Wednesday, December 12, 2012

CFP: HCIS - 2nd International Workshop on Human-Centric Information Systems


HCIS - 2nd International Workshop on Human-Centric Information Systems

in conjunction with the 25th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE'13), Valencia, Spain, 17-21 June 2013 

HCIS Link: http://www.wst.univie.ac.at/communities/hcis/2013/
 
The HCIS workshop is focused on human orientation and human factors in the context of Information Systems (IS) research. The workshop aims to support investigations and novel solutions for human integration into IS, and interaction of humans with IS in general. In continuing the successful series of the HC-PAIS workshop series, the HCIS 2013 workshop will also provide a platform for discussing research on human orientation in different types of IS, such as Process-Aware Information Systems (PAIS), Business Process Management Suites (BPMS) and Workflow Systems (WfS). The workshop aims to offer a portal for researchers, discussions, and contributions of interdisciplinary research dedicated to the investigation of particularly human-centric activities and processes that demand human judgment, human skills and competencies, human experiences, and discernment. The HCIS workshop appreciates diversity in the chosen research methodology (reaching from e.g. empirical research to action research, and design science research), and welcomes technical, empirical, experiential, and exploratory contributions.  

 

Workshop topics

Contributions to further human factors in alliance with IS in general, or specific IS such as PAIS, BPMS, WfS are welcome.
  • Human orientation and human factors in IS 
  • Human resource modeling in IS 
  • Human-centric functionalities and services in IS 
  • Motivation, satisfaction and performance of humans working with IS 
  • Work life quality of humans working with IS 
  • Creativity in IS  
  • Teams, groups, and social collaborative processes in IS 
  • Role conflicts, role motivation, compliance behavior in IS 
  • Visualization, personalized visualization and representation  
  • Context-integration, customization in IS 
  • Security and Privacy in human-centric IS 
  • (Organizational) Culture, gender, and diversity in IS 
  • Process innovation and process adaptation for human-centric IS 
  • Cognitive theory reflection in IS  
  • User properties in the context of process modeling and IS 
  • User-centric automatisms and feedback loops in IS  
 

Important Dates

Workshop paper submission:27th February 2013
Notification of acceptance:20th March 2013
Submission of camera-ready papers:27th March 2013
Workshop:18th June 2013

Submission

Accepted papers of our workshop will be published in the joint Springer LNBIP proceedings.  
 
Papers should be submitted in PDF format until the 27th February (11:59 pm) 2013 via Easychair «https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hcis2013». The results described must be unpublished and must not be under review elsewhere. Submissions must conform to Springer's LNBIP format and should not exceed 12 pages, including all text, figures, references and appendices. Submissions not conforming to the LNBIP format, exceeding 12 pages, or being obviously out of the scope of the workshop, will be rejected without review. Information about the Springer LNBIP format can be found at «http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-791344-0». Three to five keywords characterizing the paper should be indicated at the end of the abstract. 
 
Authors of the submitted HCIS workshop papers will receive the notification of acceptance until the 20th March 2012. The accepted papers will be published in the Springer LNBIP series.  

Registration

Accepted papers imply that at least one of the authors will register for the CAiSE’13 and present the paper at the HCIS workshop. Also please keep in mind that everybody attending the CAiSE’2013 workshops, will have to register for CAiSE 2013.  

Workshop Chairs

Sonja Kabicher-Fuchs «sonja.kabicher-fuchs@univie.ac.at»  
Stefanie Rinderle-Ma «stefanie.rinderle-ma@univie.ac.at» 
Jan Recker «j.recker@qut.edu.au» 

CFP: 9th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC'13)


CALL FOR PAPERS AND SPECIAL TRACKS

9th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC'13)
July 29-31, 2013
Aquila Rithymna Beach Hotel
Rethymnon, Crete, Greece

ISVC provides a common forum for researchers, scientists, engineers and
practitioners to present their latest research findings, ideas, developments
and applications in visual computing. We seek papers contributing to the state
of the art and practice in the four central areas of visual computing: (1)
computer vision, (2) computer graphics, (3) virtual reality, and (4)
visualization.  Of particular interest are papers that combine technologies
from two or more areas. For a list of topics, see http://www.isvc.net

ISVC'13 will consist of invited and contributed presentations dealing with all
aspects of visual computing. In addition to the main program, the symposium
will include several keynote presentations, special tracks, and a poster
session. A selection of best papers will be published in a special issue of the
International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools (IJAIT) (ISI/SCIE
indexed) and the Computers and Graphics journal(ISI/SCIE indexed). Also, a
"best paper" award ($500) is sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs
(MERL). The symposium's proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in
Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

Important Dates

Special track proposals:    February 1, 2013
Paper submissions        May 10, 2013
Notification of acceptance    June 10, 2013
Final camera ready paper    June 28, 2013
Advance Registration        June 28, 2013
ISVC.13 Symposium        July 29-31, 2013

Keynote Speakers

     Thomas Ertl, University of Stuttgart, Germany
     Mel Slater, University College London, UK
     Serge Belongie University of California, San Diego, USA
     Anthony Hoogs, Kitware, USA
     Fei-Fei Li, Stanford University, USA

(Area 1) Computer Vision Area Chairs:
         Li Baoxin, Arizona State University, USA
         Porikli Fatih, Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (MERL)

(Area 2) Computer Graphics Chairs:
         Zordan Victor, University of California at Riverside, USA
         Klosowski James, AT&T Research Labs, USA

(Area 3) Virtual Reality Chairs:
         Joaquim Jorge, Technical Univ of Lisboa, Portugal
         Luo Xan, Qualcomm Inc., USA

(Area 4) Visualization Chairs:
         Chen Min, University of Oxford, UK
         Gotz David, IBM, USA

Submission Procedure

Papers submitted to ISVC'13 must not have been previously published and must
not be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. A complete
paper should be submitted in camera-ready format. The length should match that
intended for final publication. The page limit is 12 pages. In submitting a
paper the author(s) agree that, upon acceptance, they will prepare the final
manuscript in time for inclusion into the proceedings and will present the
paper at the symposium.

Special Tracks

Proposals are invited for special tracks on any topic relevant to the
symposium. Special tracks are intended to stimulate in-depth discussions in
special areas relevant to the symposium theme. A special track may span
multiple sessions, depending on the quantity and quality of the papers
submitted. All papers accepted in a special track will be published in the
symposium proceedings. If you are interested in organizing a special track,
please email a special track proposal to admin@isvc.net by February 1, 2013.
Each special track proposal should include the following information:

1. Title
2. Scope and Topics
3. Names of organizers and contact information
4. Initial special track committee
5. Anticipated number of papers

For a list of special tracks organized in previous years, please visit

George Bebis
ISVC'13 Steering Committee Chair

Friday, November 30, 2012

Ad: Halfbrick are hiring software developers


Interested in game development at one of the best mobile games studios in the world?

Halfbrick, the Australian creators of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, are desperately seeking C++ programmers!

Apply via the link below:


Ross

Friday, November 23, 2012

Paper: A visual language for the collaborative visualization of integrated conceptual models in product development scenarios

Just had a paper "A visual language for the collaborative visualization of integrated conceptual models in product development scenarios" accepted for CIRP Design 2013.  This paper is a part of a collaboration with Johhanes Herter and Jivka Ovtcharova at the IMI, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where I have been on exchange for the last three weeks.

Abstract: In various industrial and scientific fields, conceptual models are derived from real world problem spaces to understand and communicate containing entities and coherencies. Abstracted models mirror the common understanding and information demand of engineers, who apply conceptual models for performing their daily tasks. However, most standardized models in Process Management, Product Lifecycle Management and Enterprise Resource Planning lack of a scientific foundation for their notation. In collaboration scenarios with stakeholders from several disciplines, tailored conceptual models complicate communication processes, as a common understanding is not shared or implemented in specific models. To support direct communication between experts from several disciplines, a visual language is developed which allows a common visualization of discipline-specific conceptual models. For visual discrimination and to overcome visual complexity issues, conceptual models are arranged in a three-dimensional space. The visual language introduced here follows and extends established principles of Visual Language science.

Ross

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Brag: zOMG IndieDB, it’s teh QUT Pwns!

This has been a great week for our QUT Games and Interactive Entertainment students.  The final year project students are made to release their games to a popular independent game development site called IndieDB (www.indiedb.com).  IndieDB is used as a distribution channel by a number of very popular indie games, such as Minecraft.

A number of our teams have had some amazing results this week on the IndieDB site, with at one stage nine teams being in the top one hundred, two of them making the top ten and three (Applied Science, Crank and Torak) being featured on the main site banner at the same time.



But my favourite is seeing one QUT game, Rotation Fixation, briefly climb to number four, just above Minecraft!


We have also heard many stories of games sites running reviews of their games and a magazine planning to package a QUT game on a DVD they are giving away for free.

For our student teams, these are great achievements, showing that they are doing some excellent work.  Matt Ford and myself, as unit supervisors, are very, very proud.

So, you are all welcome to come along to the BGIE Industry showcase on Friday, 2nd Nov., to play these games, and mingle with the students and local industry reps.; or you can download the games from the links below.

Ross

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Paper: Improving Remote Collaborative Process Modelling using Embodiment in 3D Virtual Environments

Our paper "Improving Remote Collaborative Process Modelling using Embodiment in 3D Virtual Environments," by Erik Poppe, Ross Brown, Jan Recker and Daniel Johnson, has been accepted at APCCM 2013.

Abstract: Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually  require the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational settings.  While modern process modelling  technologies are beginning to provide a number of features  to support remote, they lack support for visual cues used in co-located collaboration. In this paper,  we  examine the importance of visual cues for collaboration  tasks in collaborative process modelling.   Based on this analysis,  we  present a prototype 3D virtual world process modelling tool that supports a number of visual cues to facilitate remote collaborative process model creation and validation.  We then report on a preliminary analysis of the technology. In conclusion, we proceed to describe the future direction of our research with regards to the theoretical contributions expected from the evaluation of the tool.

Well done Erik!

Ross

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Ad: QUT Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment End of Year Showcase

QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty is pleased to invite you to the QUT Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment (BGIE) End of Year Showcase. 

Date: Friday 2 November 2012
Time: 4:30pm – 9pm
Venue: The Edge, State Library of Queensland's Digital Culture Centre Stanley Place, South Brisbane,  Queensland 4101
Map - http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/about/visit#southbank

RSVP: Please RSVP to Ross Brown by 1st November
(Email: r.brown@qut.edu.au)

The show will include the best work created by students graduating from the BGIE degree. The show is an opportunity for you and the industry to meet our graduating students and see some outstanding work. Have fun playing these new games and catch up with friends and colleagues from the industry!

Ross

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Paper: Workflow Resource Pattern Modelling and Visualization

Just got the following conference paper "Workflow Resource Pattern Modelling and Visualization" accepted for ACSC 2013 conference, Adelaide, Australia.  Paper is here.

Abstract: Workflow patterns have been recognized as the theoretical basis to modeling recurring problems in workflow systems. A form of workflow patterns, known as the resource patterns, characterise the behaviour of resources in workflow systems. Despite the fact that many resource patterns have been discovered, people still preclude them from many workflow system implementations. One of reasons could be obscurity in the behaviour of and interaction between resources and a workflow management system. Thus, we provide a modelling and visualization approach for the resource patterns, enabling a resource behaviour modeller to intuitively see the specific resource patterns involved in the lifecycle of a workitem. We believe this research can be extended to benefit not only workflow modelling, but also other applications, such as model validation, human resource behaviour modelling, and workflow model visualization.

Well done Hanwen!

Ross

Monday, October 8, 2012

Paper: First international workshop on theory and applications of process visualization

Have just uploaded a version of the front matter for our TAProViz, BPM2012 Workshop in Tallinn, Estonia.

The workshop went very well, with great assistance by my co-chairs Simone Kriglstein and Stefanie Rinderle-Ma.  Thanks to all the presenters, especially to Manfred Reichert who presented the keynote.

We have been asked for copies of the proceedings, but unfortunately Springer holds the copyright on the camera versions.  If you are interested, you may wish contact the authors in the list of papers, to see if they are happy to hand you a draft copy of their paper.

Photos are available here, taken by Simone.

Ross

Paper: Sustaining the future through virtual worlds


Paper "Sustaining the future through virtual worlds" has been accepted at Annual Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Conference (ASCILITE), 2012, results of educational survey put together by Susan Gregory at UNE, with me as one of many authors.  Paper is here.

Abstract: Virtual worlds continue to be used in Australia and New Zealand higher education institutions although the hype has settled. Whilst some higher education institutions continue to use virtual worlds as they have done for some time, other institutions are trialing different virtual worlds and some are opting out altogether. An overview of how 46 authors from 28 institutions see virtual worlds as an opportunity to sustain the future of higher education is presented. The positives and negatives of using virtual worlds are discussed.

Ross

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Paper: Interactive product browsing and configuration using remote augmented reality sales services

Just had a paper "Interactive product browsing and configuration using remote augmented reality sales services" accepted into the ICSOC 2012 Workshop : Service Clouds in the Enterprise and Beyond.  QUT ePrints Link is here.

Abstract: Real-time remote sales assistance is an underdeveloped component of online sales services. Solutions involving web page text chat, telephony and video support prove problematic when seeking to remotely guide customers in their sales processes, especially with configurations of physically complex artefacts. Recently, there has been great interest in the application of virtual worlds and augmented reality to create synthetic environments for remote sales of physical artefacts. However, there is a lack of analysis and development of appropriate software services to support these processes. We extend our previous work with the detailed design of configuration context services to support the management of an interactive sales session using augmented reality. We detail the context and configuration services required, presenting a novel data service streaming configuration information to the vendor for business analytics. We expect that a fully implemented configuration management service, based on our design, will improve the remote sales experience for both customers and vendors alike via analysis of the streamed information.

Many thanks to Helen Paik (UNSW) and Alistair Barros (QUT) for their contributions.

Ross

Monday, September 10, 2012

Paper: Neural network-based detection of virtual environment anomalies

Just had a paper Neural network-based detection of virtual environment anomalies accepted to Neural Computing and Applications, with Alfredo Nantes and Frederic Maire.  The paper is here at QUT ePrints, and here at Springer.

Abstract The increasingly widespread use of large scale 3D virtual environments has translated into an increasing effort required from designers, developers and testers. While considerable research has been conducted in assisting the design of virtual world content and mechanics, to date, only limited contributions have been made regarding the automatic testing of the underpinning graphics software and hardware. In this work, two novel neural network-based approaches are presented to predict the correct visualization of 3D content. Multi-Layer Perceptrons and Self Organizing Maps are trained to learn the normal geometric and color appearance of the objects from validated frames, and used to detect novel or anomalous renderings in new images. Our approach is general, for the appearance of the object is learned rather than explicitly represented. Experiments were conducted on a game engine to determine the applicability and effectiveness of our algorithms. The results show that the neural network technology can be effectively used to address the problem of automatic and reliable visual testing of 3D virtual environments.

Well done Alfredo!

Ross

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

CFP: Ninth Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modelling (APCCM) 2013



           -------------------------------------------------
            C A L L   F O R   R E S E A R C H   P A P E R S
           -------------------------------------------------

         Ninth Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modelling

                              (APCCM 2013)

      January 29 - February 01, 2013 -- Adelaide, South Australia

                         http://2013.apccm.org/


The Asia-Pacific Conferences on Conceptual Modelling provide an annual forum for disseminating the results of innovative research in information modelling and related areas.

The ninth conference of the series will be held in January/February 2013 as part of the Australasian Computer Science Week (ACSW 2013).  ACSW 2013 will be hosted in Adelaide, at the City West Campus of University of South Australia.

Registration to APCCM will enable delegates to attend sessions in any conference participating in the Australasian Computer Science Week.


KEY INFORMATION
---------------

- Abstract Submission Due Date: Aug 06, 2012
- Paper Submission Due Date: Aug 13, 2012
- APCCM 2013 Best Paper Award: The best paper, as judged by the APCCM Program Committee, will receive an award of AU $500.- sponsored by the School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and the School of Computer and Information Science, University of South Australia, Australia.
- APCCM 2013 Best Student Paper Award: The best student paper, as judged by the APCCM Program Committee, will receive an award of AU $500.- sponsored by CORE, Australia.  Student paper criteria are outlined on the APCCM 2013 Web-site.


SCOPE OF THE CONFERENCE
-----------------------

The amount, complexity and diversity of information held in computer systems are constantly on the increase, and so are the requirements and challenges to be met for useful access and manipulation of this information. Conceptual modelling is fundamental to the development of up-to-date information and knowledge-based systems. The conference series aims at bringing together experts from all areas of computer science and information systems with a common interest in the subject.

APCCM invites contributions addressing current research in conceptual modelling as well as experiences, novel applications and future challenges. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

   * Business, enterprise, process and services modelling;
   * Concepts, concept theories and ontologies;
   * Conceptual modelling and user participation;
   * Conceptual modelling for decision support and expert systems; digital libraries; e-business, e-commerce and e-banking systems; health care systems; knowledge management systems; mobile information systems; user interfaces; and Web-based systems;
   * Conceptual modelling of semi-structured data and XML;
   * Conceptual modelling of spatial, temporal and biological data;
   * Conceptual modelling quality;
   * Conceptual models for cloud computing applications;
   * Conceptual models for supporting requirement engineering;
   * Conceptual models in management science;
   * Design patterns and object-oriented design;
   * Evolution and change in conceptual models;
   * Implementations of information systems;
   * Information and schema integration;
   * Information customisation and user profiles;
   * Information recognition and information modelling;
   * Information retrieval, analysis, visualisation and prediction;
   * Information systems design methodologies;
   * Knowledge discovery, knowledge representation and knowledge management;
   * Methods for developing, validating and communicating conceptual models;
   * Models for the Semantic Web;
   * Philosophical, mathematical and linguistic foundations of conceptual models;
   * Reuse, reverse engineering and reengineering; and
   * Software engineering and tools for information systems development.


PAPER SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION
--------------------------------

APCCM invites papers describing original contributions in all fields of conceptual modelling and related areas. Papers should be no more than 10 pages in length conforming to the formatting instructions as outlined below.

Each paper will be judged on its originality, significance, technical quality, relevance and presentation. The quality of accepted papers is further strengthened by a low acceptance rate of about 30%.

APCCM proceedings will be published in the CRPIT Series. Please note that it is CRPIT policy that at least one author of all accepted papers to the conferences and workshops in the series would both register and present at the event concerned. Failure to do so without a reason acceptable to the organisers of the event will result in the paper being retrospectively withdrawn from both the proceedings and all citation sources.
It is also CRPIT policy that all papers be original and not concurrently submitted elsewhere. Once again, we reserve the right to retrospectively withdraw a paper from the proceedings if we later find this not to be the case.

After the conference, authors of the best papers will be invited to submit an extended version for publication in a joint Special Issue of the Journal of Universal Computer Science (J.UCS).

Formatting Guidelines
---------------------

The proceedings of this event will be published by the ACS in the CRPIT Series. The formatting requirements and resources for authors can be found on the CRPIT Authors Page together with a list of all upcoming volumes.

Electronic Submission
---------------------

Submission to APCCM 2013 will be electronically only via EasyChair.  The online submission system is accessible via the APCCM 2013 Web-site ( http://2013.apccm.org/ ).


IMPORTANT DATES
---------------

Abstract Submission:            August 06, 2012 (23:59 GMT)
Full Paper Submission:          August 13, 2012 (23:59 GMT)
Author Notification:            October 08, 2012
Camera-ready Paper Submission:  October 29, 2012
Author Registration:            November 05, 2012
Early-bird Registration:        December 03, 2012
ACSW 2013 Conferences:          January 29 - February 01, 2013


PROGRAM COMMITTEE
-----------------

Program Committee Chairs
------------------------

Flavio Ferrarotti, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Georg Grossmann, University of South Australia, Australia

Publicity Chair
---------------

Markus Kirchberg, National University of Singapore
Marko Boskovic, Research Studios Austria, Austria

Program Committee Members
-------------------------

Joao Paulo A. Almeida, Federal University of Espirito Santo, Brazil
Boualem Benatallah, University of New South Wales, Australia
Marko Boskovic, Research Studios Austria
Ross Brown, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Denise de Vries, Flinders University, Australia
Gillian Dobbie, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Dragan Gasevic, Athabasca University, Canada
Sven Hartmann, Clausthal University of Technology, Germany
Brian Henderson-Sellers, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Annika Hinze, University of Waikato, New Zealand
Marta Indulska, University of Queensland, Australia
Markus Kirchberg, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Yasushi Kiyoki, Keio University, Japan
Ryan Ko, Hewlett-Packard Labs, Singapore
Aneesh Krishna, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Lam-Son Le, University of Wollongong, Australia
Chiang Lee, National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan
Sebastian Link, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Jixue Liu, University of South Australia, Australia
Hui Ma, Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand
Christine Natschlaeger, Software Competence Centre Hagenberg, Austria
Shamkant Navathe, Georgia Institute Of Technology, United States
Martin Necasky, Charles University, Czech Republic
Sudha Ram, University of Arizona, United States
Jan Recker, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Motoshi Saeki, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Michael Schrefl, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Nigel Stanger, University of Otago, New Zealand
Markus Stumptner, University of South Australia, Australia
Ernest Teniente, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain
Riccardo Torlone, Roma Tre University, Italy
Qing Wang, Australian National University, Australia


FURTHER INFORMATION
-------------------

For further information, please, refer to the APCCM 2013 Web-site at http://2013.apccm.org/ 

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Paper: Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Collaborative Process Modelling System

Just had our paper "Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Collaborative Process Modelling System" accepted for CyberWorlds 2012 in Darmstadt, run by Fraunhofer IGD.

Paper is found here.

Abstract - Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually requires the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational business settings. While there are many process modelling tools available, the support they provide for remote collaboration is still limited. This paper investigates the application of virtual environment and augmented reality technologies to remote business process modelling, with an aim to assisting common collaboration tasks by providing an increased sense of immersion in a shared workspace. We report on the evaluation of a prototype system with five key informants. The results indicate that this approach to business process modelling is suited to remote collaborative task settings, and stakeholders may indeed benefit from using augmented reality interfaces.

Ross

Paper: Assisting ICU training management with virtual worlds

Have just had an invited paper "Assisting ICU training management with virtual worlds," accepted for ICU-Management, the official management voice of the ‘International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine’ (ISICEM).  In this paper, we have focussed on benefits to the management of ICU training that can occur from 3D Virtual Worlds.

Submitted version of paper can be found here.

Abstract - Conventional training methods for nurses involve many physical factors that place limits on potential class sizes. Alternate training methods with lower physical requirements may support larger class sizes, but given the tactile quality of nurse training, are most appropriately applied to supplement the conventional methods. However, where the importance of physical factors are periphery, such alternate training methods can provide an important way to increase upper class-size limits and therefore the rate of trained nurses entering the important role of critical care. A major issue in ICU training is that the trainee can be released into a real-life intensive care scenario with sub optimal preparation and therefore a level of anxiety for the student concerned, and some risk for the management level nurses, as patient safety is paramount. This lack of preparation places a strain on the allocation of human and non-human resources to teaching, as students require greater levels of supervision. Such issues are a concern to ICU management, as they relate to nursing skill development and patient health outcomes, as nursing training is potentially dangerous for patients who are placed in the care of inexperienced staff. As a solution to this problem, we present a prototype ICU handover training environment that has been developed in a socially interactive virtual world. Nurses in training can connect remotely via the Internet to this environment and engage in collaborative ICU handover training classes.

Ross

Sunday, May 27, 2012

#2 PhD scholarship available at QUT’s Information Systems School

PhD scholarships available with my colleague/co-author Prof. Jan Recker.  Contact details are below.

=====================

PhD scholarship available at QUT’s Information Systems School

Applications are invited from suitable qualified graduates for a PhD scholarship at the School of Information Systems at Queensland University of Technology as part of the ARC project “Designing Process Models for Decision-Making”. The term of the scholarship is three years. The scholarships provide financial support towards study and living costs.

Project Background
When seeking to re-design business processes – a perennial top priority of chief information executives – organisations use graphical documentations of their business processes, so called process models. These models act as blueprints of organizational processes, and are a key tool for making re-design decisions, i.e., decisions about where, how and why changes to the processes should be enacted to warrant increased revenues, business growth, improved operational efficiency, cost reductions or increased compliance.

A process model that documents a business process in an incomplete, incorrect, cumbersome to decipher, or otherwise deficient manner will not convey the information about the business domain to the decision maker such that a good decision can be facilitated. Any organizational re-design of the processes, in consequence, will then fail to deliver the expected benefits. When creating process models, therefore, analysts require principles that guide them in conceiving graphical representations of business processes that are useful, intuitive and accurate to the decision-makers (process owners, process managers, business analysts, systems designers and the like) working with these models.

This project aims to develop a theory, and theory-driven guidelines, for developing understandable process models. Specifically, it will deliver:
       A fundamental theory about factors and consequences of process modelling for decision-making tasks; and
       on the basis of the new and validated theory, practical guidelines based on rigorous empirical insights to guide the creation of useful, intuitive and accurate process models for decision-making.


Project Governance
The research project is led by Professor Jan Recker, PhD. Jan is Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellow and Woolworths Chair of Retail Innovation at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. His main areas of research include process design in organizational practice, organizational innovation and business transformation management. His research is published in the MIS Quarterly, the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, the European Journal of Information Systems, Information & Management, the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems, and other key journals.
More information is available from www.janrecker.com/.

The Research Environment

QUT’s Information Systems School is currently the highest ranked IS research department in Australia based on research quality and the only IS research group that was ranked with a perfect '5-out-of-5' score in the 2010 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) assessment. The school is also among the highest ranked IS departments in terms of publications in the top IS journals worldwide.

QUT’s Information Systems School has a global reputation for its work on Business Process Management and Process Innovation. The School has an unconditional focus on rigorous research with demonstrated practical relevance. Research from the school has appeared in premier journals such as the MIS Quarterly, the Journal of the AIS, the European Journal of IS, Decision Support Systems, Information Systems, ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, and others.




Application Criteria
The successful applicant

-       has a Master's degree in management, information systems, finance, marketing, business administration or a comparable field. He or she completed the Master’s degree with a GPA of 6 or higher (or equivalent).
-       has the ambition and capabilities to complete a high-quality PhD project within 3 years.
-       has a strong research mindset, and evidence of skills in theoretical and empirical research.
-       possesses strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
-       speaks and writes fluently in English.
-       likes to work in an international setting.

Application Procedure
Applicants are required to submit a letter of application for the scholarship to Associate Professor Jan Recker (j.recker@qut.edu.au) by 15 June 2012, briefly describing qualifications, relevant skills and areas of research interest.
Applicants will be screened and, if suitable, invited for further assessment and interviews.

The following supporting documents are required:

-       CV including a comprehensive list and details of all publications if any.
-       Certified copies of academic transcripts.
-       Copies of most important research papers or theses
-       A letter stating how the above criteria are met by the applicant
-       2 letters of reference from academics who have taught/supervised the applicant at university.