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2018
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Underestimating project complexity is widely accepted as one of the major causes of project failure. Based on international benchmarking activities (Merrow, 2010), we know that an average of 40% of projects do not deliver what they promised; for megaprojects in the oil and gas industry this figure is even worse (Ernst&Young, 2014). As with most external factors, many of the causes and consequences of complexity are difficult to avoid or control. When dealing with complexity, standard practices in the field of project management often overlook the inherent uncertainties linked to the length and scale of engineering and infrastructure projects and their constantly changing environments. The situation is exacerbated by rapidly evolving technologies and social change. Attempts to overcome these challenges by simply trying to reduce their causes is not enough. In this course, you will learn our approach to mastering complexity, focused on front-end development and teamwork, which will help you develop the skills you need to make timely actions in order to tackle complexities and improve your chances of project success. You will learn how to enhance your own capacities and capabilities by ensuring you have the necessary balance of complementary skills in your team. Project success starts with recognizing the main drivers of complexity, which can be highly subjective and highly dynamic. In this course, you will learn to identify what makes a project complex and how to perform a complexity assessment. Examining the elements of a project (such as interfaces, stakeholders, cultures, environment, technology, etc.) and their intricate interactions is key to mastering complexity. You will analyze these elements in the context of your own project. Then, based on our complexity framework, you will identify the complexity footprint of your project and use it to adapt your management processes. With personalized guidance and feedback from our world-class instructors, you will learn how to recognize what competencies you need to develop and how to adapt your management style accordingly, not only to improve project performance but also to enhance your decision-making capacity. This course has been designed by TU Delft’s international experts on Project Complexity, and is based on more than 60 years of practical experience as well as relevant research in the field. “We see projects still fail and there is a need to do things differently. That’s what this course is about: delivering the best practices for project execution based on our state-of-the-art research.” – Professor Hans Bakker.
- Subjects:
- Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Construction industry -- Management Complexity (Philosophy) Project management
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- Courseware
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Courseware
What do collapsed buildings, infected hospital patients, and crashed airplanes have in common? If you know the causes of these events and conditions, they can all be prevented. In this course, you will learn how to use the TU Delft mind-set to investigate the causes of such events so you can prevent them in the future. When, for instance, hundreds of hospital patients worldwide got infected after having gall bladder treatments, forensic engineering helped reveal how the design and use of the medical instruments could cause such widespread infections. As a result, changes were made to the instrument design and the procedural protocols in hospitals. Learning from failure in this case benefitted patient health and safety across the world. After taking this course you will have an understanding of failures and the investigation processes used to find their causes. You will learn how to apply lessons gained from investigating previous failures into new designs and procedures.
- Keywords:
- Forensic engineering Failure analysis (Engineering)
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- Courseware
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Courseware
Life in the city relies on the smooth operation of urban logistics. Everything from retail to services, construction to waste collection rely on an efficient and reliable freight transport system. However, with the increasing pressures of urbanization, this has to be balanced with the environmental and social impacts caused by transport activity. This is the challenge of City Logistics, a field of study that has significant practical implications for the world and the cities we live in. It is not merely a question of what is involved, but what can be done about urban freight transport to improve it for the sake of economic efficiency, quality of life, and sustainability. From a systematic scientific foundation of the field, this course will take you on a journey to learn how city logistics is understood and practiced in cities around the world. Our instructors, members of a renowned global expert network, will teach you the basics of this highly complex social system. Using their experience in real-world projects, they will illustrate how the knowledge learnt in this course is applied across industry and the public sector. This course caters primarily to university students or professionals working in urban transport infrastructure planning or logistics management. Whether you are simply curious about the topic or you intend to develop a career in these fields, this course will give you the tools you need to understand the complexities of urban freight transport systems. The course emphasizes the theoretical foundation, the rigorous evaluation, and a multi-disciplinary approach to this complex area. Course participants will benefit from numerous case studies of best practice in selected cities around the world, in a variety of business settings. Our emphasis on the global perspective is particularly relevant, since an understanding of local culture and political climate is an important factor in the success of any city logistics intervention. The course will provide an avenue for students to learn from their peers about the challenges faced in their respective cities, and how to apply the principles learned to the challenges faced in their own cities.
- Subjects:
- Transportation
- Keywords:
- Freight freightage Transportation -- Environmental aspects Sustainable development Urban transportation
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- Courseware
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Courseware
Products and equipment all around us are made of materials: look around you and you will see phones, computers, cars, and buildings. We face challenges in securing the supply of materials and the impact this has on the planet. Innovative product design can help us find solutions to these challenges. This course will explore new ways of designing products. The design of products is an important aspect of a circular economy. The circular economy approach addresses material supply challenges by keeping materials in use much longer and eventually returning materials for new use. The principle is that waste must be minimized. Products will be designed to last longer. They will be easier to Reuse, Repair, and Remanufacture. The product will eventually be broken down and Recycled. This is Design for R and is the focus of this course. Experts from leading European universities and research organizations will explain the latest strategies in product design. Current design approaches lead to waste, loss of value and loss of resources. You will learn about the innovative ways in which companies are creating value, whilst securing their supply chains, by integrating Design for R. This course is suitable for all learners who have an interest in product design, innovative engineering, new business activity, entrepreneurship, sustainability, circular economy and everyone who thinks that the current way we do things today needs a radical rethink.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering
- Keywords:
- Engineering design Industrial management -- Environmental aspects Sustainable design Remanufacturing
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- Courseware
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Courseware
Around the world, major challenges of our time such as population growth and climate change are being addressed in cities. Here, citizens play an important role amidst governments, companies, NGOs and researchers in creating social, technological and political innovations for achieving sustainability. Citizens can be co-creators of sustainable cities when they engage in city politics or in the design of the urban environment and its technologies and infrastructure. In addition, citizens influence and are influenced by the technologies and systems that they use every day. Sustainability is thus a result of the interplay between technology, policy and people’s daily lives. Understanding this interplay is essential for creating sustainable cities. In this MOOC, we zoom in on Amsterdam, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Nairobi, Kampala and Suzhou as living labs for exploring the dynamics of co-creation for sustainable cities worldwide. We will address topics such as participative democracy and legitimacy, ICTs and big data, infrastructure and technology, and SMART technologies in daily life. This global scope will be used to illustrate why specific forms of co-creation are preferred in specific urban contexts. Moreover, we will investigate and compare these cities on three themes that have a vast effect on city life: - Water and waste - Energy, air, food and mobility - Green spaces and food This MOOC will teach you about the dynamics of co-creation and the key principles of citizens interacting with service providing companies, technology and infrastructure developers, policy makers and researchers. You will gain an understanding of major types of co-creation and their interdependency with their socio-technical and political contexts. You will become equipped to indicate how you can use co-creation to develop innovative technologies, policy arrangements or social practices for a sustainable city in your own community. You will demonstrate this by developing an action plan, research proposal or project idea. Basic knowledge of sustainability in urban settings, urban environmental technology and urban management is assumed.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering, Building Services Engineering, and Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Sustainable development Sustainable development -- Citizen participation City planning
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- Courseware
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Video
Sometimes conventional reinforcement isn't enough. The basics of prestressed concrete. Prestressing reinforcement doesn't necessarily make concrete stronger. But, it does increase the serviceability of concrete members by reducing the amount of deflection under load. This video explains the two most common types of prestressed concrete: pre-tensioned and post-tensioned. Prestressed concrete is used in all kinds of structures from bridges to buildings to silos and tanks. It’s a great way to minimize cracking and take fuller advantage of the incredible strength of reinforced concrete.
- Subjects:
- Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Prestressed concrete Reinforced concrete
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video discusses the purpose and function of elevated water storage tanks. The job of finding enough water, making it safe to use, and then reliably distributing it to the system customers with almost no downtime is a monumental task that requires a lot of infrastructure. And, probably the most visible component of a public water system is the elevated storage tank, also known as a water tower.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering
- Keywords:
- Tanks Water towers Water-supply
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Water hammer can work in both directions, and I only discussed one of those in the previous video (https://youtu.be/xoLmVFAFjn4). This episode revisits that demonstration to show how water hammer can form a vacuum pressure in a pipe. Momentum carrying fluid away from a valve wants to keep going even after the valve is closed. This generates a negative pressure than can cause major damage!
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering
- Keywords:
- Valves Water hammer Hydraulic control Hydraulic transients Relief valves Fluid mechanics
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video explains why ridges move, and other musings on thermal movement of large civil works. Most people have a certain intuition about thermal expansion, but you may not have considered how engineers design to accommodate it on large civil structures. The video gives a quick overview on this important consideration that engineers must account for when designing infrastructure like pipelines, bridges, and even sidewalks.
- Subjects:
- Structural Engineering
- Keywords:
- Structural analysis (Engineering) Expansion (Heat)
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video shows the basics of fluid cavitation, including demonstration from AvE. If you subject a fluid to a sudden change in pressure, some interesting things can happen. You can cause tremendous damage to moving parts, or you can harness this destructive power in many beneficial ways.
- Keywords:
- Hydrodynamics Cavitation Fluid mechanics
- Resource Type:
- Video