A Method for Assessing the Sustainability of Design in Developing World Projects

Projects for the developing world usually find themselves at the bottom of an engineer’s priority list. There is often very little engineering effort placed on creating new products for the poorest people in the world. This trend is beginning to change now as people begin to recognize the potential for these projects. Engineers are beginning to try and solve some of the direst issues in the developing world and many are having positive impacts. However, the conditions needed to support these projects can only be maintained in the short term. There is now a need for greater sustainability. Sustainability has a wide variety of definitions in both business and engineering. These concepts are analyzed and synthesized to develop a broad meaning of sustainability in the developing world. This primarily stems from the “triple bottom line” concept of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Using this model and several international standards, this thesis develops a metric for guiding and evaluating the sustainability of engineering projects. The metric contains qualitative questions that investigate the sustainability of a project. It is used to assess several existing projects in order to determine flaws. Specifically, three projects seeking to deliver eyeglasses are analyzed for weaknesses to help define a new design approach for achieving better results. Using the metric as a guiding tool, teams designed two pieces of optometry equipment: one to cut lenses for eyeglasses and the other to diagnose refractive error, or prescription. These designs are created and prototyped in the developed and developing worlds in order to determine general feasibility. Although there is a recognized need for eventual design iterations, the whole project is evaluated using the developed metric and compared to the existing projects. Overall, the success demonstrates the improvements made to the long-term sustainability of the project resulting from the use of the sustainability metric.

Resource management in location aware cognitive radio networks

Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) aims at utilizing spectral opportunities both in time and frequency domains at any given location, which arise due to variations in spectrum usage. Recently, Cognitive radios (CRs) have been proposed as a means of implementing DSA. In this work we focus on the aspect of resource management in overlaid CRNs. We formulate resource allocation strategies for cognitive radio networks (CRNs) as mathematical optimization problems. Specifically, we focus on two key problems in resource management: Sum Rate Maximization and Maximization of Number of Admitted Users. Since both the above mentioned problems are NP hard due to presence of binary assignment variables, we propose novel graph based algorithms to optimally solve these problems. Further, we analyze the impact of location awareness on network performance of CRNs by considering three cases: Full location Aware, Partial location Aware and Non location Aware. Our results clearly show that location awareness has significant impact on performance of overlaid CRNs and leads to increase in spectrum utilization effciency.

Creating Lakes from Open Pit Mines: Processes and Considerations, Emphasis on Northern Environments

Creating Lakes from Open Pit Mines: Processes and Considerations, Emphasis on Northern Environments. This document summarizes the literature of mining pit lakes (through 2007), with a particular focus on issues that are likely to be of special relevance to the creation and management of pit lakes in northern climates. Pit lakes are simply waterbodies formed by filling the open pit left upon the completion of mining operations with water. Like natural lakes, mining pit lakes display a huge diversity in each of these subject areas. However, pit lakes are young and therefore are typically in a non-equilibrium state with respect to their rate of filling, water quality, and biology. Separate sections deal with different aspects of pit lakes, including their morphometry, geology, hydrogeology, geochemistry, and biology. Depending on the type and location of the mine, there may be opportunities to enhance the recreational or ecological benefits of a given pit lake, for example, by re-landscaping and re-vegetating the shoreline, by adding engineered habitat for aquatic life, and maintaining water quality. The creation of a pit lake may be a regulatory requirement to mitigate environmental impacts from mining operations, and/or be included as part of a closure and reclamation plan. Based on published case studies of pit lakes, large-scale bio-engineering projects have had mixed success. A common consensus is that manipulation of pit lake chemistry is difficult, expensive, and takes many years to achieve remediation goals. For this reason, it is prudent to take steps throughout mine operation to reduce the likelihood of future water quality problems upon closure. Also, it makes sense to engineer the lake in such a way that it will achieve its maximal end-use potential, whether it be permanent and safe storage of mine waste, habitat for aquatic life, recreation, or water supply.

Educating in Project Management: an innovative approach. A shared-experience among Spanish Universities

This work presents an educational formal initiative aimed to monitor the acquisition and strengthening of competences by students that are being taught in project management subject. Groups of students belonging to three universities, embracing different knowledge areas such as engineering, biology, etc., were selected to run the experience. All of them had nevertheless a common and basic starting point: inexperience in project management field. In this scenario, we propose a new theoretical and practical approach oriented to reinforce problem-solving and related competences in a project management subject context. For this purpose, a Project-Based Learning (PjBL) initiative has been specifically designed and developed. The main idea is to bring a real world engineering project management case into the classroom, where students must face up to a completely new learning approach –groups in different locations, collaborative mode and unspecific solution, supported by a powerful internet platform:.project.net (http://www.Project.net). Other relevant aspects such as project climate, knowledge increasing, have also been monitored during the course. Results show and overall improvement in key competences. The obtained information will be used in two ways: to feed the students back about personal opportunities for improvement in specific competences, and to fine-tune the experience for further initiatives.

Training project management complexity in postgraduate and continuing education programs: a learning strategy in the eshe (European Space of Higher Education) framework

The objective of this paper is to address the methodological process of a teaching strategy for training project management complexity in postgraduate programs. The proposal is made up of different methods —intuitive, comparative, deductive, case study, problem-solving Project-Based Learning— and different activities inside and outside the classroom. This integration of methods motivated the current use of the concept of “learning strategy”. The strategy has two phases: firstly, the integration of the competences —technical, behavioral and contextual—in real projects; and secondly, the learning activity was oriented in upper level of knowledge, the evaluating the complexity for projects management in real situations. Both the competences in the learning strategy and the Project Complexity Evaluation are based on the ICB of IPMA. The learning strategy is applied in an international Postgraduate Program —Erasmus Mundus Master of Science— with the participation of five Universities of the European Union. This master program is fruit of a cooperative experience from one Educative Innovation Group of the UPM -GIE-Project-, two Research Groups of the UPM and the collaboration with other external agents to the university. Some reflections on the experience and the main success factors in the learning strategy were presented in the paper

Concept of project: learning lessons

The concept of Project encompasses a semantic disparity that involves all areas of professional and nonprofessional activity. In the engineering projects domain, and starting by the etymological roots of the terms, a review of the definitions given by different authors and their relation with sociological trends of the last decades is carried out. The engineering projects began as a tool for the development of technological ideas and have been improved with legal, economic and management parameters and recently with environmental aspects. However, the engineering projects involve people, groups, agents, organizations, companies and institutions. Nowadays, the social implications of projects are taken into consideration but the technology for social integration is not consolidated. This communication provides a new framework based on the experience for the development of engineering projects in the context of "human development", placing people in the center of the project

An Integrated Approach to Strategic Asset Management

This paper focuses on identifying and analysing the elements of Strategic Management for infrastructure and engineering assets. These elements are contended to involve an understanding of governance, corporate policy, corporate objectives, corporate strategy and interagency collaboration and will in turn, allow the ability determine a broader and more comprehensive framework for engineering asset management, ie a ‘staged approach’ to understanding how assets are managed within organisations. While the assets themselves have often been the sole concern for good management practices, other social and contextual elements have come into the mix in order to promote strategic asset management. The development of an integrated approach to asset management is at the base of the research question. What are the considerations and implications for adopting and implementing an integrated strategic asset management (ISAM) framework? While operational matters have been given prominence, a subset of corporate governance, Asset Governance, details the policies and processes needed to acquire, utilise, maintain and account for an organisation’s assets. Asset governance stems from the organisation’s overarching corporate governance principles; as a result it defines the management context in which engineering asset management is implemented. This aspect will be examined to determine the appropriate relationship between organisational strategic management and strategic asset management to further the theoretical engagement with the maturity of strategy,policy and governance for infrastructure and engineered assets. Asset governance stems from the organisation’s overarching corporate governance principles; as a result it defines the management context in which engineering asset management is implemented. The research proceeds by a document analysis of corporate reports and policy recommendations in terms of infrastructure and engineered assets. The paper concludes that incorporating an integrated asset management framework can promote a more robust conceptualisation of public assets and how they combine to provide a comprehensive system of service outcomes.

Reliability and quality in the area of statistical thinking in Engineering

There is remarkable growing concern about the quality control at the time, which has led to the search for methods capable of addressing effectively the reliability analysis as part of the Statistic. Managers, researchers and Engineers must understand that 'statistical thinking' is not just a set of statistical tools. They should start considering 'statistical thinking' from a 'system', which means, developing systems that meet specific statistical tools and other methodologies for an activity. The aim of this article is to encourage them (engineers, researchers and managers) to develop a new way of thinking.

Improving engineering students' communication competence: designing innovative learning strategies

This research presents an innovative and formal educational initiative that is aimed at enhancing the development of engineering students’ specific competencies when studying Engineering Project Management subject. The framework of the experience combines theoretical concepts, the development of a real-case project carried out by multidisciplinary groups of three different universities, the use of software web 2.0 tools, and group and individual assignments of students that play different roles (project managers and team members). Under this scenario, this paper focuses on monitoring the communication competence in the ever growing Project Management virtual environment. Factors such as corporal language, technical means, stage, and management specific vocabulary among others have been considered in order to assess the students’ performance on this issue. As a main contribution, the paper introduces an ad-hoc rubric that, based on previous investigations, has been adapted and tested to this specific context. Additionally, the research conducted has provided some interesting findings that suggest further actions to improve and better define future rubrics, oriented to communication or even other competencies. As specific Project Management subject concerns, it has been detected that students playing the role of Project Managers strengthen their competencies more than those ones that play the role of Team Members. It has also been detected that students have more difficulty assimilating concepts related to risk and quality management. However those concepts related with areas of knowledge like scope, time or cost have been better assimilated by the students.

Metodologías de gestión de proyectos y su implementación en la empresa

Este proyecto ha sido estructurado en tres bloques diferenciados que tiene como objetivo analizar el presente, pasado y futuro de la gestión de proyectos con una orientación clara a ofrecer apoyo a aquellas empresas que planeen realizar un giro en sus estructura de organización de trabajo hacia filosofías ágiles. La gestión de proyectos a acompañado al hombre desde el inicio de los tiempos, pero sin embargo no fue hasta nuestra historia más cercana cuando se comienza a tener conciencia de la necesidad de establecer aplicar métodos generales a la hora de afrontar proyectos de ingeniería. Pioneros fueron en este sentido personajes como Taylor, Fayol o Gantt, cuyas aportaciones iniciales posibilitaron el nacimiento de la gestión de proyectos a mediados del siglo XX. En las década sucesivas hasta nuestros días han aparecido un número considerable de metodologías, perfeccionando elementos anteriormente asimilados y adaptándose a la realidad tecnológica y social del momento. Este recorrido histórico se aborda en el primer bloque de este proyecto. Los puntos revisados en la introducción histórica proporcionan las bases de conocimiento para entender las principales características entre las grandes familias de metodologías que actualmente son implantadas en el mundo empresarial. Es precisamente este punto, el de la exposición y análisis de las metodologías más extendidas y contemporáneas a la elaboración de este proyecto, lo que se aborda en el segundo bloque. En él se desarrolla con intenso detalle dos metodologías de la familia de filosofías ágiles, elegidas entre las más extendidas en la industria: Scrum, eXtreme Programming (XP) y un híbrido de ambas. Para entender la dimensión del cambio filosófico en cuanto a la gestión de proyectos que emprenden estas metodologías, se hace necesario repasar cuales son las metodologías no ágiles más extendidas actualmente. Para ello se introducen metodologías como la llamada tradicional o PRINCE2, principalmente, ya que también se realiza un repaso más superficial por otras aproximaciones notables. El último bloque que construye el desenlace del proyecto, intenta responder a las cuestiones futuras relacionadas con la adopción de metodologías ágiles. Para ello se revisa los puntos más conflictivos a señalar en este proceso y se ofrecerán soluciones teóricas y prácticas para ayudar a las empresas en su fase de migración hacia filosofías de organización ágiles. Ya que toda empresa hoy en día debería tener un soporte tecnológico que ofrezca apoyo a su desarrollo empresarial, gran parte de la elaboración de este proyecto se ha dedicado a hacer un estudio comparativo de las actuales herramientas Open Source. Se han instalado y probado 25 herramientas para posteriormente seleccionar 3 que han sido analizadas en profundidad. Así mismo, se enumeran pros y contras de estas herramientas, aportando ideas de mejoras y trazando cuál debería ser su evolución para ofrecer una alternativa real a las herramientas comerciales orientadas a esta labor. Las empresas pueden utilizar este índice de herramientas de software para decidir si pueden sustentar su proceso de migración en una herramienta Open Source o si deben orientarse a herramientas comerciales o de creación propias. ABSTRACT. This project has been divided into three different blocks that aims to analyze the past, present and future of project management with a clear focus on providing support to those companies that are planning to make a shift in its organizational structure working towards agile philosophies . The project management has walked together with the humanity since the beginning of time , but it was on our recent history when it begins to become aware of the need to establish general methods to apply to engineering projects. There was pioneers like Taylor , Fayol or Gantt, whose contributions made possible the birth of project management in the mid- twentieth century. In the following decades, there was a considerable number of new methodologies, improving concepts and adapting then to the technological and social reality of the moment . This historical journey is addressed in the first block of this project. The different facts reviewed at the first block provide the knowledge to understand the key features among the most important families of methodologies that nowadays are implemented in the business world. It is precisely this point, the presentation and analysis of the most widespread methodologies what is addressed in the second block. Two of the most widespread agile methodologies are detailed: Scrum , eXtreme Programming ( XP ) and a hybrid of both . In order to understand the philosophical shift in terms of project management performed by these methodologies , it is necessary to review what are the most widespread no agile methodologies currently. For this purpose, methodologies like Waterfall or PRINCE2 are explained. Other no agile methodologies are explained as well, but not so deeply in comparison with them. The last section of this project is the conclusion, it tries to answer future questions related to the adoption of agile methodologies. For that reason, the most important milestones are reviewed to provide theoretical and practical solutions and answers to help companies in this migration process toward agile methodologies. Since every company should has a solid technical support for its business development, a considerably part of the time has been applied to make a comparative study of the existing Open Source tools. 25 tools have been installed and tested. Then, 3 tools has been selected to be analyzed deeply. Also, pros and cons of these tools have been exposed in order to suggest a roadmap to offer a real alternative to the existing commercial tools in this business area. The companies that are involved in a migration progress toward a agile methodology can used this study about the available Open Source tools to decide if they can afford the migration process based on one of them or if they should use a commercial tool or a tailor-made software.

A methodology for evacuation route planning inside buildings using geospatial technology

Evacuation route planning is a fundamental task for building engineering projects. Safety regulations are established so that all occupants are driven on time out of a building to a secure place when faced with an emergency situation. As an example, Spanish building code requires the planning of evacuation routes on large and, usually, public buildings. Engineers often plan these routes on single building projects, repeatedly assigning clusters of rooms to each emergency exit in a trial-and-error process. But problems may arise for a building complex where distribution and use changes make visual analysis cumbersome and sometimes unfeasible. This problem could be solved by using well-known spatial analysis techniques, implemented as a specialized software able to partially emulate engineer reasoning. In this paper we propose and test an easily reproducible methodology that makes use of free and open source software components for solving a case study. We ran a complete test on a building floor at the University of Alicante (Spain). This institution offers a web service (WFS) that allows retrieval of 2D geometries from any building within its campus. We demonstrate how geospatial technologies and computational geometry algorithms can be used for automating the creation and optimization of evacuation routes. In our case study, the engineers’ task is to verify that the load capacity of each emergency exit does not exceed the standards specified by Spain’s current regulations. Using Dijkstra’s algorithm, we obtain the shortest paths from every room to the most appropriate emergency exit. Once these paths are calculated, engineers can run simulations and validate, based on path statistics, different cluster configurations. Techniques and tools applied in this research would be helpful in the design and risk management phases of any complex building project.

Management workshop for alcohol safety action project leaders. Proceedings.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Office of Alcohol Countermeasures, Washington, D.C.

The engineer and professional management.

Mode of access: Internet.

Industrial management.

Edited by J.R. Dunlap.

Depression Management Using Electronic Health Record: Individual Progression Prediction

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06