title: Managing technological innovation projects

authors: Mills, Robert Alan

abstract: Technological innovation is the whole process that turns ideas into income and is becoming strategically important for creating and offering customers new choice. Traditional project management is often used to deal with discrete parts of innovation processes and involves having substantially complete knowledge of all the inter-related activities needed for project achievement. Innovation projects, however, explore new ways to meet customer needs and it is prudent to frequently review output and benefits projections. Thus, traditional project management approaches do not appear to suit innovation projects. This thesis investigates how innovation projects might be best managed.

The innovation project management practices of seven R&D purchasers and providers (1995) and six successful companies involved in the electronics, food and forestry sectors (1998) in New Zealand were investigated. Twenty-three in-depth, partially structured interviews with project and programme managers explored how they were held accountable. Every manager considered their current project management arrangements could be improved and all were searching for alternatives. Their needs and desires were examined and a new generic approach called the Time-block Innovation Project Management System (TIPS) was conceptualised to meet current practice shortfalls. TIPS uses Microsoft Excel, a common spreadsheet software package as its implementation base.

TIPS differs from traditional project management in ten ways:
• TIPS recognises achievement not activities
• Project achievement goals are synchronised to the business calendar
• Projects always start now and always finish when benefit (income) is received
• Projects are monitored and controlled to maximise delivery of currently estimated future benefit
• All past project cost and effort is considered as invested in new knowledge
• TIPS projects are regularly re-planned from a zero base
• Each project is uniquely ranked
• Resource allocation is done by empowered staff
• TIPS acknowledges, quantifies and standardises risk estimates
• TIPS is formatted for convenience and practical use.

Original interviewees were presented with a description of TIPS (1999) for their comment on potential benefits and requirements for implementation. Most respondents thought TIPS appeared to have several advantages, but six specifically advised that TIPS would need to be demonstrated on “real” projects before their organisation would consider using it.

Finally, a three-month pilot trial was run (2000) implementing TIPS on three projects in each of one of the original R&D provider companies and electronics/manufacturing companies. Action research was used to simultaneously refine and implement TIPS, and to determine its potential usefulness and value to the companies. Participant managers indicated that project management information collected by TIPS was adequately comprehensive and very useful. Participants agreed that TIPS was better than existing arrangements at drawing early attention for corrective action. One-third of the participants thought TIPS might be better implemented in dedicated software.
One company, six project managers and five technical managers rated TIPS methodology very highly. The second company rated the value of implementing TIPS as moderate. Respondents considered TIPS could be implemented in their companies within 12 months.

It is recommended that TIPS’ user interface be improved and full implementation tried.

text: Managing technological innovation projects Technological innovation is the whole process that turns ideas into income and is becoming strategically important for creating and offering customers new choice. Traditional project management is often used to deal with discrete parts of innovation processes and involves having substantially complete knowledge of all the inter-related activities needed for project achievement. Innovation projects, however, explore new ways to meet customer needs and it is prudent to frequently review output and benefits projections. Thus, traditional project management approaches do not appear to suit innovation projects. This thesis investigates how innovation projects might be best managed.

The innovation project management practices of seven R&D purchasers and providers (1995) and six successful companies involved in the electronics, food and forestry sectors (1998) in New Zealand were investigated. Twenty-three in-depth, partially structured interviews with project and programme managers explored how they were held accountable. Every manager considered their current project management arrangements could be improved and all were searching for alternatives. Their needs and desires were examined and a new generic approach called the Time-block Innovation Project Management System (TIPS) was conceptualised to meet current practice shortfalls. TIPS uses Microsoft Excel, a common spreadsheet software package as its implementation base.

TIPS differs from traditional project management in ten ways:
• TIPS recognises achievement not activities
• Project achievement goals are synchronised to the business calendar
• Projects always start now and always finish when benefit (income) is received
• Projects are monitored and controlled to maximise delivery of currently estimated future benefit
• All past project cost and effort is considered as invested in new knowledge
• TIPS projects are regularly re-planned from a zero base
• Each project is uniquely ranked
• Resource allocation is done by empowered staff
• TIPS acknowledges, quantifies and standardises risk estimates
• TIPS is formatted for convenience and practical use.

Original interviewees were presented with a description of TIPS (1999) for their comment on potential benefits and requirements for implementation. Most respondents thought TIPS appeared to have several advantages, but six specifically advised that TIPS would need to be demonstrated on “real” projects before their organisation would consider using it.

Finally, a three-month pilot trial was run (2000) implementing TIPS on three projects in each of one of the original R&D provider companies and electronics/manufacturing companies. Action research was used to simultaneously refine and implement TIPS, and to determine its potential usefulness and value to the companies. Participant managers indicated that project management information collected by TIPS was adequately comprehensive and very useful. Participants agreed that TIPS was better than existing arrangements at drawing early attention for corrective action. One-third of the participants thought TIPS might be better implemented in dedicated software.
One company, six project managers and five technical managers rated TIPS methodology very highly. The second company rated the value of implementing TIPS as moderate. Respondents considered TIPS could be implemented in their companies within 12 months.

It is recommended that TIPS’ user interface be improved and full implementation tried.

year: 2000

title: Rendering Titanium Superhydrophobic

authors: Pachal, Sam Rewi

abstract: Two methods are reported herein to render titanium metal superhydrophobic. A superhydrophobic surface by definition is one that shows a water contact angle of equal to or greater than 150˚,(1) while in contrast bare titanium metal is hydrophilic and exhibits a water contact angle of 73±3˚.(2) Titanium metal is extremely reactive in air and rapidly forms a self-repairing oxide layer, which makes the necessary surface modification of the material to render it superhydrophobic challenging.
The first method employed in this work consists of a cold compression procedure whereby copper powder that has been previously rendered superhydrophobic by galvanic deposition of silver followed by treatment with 1-dodecanethiol is compressed onto titanium powder. The resulting compact consists of a superhydrophobic copper layer on a titanium substrate. The superhydrophobic copper layer is robust in that if it is damaged, the damaged layer can be abraded away to expose a new, fresh superhydrophobic copper layer beneath. Each successive layer exposed after abrasion throughout the superhydrophobic copper portion of the material is shown to exhibit the same wetting characteristics with regards to water roll-off angle.
The superhydrophobic titanium material prepared by this method exhibited a static water contact angle of 157±1º and water roll-off angles of 3.8±0.9º. The method was also successfully applied to aluminium powder, which showed a water roll-off angle of 4.2±0.4˚.
An additional superhydrophobic titanium material was prepared using this method which had a polyfluoroalkylthiol surface modifier, 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecanethiol, used in place of the 1-dodecanethiol. This material showed no statistically significant difference in wetting behaviour from its alkylthiol treated counterpart, with a water roll-off angle of 3.4±0.5˚ and a static water contact angle of 159±3˚.
The second method employed in this work was applicable to a foil form of titanium. It involves the deposition of copper onto a titanium foil, followed by galvanic reduction of silver onto the copper plate and adsorption of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecanethiol in a self-assembled monolayer. Difficulty was encountered in getting a reproducibly adherent copper plate onto the titanium foil, and two methods were experimented with to find optimum conditions for an adherent copper deposit.
The first strategy used to deposit copper onto titanium involved a high voltage capacitor discharge across a titanium electrode in an acidic copper sulfate solution to destroy the native oxide layer present on titanium. A copper electroplate immediately followed this step, though unfortunately none of the deposits prepared in this manner passed adherence tests. The second method involved an anodic etching step before deposition of copper and showed much improved adherence over the first method, but was inconsistent and the copper coatings were non-uniform.
The superhydrophobic titanium materials prepared on titanium foils using both methods of copper deposition showed the same roll-off angles for an applied glycerol droplet as a purely superhydrophobic copper foil. A previous publication1 has quoted superhydrophobic copper foil prepared by the same method as having a water contact angle of 173±1˚ and a water roll-off angle of 0.64±0.04˚. Extrapolating from the materials sharing the same glycerol roll-off angles gives some confirmation that a superhydrophobic surface has successfully been applied to titanium foil in this work.

text: Rendering Titanium Superhydrophobic Two methods are reported herein to render titanium metal superhydrophobic. A superhydrophobic surface by definition is one that shows a water contact angle of equal to or greater than 150˚,(1) while in contrast bare titanium metal is hydrophilic and exhibits a water contact angle of 73±3˚.(2) Titanium metal is extremely reactive in air and rapidly forms a self-repairing oxide layer, which makes the necessary surface modification of the material to render it superhydrophobic challenging.
The first method employed in this work consists of a cold compression procedure whereby copper powder that has been previously rendered superhydrophobic by galvanic deposition of silver followed by treatment with 1-dodecanethiol is compressed onto titanium powder. The resulting compact consists of a superhydrophobic copper layer on a titanium substrate. The superhydrophobic copper layer is robust in that if it is damaged, the damaged layer can be abraded away to expose a new, fresh superhydrophobic copper layer beneath. Each successive layer exposed after abrasion throughout the superhydrophobic copper portion of the material is shown to exhibit the same wetting characteristics with regards to water roll-off angle.
The superhydrophobic titanium material prepared by this method exhibited a static water contact angle of 157±1º and water roll-off angles of 3.8±0.9º. The method was also successfully applied to aluminium powder, which showed a water roll-off angle of 4.2±0.4˚.
An additional superhydrophobic titanium material was prepared using this method which had a polyfluoroalkylthiol surface modifier, 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecanethiol, used in place of the 1-dodecanethiol. This material showed no statistically significant difference in wetting behaviour from its alkylthiol treated counterpart, with a water roll-off angle of 3.4±0.5˚ and a static water contact angle of 159±3˚.
The second method employed in this work was applicable to a foil form of titanium. It involves the deposition of copper onto a titanium foil, followed by galvanic reduction of silver onto the copper plate and adsorption of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecanethiol in a self-assembled monolayer. Difficulty was encountered in getting a reproducibly adherent copper plate onto the titanium foil, and two methods were experimented with to find optimum conditions for an adherent copper deposit.
The first strategy used to deposit copper onto titanium involved a high voltage capacitor discharge across a titanium electrode in an acidic copper sulfate solution to destroy the native oxide layer present on titanium. A copper electroplate immediately followed this step, though unfortunately none of the deposits prepared in this manner passed adherence tests. The second method involved an anodic etching step before deposition of copper and showed much improved adherence over the first method, but was inconsistent and the copper coatings were non-uniform.
The superhydrophobic titanium materials prepared on titanium foils using both methods of copper deposition showed the same roll-off angles for an applied glycerol droplet as a purely superhydrophobic copper foil. A previous publication1 has quoted superhydrophobic copper foil prepared by the same method as having a water contact angle of 173±1˚ and a water roll-off angle of 0.64±0.04˚. Extrapolating from the materials sharing the same glycerol roll-off angles gives some confirmation that a superhydrophobic surface has successfully been applied to titanium foil in this work.

year: 2012

title: The centrality of relationships for pedagogy: The Whanaungatanga Thesis

authors: Bishop, Russell

subjects: addressing educational disparities

abstract: Te Kotahitanga is a research and professional development project that seeks to reduce educational disparities between indigenous Māori students and their non-Māori peers in New Zealand secondary schools. While evidence of the impact of the project on teachers’ practice and the associated gains made by Māori students has been published previously, in order for the work of Te Kotahitanga to contribute to the broader educational research community, its pedagogical premises require empirical verification. To do so, we must first establish the validity of the pedagogical data by addressing two questions: (a) To what degree can the data gathered in the collaborative processes of Te Kotahitanga be used as a measure of pedagogical quality? and (b) Do these data support the foundational hypothesis of the project, that “extended family” relationships, as understood by Māori people when using the Māori term, whanaungatanga, are a central necessary component of overall pedagogical quality? This article provides an account of the context of this work then presents an analysis directed to these questions in turn. First, our analysis of the observational data gathered during the Te Kotahitanga professional development process is presented, followed by the measures that were developed for each of the main dimensions of pedagogy addressed in this work. Second, using these measures we present our analysis of the inter-relation among these dimensions of pedagogy to test the Whanaungatanga pedagogical thesis.

text: The centrality of relationships for pedagogy: The Whanaungatanga Thesis Te Kotahitanga is a research and professional development project that seeks to reduce educational disparities between indigenous Māori students and their non-Māori peers in New Zealand secondary schools. While evidence of the impact of the project on teachers’ practice and the associated gains made by Māori students has been published previously, in order for the work of Te Kotahitanga to contribute to the broader educational research community, its pedagogical premises require empirical verification. To do so, we must first establish the validity of the pedagogical data by addressing two questions: (a) To what degree can the data gathered in the collaborative processes of Te Kotahitanga be used as a measure of pedagogical quality? and (b) Do these data support the foundational hypothesis of the project, that “extended family” relationships, as understood by Māori people when using the Māori term, whanaungatanga, are a central necessary component of overall pedagogical quality? This article provides an account of the context of this work then presents an analysis directed to these questions in turn. First, our analysis of the observational data gathered during the Te Kotahitanga professional development process is presented, followed by the measures that were developed for each of the main dimensions of pedagogy addressed in this work. Second, using these measures we present our analysis of the inter-relation among these dimensions of pedagogy to test the Whanaungatanga pedagogical thesis.

year: 2013