Search results

Advancements and innovation in engineering design are based on learning from previous failures but students are encouraged to “succeed” first time and hence can avoid learning from failure in practice. The purpose of this paper is to design and evaluate a curriculum to help engineering design students to learn from failure.

A new curriculum design provided a case study for evaluating the effects of incorporating learning from failure within a civil engineering course. An analysis of the changes in course output was undertaken in relation to graduate destination data covering 2006 to 2016 and student satisfaction from 2012 to 2017 and a number of challenges and solutions for curriculum designers were identified.

The design and delivery of an innovative curriculum, within typical constraints, can provide opportunities for students to develop resilience to failure as an integral part of their learning in order to think creatively and develop novel engineering solutions. The key issues identified were: the selection of appropriate teaching methods, creating an environment for exploratory learning, group and team assessments with competitive elements where practicable and providing students with many different pedagogical approaches to produce a quality learning experience.

This case study demonstrates how to design and implement an innovative curriculum that can produce positive benefits of learning from failure. This model can be applied to other disciplines such as building surveying and construction management. This approach underpins the development of skills necessary in the educational experience to develop as a professional building pathologist.

Public realm urban regeneration projects aim to provide facilities for the common good such as improved road systems, public parks, museums and cultural institutions. Driven by political priorities, the expected benefits for society comprise of the proposed regeneration outcomes articulated in a masterplan vision. As a philosophical concept, common good in the context of urban regeneration is explored in this study to understand the expectations for major, long-term regeneration projects and the intended project objectives. In the approach to governance, there should be a relationship between monitoring indicators adopted by the regeneration project as part of the governance framework and their alignment with the common good. These concepts are analysed through a case study of the development and reporting of benchmark indicators established at the start of a major 20-year urban redevelopment in 2010. The monitoring and enhancement concept implemented required indicators to be developed and embedded in the regeneration process to, not only monitor, but also enhance sustainability. The longitudinal case study, at the interim point 10 years since the establishment of these indicators, will evaluate the sustainability of the urban regeneration and evaluate current evidence for the common good. The indicators were developed following the principles of a theme orientated framework in line with the UK and Scottish Government approach at that time. The process of indicator development was iterative, refined and finalised through working closely with local authority, Scottish Enterprise and partnership stakeholders (civic oriented organisations) to capture evidence of progress towards the masterplan vision. Ten years on, conclusions examine whether these indicators could be used a proxy for common good. The conclusion will identify the extent to which we would need to revise indicators to address any gaps to become a more accurate measure of common good.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) face unique barriers to implementation of environmental management systems (EMSs) compared to the private sector, where formal EMS approaches such as ISO 14001 are widely used. HEIs across the world have tended to adopt structured EMSs through less formal methods or apply bespoke approaches based on institutional drivers for implementation. This chapter explores organizational factors specific to HEIs that impact on their ability to implement and sustain formal EMS approaches. An in-depth review was undertaken examining key organization barriers to EMS adoption, and organizational factors specific to HEIs that can affect the successful implementation and sustainability of EMS approaches. The study finds that considerations of the key actors, existing organizational structures, governance and leadership, and resistance to change are important areas to consider in the implementation of an EMS within an HEI. UK HEIs are used as a case study to examine the relationship between EMS uptake and performance, and identify trends toward the adoption of various types of systems. We find that a trend toward the adoption of more formalized EMS approaches among UK HEIs contradicts the suggestion from the literature that less-formal approaches may be more suitable. The study challenges the assumption that formal approaches to environmental management such as ISO 14001 and Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) provide the gold standard EMS, suggesting that alternative standards may be more suitable in the context of the unique organizational structures and key barriers to EMS implementation faced by HEIs.

International business (IB) studies revolve around two key perspectives defined as a firm-specific perspective and a generic perspective that combined to provide a company with crucial insights into how to enter and navigate in foreign markets. Such a combined approach provides a company with a holistic perception of what kind of resources and capabilities it needs before entering and operating in specific markets. The key issue here is how to design a research approach that provides the data that make a researcher capable of developing an explanatory framework for how to engage such markets. Before looking for appropriate research methodologies and tools for data collection, there is a need for a pertinent philosophy of science. This chapter discusses three different philosophies of science each one capable of providing the analyst with a specific take on how to “think” data. Arguably, whatever approach one selects, the choice has an impact on the outcome of the research process. After selecting a specific philosophy of science, the chapter applies it on an analysis of the Danish shipping company Maersk. The focus is on how employees at headquarters and selected overseas subsidiaries “read” the global corporate culture and navigate within the company for own and organizational benefit. This chapter discusses the ramifications of selecting one philosophy of science over another when engaging in qualitative or quantitative research in an IB context.

In research on non‐Western populations there is a tendency to limit analysis to only gross demographic differences. This has resulted in the serious misconception of an ethnically homogenous population in countries such as Japan and thus masks a critical dimension of the diversity truly extant. This article examines Western research on Japanese views of people of African descent evident prior to 1945. The argument by Western researchers that Japanese are inherently ethnocentric/racist is examined through primary and secondary sources dealing with Japanese contact with Africans. The alternative explanation offered suggests that while the basic structure of ethnocentrism existed before Western contact, there are indications that this structure was given direction and focus (i.e. became racial) with and through that contact. It is suggested that the view acquired by the Japanese of Africans was based in large part on the collective representations presented to them by Euro‐Americans.

IN the Calendar of Domestic State Papers (England) for the year 1678 there is a letter containing a reference of an unusual kind to the Vatican Library, written by a man named Giles Vanbrugh to the Bishop of London at the time when the whole city, and indeed most of the nation, had gone crazy over the pretended revelations of Titus Oates. The writer of this letter, who did not see why all the conspiracy should be confined to one party, suggested a most ingenious counter‐plot. He is evidently quite serious; and his plan was perhaps quite practicable. “I shall acquaint you,” he writes to the Bishop, “with what I think not only warrantable but honourable, and what may much advantage the Protestant Religion. It is the assaulting the city of Rome on the side the Vatican stands and bringing away the library …”

The question of the best commercial method of retailing milk requires to be dealt with from the various standpoints of the different classes of milk vendors.