Manufacturing excellent engineers: Skill development in a Masters programme

An MPhil programme, delivered by the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge, claims to be excellent at preparing graduates for manufacturing industry careers. The course uses a combination of different educational experiences, including industry-based assignments, industrial visits and practical exercises. This research explores how problem solving skills are developed during the first module, Induction, which is designed to enable students to undertake their first industrial assignment. From the literature, four conditions necessary for skill development were identified: Provision of a skill description, making explicit key components A number of different experiences with a range of contextual variables A teaching process which includes regular feedback and student reflection Students motivated to learn. These were used to construct a skill development framework (SDF). Using a case study research design, multiple types of evidence were collected to test for the above conditions using both classroom observation and questionnaire methods. The results confirmed the presence of the SDF conditions at different levels, with reflection aspects considered the weakest. Conflicting results were obtained regarding the students' self-awareness of skill levels. A plausible explanation is a change in the students' frame of reference. This initial study set out to develop a better understanding of the process of skill development. Whilst the SDF appears reasonable, there is a need for further work in three broad areas of defining skills, assessing skills and developing reflection skills.

Selecting a multi-agent system development tool for industrial applications: A case study of self-serving aircraft assets

Industrialists have few example processes they can benchmark against in order to choose a multi-agent development kit. In this paper we present a review of commercial and academic agent tools with the aim of selecting one for developing an intelligent, self-serving asset architecture. In doing so, we map and enhance relevant assessment criteria found in literature. After a preliminary review of 20 multiagent platforms, we examine in further detail those of JADE, JACK and Cougaar. Our findings indicate that Cougaar is well suited for our requirements, showing excellent support for criteria such as scalability, persistence, mobility and lightweightness. © 2010 IEEE.

Top Management Involvement in New Product Development: A Review and Synthesis

Established literature on new product development (NPD) management recognizes top management involvement (TMI) as one of the most critical success factors. With increasing pressure to sustain competitive advantage and growth, NPD activities remain the focus of close interest from top management in many organizations. TMI in the NPD domain is receiving increasing academic attention. Despite its criticality, there is no systematic review of the existing literature to inform and stimulate researchers in the field for further investigation. This paper introduces the current state of literature on TMI in NPD, synthesizes important findings, and identifies the gaps and deficiencies in this research stream. The contents of the selected articles, which investigated TMI in NPD, are analyzed based on the type of the study, level of analysis, research methodology, operationalization of TMI, and main findings. Additionally, other studies, which did not directly investigate TMI and support in NPD, but were sufficiently related, are briefly summarized. As a result of this detailed literature review, it can be stated that both exploratory and relational studies provide rich evidence on the critical role of top management in NPD. However, the identified gaps and deficiencies in this research stream call for a better theoretical understanding and well-defined constructs of TMI in the NPD domain for different levels of analysis for future studies.