This short paper describes the first prototyping of a self-evaluation process of Curriculum Agility at a Faculty of Technology in Sweden. The process comprises guided, semi-structured, individual interviews at different organisational levels within the faculty, a joint narrative based on those interviews, prioritizing development strategies per level, and jointly mapping them on importance and implementation time. The self-evaluation is part of and based on the research on the principles of Curriculum Agility. The results show the interplay in timely curriculum change for futureproof engineering education between the teaching staff, the systems and the people who control the systems. The self-evaluation brings together the different perspectives and perceptions within the faculty and gives insight in how those affect he willingness towards and occurrence of curriculum development. This work in progress indicates how doing such a qualitative self-evaluation paves the road for transparent strategic dialogues on a holistic level about what to give attention and organize differently.
In dynamic business environments, the ability to adapt is highly important for organizations in order to best their competition. This is necessary because throughout the years of doing business, organizations have experienced but one constant factor: change. The concept of enterprise agility is designed to counter this phenomenon. In this regard, IT is perceived to play a vital role in enterprise agility, most often viewed as an enabler. However, IT can be an inhibitor of enterprise agility as well because of its potentially restricting nature, structural thinking, bureaucracy, rigor, etc. This especially becomes apparent in information systems (IS) that have been operational in organizations for several years. This research aims at discovering processes of IT management that empower or obstruct enterprise agility. We identify processes on the one hand and aspects of enterprise agility on the other and relate them to each other using propositions. We conclude with the identified contribution of IT management to enterprise agility, propose directions for optimization as well as offer suggestions for additional research.
In our current and turbulent times, it is clear that some sort of organisational agility, in which-ever way achieved, is necessary to survive and thrive as an organisation. The question is how to achieve such manoeuvrability. We propose the use of design (thinking), with a focus on prototyping to iteratively develop greater organisational agility. Based on literature research into the circumstance that drive change, design, prototyping and a number of organisations that seem to have incorporated the right tactics, as well as observations made at a change-programme for a large Dutch corporate, we have developed a model to guide this process. The model proposes that an organisation should focus on developing a shared sense of purpose, to guide all its undertakings. Afterwards, employees should collaborate on iteratively creating the right (digital & physical) environments, culture and personal grounding for them and the organisation, to be able to achieve this purpose. Based on certain (dynamic) criteria and these various domains, personal responsibilities (action agendas) may constantly evolve and keep the organisation agile. This paper explains the reasoning behind the model and calls for further experimentation to take place to verify its effectiveness. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-de-lille-8039372/
Agricultural/horticultural products account for 9% of Dutch gross domestic product. Yearly expansion of production involves major challenges concerning labour costs and plant health control. For growers, one of the most urgent problems is pest detection, as pests cause up to 10% harvest loss, while the use of chemicals is increasingly prohibited. For consumers, food safety is increasingly important. A potential solution for both challenges is frequent and automated pest monitoring. Although technological developments such as propeller-based drones and robotic arms are in full swing, these are not suitable for vertical horticulture (e.g. tomatoes, cucumbers). A better solution for less labour intensive pest detection in vertical crop horticulture, is a bio-inspired FW-MAV: Flapping Wings Micro Aerial Vehicle. Within this project we will develop tiny FW-MAVs inspired by insect agility, with high manoeuvrability for close plant inspection, even through leaves without damage. This project focusses on technical design, testing and prototyping of FW-MAV and on autonomous flight through vertically growing crops in greenhouses. The three biggest technical challenges for FW-MAV development are: 1) size, lower flight speed and hovering; 2) Flight time; and 3) Energy efficiency. The greenhouse environment and pest detection functionality pose additional challenges such as autonomous flight, high manoeuvrability, vertical take-off/landing, payload of sensors and other equipment. All of this is a multidisciplinary challenge requiring cross-domain collaboration between several partners, such as growers, biologists, entomologists and engineers with expertise in robotics, mechanics, aerodynamics, electronics, etc. In this project a co-creation based collaboration is established with all stakeholders involved, integrating technical and biological aspects.
Due to the exponential growth of ecommerce, the need for automated Inventory management is crucial to have, among others, up-to-date information. There have been recent developments in using drones equipped with RGB cameras for scanning and counting inventories in warehouse. Due to their unlimited reach, agility and speed, drones can speed up the inventory process and keep it actual. To benefit from this drone technology, warehouse owners and inventory service providers are actively exploring ways for maximizing the utilization of this technology through extending its capability in long-term autonomy, collaboration and operation in night and weekends. This feasibility study is aimed at investigating the possibility of developing a robust, reliable and resilient group of aerial robots with long-term autonomy as part of effectively automating warehouse inventory system to have competitive advantage in highly dynamic and competitive market. To that end, the main research question is, “Which technologies need to be further developed to enable collaborative drones with long-term autonomy to conduct warehouse inventory at night and in the weekends?” This research focusses on user requirement analysis, complete system architecting including functional decomposition, concept development, technology selection, proof-of-concept demonstrator development and compiling a follow-up projects.
The project is for protecting valuable museum contents against seismic actions. Assessment and protection methods and equipment will be developed and tested. - Assessment methods for seismic safety of museum contents- Protective devices for the musem contentsA museum virtual exhibition room (MVER) will be created, it will contain exhibits such as sculptures and artefacts of different size and geometry, while the proposed experimental work will first examine the seismic behaviour of the test specimens without any protection system. The tests will be repeated using different protective configurations, emphasising on low-mass base isolation systems. Two new and highly efficient base isolation systems will be extensively tested for the first time. The first isolator is a pendulum-based system, while the second utilises shape-memory-alloy wires.The project will also develop and calibrate novel numerical models for single- and two- block rocking systems, while experimental and numerical results will be combined in order to develop quick overturning assessment criteria for the artefacts considered.The final task of the project will combine the shaking table experimental outcomes with numerical results using calibrated numerical models in order to develop fragility curves for museum artefacts.
