Local Commons : communicating local issues through place-based interventions

Due to the numerous possibilities of voicing concerns and the flood of data we are exposed to, local issues are at a risk of being overlooked. Following a research agenda proposed by Foth et al. (2013), this thesis explored the possible contributions of situated digital and tangible media for communicating local issues. Making use of the location of an issue could thereby not only allow to reach the targeted audience but also for a deeper involvement of citizens. Through the development of a design intervention in public space, called Local Commons, the benefits of this approach were investigated. Therefore, the intervention combined digital and tangible media in order to engage the public to contribute and debate different perspectives on a given local issue. The interaction with the intervention was thereby twofold. First, the intervention invited the audience to submit images of their perspectives on the issue, which were displayed on a public screen. Via tangible buttons in front of the screen, the audience then had the possibility to agree or disagree to the displayed perspectives, creating a space for deliberation. In a field study, the concept was subsequently tested and evaluated. The results of this study, although not generalisable, supported the chosen approach of this thesis.

Vote with your feet : hyperlocal public polling for urban screens

Technological advances have led to an ongoing spread of public displays in urban areas. However, they still mostly show passive content such as commercials and digital signage. Researchers took notice of their potential to spark situated civic discourse in public space and have begun working on interactive public display applications. Attracting people’s attention and providing a low barrier for user participation have been identified as major challenges in their design. This thesis presents Vote With Your Feet, a hyperlocal public polling tool for urban screens allowing users to express their opinions. Similar to vox populi interviews on TV or polls on news websites, the tool is meant to reflect the mindset of the community on topics such as current affairs, cultural identity and local matters. It shows one Yes/No question at a time and enables users to vote by stepping on one of two tangible buttons on the ground. This user interface was introduced to attract people’s attention and to lower participation barriers. Vote With Your Feet was informed by a user-centred design approach that included a focus group, expert interviews and extensive preliminary user studies in the wild. Deployed at a bus stop, Vote With Your Feet was evaluated in a field study over the course of several days. Observations of people and interviews with 30 participants revealed that the novel interaction technology was perceived as inviting and that Vote With Your Feet can spark discussions among co-located people.

Semantic querying of business process models

Determining similarity between business process models has recently gained interest in the business process management community. So far similarity was addressed separately either at semantic or structural aspect of process models. Also, most of the contributions that measure similarity of process models assume an ideal case when process models are enriched with semantics - a description of meaning of process model elements. However, in real life this results in a heavy human effort consuming pre-processing phase which is often not feasible. In this paper we propose an automated approach for querying a business process model repository for structurally and semantically relevant models. Similar to the search on the Internet, a user formulates a BPMN-Q query and as a result receives a list of process models ordered by relevance to the query. We provide a business process model search engine implementation for evaluation of the proposed approach.

Process model abstraction : a slider approach

Process models provide companies efficient means for managing their business processes. Tasks where process models are employed are different by nature and require models of various abstraction levels. However, maintaining several models of one business process involves a lot of synchronization effort and is erroneous. Business process model abstraction assumes a detailed model of a process to be available and derives coarse grained models from it. The task of abstraction is to tell significant model elements from insignificant ones and to reduce the latter. In this paper we argue that process model abstraction can be driven by different abstraction criteria. Criterion choice depends on a task which abstraction facilitates. We propose an abstraction slider - a mechanism that allows user control of the model abstraction level. We discuss examples of combining the slider with different abstraction criteria and sets of process model transformation rules.

Privacy enhanced electronic cheque system

With the introduction of Check 21 law and the development of FSTC's echeck system, there has been an increasing usage of e-cheque conversions and acceptance among retailers, banks, and consumers. However, the current e-cheque system does not address issues concerning privacy, confidentiality, and traceability. We highlight the issues concerning the current electronic cheque system and provide a solution to overcome those drawbacks.

She'll be right mate : inclusivity experiences of men and women working in projects

Occupational segregation is a major source of labour market rigidity and economic inefficiency due to a waste of human resources. Organisations are repeatedly recognised as gendered constructs exhibiting sustained work segregation, income and status inequality, as well as cultural and individual images of gender, and these are perpetuated through their processes, practices and pressures (Acker, 1990). A large percentage of Australia’s workforce is now employed in project-based or project-oriented organisations, leading to the claim that Australia is a project-based economy. For a continued strong performance in this economy, organisations that employ project personnel will need to consider how they address inclusivity and equality in diversity in project based temporary organisations to ensure the supply of high quality project professionals into the future. This paper investigates the inclusion processes experienced and exercised by men and women working in temporary organisations in project situations through a review of reports on the inclusion processes experienced by 60 project managers and project workers in three project based industries in Australia. Results indicate that temporary organisations are not implementing equality and diversity management strategies at the macro level and project workers are accepting this lack of recognition. However inclusivity and equality at the micro level of the team is seen as vital.

No worries – we’ll take care of it!! An examination into managing equality and inclusivity in multicultural Australia

This paper explores the various paths to equality and inclusivity developed in the past 40 years within the Australian workplace with a view to critically examining their capability of addressing diversity and equality within the cultural needs of a unique society. A society which struggles to overcome the tyranny of distance and a colonial past as it takes its place in the world as a global 1st world economy country in what is often considered ‘the global north’ despite its geographical location. Findings indicate that despite various legislative and non-legislative approaches including anti-discrimination; affirmative action; equal opportunity; managing diversity and more recently gender equality, the individual members of the many diverse groups in the Australian workplace still experience inferior work conditions and work opportunities.

Tangible E-Learning

Tangible User Interfaces increasingly gain attention for their supportive potential in cognitive processes. More and more often the terms e-Learning and tangible interaction are been referred to in one word as Tangible e-Learning. This paper gives a general overview on the topic in reference to development history, research and effectiveness. It explains how epistemology, together with its idea that physicality enhances learning and that the cognitive process can happen in expressive or exploratory manner, motivates the emerging of TUIs and acts as a basis for the classification of Tangible e-Learning Systems. The benefits of TUIs in comparison to classical GUIs in terms of their contribution to the learning process, engagement, enjoyment and collaboration are empirically proven, although poorly. Nevertheless, it is not known whether TUIs have stronger potential than common Physical User Interfaces that are not electronically augmented. Still, TUIs that support learning have a strong potential to be integrated into real world scenarios.

DoGood : A gamified mobile app to promote civic engagement

The rise of the mobile Internet enables the creation of applications that provide new and easier ways for people to organise themselves, raise issues, take action and interact with their city. However, a lack of motivation or knowledge often prevents many citizens from regularly contributing to the common good. Therefore, this thesis presents DoGood, a smartphone app, that aims at motivating citizens to carry out civic activities. The thesis asks what kinds of activities citizens consider to be civic and to what extent gamification can motivate users in this context. The DoGood app uses gamified elements to encourage citizens to submit and promote their civic activities as well as to join the activities of others. Gamification is sometimes criticized for simply adding a limited number of game elements, such as leaderboards, on top of an existing experience. However, in the case of the DoGood app, the process of game design was an integral part of the development, and the gamified elements target the user’s intrinsic motivations instead of providing them with an external reward. DoGood was implemented as hybrid mobile app and deployed to citizens of Brisbane in a five weeks long user study. The app successfully motivated most of its users to do more civic activities and its gamified elements were well received. Based on the results of the user study, civic activities can be defined as activities that give citizens the opportunity to become involved and improve life in their local community.

Serendipitous road trips: Enhancing tourists’ experiences through social interaction

Driving can be a lonely activity. While there has been a lot of research and technical inventions concerning car-to-car communication and passenger entertainment, there is still little work concerning connecting drivers. Whereas tourism is very much a social activity, drive tourists have few options to communicate with fellow travellers. The proposed project is placed at the intersection of tourism and driving and aims to enhance the trip experience during driving through social interaction. This thesis explores how a mobile application that allows instant messaging between travellers sharing similar context can add to road trip experiences. To inform the design of such an application, the project adopted the principle of the user-centred design process. User needs were assessed by running an ideation workshop and a field trip. Findings of both studies have shown that tourists have different preferences and diverse attitudes towards contacting new people. Yet all participants stressed the value of social recommendations. Based on those results and a later expert review, three prototype versions of the system were created. A prototyping session with potential end users highlighted the most important features including the possibility to view user profiles, choose between text and audio input and receive up-to-date information. An implemented version of the prototype was evaluated in an exploratory study to identify usability related problems in an actual use case scenario as well as to find implementation bugs. The outcomes of this research are relevant for the design of future mobile tourist guides that leverage from benefits of social recommendations.

Muistin politiikkaa Münchenissä. Keskustelu kansallissosialismi-dokumentaatiokeskuksesta paikallisen menneisyydenkäsittelyn ilmentäjänä.

Pro gradu -työni tutkimuskohde on Münchenissä yli 20 vuotta vireillä olleen museohankkeen ympärillä käyty julkinen keskustelu 1980-luvulta 2000-luvulle. München oli kaupunki, jossa Hitler nousi valtaan, NSDAP-puolue perustettiin ja joka kolmannessa valtakunnassa sai lisänimet ”Liikkeen pääkaupunki” ja ”Taiteen pääkaupunki”. 1980-luvulta lähtien on Münchenissä virinnyt keskustelu tarpeesta perustaa kaupunkiin dokumentaatiokeskus, jossa kansallissosialismin nousua Münchenissä käsiteltäisiin kriittisesti. Dokumentaatiokeskus-hanke on ollut kiistelty ja keskustelun voi katsoa olleen ennen kaikkea kiista siitä, miksi ja miten Münchenin tulisi käsitellä natsimenneisyyttään. Työssäni selvitän sitä, mistä hankkeen ympärillä on kiistelty, millaisia teemoja keskustelussa on noussut esille ja miksi hanke on edennyt niin hitaasti. Työni aikarajaus kattaa 1980- ja 1990-luvut painottuen kuitenkin vahvasti 2000-luvulle, jolloin aiheen ympärillä käyty julkinen keskustelu on ollut vilkkaimmillaan. Tutkielmani primaariaineiston muodostavat lehdistökirjoittelu, radio- ja tv-ohjelmat sekä Münchenissä järjestetyt julkiset keskustelutilaisuudet, joiden aiheena museosuunnitelma on ollut. Tutkielmani jakautuu kuuteen alalukuun, joissa luvuissa neljä ja viisi käyn lävitse varsinaista tutkimusaineistoa. Ennen keskusteluun paneutumista avaan luvussa kaksi työni kannalta keskeisiä käsitteitä, erittelen pääpiirteitä saksalaisesta historiadiskurssista sodanjälkeisinä vuosikymmeninä sekä rakennan työlleni kollektiiviseen muistiin perustuvaa teoreettista viitekehystä. Luvussa kolme käsittelen Münchenin sodanjälkeistä jälleenrakennusta sekä dokumentaatiokeskuksen rakennuspaikaksi valitun Königsplatzin merkitystä natsiliikkeelle. Lisäksi valotan baijerilaisen poliittisen kulttuurin erityispiirteitä. Luvuissa neljä ja viisi analysoin aiheen tiimoilta käytyä julkista keskustelua tutkimusaineiston pohjalta jaotellen sen keskusteluissa pintaan nousseiden teemojen mukaisesti. Museohankkeen hidas eteneminen on ollut osoitus sekä haluttomuudesta että vaikeudesta käsitellä paikallista natsimenneisyyttä. Merkittäväksi tekijäksi museohankkeen etenemisessä nousee Münchenin saama huono julkisuus aiheen tiimoilta sekä kritiikki Münchenin poikkeavuudesta suhteessa muihin saksalaiskaupunkeihin. 2000-luvulla saavutettu poliittinen yksimielisyys dokumentaatiokeskuksen perustamisesta kertoo syvällisestä ajan hengen muutoksesta Münchenissä ja valmiudesta kriittisesti käsitellä kaupungin natsimenneisyyttä.

Investigating the hydrothermal growth of zinc oxide nanostructures through seed layer control

Controlling the growth of ZnO nanostructures for photovoltaic applications will ensure greater device efficiency and parameter control. This paper reports on methods to engineer the morphology and tailor the nanostructure growth direction through the hydrothermal synthesis method. Effective control is achieved through the use of a sputtered zinc layer together with modifications of the growth solution. These nanostructures have been developed with a view to incorporation into excitonic solar cells, and methods to improve surface stability using a fully aqueous synthesis method will be discussed. © by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, München.

Comparison of square and hexagonal fuel lattices for high conversion PWRs

This paper reports on an investigation into fuel design choices of a pressurized water reactor operating in a self-sustainable Th- 233U fuel cycle. In order to evaluate feasibility of this concept, two types of fuel assembly lattices were considered: square and hexagonal. The hexagonal lattice may offer some advantages over the square one. For example, the fertile blanket fuel can be packed more tightly reducing the blanket volume fraction in the core and potentially allowing to achieve higher core average power density. The calculations were carried out with Monte-Carlo based BGCore code system and the results were compared to those obtained with Serpent Monte-Carlo code and deterministic transport code BOXER. One of the major design challenges associated with the SB concept is high power peaking due to the high concentration of fissile material in the seed region. The second objective of this work is to estimate the maximum achievable core power density by evaluation of limiting thermal hydraulic parameters. The analysis showed that both fuel assembly designs have a potential of achieving net breeding. Although hexagonal lattice was found to be somewhat more favorable because it allows achieving higher power density, while having breeding performance comparable to the square lattice case. © Carl Hanser Verlag München.

Selbstorganisierte Projektgruppen von Studierenden. Neue Wege bei der Kompetenzentwicklung an Hochschulen

In diesem Beitrag weisen wir auf die Bedeutung hin, die selbstorganisierte Projektgruppen von Studierenden für das (Aus-)Bildungsziel der überfachlichen Kompetenzentwicklung haben können. Nach einem kurzen Überblick über den aktuellen Stand der Förderung überfachlicher Kompetenzen an Hochschulen stellen wir am Beispiel des Augsburger „Begleitstudiums Problemlösekompetenz“ einen Ansatz zur Kompetenzentwicklung vor, der auf der Partizipation in studentischen Praxisgemeinschaften beruht. Wir erläutern vor diesem Hintergrund, wie sich selbstorganisierte Projektgruppen von Studierenden von anderen Gruppenformen im Rahmen von Lehrveranstaltungen unterscheiden, und machen anhand eines Beispiels deutlich, welchen Mehrwert diese Praxisgemeinschaften gegenüber anderen Ansätzen zur überfachlichen Kompetenzförderung an Hochschulen haben. (DIPF/ Orig.)