Embedded Monitoring Server

This study investigates, designs, and implements an inexpensive application that allows local and remote monitoring of a home. The application consists of an array of sensors for monitoring different conditions in a home environment and also for accessing the devices that might be connected to the system. Only a few sensors are initially involved in this study and information about the temperature level, forced entry detection, smoke and water leakage detection can be obtained at any time from any location with an Internet connection. The application software (coded in C language) runs on an embedded system which is basically a wireless Linksys router running on a GNU/Linux based firmware for embedded systems. Interaction between the sensors and the application software is achieved through an implemented sensor interfacing circuit. The communication with the sensor interfacing unit is done through the serial port, and accessibility of the connected sensors is achieved through a telnet client. The sensors can be accessed from local and remote locations with the sensors giving reliable information. The resulting application shows that it is possible to use the router for other applications other than what it is intended for.

Tuotekehitys- ja innovaatioprosessin kehittäminen yrityksessä

Tutkimus käsittelee tuotekehitys- ja innovaatioprosessin kehittämistä ja sen vakiinnuttamista kohdeyrityksissä A ja B. Työssä luodaan ensin kirjallisuustutkimuksena yleinen teoreettinen viitekehys ja lähtötilannemalli tuotekehitys- ja innovaatioprosessin referenssimallille. Tämän vaiheen aikanakäsitellään erilaisia elementtejä ja vaiheita, joita tarvitaan kehitysprosessinkuvaamiseen ja sen kehittämiseen. Prosessimallissa ovat keskeisessä osassa päätöspisteet, joiden arviointikriteereitä ja -tekniikoita työssä käsitellään osana portfolion hallinnan eri mahdollisuuksia. Kehitettyä teoreettista mallia lähdetään implementoimaan työn toisessa osassa kohdeyrityksiin A ja B. Implementoinninyhteydessä käydään läpi sekä prosessikuvaus että siihen liittyvät päätöskriteerit. Tutkimuksen lopputuloksena on yrityksille tuotettu esitys innovaatioprosessista ja sen eri osa-alueista tarkemmalla tasolla sekä tutkimuksen puitteissa rakennettu portfoliotyökalu, jolla kehitysprojekteja voidaan hallinnoida niiden eri vaiheissa.

Case-yrityksen vertikaaliratkaisujen toimittajakumppanuuksien johtaminen

IT-toimialan järjestelmätoimittajien liittoutuminen alalla toimivien vertikaalitoimittajien kanssa on tuonut mukanaan tarpeita kumppanuustoiminnan kehittämiselle. Kehittämiseen liittyy läheisesti kumppanuustoiminnan mittaaminen ja kumppanuuksien arviointi, jotta voidaan varmistaa kehittämistoimien tuloksellisuus ja kumppanuustoiminnan tehokkuus. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena olitutkia case-yrityksen kumppanuusmallin ja kumppanuuteen liittyvän toiminnan tehokkuutta ja kehittymiskykyä. Lähtökohtana oli kumppanuuteen vaikuttavista elementeistä, kuten luottamus, sosiaalinen pääoma ja kumppanuusmekanismit, aikaisemmintuotetun tutkimusaineistojen selvittäminen ja hyväksikäyttö. Kerättyä aineistoapeilattiin case-yrityksen kumppanitoiminnan malliin ja menetelmiin toimittajakumppanuuksissa. Vertailulla pyrittiin selvittämään miten case-yritys toteuttaa kumppanuustoimintaansa ja miten toimintaa voisi parantaa. Lopputuloksena arvioitiin case-yrityksen kumppanuustoimintaa esitettyjen teorioiden näkökulmasta ja muodostettiin case-yritykselle kumppanuustoiminnan mittaamista tukeva mittaristo. Tutkimus on kirjallisuustutkimus ja siinä käytettiin lähteinä keskeisimpiä kumppanuudesta kirjoitettua kirjallisuutta ja kumppanuuden hallinnasta tehtyjä tutkimuksia.

Data-parallel computation in parallel and distributed environments

The past few decades have seen a considerable increase in the number of parallel and distributed systems. With the development of more complex applications, the need for more powerful systems has emerged and various parallel and distributed environments have been designed and implemented. Each of the environments, including hardware and software, has unique strengths and weaknesses. There is no single parallel environment that can be identified as the best environment for all applications with respect to hardware and software properties. The main goal of this thesis is to provide a novel way of performing data-parallel computation in parallel and distributed environments by utilizing the best characteristics of difference aspects of parallel computing. For the purpose of this thesis, three aspects of parallel computing were identified and studied. First, three parallel environments (shared memory, distributed memory, and a network of workstations) are evaluated to quantify theirsuitability for different parallel applications. Due to the parallel and distributed nature of the environments, networks connecting the processors in these environments were investigated with respect to their performance characteristics. Second, scheduling algorithms are studied in order to make them more efficient and effective. A concept of application-specific information scheduling is introduced. The application- specific information is data about the workload extractedfrom an application, which is provided to a scheduling algorithm. Three scheduling algorithms are enhanced to utilize the application-specific information to further refine their scheduling properties. A more accurate description of the workload is especially important in cases where the workunits are heterogeneous and the parallel environment is heterogeneous and/or non-dedicated. The results obtained show that the additional information regarding the workload has a positive impact on the performance of applications. Third, a programming paradigm for networks of symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) workstations is introduced. The MPIT programming paradigm incorporates the Message Passing Interface (MPI) with threads to provide a methodology to write parallel applications that efficiently utilize the available resources and minimize the overhead. The MPIT allows for communication and computation to overlap by deploying a dedicated thread for communication. Furthermore, the programming paradigm implements an application-specific scheduling algorithm. The scheduling algorithm is executed by the communication thread. Thus, the scheduling does not affect the execution of the parallel application. Performance results achieved from the MPIT show that considerable improvements over conventional MPI applications are achieved.

TYÖPROSESSIN JA TOIMINNANOHJAUSSOVELLUKSEN KÄYTTÖÖNOTTO

Työn tavoitteena oli tutkia uuden tuotannonohjausjärjestelmän ja työprosessin käyttöönottoa maantieteellisesti hajautetussa organisaatiossa. Tavoitteena oli myös laatia malli kuinka mittavat järjestelmäkäyttöönotot tulisi viedä läpi hallitusti. Tutkimuksen teoriaosuus on tehty kirjallisuustukimuksena ja asiantuntijahaastatteluiden pohjalta. Teoriaosuudessa käydään läpi mitkä seikat uuden tuotannonohjausjärjestelmän käyttöönotossa ovat tärkeitä onnistumisen kannalta ja kuinka käyttöönottoprojekti tulisi viedä läpi. Työn empiirisessä osuudessa on analysoitu kuinka järjestelmä otettiin käyttöön kohdeyrityksessä. Empiirinen osa on tehty tarkastelemalla käyttöönottoa ja onnistumista on pohdittu suorittamalla käyttäjäkysely. Järjestelmien käyttöönotot epäonnistuvat useassa tapauksessa. Nämä epäonnistumiset johtuvat usein käyttöönotto-organisaation kokemattomuudesta viedä läpi monimutkaisia projekteja, suunnittelun puutteesta, huonosta sitoutumisesta muutokseen tai riittämättömästä resurssien allokoinnista. Ennalta suunnittelu, suunnitelmien pitävyyden tarkastaminen ja mahdollisesti muuttaminen käyttöönoton edetessä ovat avaimia onnistumiseen. Kohdeyrityksessä otetaan erilaisia järjestelmiä käyttöön ajoittain. Nämä käyttöönotot eivät ole kuitenkaan aina sujuneet halutulla tavalla. Tutkimus pyrkii luomaan vaiheittaisen mallin muutokseen valmistautumisesta, suunnittelusta, muutoksen kouluttamisesta, järjestelmän integroimisesta muihin järjestelmiin, muutoksen läpivientiin ja käyttöönoton onnistumisen mittaamisesta. Tutkimuksessa käsitellään uuden projektinhallintajärjestelmän käyttöönoton problematiikan lisäksi uuden työprosessin käyttöönottoa.

Avainasiakkaan asiakaspalvelutarpeiden kartoitus ja menetelmät niiden tyydyttämiseksi

Tässä diplomityössä tarkastellaan teollisuuden avainasiakkaan tarpeiden kartoitusta yhden case-yrityksen näkökulmasta. Diplomityön tavoitteena on systemaattisesti kartoittaa avainasiakkaan palvelutarpeet ja luoda menetelmät niiden tyydyttämiseksi. Kirjallisuustutkimuksessa tarkastellaan tiedon synnyn, jalostamisen ja välittämisen merkitystä asiakaspalvelun ja asiakastarvekartoituksen näkökannalta. Tutkimuksen perusteella tunnistetaan modernin asiakaspalvelun ja avainasiakkaan tarvekartoituksen vaatimukset, merkitys sekä olennaiset menetelmät. Diplomityön empiirisessä osassa toteutetaan avainasiakkaan ja niihin vaikuttavien sidosryhmien kartoitus, haastattelut tarvetiedon löytämiseksi sekä luodaan menetelmät ja rakennetaan dynaaminen palvelumalli tarpeiden tyydyttämiseksi. Empiiriset tulokset osoittavat, että avainasiakkaan tarpeita ei tunneta riittävän laajasti ja että systemaattisilla tarvekartoitusmenetelmillä voidaan identifioida ne, sekä ohjata palvelutyön menetelmien suunnittelua ja vyöryttää tarpeita edelleen arvoketjussa ratkaistavaksi. Tulosten perusteella suositellaan liiketoimintaprosessien uudistamista ja dynaamisen palvelumallin käyttöönottoa konsernissa.

Opettajan monikulttuurinen työ

Teacher's multicultural work The purpose of the present study is to explore teachers’ conceptions of their work as teachers of multicultural students. Teachers’ experiences of multicultural work and conceptions derived from them are part of the teacher’s multicultural competence which is seen as a key component of the teacher’s multicultural teachership. The teacher’s multicultural competence consists of the teacher’s cultural knowledge, pedagogical skills and experiences and attitudes related to multiculturalism. The teacher’s multicultural competence constitutes the basis on which the teacher implements multicultural education. The foundation for the teacher’s work is laid by laws and decrees, curricula, regulations issued by authorities in charge of the education of immigrant students, resources available and other demands and expectations set by the ambient society. The study was conducted in the city of Turku, Finland. The sample consisted of class teachers who taught both immigrant and majority students. Main objects of study in the theoretical part are the multicultural and pluralistic school and the multicultural teachership. The basic assumption is that the multicultural and pluralistic school forms the frame of activity in which the teacher implements multicultural teaching. The research strategy is based on methodological triangulation. The quantitative part of the study was carried out using a questionnaire typical of survey methods. The questionnaire was returned by 71 teachers. The qualitative part was conducted using theme-based interviews typical of phenomenological philosophical research. Of the total of teachers who returned the questionnaire, twelve (12) teachers were selected for interviews. According to the results, the participating teachers enjoyed their work regardless of the ample extra work caused by the students with immigrant backgrounds. The teachers experienced their work as teachers of multicultural student groups as strenuous, yet challenging. Students with immigrant backgrounds had caused many changes in the teacher’s work. The teachers regarded their multicultural skills as inadequate in relation to the demands of the work. They had not received education related to teaching students with immigrant backgrounds, but they were ready for in-service education. The teachers’ previous attitudes concerning immigrant students had been enforced. Teaching experiences strengthened the earlier, both positive and negative, attitudes. The central problems related to multiculturalism in the teacher’s work were caused by the deficient Finnish skills of the students with immigrant background. This was apparent in both teaching and learning as well as in contacts with parents. The teachers reported on relatively few inclusions of multicultural angles in their teaching. However, they believed that they could aid students with different cultural backgrounds in their integration process. At the same time they felt that their own chances to enhance the students’ cultural identities were slim. On the basis of the interviews conducted in connection with the teacher’s multicultural competence, the teachers were divided into three groups: assimilative, indeterminate and integrating multicultural teachers. The present study provides a strong indication that teachers tend to interpret multiculturalism in narrow terms. School activities, such as Finnish as a second language, first language and religious instruction, which were targeted exclusively at immigrant students were in most cases considered adequate. A holistic, cross-disciplinary, all-inclusive multicultural education that would permeate all school activities remains largely unimplemented.

Launching the product innovation to a market: case study from a dairy industry

In the environment of ever-changing needs of customers, technologies and competitors, the survival of the company depends on how well it researches, develops and implements new products to the market. The need for development of new products relates to many factors: globalization, international competition which is now underway on a global scale, scientific advances and development of production, changes in consumer preferences and consumer behavior. In this study the focus is on the company form a dairy products industry. This study is aimed to defining the role of product innovation launch strategy in an overall enterprise strategy, and to select the optimal combination of its marketing tools. The main purpose of this study is to determine place and the role of innovative marketing based in the innovation process, and to determine launch and positioning strategies in the general concept of an innovative product. The object of the study is the Russian enterprise, which is aimed to achieve a competitive advantage through the continuous production of new products, upgrade existing ones and improve innovation management practices. Research showed that the differentiation strategy is suitable for launching the dairy industry product innovation to a market.

Service oriented archive based on Fedora Commons

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Co-creating value with customers as a new approach of entering new market

Global trends associated with development of information technology, globalization, industrial and economic changes are influencing on company and customer domains and thus transforming company-customer relationship. The company centric paradigm with a strong product focus shifts to a customer oriented one with a strong emphasis on customer collaboration. As a result, the customer role changes from a passive observer to an active player. Moreover, global trends contribute to transformation of competitive environment making it tougher and simplifying an access to resources previously considered as unique. All that factors push the companies towards cooperation with customers in order to identify unarticulated needs and finding the best possible solution to existing customer problems. The Master’s Thesis is done for Outotec (Lappeenranta) which considers extension of dewatering business in Russian coal market. Research aims to identify key features of coal preparation and dewatering of fine coal and tailings in Russian preparation plants; analyze the state of Russian coal market and evaluate market potential for Outotec dewatering solutions. The study has a qualitative nature and implements an action research methodology that involves both creation of knowledge and introduction of changes into the system. The base for taking actions is formed by theoretical framework that targets on describing company - customer interaction and has selected co-creation as the most appropriate method of customer involvement. The integration of co-creation approach into an action research cycle allows not only fulfilling the research objectives but also facilitates organizational learning and intraorganizational collaboration, assists in establishing customer contacts and making the first steps into the market, bringing new joint projects to the company and opening real business opportunities.

Strategic management of value networks: how to create value in cross-sector collaboration and partnerships

Cross-sector collaboration and partnerships have become an emerging and desired strategy in addressing huge social and environmental challenges. Despite its popularity, cross-sector collaboration management has proven to be very challenging. Even though cross-sector collaboration and partnership management have been widely studied and discussed in recent years, their effectiveness as well as their ability to create value with respect to the problems they address has remained very challenging. There is little or no evidence of their ability to create value. Regarding all these challenges, this study aims to explore how to manage cross-sector collaborations and partnerships to be able to improve their effectiveness and to create more value for all partners involved in collaboration as well as for customers. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part comprises an overview of relevant literature (including strategic management, value networks and value creation theories), followed by presenting the results of the whole thesis and the contribution made by the study. The second part consists of six research publications, including both quantitative and qualitative studies. The chosen research strategy is triangulation, as the study includes four types of triangulation: (1) theoretical triangulation, (2) methodological triangulation, (3) data triangulation and (4) researcher triangulation. Two publications represent conceptual development, which are based on secondary data research. One publication is a quantitative study, carried out through a survey. The other three publications represent qualitative studies, based on case studies, where data was collected through interviews and workshops, with participation of managers from all three sectors: public, private and the third (nonprofit). The study consolidates the field of “strategic management of value networks,” which is proposed to be applied in the context of cross-sector collaboration and partnerships, with the aim of increasing their effectiveness and the process of value creation. Furthermore, the study proposes a first definition for the strategic management of value networks. The study also proposes and develops two strategy tools that are recommended to be used for the strategic management of value networks in cross-sector collaboration and partnerships. Taking a step forward, the study implements the strategy tools in practice, aiming to show and to demonstrate how new value can be created by using the developed strategy tools for the strategic management of value networks. This study makes four main contributions. (1) First, it brings a theoretical contribution by providing new insights and consolidating the field of strategic management of value networks, also proposing a first definition for the strategic management of value networks. (2) Second, the study makes a methodical contribution by proposing and developing two strategy tools for value networks of cross-sector collaboration: (a) value network mapping, a method that allows us to assess the current and the potential value network and (b) the Value Network Scorecard, a method of performance measurement and performance prediction in cross-sector collaboration. (3) Third, the study has managerial implications, offering new solutions and empirical evidence on how to increase the effectiveness of cross-sector collaboration and also allow managers to understand how new value can be created in cross-sector partnerships and how to get the full potential of collaboration. (4) And fourth, the study also has practical implications, allowing managers to understand how to use in practice the strategy tools developed in this study, providing discussions on the limitations regarding the proposed tools as well as general limitations involved in the study.

Novel control, haptic and calibration methods for teleoperated electrohydraulic servo systems

The aim of this thesis is to propose a novel control method for teleoperated electrohydraulic servo systems that implements a reliable haptic sense between the human and manipulator interaction, and an ideal position control between the manipulator and the task environment interaction. The proposed method has the characteristics of a universal technique independent of the actual control algorithm and it can be applied with other suitable control methods as a real-time control strategy. The motivation to develop this control method is the necessity for a reliable real-time controller for teleoperated electrohydraulic servo systems that provides highly accurate position control based on joystick inputs with haptic capabilities. The contribution of the research is that the proposed control method combines a directed random search method and a real-time simulation to develop an intelligent controller in which each generation of parameters is tested on-line by the real-time simulator before being applied to the real process. The controller was evaluated on a hydraulic position servo system. The simulator of the hydraulic system was built based on Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. A Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm combined with the foraging behavior of E. coli bacteria was utilized as the directed random search engine. The control strategy allows the operator to be plugged into the work environment dynamically and kinetically. This helps to ensure the system has haptic sense with high stability, without abstracting away the dynamics of the hydraulic system. The new control algorithm provides asymptotically exact tracking of both, the position and the contact force. In addition, this research proposes a novel method for re-calibration of multi-axis force/torque sensors. The method makes several improvements to traditional methods. It can be used without dismantling the sensor from its application and it requires smaller number of standard loads for calibration. It is also more cost efficient and faster in comparison to traditional calibration methods. The proposed method was developed in response to re-calibration issues with the force sensors utilized in teleoperated systems. The new approach aimed to avoid dismantling of the sensors from their applications for applying calibration. A major complication with many manipulators is the difficulty accessing them when they operate inside a non-accessible environment; especially if those environments are harsh; such as in radioactive areas. The proposed technique is based on design of experiment methodology. It has been successfully applied to different force/torque sensors and this research presents experimental validation of use of the calibration method with one of the force sensors which method has been applied to.

The Mexican Dream, What Drives the Mexican Millennial to invest?

The Mexican dream is the equivalent of the American Dream for Mexico. This thesis explores what is the equivalent of the American Dream for young Mexican adults (25 to 35 year old Mexicans). The aim of the study is to develop an understanding of the core values of young Mexican adults. The study is made for a case company, Expertos Patrimoniales Wealth Management Advisors, who intend to sell financial management services to these young Mexican adults in the next 5 to 10 years. This study implements a cross-cultural consumer behavior framework by David Luna, in order to consider factors like culture, and value systems to uncover the Mexican Dream for young Mexican adults. In order to gather data for this study, key informants were interviewed in specific areas, such as culture, financial consumer behavior and Mexican culture among others. The results suggest that independence is a strong driver for the young Mexican adults, independence from their family, from the corporate hierarchy and men. These core drivers differ from the traditional culture values where hierarchy and a secure job, family which includes the extended family and women´s economic dependency on men have been strong. Images of the future are created in order to understand the young Mexican adults Mexican Dream in the next 5 to 10 years, in order to provide useful information for the case company for the development of products and services that this segment of the Mexican market might find interesting in the near future.

Improvement of Energy Efficiency in a Gold Mining Industry: Case Study of a Russian Gold Mining Company

The issue of energy efficiency is attracting more and more attention of academia, business and policy makers worldwide due to increasing environmental concerns, depletion of non-renewable energy resources and unstable energy prices. The significant importance of energy efficiency within gold mining industry is justified by considerable energy intensity of this industry as well as by the high share of energy costs in the total operational costs. In the context of increasing industrial energy consumption energy efficiency improvement may provide significant energy savings and reduction of CO2 emission that is highly important in order to contribute to the global goal of sustainability. The purpose of this research is to identify the ways of energy efficiency improvement relevant for a gold mining company. The study implements single holistic case study research strategy focused on a Russian gold mining company. The research involves comprehensive analysis of company’s energy performance including analysis of energy efficiency and energy management practices. This study provides following theoretical and managerial contributions. Firstly, it proposes a methodology for comparative analysis of energy performance of Russian and foreign gold mining companies. Secondly, this study provides comprehensive analysis of main energy efficiency challenges relevant for a Russian gold mining company. Finally, in order to overcome identified challenges this research conceives a guidance for a gold mining company for implementation of energy management system based on the ISO standard.

Verkkosivuston käytön mittaaminen

Tässä työssä käsitellään kävijäseurannan menetelmiä ja toteutetaan niitä käytännössä. Web-analytiikkaohjelmistojen toimintaan tutustutaan, pääasiassa keskittyen Google Analyticsiin. Tavoitteena on selvittää Lappeenrannan matkailulaitepäätteiden käyttömääriä ja eriyttää niitä laitekohtaisesti. Web-analytiikasta tehdään kirjallisuuskatsaus ja kävijäseurantadataa analysoidaan sekä vertaillaan kahdesta eri verkkosivustosta. Lisäksi matkailulaitepäätteiden verkkosivuston lokeja tarkastellaan tiedonlouhinnan keinoin tarkoitusta varten kehitetyllä Python-sovelluksella. Työn pohjalta voidaan todeta, ettei matkailulaitepäätteiden käyttömääriä voida nykyisen toteutuksen perusteella eriyttää laitekohtaisesti. Istuntojen määrää ja tapahtumia voidaan kuitenkin seurata. Matkailulaitepäätteiden kävijäseurannassa tunnistetaan useita ongelmia, kuten päätteiden automaattisen verkkosivunpäivityksen tuloksia vääristävä vaikutus, osittainen Google Analytics -integraatio ja tärkeimpänä päätteen yksilöivän tunnistetiedon puuttuminen. Työssä ehdotetaan ratkaisuja, joilla mahdollistetaan kävijäseurannan tehokas käyttö ja laitekohtainen seuranta. Saadut tulokset korostavat kävijäseurannan toteutuksen suunnitelmallisuuden tärkeyttä.