Quantum Darwinism requires an extra-theoretical assumption of encoding redundancy

Observers restricted to the observation of pointer states of apparatus cannot conclusively demonstrate that the pointer of an apparatus A registers the state of a system of interest S without perturbing S. Observers cannot, therefore, conclusively demonstrate that the states of a system S are redundantly encoded by pointer states of multiple independent apparatus without destroying the redundancy of encoding. The redundancy of encoding required by quantum Darwinism must, therefore, be assumed from outside the quantum-mechanical formalism and without the possibility of experimental demonstration.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Comments on foundational assumptions of W. Zurek (2009) Nat Phys 5 181 (arXiv 0903.5082). v2 significant revision to improve clarit

Automatic generation of design structure matrices through the evolution of product models

Dealing with component interactions and dependencies remains a core and fundamental aspect of engineering, where conflicts and constraints are solved on an almost daily basis. Failure to consider these interactions and dependencies can lead to costly overruns, failure to meet requirements, and lengthy redesigns. Thus, the management and monitoring of these dependencies remains a crucial activity in engineering projects and is becoming ever more challenging with the increase in the number of components, component interactions, and component dependencies, in both a structural and a functional sense. For these reasons, tools and methods to support the identification and monitoring of component interactions and dependencies continues to be an active area of research. In particular, design structure matrices (DSMs) have been extensively applied to identify and visualize product and organizational architectures across a number of engineering disciplines. However, the process of generating these DSMs has primarily used surveys, structured interviews, and/or meetings with engineers. As a consequence, there is a high cost associated with engineers' time alongside the requirement to continually update the DSM structure as a product develops. It follows that the proposition of this paper is to investigate whether an automated and continuously evolving DSM can be generated by monitoring the changes in the digital models that represent the product. This includes models that are generated from computer-aided design, finite element analysis, and computational fluid dynamics systems. The paper shows that a DSM generated from the changes in the product models corroborates with the product architecture as defined by the engineers and results from previous DSM studies. In addition, further levels of product architecture dependency were also identified. A particular affordance of automatically generating DSMs is the ability to continually generate DSMs throughout the project. This paper demonstrates the opportunity for project managers to monitor emerging product dependencies alongside changes in modes of working between the engineers. The application of this technique could be used to support existing product life cycle change management solutions, cross-company product development, and small to medium enterprises who do not have a product life cycle management solution.<br/

Nearest Neighbour with Bandit Feedback

In this paper we adapt the nearest neighbour rule to the contextual bandit problem. Our algorithm handles the fully adversarial setting in which no assumptions at all are made about the data-generation process. When combined with a sufficiently fast data-structure for (perhaps approximate) adaptive nearest neighbour search, such as a navigating net, our algorithm is extremely efficient - having a per trial running time polylogarithmic in both the number of trials and actions, and taking only quasi-linear space

A Hierarchical Nearest Neighbour Approach to Contextual Bandits

In this paper we consider the adversarial contextual bandit problem in metric spaces. The paper "Nearest neighbour with bandit feedback" tackled this problem but when there are many contexts near the decision boundary of the comparator policy it suffers from a high regret. In this paper we eradicate this problem, designing an algorithm in which we can hold out any set of contexts when computing our regret term. Our algorithm builds on that of "Nearest neighbour with bandit feedback" and hence inherits its extreme computational efficiency

Managing complex engineering projects:What can we learn from the evolving digital footprint?

The challenges of managing large complex engineering projects, such as those involving the design of infrastructure, aerospace and industrial systems; are widely acknowledged. While there exists a mature set of project management tools and methods, many of today's projects overrun in terms of both time and cost. Existing literature attributes these overruns to factors such as: unforeseen dependencies, a lack of understanding, late changes, poor communication, limited resource availability (inc. personnel), incomplete data and aspects of culture and planning. Fundamental to overcoming these factors belies the challenge of how management information relating to them can be provided, and done so in a cost eff; ective manner. Motivated by this challenge, recent research has demonstrated how management information can be automatically generated from the evolving digital footprint of an engineering project, which encompasses a broad range of data types and sources. In contrast to existing work that reports the generation, verification and application of methods for generating management information, this paper reviews all the reported methods to appraise the scope of management information that can be automatically generated from the digital footprint. In so doing, the paper presents a reference model for the generation of managerial information from the digital footprint, an appraisal of 27 methods, and a critical reflection of the scope and generalisability of data-driven project management methods. Key findings from the appraisal include the role of email in providing insights into potential issues, the role of computer models in automatically eliciting process and product dependencies, and the role of project documentation in assessing project norms. The critical reflection also raises issues such as privacy, highlights the enabling technologies, and presents opportunities for new Business Intelligence tools that are based on real-time monitoring and analysis of digital footprints.</p

The emergent structures in digital engineering work:what can we learn from dynamic DSMs of near-identical systems design projects?

Design structure matrices (DSMs) are widely known for their ability to support engineers in the management of dependencies across product and organisational architectures. Recent work in the field has exploited product lifecycle management systems to generate DSMs via the co-occurrence of edits to engineering files. These are referred to as dynamic DSMs and results have demonstrated both the efficacy and accuracy of dynamic DSMs in representing engineering work and emergent product architectures. The wide-ranging applicability of the theoretical model and associated analytical process to generate dynamic DSMs enables investigations into the evolving structures within digital engineering work. This paper uses this new capability and presents the results of the world's first comparison of dynamic DSMs from a set of near-identical systems design projects. Through comparison of the dynamic DSMs' end-of-project state, change propagation characteristics and evolutionary behaviour, 10 emergent structures are elicited. These emergent structures are considered in the context of team performance and design intent in order to explain and code the identified structures. The significance of these structures for the management of future systems design projects in terms of productivity and efficacy is also described.</p

‘Are they out to get us?’ Power and the ‘recognition’ of the subject through a ‘lean’ work regime

Critical studies of ‘lean’ work regimes have tended to focus on the factory shop floor or public and healthcare sectors, despite its recent revival and wider deployment in neoliberal service economies. This paper investigates the politics of the workplace in a United Kingdom automotive dealership group subject to an intervention inspired by lean methods. We develop Foucauldian studies of governmentality by addressing lean as a technology of power deployed to act on the conduct of workers, examining how they debunk, distance themselves from and enact its imperatives. Our findings support critiques of lean work regimes that raise concerns about work intensification and poor worker health. Discourses of professional autonomy allow workers to distance themselves from lean prescriptions, yet they are reaffirmed in their actions. More significantly, we illustrate the exercise of a more encompassing form of power, showing how lean harnesses the inherently exploitable desire for recognition among hitherto marginalised workers, and its role as a form of ‘human capital’. The paper contributes to critical studies of lean by illustrating its subtle, deleterious and persistent effects within the analytical frame of neoliberal governmentality. We also demonstrate how studies of governmentality can be advanced through the analysis of contested social relations on the ground, highlighting the ethico-political potential of Foucauldian work