience in the forms of knowledge, processes, and products. It uses models and measures to aid in the tasks of characterization, evaluation and motivation. An organization scheme is proposed for separating the project-specific focus from the organization's learning and reuse focuses of software development. The implications of this approach for corporations, research and education are discussed and some research activities currently underway at the University of Maryland that support this approach are presented