The Dichotomies of Engineering Design

Abstract and concrete aspects of engineering design theor

The Socially Responsible Organization

This book explores the nature of the socially responsible organization, specifically the role of crisis management in creating a socially responsible organization. It applies the Myers-Briggs Personality Typology (MBPTI) and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Framework to issues such as responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, regulation of tech companies, and infrastructure. Dr. Mitroff lists the major arguments given in regards to these issues and subjects them to the strongest possible scrutiny and critique to hold both individuals and organizations accountable to the larger responsibilities we share as global citizens. This is an open access book

Techlash

Technology has made human lives incomparably better. Civilization as we know it would utterly collapse without it. However, if not properly managed, technology can and will be systematically abused and misuse and thereby become one of the biggest threats to humankind. This open access book applies proactive crisis management to the management of technology organizations to make them more sustainable and socially responsible for the betterment of humankind. It forecasts the unintended consequences of technology and offers methods to counteract it

Stroboscopic Training Enhances Anticipatory Timing

International Journal of Exercise Science 5(4) : 344-353, 2012. The dynamic aspects of sports often place heavy demands on visual processing. As such, an important goal for sports training should be to enhance visual abilities. Recent research has suggested that training in a stroboscopic environment, where visual experiences alternate between visible and obscured, may provide a means of improving attentional and visual abilities. The current study explored whether stroboscopic training could impact anticipatory timing—the ability to predict where a moving stimulus will be at a specific point in time. Anticipatory timing is a critical skill for both sports and non-sports activities, and thus finding training improvements could have broad impacts. Participants completed a pre-training assessment that used a Bassin Anticipation Timer to measure their abilities to accurately predict the timing of a moving visual stimulus. Immediately after this initial assessment, the participants completed training trials, but in one of two conditions. Those in the Control condition proceeded as before with no change. Those in the Strobe condition completed the training trials while wearing specialized eyewear that had lenses that alternated between transparent and opaque (rate of 100ms visible to 150ms opaque). Post-training assessments were administered immediately after training, 10-minutes after training, and 10-days after training. Compared to the Control group, the Strobe group was significantly more accurate immediately after training, was more likely to respond early than to respond late immediately after training and 10 minutes later, and was more consistent in their timing estimates immediately after training and 10 minutes later

Techlash

Technology has made human lives incomparably better. Civilization as we know it would utterly collapse without it. However, if not properly managed, technology can and will be systematically abused and misuse and thereby become one of the biggest threats to humankind. This open access book applies proactive crisis management to the management of technology organizations to make them more sustainable and socially responsible for the betterment of humankind. It forecasts the unintended consequences of technology and offers methods to counteract it

Who should be searching? Differences in personality can affect visual search accuracy

© 2017 Visual search is an everyday task conducted in a wide variety of contexts. Some searches are mundane, such as finding a beverage in the refrigerator, and some have life-or-death consequences, such as finding improvised explosives at a security checkpoint or within a combat zone. Prior work has shown numerous influences on search, including “bottom-up” (physical stimulus attributes) and “top-down” factors (task-relevant or goal-driven aspects). Recent work has begun to focus on “observer-specific” factors, examining how searchers' attributes might influence search performance. A logical extension involves exploring whether some individuals are better suited to conduct visual searches than other individuals. The current study examined whether certain personality characteristics relate to visual search performance in a large sample of professional searchers employed by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. Of the “big five” personality traits (neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness), only conscientiousness significantly correlated with visual search accuracy. Both early-career and experienced professional searchers demonstrated a significant relationship between conscientiousness scores and accuracy on a simple visual search task. These findings validate the notion that searchers' attributes impact their visual search performance and suggest that personality assessments might prove useful for hiring and selection decisions regarding professional tasks that incorporate visual search

Inferring Latent Structure From Mixed Real and Categorical Relational Data

We consider analysis of relational data (a matrix), in which the rows correspond to subjects (e.g., people) and the columns correspond to attributes. The elements of the matrix may be a mix of real and categorical. Each subject and attribute is characterized by a latent binary feature vector, and an inferred matrix maps each row-column pair of binary feature vectors to an observed matrix element. The latent binary features of the rows are modeled via a multivariate Gaussian distribution with low-rank covariance matrix, and the Gaussian random variables are mapped to latent binary features via a probit link. The same type construction is applied jointly to the columns. The model infers latent, low-dimensional binary features associated with each row and each column, as well correlation structure between all rows and between all columns

Sacred activism through seva and khidmat: Contextualising management and organisations in South Asia

What if our actions were imbued with the sacred? What if activism in organisations evokes better local society and responsible global community? What if sacred activism signals the performance of a deeper understanding and mindful actions for contextualising management and organisations in South Asia? These are some of the questions we pose to scholars and practitioners as we seek to present the multiplexities and singularities that epitomise South Asia. We address the braided realities and opportunities presented by religion, culture, ethnicity, gender and governance to contextualise organisations and management among the 1.67 billion people who constitute South Asia. We calligraph our interpretations and future possibilities based on historical traditions and extant data, mindful that some parts of this vast region are grappling with religious radicalisation, East-West tensions, underdevelopment, low literacy rates, violence against women, and international debts and handouts. This heterogeneous region also has a major BRICS country (i.e., India), provides CEOs to the world, scientists to NASA, outsourcing facilities to global corporations, has a young population, a huge middle class, and is actively participating in mergers and acquisitions in the global corridors of commerce. Our poignant hope is to inform and suggest possibilities for constructing enriching engagements and research in this region