The systemic dimension of operational decision in complex systems work

This paper refers to some of my research findings on Decision Making processes in complex systems work. Starting as a complex cognitive process strongly contextualized in the operating environment, it ends up, in complex systems work, as an equally complex network of actors and systems (human and technological) that are confronted, in real time, with uncertainty , a large amount of information and feedback and with multiple standards and operating procedures...Complex systems work; Operational Decision; Mental Model; Situational awareness; Systemic decision

Fault Tolerant Reconfigurable Control of a Water Delivery Canal - Actuators Faults

This work addresses the problem of designing fault tolerant controllers for a water delivery canal that tackle actuators faults. The type of faults considered consists of blocking of one of the gates. The detection of the fault is made by comparing the gate position command with the actual (measured) gate position. Both centralized and distributed controllers are made for local upstream water level control. Centralized controllers are multivariable LQG-LTR controllers that use a model of the system with all the available manipulated inputs (gate positions) and all the available outputs (pool levels). Initially, three gates and three pools are controlled. After the fault detection, the controller is reconfigured to use the only two still operating gates and the corresponding two pool water levels. Distributed control uses local (SISO) LQG-LTR controllers that negotiate with their neighbors in order to be coordinated. When a fault occurs, this negotiation takes place only among the controllers connected to the actuators that are not in a fault state. Experimental results obtained in a pilot canal are presented

Approach to design practice based on collaborative platforms: application to bicycle mobility system in Porto

This research aims to create collaborative strategies and operative tools for design practice, applied in an urban sustainable mobility scenario. We find that co-creation platforms encourage an active approach involving the people in the development process leading to effective and holistic solutions. Initially we catalogued tools and collaborative met hods based on case studies, to identify and propose new approaches to various project phases, action modes, creation, development, testing and implementation of proposals. Through action-research methods we want to validate a toolkit applied in developing a bicycle mobility system in Porto (Portugal). Designers, users and stakeholders actively collaborated defining a real context of action, developing and implementing solutions. Started by a bottom-up approach, bringing together groups of city cyclists and sustainable mobility activists, and then the local authorities, the project enabled positive and local impact based on a democratic design approach. The replicative potential of this action model is a next challenge to various application scenarios

Unionism: the end of a balanced power?

Departing from a stable industrial relationship, supported by logic of economic massification and the correspondent legal framework, it is our objective to approach the new industrial relations environment, emerging from the modifications on the enterprise organisation models, towards the new challenges they are facing by the end of the 20th century, while unions have not been able to follow this evolution and maintain, in most of the cases, a tipical Wellfare State like behaviour. The paradigm of the enterprise as the labour conflict environment by excellence seems to be overshot and the moment has come to find new social understanding, based on a labour relationship more adequate to a changing society. In this paper, we deal with the factors we believe to be more significant for the understanding of new management concepts and of the subjacent labour relations, with particular emphasis to the new unionism opportunities.Unionism; Labour Relations; Labour law; Cooperative Management

THE NEW WORLD (DIS)ORDER AND THE CONFLICTS EVOLUTION

The World Order is a concept in constant mutation that has lost a lot of what characterized it when it was established with the Peace of Westphalia. The conflicts also went through changes. They lost its State distinctiveness and became dispersed and chaotic due to multipolarization. These two concepts share some connections and both dissociated from their traditional definition. This paper aims to establish a connection between the contemporary World Order and the conflicts evolution. The threats to the stability of the World Order contribute to the current disorder and reflects how the conflicts distanced themselves from the clausewitzian battles. To understand how these threats impact the World Order stability and evince the conflicts evolution two cases of study were selected: the nuclear proliferation in Iran and the crisis in Ukraine. These two examples will help establishing the link between the contemporary World Disorder and the conflicts evolution

Cognitive Automation, Operational Decision and Human Error

The new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) while allowing for real time data collection, distribution and processing, contribute to the establishment of new working environments, where the increasing automation of different tasks, ultimately become a determining factor in the development and implementation of highly flexible and dynamic production systems in terms of its adaptability to unstable and unpredictable environments. These structures have a high degree of systemic complexity, as opposed to traditional production systems, based on a deterministic logic of mass production that only require, in its modelling, the exact determination, evaluation and integration of their main parameters and variables. This flexible structures, may evolve from structurally complex systems to behavioury complex ones, showing a transition capability to evolve through different stages of evolution, as is often the case in multi-product multi-process production systems, whre many of phases and / or operations along with thousands of components, make it impossible to assess in a consistent manner at a certaim m moment, its dynamic at moment m+1. New paradigm is thus a paradigm of complexification, from strategic management and operational structure to the productive process, revealing decision-making equally as a complex process at different levels, where the learning component assumes an increasingly decisive role. In this essay, I discuss the decision-making process, proposing a reflection on the problem of automation and the resulting cognitive legitimacy of questioning the nature of the operational “Human Error” in complex environments.ICT, Cognitive Automation, Decision Making, Human Error, Human Factors

Is there a Technological Determinism in Complex Work Systems? The Air Traffic Control Case

This is a brief reflection on complex work systems automation, studying the Air Traffic Control Services. We study the compatibility of air traffic control systems automation against the necessary preservation of human nature complexity and the social integration of individuals, through a contribution to a less mechanical and more creative social work.complex systems automation; cognitive automation; human factors; technological factors;system design

Do Concreto para o Abstrato pelo Uso dos Sentidos e de Sensores: Um Estudo de Caso sobre o Ecossistema Poças de Maré

Este artigo apresenta um estudo de caso exploratório, desenvolvido no contexto do Projeto Sondar e Sentir o Ambiente para Desenvolver o Pensamento Abstrato (SOS Abstrato), que visa estudar as potencialidades da utilização conjunta e sinérgica dos sentidos humanos e de sensores eletrónicos para desenvolver o pensamento abstrato nas crianças. O estudo de caso foi desenvolvido com uma turma do 4.º ano de escolaridade e centrado no ecossistema Poças de Maré de uma praia no Norte de Portugal. A utilização dos sentidos e sensores em atividades experimentais produziu evidências de desenvolvimento da abstração no estudo da biodiversidade e da temperatura.This paper presents an exploratory case study, developed in the context of the Using Sensors and Sensing in the Environment to Develop Abstract Thinking Project (SOS Abstract), which goal is to study the potential of the joint and synergic use of electronic sensors and human senses to develop children’s abstract thinking. The case study was developed with a 4th year class and is centred on the Tide Pools of a beach in the North of Portugal. The use of senses and sensors in experimental activities produced evidences of the development of abstract thinking, while studying biodiversity and temperature

Estratégias colaborativas e ferramentas operativas para a prática do design: matriz de análise e avaliação de casos de estudo

Esta investigação centra-se na análise das estratégias colaborativas e ferramentas operativas de co-criação para a prática de design através do estudo de propostas desenvolvidas e implementadas em contexto real. Através da identificação de casos de estudos de base eminentemente colaborativa, circunscritos ao território europeu, foi definida uma matriz de catalogação e identificação que clarifica a origem das propostas: atelier de design, laboratório de investigação, social e comercial. Procedeu-se a métodos de investigação baseados em questinários abertos e entrevistas semidirectivas, pretendendo-se aferir informação em ordem à índole, processo (criativo e funcional) e estratégias de moderação das propostas. A primeira (índole) centra-se no campo de actuação da proposta e tipologia do processo; a segunda (operatividade) centra-se na evolução processual (criativo e funcional) e estratégias e ferramentas operativas utilizadas; por último (convivialidade) centra-se na tipologia de orientação da colaboração e contacto entre os actores. A tradução visual da dimensão individual e comparativa entre vários casos de estudo surge como um desafio que possibilite a identificação de modos de acção, organização e abordagens de co-criação, de desenvolvimento, implementação e funcionamento das propostas. Este suporte exibe orientações processuais e operativas nas várias fases de análise. Temos como objectivo a criação de uma estrutura de consulta que possibilite a ponderação de estratégias processuais e operativas consoante o objecto de estudo e contexto de actuação das propostas a desenvolver. O potencial de replicação de modelos de acção surge como um desafio de aplicação e de transferência de conhecimento. Por consequência a capacidade de identificar matrizes e modos de actuação de acordo com a localização geográfica, também poderá apresentar-se como um contributo interessante