Influencing collaboration to enhance knowledge work through serendipity: user-study and design considerations

We all were strangers to someone at some point and that is the starting point to analyze unexpected encounters. The busy pace of life has alienated people from each other, hence, this created an opportunity for technology to support social experiences. Meeting new people that one would not normally encounter in the vicinity or in the regular social sphere would expand the opportunities for establishing connections. Connections that go beyond establishing friendship bonds, but finding collaborators for the development of projects. This thesis was developed in order to understand the concept of serendipity in the context of computational systems and how it can be used to facilitate encounters among knowledge workers. The analysis of this thesis is conceived within the borders of Human-Technology Interaction, using psychological and sociality approaches from a technological perspective that allows a better understanding of the people’s needs when developing tools to support social interactions. The theoretical chapters start analyzing the phenomenon of serendipity from different perspectives, along with concepts about knowledge work and matchmaking. In order to understand the phenomenon of serendipity, the term is defined from social perspectives to psychological ones. The purpose of this is to set the basic premises of the study and introduce how serendipity is approached in terms of computational systems and knowledge work. Then, it analyzes matchmaking and grouping by presenting knowledge networks, social matchmaking with professional purposes and context awareness. The user study is carried out by a set of interviews to participants in Demola (an ecosystem that joins students with projects from companies), followed by a comparison of different tools that already exist that help matchmaking. The purpose of the user study was to analyze manual matchmaking among strangers. It analyzes participants’ experiences when working with strangers to carry out different innovation projects. It also intends to determine the expectations when forming a group. Added to that, the head of Demola Tampere was interviewed to understand the manual matching participants process. The final chapter presents a set of considerations when designing for serendipity to enhance knowledge work. The conceptualization of serendipity and the user study are the basis for establishing a set of guidelines in design. Which intend to enhance matchmaking in knowledge workers by analyzing weak ties as a way of serendipity. This study emphasizes on the goals and expectations of the users when finding a professional partner. Based on the user study, a model is presented which shows a possible structure for matchmaking

Influencing collaboration to enhance knowledge work through serendipity: user-study and design considerations

We all were strangers to someone at some point and that is the starting point to analyze unexpected encounters. The busy pace of life has alienated people from each other, hence, this created an opportunity for technology to support social experiences. Meeting new people that one would not normally encounter in the vicinity or in the regular social sphere would expand the opportunities for establishing connections. Connections that go beyond establishing friendship bonds, but finding collaborators for the development of projects. This thesis was developed in order to understand the concept of serendipity in the context of computational systems and how it can be used to facilitate encounters among knowledge workers. The analysis of this thesis is conceived within the borders of Human-Technology Interaction, using psychological and sociality approaches from a technological perspective that allows a better understanding of the people’s needs when developing tools to support social interactions. The theoretical chapters start analyzing the phenomenon of serendipity from different perspectives, along with concepts about knowledge work and matchmaking. In order to understand the phenomenon of serendipity, the term is defined from social perspectives to psychological ones. The purpose of this is to set the basic premises of the study and introduce how serendipity is approached in terms of computational systems and knowledge work. Then, it analyzes matchmaking and grouping by presenting knowledge networks, social matchmaking with professional purposes and context awareness. The user study is carried out by a set of interviews to participants in Demola (an ecosystem that joins students with projects from companies), followed by a comparison of different tools that already exist that help matchmaking. The purpose of the user study was to analyze manual matchmaking among strangers. It analyzes participants’ experiences when working with strangers to carry out different innovation projects. It also intends to determine the expectations when forming a group. Added to that, the head of Demola Tampere was interviewed to understand the manual matching participants process. The final chapter presents a set of considerations when designing for serendipity to enhance knowledge work. The conceptualization of serendipity and the user study are the basis for establishing a set of guidelines in design. Which intend to enhance matchmaking in knowledge workers by analyzing weak ties as a way of serendipity. This study emphasizes on the goals and expectations of the users when finding a professional partner. Based on the user study, a model is presented which shows a possible structure for matchmaking

MINA: A Robotic Assistant for Hospital Fetching Tasks

In this paper, a robotic Multitasking Intelligent Nurse Aid (MINA) is proposed to assist nurses with everyday object fetching tasks. MINA consists of a manipulator arm on an omni-directional mobile base. Before the operation, an augmented reality interface was used to place waypoints. Waypoints can indicate the location of a patient, supply shelf, and other locations of interest. When commanded to retrieve an object, MINA uses simultaneous localization and mapping to map its environment and navigate to the supply shelf waypoint. At the shelf, MINA builds a 3D point cloud representation of the shelf and searches for barcodes to identify and localize the object it was sent to retrieve. Upon grasping the object, it returns to the user. Collision avoidance is incorporated during the mobile navigation and grasping tasks. We performed experiments to evaluate MINA’s efficacy including with obstacles along the path. The experimental results showed that MINA can repeatedly navigate to the specified waypoints and successfully perform the grasping and retrieval task

MINA: A Robotic Assistant for Hospital Fetching Tasks

In this paper, a robotic Multitasking Intelligent Nurse Aid (MINA) is proposed to assist nurses with everyday object fetching tasks. MINA consists of a manipulator arm on an omni-directional mobile base. Before the operation, an augmented reality interface was used to place waypoints. Waypoints can indicate the location of a patient, supply shelf, and other locations of interest. When commanded to retrieve an object, MINA uses simultaneous localization and mapping to map its environment and navigate to the supply shelf waypoint. At the shelf, MINA builds a 3D point cloud representation of the shelf and searches for barcodes to identify and localize the object it was sent to retrieve. Upon grasping the object, it returns to the user. Collision avoidance is incorporated during the mobile navigation and grasping tasks. We performed experiments to evaluate MINA’s efficacy including with obstacles along the path. The experimental results showed that MINA can repeatedly navigate to the specified waypoints and successfully perform the grasping and retrieval task