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Inputs to the planning and decision-making process addressing environmental and energy issues include expert opinions, public attitudes and perceptions. This research investigates the attitudes of local communities of Western Greece towards renewable energy and documents the existence of distinct household groups. Data were collected from 201 households via a questionnaire. Respondents were either...
In today's competitive global economy, six out of every ten jobs require some undergraduate college education and training. College retention therefore has long been the focus of research in education. The relationship between students and institutional characteristics, college graduation and retention rates has been a frequent topic in the academic literature. In order to increase the proportion...
Implementing micro-hydro system (MHS) in a remote or rural location in an off-gridarea is a complicated process. Technical, social, economic andorganisationalissues need to be considered as well as the policy environment in which they are implemented. An understanding of the demand for electricity, of the benefits and impactsthat they can potentially have, as well as the roles of all stakeholders...
Knowledge economics describes the financial impact of the creation, modification, distribution and use of knowledge. In essence, knowledge economics covers knowledge-related processes and encompasses economies, organizations and individuals. Information Technology (IT), principal enabler and catalyst for knowledge-related processes, changed the way knowledge is created, modified, distributed and used.
In recent years, the U.S. has seen a dramatic decline in its standing among first world countries in STEM performance. The U.S. currently stands at risk of missing out on the untapped human capital in sub-Saharan Africa. Countries like China, India, and Brazil are making sizeable infrastructural, technological and scientific investments there. Targeting students at an earlier stage in the STEM education...
In order to steadily speed up the urbanization process, enhance the city image, to promote China's economic and social development and to build up the harmonious society, the employment problem of residents in Villagein-city have to be solved urgently. This paper chooses the employment condition of the residents in L village in Zhengzhou as the research object to analyze the group identity of the...
Project management plays an important role in successful completion of construction projects. One trend in the construction sector is a growing emphasis on project management. Ineffective integration of project management of project-based enterprises and operational processes of project owners, contractors and consultants prevents synergistic effects and causes resource waste and management inefficiency...
If engineering educators are tasked with the responsibility of preparing students for an increasingly unknown future in a global workplace, how do they incorporate elements of real-life complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty into the curriculum? Grassroots organizations such as Engineers Without Borders have influenced educators at Canadian universities to re-contextualize technical courses by expanding...
Although now 20 years old, only recently has the concept of technical debt gained some momentum and credibility in the software engineering community. The goal of this fourth workshop on managing technical debt is to engage researchers and practitioners in exchanging ideas on viable research directions and on how to put the concept to actual use, beyond its usage as a rhetorical instrument to discuss...
In today's world of increasing scarcity of resources and economic stagnation, we still see rapid developments in computer science and user experience towards increasingly mobile, intelligent and context-aware computing systems. These innovations represent a new frontier for transformative innovation on a societal level. They hold the promise of breakthroughs in how people can collaborate through dynamically...
This paper analyzes the barriers to information and communication technologies (ICT) use among extremely underserved minorities such as impoverished immigrants in the USA. In particular, we explore the physical and psychological barriers that prevent Hispanic day laborers in Seattle from making effective use of computers and the Internet. Based on a mixed-methods study that combined structured interviews,...
The power engineering curriculum in the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has undergone several major improvements since 2009. They include the revision of course content, the introduction of new courses, the appointment of new staff and enhanced integration of laboratory practice with taught courses. Curricula have been updated to...
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are a fundamental factor of development. They represent a major economic, political, and social opportunity for the countries. Bridging the digital divide — access to ICTs, appropriation of these technologies, promotion and respect of the cultural and linguistic diversity of contents — is also, in itself, what is at stake in development. In order for...
This paper describes how four playground experts and five engineering experts completed a task of designing a playground. The findings, derived from a qualitative coding analysis, showcase the playground experts in this sample considering social contextual factors, paying attention to human actors' playground use, and relying mainly on professional knowledge. The engineering experts in this sample...
Developmental instruction in four sustainability contexts (environmental, social, economic, technical) in an engineering design curriculum offers a strong foundation and framework upon which to build an engineering program that teaches students the necessary methodologies for designing for sustainability. Instruction in sustainability contexts described in the current paper employs a developmental...
In the knowledge economy, a firm's longevity and sustainability does not necessarily have to be always supported by a great financial performance. The intellectual capital has become a major corporate strategic asset to generate sustainable competitive advantage and superior financial performance. Mutual trust, in internal and external relationships, makes a positive contribution to the company's...
Notions of human wellbeing can be used to evaluate and plan technological innovation and engineering design. However, current engineering practices and most engineering education curricula do not adequately deal with wellbeing. A set of interdisciplinary courses at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez are proposed by the authors to fill this gap and to provide a transition to an engineering curriculum...
This research explores the connection between online consumption and online community participation activity. Using longitudinal data that contains detailed information about 4,475 online poker players' gaming activity and online community activity over 58 months, this paper finds that the general positive relationship between consumption and community activity is very strong at the level of the community,...
Universities around the country are working in a challenging fiscal environment to find ways to make college affordable while increasing educational quality, outcomes, and accessibility.
We seek to understand the perceived value of virtual communities based on three site assets: community members, knowledge (content), and technology. Extending Preece's two-dimensional model of community (sociability) and technology (usability) and considering perceived site value instead of community success, we formulate a three-dimensional model, which we empirically test for its impact on perceived...
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