Search results for: egovernment project requirements

Authors: Shwadhin Sharma

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As there has been increasing focus on the shorter attention span of the millennials students, there is a relative absence of instructional tools on behavioral assessments in learning information technology skills within the information systems field and textbooks. This study uses project-based learning in which students gain knowledge and skills related to information technology by working on an extended project that allows students to find a real business problem design information systems based on information collected from the company and develop an information system that solves the problem of the company. Eighty students from two sections of the same course engage in the project from the first week of the class till the sixteenth week of the class to deliver a small business information system that allows them to employ all the skills and knowledge that they learned in the class into the systems they are creating. Computer Information Systems related courses are often difficult to understand and process especially for the Under Representative Minorities students who have limited computer or information systems related (academic) experiences. Project-based learning demands constant attention of the students and forces them to apply knowledge learned in the class to a project that helps retaining knowledge. To make sure our assumption is correct, we started with a pre-test and post-test to test the students learning (of skills) based on the project. Our test showed that almost 90% of the students from the two sections scored higher in post-test as compared to pre-test. Based on this premise, we conducted a further survey that measured student’s job-search preparation, knowledge of data analysis, involved with the course, satisfaction with the course, student’s overall reaction the course and students' ability to meet the traditional learning goals related to the course.

Keywords: project-based learning, job-search preparation, satisfaction with course, traditional learning goals

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Authors: Ali Bagherinia

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Efficient task scheduling method can meet users' requirements, and improve the resource utilization, then increase the overall performance of the cloud computing environment. Cloud computing has new features, such as flexibility, virtualization and etc., in this paper we propose a two levels task scheduling method based on load balancing in cloud computing. This task scheduling method meet user's requirements and get high resource utilization, that simulation results in CloudSim simulator prove this.

Keywords: cloud computing, task scheduling, virtualization, SLA

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Authors: Tiron-Tudor Adriana, Farcas Teodora Viorica, Ciolomic Ioana Andreea

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The issue of human capital mobility inside Europe is still an open one. Even though there were created some tools in order to better move from one country to another to work and study the number of the people doing this is very low because of various factors presented in this paper. The "rethinking educational" agenda of the European Commission has open the floor for new projects which can create steps towards a European language for skills and competences, qualifications. One of these projects is the Partnership for Exchange of experience in Student on-the-job Training. As part of this project, we are interested to see the situation of the human capital inside EU and the elements that were created until now to support this mobility. Also, the main objective of the project is to make a comparison between the four countries involved in PEST project (Romania, Hungary, Finland, and Estonia), at the education and internship level. The results are helpful for the follow of the project, for identifying where changes can be done and need to be done.

Keywords: ECVET, human capital mobility, partnership exchange, students on the job mobility, vocational education and training

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Authors: Mercy Okezue, Kari Clase, Stephen Byrn, Paddy Shivanand

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Medicines regulatory authorities expect pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations to seek ways to certify that their laboratory control measurements are reliable. Establishing and maintaining laboratory quality standards are essential in ensuring the accuracy of test results. ‘ISO/IEC 17025:2017’ and ‘WHO Good Practices for Pharmaceutical Quality Control Laboratories (GPPQCL)’ are two quality standards commonly employed in developing laboratory quality systems. A review was conducted on the two standards to elaborate on areas on convergence and divergence. The goal was to understand how differences in each standard's requirements may influence laboratories' choices as to which document is easier to adopt for quality systems. A qualitative review method compared similar items in the two standards while mapping out areas where there were specific differences in the requirements of the two documents. The review also provided a detailed description of the clauses and parts covering management and technical requirements in these laboratory standards. The review showed that both documents share requirements for over ten critical areas covering objectives, infrastructure, management systems, and laboratory processes. There were, however, differences in standard expectations where GPPQCL emphasizes system procedures for planning and future budgets that will ensure continuity. Conversely, ISO 17025 was more focused on the risk management approach to establish laboratory quality systems. Elements in the two documents form common standard requirements to assure the validity of laboratory test results that promote mutual recognition. The ISO standard currently has more global patronage than GPPQCL.

Keywords: ISO/IEC 17025:2017, laboratory standards, quality control, WHO GPPQCL

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Authors: Evridiki Zachopoulou, Vasilis Grammatikopoulos, Michail Vitoulis, Athanasios Gregoriadis

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In the last ten years, the recent economic crisis in Greece has decreased the financial ability and strength of several families when it comes to supporting their children’s studies. As a result, the number of students who are significantly delaying or even dropping out of their university studies is constantly increasing. The students who are at greater risk for academic failure are those who are facing various problems and social disadvantages, like health problems, special needs, family poverty or unemployment, single-parent students, immigrant students, etc. The ‘Umbrella’ project is a volunteer-based initiative to tackle this problem at International Hellenic University. The main purpose of the project is to provide support to disadvantaged students at a socio-emotional, academic, and practical level in order to help them complete their undergraduate studies. More specifically, the ‘Umbrella’ project has the following goals: (a) to develop a consulting-supporting network based on volunteering senior students, called ‘i-mentors’. (b) to train the volunteering i-mentors and create a systematic and consistent support procedure for students at-risk, (c), to develop a service that, parallel to the i-mentor network will be ensuring opportunities for at-risk students to find a job, (d) to support students who are coping with accessibility difficulties, (e) to secure the sustainability of the ‘Umbrella’ project after the completion of the funding of the project. The innovation of the Umbrella project is in its holistic-person-centered approach that will be providing individualized support -via the i-mentors network- to any disadvantaged student that will come ‘under the Umbrella.’

Keywords: peer mentoring, student support, socially disadvantaged students, volunteerism in higher education

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Authors: Yoftahe Nigussie

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This report presents a final year project pertaining to the design of Fire tube boiler for the purpose of producing saturated steam. The objective of the project is to produce saturated steam for different purpose with a capacity of 2000kg/h at 12bar design pressure by performing a design of a higher performance fire tube boiler that considered the requirements of cost minimization and parameters improvement. This is mostly done in selection of appropriate material for component parts, construction materials and production methods in different steps of analysis. In the analysis process, most of the design parameters are obtained by iterating with related formulas like selection of diameter of tubes with overall heat transfer coefficient optimization, and the other selections are also as like considered. The number of passes is two because of the size and area of the tubes and shell. As the analysis express by using heavy oil fuel no6 with a higher heating value of 44000kJ/kg and lower heating value of 41300kJ/kg and the amount of fuel consumed 140.37kg/hr. and produce 1610kw of heat with efficiency of 85.25%. The flow of the fluid is a cross flow because of its own advantage and the arrangement of the tube in-side the shell is welded with the tube sheet, and the tube sheet is attached with the shell and the end by using a gasket and weld. The design of the shell, using European Standard code section, is as like pressure vessel by considering the weight, including content and the supplementary accessories such as lifting lugs, openings, ends, man hole and supports with detail and assembly drawing.

Keywords: steam generation, external treatment, internal treatment, steam velocity

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Authors: Derrick Mirindi, Frederic Mirindi, Oluwakemi Oshineye

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The ongoing high rate of construction project failures worldwide is often blamed on the difficulties of managing stakeholders. This highlights the crucial role of strategic management (SM) in achieving project success. This study investigates how integrating digital tools into the SM framework can effectively address stakeholder-related challenges. This work specifically focuses on the impact of evolving digital tools, such as Project Management Software (PMS) (e.g., Basecamp and Wrike), Building Information Modeling (BIM) (e.g., Tekla BIMsight and Autodesk Navisworks), Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) (e.g., Microsoft HoloLens), drones and remote monitoring, and social media and Web-Based platforms, in improving stakeholder engagement and project outcomes. Through existing literature with examples of failed projects, the study highlights how the evolution of digital tools will serve as facilitators within the strategic management process. These tools offer benefits such as real-time data access, enhanced visualization, and more efficient workflows to mitigate stakeholder challenges in construction projects. The findings indicate that integrating digital tools with SM principles effectively addresses stakeholder challenges, resulting in improved project outcomes and stakeholder satisfaction. The research advocates for a combined approach that embraces both strategic management and digital innovation to navigate the complex stakeholder landscape in construction projects.

Keywords: strategic management, digital tools, virtual and augmented reality, stakeholder management, building information modeling, project management software

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Authors: L. Vujičić, Ž. Ivković, Ž. Boneta

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There is a widespread belief in everyday discourse that science subjects (physics, chemistry and biology) are, along with math, the most difficult school subjects in the education of an individual. This assumption is usually justified by the following facts: low GPA in these subjects, the number of pupils who fail these subjects is high in comparison to other subjects, and the number of pupils interested in continuing their studies in the fields with a focus on science subjects is lower compared to non-science-oriented fields. From that perspective, the project: “Could it be different? How do children explore it?” becomes extremely interesting because it is focused on young children and on the introduction of new methods, with aim of arousing interest in scientific literacy development in 10 kindergartens by applying the methodology of an action research, with an ethnographic approach. We define scientific literacy as a process of encouraging and nurturing the research and explorative spirit in children, as well as their natural potential and abilities that represent an object of scientific research: to learn about exploration by conducting exploration. Upon project completion, an evaluation questionnaire was created for the parents of the children who had participated in the project, as well as for those whose children had not been involved in the project. The purpose of the first questionnaire was to examine the level of satisfaction with the project implementation and its outcomes among those parents whose children had been involved in the project (N=142), while the aim of the second questionnaire was to find out how much the parents of the children not involved (N=154) in this activity were interested in this topic.

Keywords: documenting, early childhood education, evaluation questionnaire for parents, scientific literacy development

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Authors: G. Espinosa Garza, I. Loera, N. Antonyan

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In the last decades, teaching in particular engineering subjects is going through a significative problem. A quick evaluation of the entrepreneurial surroundings makes it more difficult for students to identify the course contents with real situations related with their future professions. Proposing teaching through challenges or problem-based projects, and real-life situations is turning into an important challenge for any university-level educator. The objective of this work is to present the educational experience and the investigation results taken through the Project Viability course, done by a group of professors and students from the Technologic of Monterrey. Currently, in Mexico, the orange peels are considered a dispose and they are not being utilized as an alternative to create subproducts. However, there is a great opportunity in its use as a raw material with the goal to originate the waste from the local citric firms or business. The project challenge consisted in the development of edible products from the orange peel with the intention to generate new healthy products. With this project, apart from the obtainment of the original results, the accomplishment consisted in creating a learning atmosphere, where students together with the professors were able to plan, evaluate, and implement the project related with the creative, innovative, and sustainable processes with the goal to apply it in the development of local solutions. In the present article, the pedagogic methodologies that allowed to carry out this project will be discussed.

Keywords: engineering subjects, learning project, orange peel, sustainable process

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Authors: Sang-Tae Ji, Jeong-Woo Park, Jun-Ho Park, Kwang-Woo Nam

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This study aims is to suggest the basic factors by considering the priority of intersection in the diffusion project of Smart intersection. Busan Metropolitan City is conducting a smart intersection project for efficient traffic management. The smart intersection project aims to make breakthrough improvement of the intersection congestion by optimizing the signal system using CCTV (closed-circuit television camera) image analysis technology. This study investigated trends of existing researches and analyzed by setting three things of traffic volume, characteristics of intersection road, and whether or not to conduct the main arterial road as factors for selecting new intersection when spreading smart intersection. Using this, we presented the priority of the newly installed intersection through the present situation and analysis for the Busan Metropolitan City which is the main destination of the spreading project of the smart intersection. The results of this study can be used as a consideration in the implementation of smart intersection business.

Keywords: CCTV, GIS, ICT, Smart City, smart intersection

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Authors: Joshua Loiselle

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This paper discusses the challenges engineering teams face in conducting Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) studies. This paper focuses on the specific topic of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of FMEA studies. Modern economic needs and increased business competition require engineers to constantly develop newer and better solutions within shorter timeframes and tighter margins. In addition, documentation requirements for meeting standards/regulatory compliance and customer needs are becoming increasingly complex and verbose. Managing open actions and continuous improvement activities across all projects, product variations, and processes in addition to daily engineering tasks is cumbersome, time consuming, and is susceptible to errors, omissions, and non-conformances. FMEA studies are proven methods for improving products and processes while subsequently reducing engineering workload and improving machine and resource availability through a pre-emptive, systematic approach of identifying, analyzing, and improving high-risk components. If implemented correctly, FMEA studies significantly reduce costs and improve productivity. However, the value of an effective FMEA is often shrouded by a lack of clarity and structure, misconceptions, and previous experiences and, as such, FMEA studies are frequently grouped with the other required information and documented retrospectively in preparation of customer requirements or audits. Performing studies in this way only adds cost to a project and perpetuates the misnomer that FMEA studies are not value-added activities. This paper discusses the benefits of effective FMEA studies, the challenges related to conducting FMEA studies, best practices for efficiently overcoming challenges via structure and automation, and the benefits of implementing those practices.

Keywords: FMEA, quality, APQP, PPAP

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Authors: Debasis Sarkar

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Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a holistic documentation process for operational visualization, design coordination, estimation and project scheduling. BIM software defines objects parametrically and it is a tool for virtual reality. Primary advantage of implementing BIM is the visual coordination of the building structure and systems such as Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) and it also identifies the possible conflicts between the building systems. This paper is an attempt to develop a risk based BIM model which would highlight the primary advantages of application of BIM pertaining to urban infrastructure transportation project. It has been observed that about 40% of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) companies use BIM but primarily for their outsourced projects. Also, 65% of the respondents agree that BIM would be used quiet strongly for future construction projects in India. The 3D models developed with Revit 2015 software would reduce co-ordination problems amongst the architects, structural engineers, contractors and building service providers (MEP). Integration of risk management along with BIM would provide enhanced co-ordination, collaboration and high probability of successful completion of the complex infrastructure transportation project within stipulated time and cost frame.

Keywords: building information modeling (BIM), infrastructure transportation, project risk management, underground metro rail

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Authors: Emmanuel U. Unuafe, Oyegoke T. Bukoye, Sandhya Sastry, Yanqing Duan

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Globally, there is increasing interest in project management due to a shortage in infrastructure services supply capability. Hence, it is of utmost importance that organisations understand that choosing a particular project over another is an opportunity cost – tying up the organisations resources. In order to devise constructive ways to bring direction, structure, and oversight to the process of project selection has led to the development of tools and techniques by researchers and practitioners. However, despite the development of various frameworks to assist in the appraisal and selection of government projects, failures are still being recorded with government projects. In developing countries, where frameworks are rarely used, the problems are compounded. To improve the situation, this study will investigate the current practice of construction project selection processes within the Nigeria public sector in order to inform theories of decision making from the perspective of developing nations and project management practice. Unlike other research around construction projects in Nigeria this research concentrate on factors influencing the selection process within the Nigeria public sector, which has received limited study. The authors report the findings of semi-structured interviews of top management in the Nigerian public sector and draw conclusions in terms of decision making extant theory and current practice. Preliminary results from the data analysis show that groups make project selection decisions and this forces sub-optimal decisions due to pressure on time, clashes of interest, lack of standardised framework for selecting projects, lack of accountability and poor leadership. Consequently, because decision maker is usually drawn from different fields, religious beliefs, ethnic group and with different languages. The choice of a project by an individual will be greatly influence by experience, political precedence than by realistic investigation as well as his understanding of the desired outcome of the project, in other words, the individual’s ideology and their level of fairness.

Keywords: factors influencing project selection, public sector construction project selection, projects portfolio selection, strategic decision-making

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Authors: Luca Martignoni

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The increasing usage of clinical decision support systems in healthcare and the demand for software that enables doctors to take informed decisions is changing everyday clinical practice. However, as technology advances not only are the benefits of technology growing, but so are the potential risks. A growing danger is the doctors’ over-reliance on the proposed decision of the clinical decision support system, leading towards deskilling and rash decisions by doctors. In that regard, identifying doctors' requirements for software and developing approaches to prevent technological over-reliance is of utmost importance. In this paper, we report the results of a design science research study, focusing on the requirements and design principles of ultrasound software. We conducted a total of 15 interviews with experts about poten-tial ultrasound software functions. Subsequently, we developed meta-requirements and design principles to design future clinical decision support systems efficiently and as free from the occur-rence of technological over-reliance as possible.

Keywords: clinical decision support systems, technological over-reliance, design principles, design science research

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Authors: Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, Vasilis Peristeras, Ioannis Magnisalis

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Organizations, including governments, generate (big) data that are high in volume, velocity, veracity, and come from a variety of sources. Public Administrations are using (big) data, implementing base registries, and enforcing data sharing within the entire government to deliver (big) data related integrated services, provision of insights to users, and for good governance. Government (Big) data ecosystem actors represent distinct entities that provide data, consume data, manipulate data to offer paid services, and extend data services like data storage, hosting services to other actors. In this research work, we perform a systematic literature review. The key objectives of this paper are to propose a robust definition of government (big) data ecosystem and a classification of government (big) data ecosystem actors and their roles. We showcase a graphical view of actors, roles, and their relationship in the government (big) data ecosystem. We also discuss our research findings. We did not find too much published research articles about the government (big) data ecosystem, including its definition and classification of actors and their roles. Therefore, we lent ideas for the government (big) data ecosystem from numerous areas that include scientific research data, humanitarian data, open government data, industry data, in the literature.

Keywords: big data, big data ecosystem, classification of big data actors, big data actors roles, definition of government (big) data ecosystem, data-driven government, eGovernment, gaps in data ecosystems, government (big) data, public administration, systematic literature review

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Authors: Nouara Boulfoul, Fatima Brabez

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This article presents the status of ISO 9001: 2000 certification in some agro-food companies in Algeria. The article discusses challenges and contributions of certification as perceived by quality managers as well as the difficulties encountered during certification. It also provides the recommendations of these managers for companies that have a certification project. The results show that the top three reasons for adopting ISO 9001: 2000 certification are building a better organization, reducing the costs of non-compliance and meeting customer expectations. The contributions are of an external nature (recognition, brand image, extension of markets, etc.) but also of an internal nature (improvement of the organization, etc.). The recommendations mainly concern management motivation, staff awareness and involvement and compliance with the requirements of the standard.

Keywords: quality management, certification, ISO 9001: 2000, food companies

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Authors: Alexander Hendricks, Sean Nevin, Clayton Wikoff, Melissa Dougherty, Jacob Orlita, Rafiqul Noorani

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Knee orthotics play an important role in aiding in the recovery of those with knee injuries, especially athletes. However, structural knee orthotics is often very expensive, ranging between $300 and $800. The primary reason for this project was to answer the question: can 3D printed orthotics represent a viable and cost-effective alternative to present structural knee orthotics? The primary objective for this research project was to design a knee orthotic for athletes with knee injuries for a low-cost under $100 and evaluate its effectiveness. The initial design for the orthotic was done in SolidWorks, a computer-aided design (CAD) software available at Loyola Marymount University. After this design was completed, finite element analysis (FEA) was utilized to understand how normal stresses placed upon the knee affected the orthotic. The knee orthotic was then adjusted and redesigned to meet a specified factor-of-safety of 3.25 based on the data gathered during FEA and literature sources. Once the FEA was completed and the orthotic was redesigned based from the data gathered, the next step was to move on to 3D-printing the first design of the knee brace. Subsequently, physical therapy movement trials were used to evaluate physical performance. Using the data from these movement trials, the CAD design of the brace was refined to accommodate the design requirements. The final goal of this research means to explore the possibility of replacing high-cost, outsourced knee orthotics with a readily available low-cost alternative.

Keywords: 3D printing, knee orthotics, finite element analysis, design for additive manufacturing

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Authors: Balázs Kulcsár

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Today, there is no part of the world that does not bear the mark of man in some way. This process seems unstoppable. So perhaps the best thing we can do is to touch that handprint gently and with the utmost care. There are multiple uses for the same piece of land, the coordination of which requires careful and sustainable spatial planning. The case study of the Rétközlake in north-eastern Hungary illustrates a habitat rehabilitation project in which a number of human uses were coordinated with the conservation and restoration of the natural environment. Today, the good condition of the habitat can only be maintained artificially, but the project has paid particular attention to finding a sustainable solution. The rehabilitation of Lake Rétköz is considered good practice in resolving land-use conflicts.

Keywords: sustainability, ecosystem service, land use conflict, landscape utilization

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Authors: Jiří Barta, Teodor Baláž, Tomáš Ludík, Jiří. F. Urbánek

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This article deals with the outputs of project acronym ADAPTIV of Czech Defence Research Project. This Project solved tends to adaptive camouflage. The camouflage is concealment by means of disguise. Perceptive interface between recipient and camouflaged object is visualized by means of textile modular screens. Screens special light semi-permeability enables front/ back projection with nearly identical light parameters. Information permeability, towards illusion creation, must be controlled by the camouflage provider by means sophisticated and mastered illusion with perfect scenarios. The project ADAPTIV was primarily funded with the maximum possible use of COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) principle asks special definition of feasibility conditions, especially recipient space position. This paper deals with uses the ADAPTIV output with name DATAsam with modification for infrared camouflage. It is focused on active camouflage in infrared spectrum of emissivity at <8;14> μm for laboratory conditions. The main chapter provides basic experiments and testing physical properties needed for camouflage in infrared environment. The evaluation experiments revealed the possibility of use case in various types of camouflage.

Keywords: camouflage, ADAPTIV, infrared camouflage, computer-aided, COTS

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Authors: Maria Ledinskaya

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This paper examines the Morris Collection Conservation Project at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in the context of Agile, Lean, and Hybrid project management. It is part case study and part literature review. To date, relatively little has been written about non-traditional project management approaches in heritage conservation. This paper seeks to introduce Agile, Lean, and Hybrid project management concepts from business, software development, and manufacturing fields to museum conservation, by referencing their practical application on a recent museum-based conservation project. The Morris Collection Conservation Project was carried out in 2019-2021 in Norwich, UK, and concerned the remedial conservation of around 150 Abstract Constructivist artworks bequeathed to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts by private collectors Michael and Joyce Morris. The first part introduces the chronological timeline and key elements of the project. It describes a medium-size conservation project of moderate complexity, which was planned and delivered in an environment with multiple known unknowns – unresearched collection, unknown condition and materials, unconfirmed budget. The project was also impacted by the unknown unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as indeterminate lockdowns, and the need to accommodate social distancing and remote communications. The author, a staff conservator at the Sainsbury Centre who acted as project manager on the Morris Collection Conservation Project, presents an incremental, iterative, and value-based approach to managing a conservation project in an uncertain environment. Subsequent sections examine the project from the point of view of Traditional, Agile, Lean, and Hybrid project management. The author argues that most academic writing on project management in conservation has focussed on a Traditional plan-driven approach – also known as Waterfall project management – which has significant drawbacks in today’s museum environment, due to its over-reliance on prediction-based planning and its low tolerance to change. In the last 20 years, alternative Agile, Lean and Hybrid approaches to project management have been widely adopted in software development, manufacturing, and other industries, although their recognition in the museum sector has been slow. Using examples from the Morris Collection Conservation Project, the author introduces key principles and tools of Agile, Lean, and Hybrid project management and presents a series of arguments on the effectiveness of these alternative methodologies in museum conservation, as well as the ethical and practical challenges to their implementation. These project management approaches are discussed in the context of consequentialist, relativist, and utilitarian developments in contemporary conservation ethics, particularly with respect to change management, bespoke ethics, shared decision-making, and value-based cost-benefit conservation strategy. The author concludes that the Morris Collection Conservation Project had multiple Agile and Lean features which were instrumental to the successful delivery of the project. These key features are identified as distributed decision making, a co-located cross-disciplinary team, servant leadership, focus on value-added work, flexible planning done in shorter sprint cycles, light documentation, and emphasis on reducing procedural, financial, and logistical waste. Overall, the author’s findings point largely in favour of a Hybrid model which combines traditional and alternative project processes and tools to suit the specific needs of the project.

Keywords: project management, conservation, waterfall, agile, lean, hybrid

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Authors: Shobha Ramalingam

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The majority of the infrastructure projects are affected by time overrun, resulting in project delays and subsequently cost overruns. Time overrun may vary from a few months to as high as five or more years, placing the project viability at risk. One of the probable reasons noted in the literature for this outcome in projects is due to poor productivity. Researchers contend that productivity in construction has only marginally increased over the years. While studies in the literature have extensively focused on time and cost parameters in projects, there are limited studies that integrate time and cost with productivity to assess project performance. To this end, a study was conducted to understand the project delay factors concerning cost, time and productivity. A case-study approach was adopted to collect rich data from a nuclear power plant project site for two months through observation, interviews and document review. The data were analyzed using three different approaches for a comprehensive understanding. Foremost, a root-cause analysis was performed on the data using Ishikawa’s fish-bone diagram technique to identify the various factors impacting the delay concerning time. Based on it, a questionnaire was designed and circulated to concerned executives, including project engineers and contractors to determine the frequency of occurrence of the delay, which was then compiled and presented to the management for a possible solution to mitigate. Second, a productivity analysis was performed on select activities, including rebar bending and concreting through a time-motion study to analyze product performance. Third, data on cost of construction for three years allowed analyzing the cost performance using earned value management technique. All three techniques allowed to systematically and comprehensively identify the key factors that deter project performance and productivity loss in the construction of the nuclear power plant project. The findings showed that improper planning and coordination between multiple trades, concurrent operations, improper workforce and material management, fatigue due to overtime were some of the key factors that led to delays and poor productivity. The findings are expected to act as a stepping stone for further research and have implications for practitioners.

Keywords: earned value analysis, time performance, project costs, project delays, construction productivity

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Authors: S. Ahmed, P. Dlask, B. Hasan

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There are several ways to estimate the cost of the construction project: simple and detailed. The process of estimating cost is usually done during the design stage, which should take long-time and the designer must give attention to all details. This paper explain the causes of the deviations occurring in the cost of the construction project, and determines the reasons of these differences between contractual cost and final cost of the construction project, through the study of literature review related to this field, and benefiting from the experience of workers in the field of building (owners, contractors) through designing a questionnaire, and finding the most ten important reasons and explain the relation between the contractual cost and the final cost according to these reasons. The difference between those values will be showed through diagrams drawn using the statistical program. In addition to studying the effects of overrun costs on the advancing of the project, and identify the most five important effects. According to the results, we can propose the right direction for the final cost evaluation and propose some measures that would help to control and adjust the deviation in the costs.

Keywords: construction projects, building, cost, estimating costs, delay, overrun

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Authors: Lucia Carrion Gordon, Maria Gabriela Lopez Yanez

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This project focuses on heritage concepts and their importance in every evolving and changing Digital Era where system solutions have to be sustainable, efficient and suitable to the basic needs. The prototype has to cover the principal requirements for the case studies. How to preserve the sociological ideas of dances in Ecuador like ‘La Bomba’ is the best example and challenge to preserve the intangible data. The same idea is applicable with books and music. The History and how to keep it, is the principal mission of Heritage Preservation. The dance of La Bomba is rooted on a specific movement system whose main part is the sideward hip movement. La Bomba´s movement system is the surface manifestation of a whole system of knowledge whose principal characteristics are the historical relation of Chote˜nos with their land and their families.

Keywords: digital preservation, heritage, IT management, data, metadata, ontology, serendipity

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Authors: Issam Jebreen, Eman Al-Qbelat

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Outsourcing software development projects can be challenging, and there are several common challenges that organizations face. A study was conducted with a sample of 46 papers on outsourcing challenges, and the results show that there are several common challenges faced by organizations when outsourcing software development projects. Poor outsourcing relationship was identified as the most significant challenge, with 35% of the papers referencing it. Lack of quality was the second most significant challenge, with 33% of the papers referencing it. Language and cultural differences were the third most significant challenge, with 24% of the papers referencing it. Non-competitive price was another challenge faced by organizations, with 21% of the papers referencing it. Poor coordination and communication were also identified as a challenge, with 21% of the papers referencing it. Opportunistic behavior, lack of contract negotiation, inadequate user involvement, and constraints due to time zone were also challenges faced by organizations. Other challenges faced by organizations included poor project management, lack of technical capabilities, vendor employee high turnover, poor requirement specification, IPR issues, poor management of budget, schedule, and delay, geopolitical and country instability, the difference in development methodologies, failure to manage end-user expectations, and poor monitoring and control. In conclusion, outsourcing software development projects can be challenging, but organizations can mitigate these challenges by selecting the right outsourcing partner, having a well-defined contract and clear communication, having a clear understanding of the requirements, and implementing effective project management practices.

Keywords: software outsourcing, vendor, outsourcing challenges, quality model, continent, country, global outsourcing, IT workforce outsourcing.

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Authors: Zahara Abdulhussan Al-Awadai

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Currently, serious games play a significant role in education, sparking an increasing interest in using games for purposes beyond mere entertainment. In this research, we investigate the main requirements and aspects of designing and developing effective serious games for learning and developing a conceptual model to describe the structure of serious games with a focus on both aspects of serious games. The main contributions of this approach are to facilitate the design and development of serious games in a flexible and easy-to-use way and also to support the cooperative work between the multidisciplinary developer team.

Keywords: game development, game design, requirements, serious games, serious game model.

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Authors: James Semmens, James Boyd, Anna Ferrante, Katrina Spilsbury, Sean Randall, Adrian Brown

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‘Big data’ is a relatively new concept that describes data so large and complex that it exceeds the storage or computing capacity of most systems to perform timely and accurate analyses. Health services generate large amounts of data from a wide variety of sources such as administrative records, electronic health records, health insurance claims, and even smart phone health applications. Health data is viewed in Australia and internationally as highly sensitive. Strict ethical requirements must be met for the use of health data to support health research. These requirements differ markedly from those imposed on data use from industry or other government sectors and may have the impact of reducing the capacity of health data to be incorporated into the real time demands of the Big Data environment. This ‘big data revolution’ is increasingly supported by national governments, who have invested significant funds into initiatives designed to develop and capitalize on big data and methods for data integration using record linkage. The benefits to health following research using linked administrative data are recognised internationally and by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy Roadmap, which outlined a multi-million dollar investment strategy to develop national record linkage capabilities. This led to the establishment of the Population Health Research Network (PHRN) to coordinate and champion this initiative. The purpose of the PHRN was to establish record linkage units in all Australian states, to support the implementation of secure data delivery and remote access laboratories for researchers, and to develop the Centre for Data Linkage for the linkage of national and cross-jurisdictional data. The Centre for Data Linkage has been established within Curtin University in Western Australia; it provides essential record linkage infrastructure necessary for large-scale, cross-jurisdictional linkage of health related data in Australia and uses a best practice ‘separation principle’ to support data privacy and security. Privacy preserving record linkage technology is also being developed to link records without the use of names to overcome important legal and privacy constraint. This paper will present the findings of the first ‘Proof of Concept’ project selected to demonstrate the effectiveness of increased record linkage capacity in supporting nationally significant health research. This project explored how cross-jurisdictional linkage can inform the nature and extent of cross-border hospital use and hospital-related deaths. The technical challenges associated with national record linkage, and the extent of cross-border population movements, were explored as part of this pioneering research project. Access to person-level data linked across jurisdictions identified geographical hot spots of cross border hospital use and hospital-related deaths in Australia. This has implications for planning of health service delivery and for longitudinal follow-up studies, particularly those involving mobile populations.

Keywords: data integration, data linkage, health planning, health services research

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Authors: Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, Vasilis Peristeras, Ioannis Magnisalis

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Data that is high in volume, velocity, veracity and comes from a variety of sources is usually generated in all sectors including the government sector. Globally public administrations are pursuing (big) data as new technology and trying to adopt a data-centric architecture for hosting and sharing data. Properly executed, big data and data analytics in the government (big) data ecosystem can be led to data-driven government and have a direct impact on the way policymakers work and citizens interact with governments. In this research paper, we conduct a systematic literature review. The main aims of this paper are to highlight essential aspects of the government (big) data ecosystem and to explore the most critical socio-technical factors that contribute to the successful implementation of government (big) data ecosystem. The essential aspects of government (big) data ecosystem include definition, data types, data lifecycle models, and actors and their roles. We also discuss the potential impact of (big) data in public administration and gaps in the government data ecosystems literature. As this is a new topic, we did not find specific articles on government (big) data ecosystem and therefore focused our research on various relevant areas like humanitarian data, open government data, scientific research data, industry data, etc.

Keywords: applications of big data, big data, big data types. big data ecosystem, critical success factors, data-driven government, egovernment, gaps in data ecosystems, government (big) data, literature review, public administration, systematic review

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Authors: Loretta Ichim, Dan Popescu, Grigore Stamatescu

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The paper reports the collaboration between a top university from Romania and three companies for the implementation of a research project in a multidisciplinary domain, focusing on the impact and benefits both for the education and industry. The joint activities were developed under the Space Technology and Advanced Research Program (STAR), funded by the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) for a university-industry partnership. The context was defined by linking the European Space Agency optional programs, with the development and promotion national research, with the educational and industrial capabilities in the aeronautics, security and related areas by increasing the collaboration between academic and industrial entities as well as by realizing high-level scientific production. The project name is Multisensory Robotic System for Aerial Monitoring of Critical Infrastructure Systems (MUROS), which was carried 2013-2016. The project included the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (coordinator) and three companies, which manufacture and market unmanned aerial systems. The project had as main objective the development of an integrated system for combined ground wireless sensor networks and UAV monitoring in various application scenarios for critical infrastructure surveillance. This included specific activities related to fundamental and applied research, technology transfer, prototype implementation and result dissemination. The core area of the contributions laid in distributed data processing and communication mechanisms, advanced image processing and embedded system development. Special focus is given by the paper to analyzing the impact the project implementation in the educational process, directly or indirectly, through the faculty members (professors and students) involved in the research team. Three main directions are discussed: a) enabling students to carry out internships at the partner companies, b) handling advanced topics and industry requirements at the master's level, c) experiments and concept validation for doctoral thesis. The impact of the research work (as the educational component) developed by the faculty members on the increasing performances of the companies’ products is highlighted. The collaboration between university and companies was well balanced both for contributions and results. The paper also presents the outcomes of the project which reveals the efficient collaboration between high education and industry: master thesis, doctoral thesis, conference papers, journal papers, technical documentation for technology transfer, prototype, and patent. The experience can provide useful practices of blending research and education within an academia-industry cooperation framework while the lessons learned represent a starting point in debating the new role of advanced research and development performing companies in association with higher education. This partnership, promoted at UE level, has a broad impact beyond the constrained scope of a single project and can develop into long-lasting collaboration while benefiting all stakeholders: students, universities and the surrounding knowledge-based economic and industrial ecosystem. Due to the exchange of experiences between the university (UPB) and the manufacturing company (AFT Design), a new project, SIMUL, under the Bridge Grant Program (Romanian executive agency UEFISCDI) was started (2016 – 2017). This project will continue the educational research for innovation on master and doctoral studies in MUROS thematic (collaborative multi-UAV application for flood detection).

Keywords: education process, multisensory robotic system, research and innovation project, technology transfer, university-industry partnership

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Authors: Till Gramberg, Erwin Gross, Christoph Birenbaum

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This paper presents the approach of the Easy2IoT research project. Easy2IoT aims to enable companies in the prefabrication sheet metal and sheet metal processing industry to enter the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) with a low-threshold and cost-effective approach. It focuses on the development of physical hardware and software to easily capture machine activities from on a sawing machine, benefiting various stakeholders in the SME value chain, including machine operators, tool manufacturers and service providers. The methodological approach of Easy2IoT includes an in-depth requirements analysis and customer interviews with stakeholders along the value chain. Based on these insights, actions, requirements and potential solutions for smart services are derived. The focus is on providing actionable recommendations, competencies and easy integration through no-/low-code applications to facilitate implementation and connectivity within production networks. At the core of the project is a novel, non-invasive measurement and analysis system that can be easily deployed and made IIoT-ready. This system collects machine data without interfering with the machines themselves. It does this by non-invasively measuring the tension on a sawing machine. The collected data is then connected and analyzed using artificial intelligence (AI) to provide smart services through a platform-based application. Three Smart Services are being developed within Easy2IoT to provide immediate benefits to users: Wear part and product material condition monitoring and predictive maintenance for sawing processes. The non-invasive measurement system enables the monitoring of tool wear, such as saw blades, and the quality of consumables and materials. Service providers and machine operators can use this data to optimize maintenance and reduce downtime and material waste. Optimize Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) by monitoring machine activity. The non-invasive system tracks machining times, setup times and downtime to identify opportunities for OEE improvement and reduce unplanned machine downtime. Estimate CO2 emissions for connected machines. CO2 emissions are calculated for the entire life of the machine and for individual production steps based on captured power consumption data. This information supports energy management and product development decisions. The key to Easy2IoT is its modular and easy-to-use design. The non-invasive measurement system is universally applicable and does not require specialized knowledge to install. The platform application allows easy integration of various smart services and provides a self-service portal for activation and management. Innovative business models will also be developed to promote the sustainable use of the collected machine activity data. The project addresses the digitalization gap between large enterprises and SME. Easy2IoT provides SME with a concrete toolkit for IIoT adoption, facilitating the digital transformation of smaller companies, e.g. through retrofitting of existing machines.

Keywords: smart services, IIoT, IIoT-platform, industrie 4.0, big data

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Authors: Rolla Monib, Chris I. Goodier, Alistair Gibbs

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The aim of this paper is to investigate the key drivers in planning the construction phase for infrastructure projects to reduce project delays. To achieve this aim, the research conducted three case studies using semi-structured and unstructured interviews (n=36). The results conclude that a lack of modularisation awareness is among the key factors attributed to project delays. The current emotive and ill-informed approach to decision-making, coupled with the lack of knowledge regarding appropriate construction method selection, prevents the potential benefits of modularisation being fully realised. To assist with decision-making for the best construction method, the research presents project management tools to help decision makers to choose the most appropriate construction approach through optimising the use of modularisation in EC. A decision-making checklist and diagram are presented in this paper. These checklist tools and diagrams assist the project team in determining the best construction method, taking into consideration the module type.

Keywords: infrastructure, modularization, decision support, decision-making

Procedia PDF Downloads 15