Blekinge Institute of Technology
Not a member yet
13576 research outputs found
Sort by
Making land extractable : assembling an iron ore mine through spatial planning
No full textSpatial planning is commonly conceptualised as a regulatory mechanism for managing competing land uses; however, this perspective tends to obscure how planning actively shapes land use. Responding to calls for relational approaches to land, this article examines how spatial planning enacts mineral extraction through embedded socio-material relations. Drawing on assemblage thinking and a qualitative case study of the Pajala iron ore mine in northern Sweden, the analysis traces three interrelated planning practices: ‘filling and emptying' land, mobilising history and shaping interest and accelerating extraction, which configure land as a site of extraction. The article reveals that planning does not merely manage land but mobilises technical artefacts, historical narratives and urgency claims to enact mineral extraction as a matter of ‘public interest,' while constraining deliberative spaces and depoliticising value conflicts. The article advances a relational and practice-oriented perspective on spatial planning, which challenges essentialist notions of land and highlights planning’s role in reproducing extractive logics under the guise of sustainability. These insights underscore the need for planning scholarship to critically engage with the paradox of the green transition: achieving decarbonisation through intensified mineral extraction while ensuring that spatial planning contributes to more equitable and sustainable trajectories rather than reinforcing extractive imperatives.
Perceiving Through the Painted Surface : Viewer-Dependent Depth Illusion in a Renaissance Work
No full textThis study explores how classical painting techniques, particularly those rooted in the Renaissance tradition, can produce illusions of depth that vary with the viewer's position. Focusing on a work rich in soft shading and subtle tonal transitions, we investigate how movement across the frontal plane influences the perception of spatial structure. A sequence of high-resolution photographs was taken from slightly offset viewpoints, simulating natural viewer motion. Using image alignment and pixel-wise difference mapping, we reveal perceptual shifts that suggest the presence of latent three-dimensional cues embedded within the painted surface. The findings offer visual and empirical support for concepts such as and dynamic engagement, where depth is constructed not solely by the image, but by the interaction between the artwork and the observer. Our approach demonstrates how digital analysis can enrich art historical interpretation, offering new insight into how still images can evoke the illusion of spatial presence
Empirical Evaluation of Taxonomic Trace Links : A Case Study
No full textContext: Traceability is a key quality attribute of artifacts that are used in knowledge-intensive tasks and supports software engineers in producing higher-quality software. Despite its clear benefits, traceability is often neglected in practice due to challenges such as granularity of traces, lack of a common artifact structure, and unclear responsibility. The Taxonomic Trace Links (TTL) approach connects source and target artifacts through a domain-specific taxonomy, aiming to address these common traceability challenges. Objective: In this study, we empirically evaluate TTL in an industrial setting to identify its strengths and weaknesses for real-world adoption. Method: We conducted a mixed-methods study at Ericsson involving one of its software products. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected across two traceability use cases. We established trace links between 463 business use cases, 64 test cases, and 277 ISO-standard requirements. Additionally, we held three focus group sessions with practitioners. Results: We identified two practically relevant scenarios where traceability is required and evaluated TTL in each. Overall, practitioners found TTL to be a useful solution for identifying trace links with reasonable effort. However, developing a domain-specific taxonomy and managing heterogeneous artifact structures were noted as significant challenges. Conclusion: TTL is a promising approach that can be adopted in practice and enables traceability use cases. However, TTL are not a replacement for traditional trace links, but complementary to enable more traceability use cases, and encourage early trace links creation
Studenters användande av generativ AI
No full textSedan lanseringen av ChatGPT i november 2022 är generativ AI ett fokusområde inom högre utbildning. Som pedagogiska utvecklare på Blekinge Tekniska Högskola (BTH) har vi identifierat att det saknas forskning inom flera områden inom generativ AI. Vi valde därför att genomfört denna studie för att öka vår kunskap och erhålla insikter i frågeställningar gällande studenters användande av GenAI. Vår studie syftar till att ge en djupare förståelse för hur ofta och i vilka syften studenter använder GenAI, hur det påverkar deras studieteknik, om de upplever att deras utbildning på något sätt har anpassats efter GenAI samt om ett lärosätes-licensierat GenAI-verktyg på något sätt påverkar deras användning. Denna studie avser därmed primärt vara ett underlag för vidare utvecklingsarbete för BTH, men vi menar att den även är generellt applicerbar på högre utbildning i allmänhet. I maj 2024 distribuerades en digital enkät ut till sammanlagt 4729 studenter på Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, vilket resulterade i 488 svar, motsvarande 10,3% av studentpopulationen. Resultaten visar att 68% av respondenterna har använt GenAI, och 64% anger att det har förändrat deras studieteknik. De öppna svaren belyser tre primära användningsområden: idéskapande, arbete med texter samt olika sorters förståelse. När det gäller studieteknik uppger merparten att de använder GenAI som en studiekamrat/extralärare och för olika textrelaterade uppgifter. Det framgår också att ett lärosätesspecifikt GenAI-verktyg verkar ha minimal påverkan på studenternas användande. Datan indikerar dessutom att majoriteten av studenterna inte anser att deras utbildningar har anpassats till GenAI eller behandlar frågor som riktlinjer, etik och diskussioner om ämnet i fråga. Vi rekommenderar vidare studier om studenternas faktiska användning av GenAI, särskilt där de använder GenAI som en studiekamrat/extralärare, då detta kan innebära pedagogiska fördelar.Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, generative AI has become a focal point in higher education. As educational developers at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), we have identified a lack of research in several areas of generative AI. Therefore, we conducted this study to enhance our knowledge and gain insights into students' use of Generative AI (GenAI). Our study aims to provide an understanding of how frequently and for what purposes students use GenAI, how it affects their study techniques, whether they feel their education has adapted to GenAI, and if an institution-licensed GenAI tool influences their usage. This study primarily serves as a basis for further development work at BTH but is also generally applicable to higher education. In May 2024, a digital survey was sent to 4729 students at Blekinge Institute of Technology, resulting in 488 responses, representing 10.3% of the student population. The results show that 68% of respondents have used GenAI, and 64% indicate that it has changed their study techniques. The open responses highlight three primary uses: idea generation, text work, and various forms of understanding. Regarding study techniques, most students use GenAI as a study companion/extra teacher and for various text-related tasks. It also appears that institution-specific GenAI tools have minimal impact on students' usage. The data further indicates that the majority of students do not believe their education has adapted to GenAI or addresses issues such as guidelines, ethics, and discussions on the subject. We recommend further studies on students' actual use of GenAI, especially where they use GenAI as a study companion/extra teacher, as this may offer pedagogical benefit
ADF-SL : An Adaptive and Fair Scheme for Smart Learning Task Distribution
No full textSplit Learning (SL) is an emerging decentralized paradigm that enables numerous participants, to train a deep neural network without disclosing sensitive information, such as patient data, in fields such as healthcare. In healthcare, SL enables distributed training across a variety of medical devices, hospitals, and organizations, improving model robustness while maintaining patient confidentiality. However, training models within SL is affected by data heterogeneity and sensitivity, and often requires more computational resources than an individual data provider can afford. This can result in significant model divergence and decreased performance due to differences in data distributions between various clients. To address this issue, we propose a framework that integrates fairness and adaptivity considerations, called ADF-SL. In particular, ADF-SL dynamically adjusts the total number of clients involved in model training and the number of iteration required to achieve convergence without compromising participant privacy. To evaluate performance, we compare the effectiveness of ADF-SL with that of the naive (Vanilla) SL approach, SplitFed and FairFed. Extensive experiments performed on time series electrocardiogram (ECG) databases (MITDB, SVDB, and INCARTDB) indicate that ADF-SL significantly outperforms the three existing algorithms that served as baselines. Compared to these baseline methods, ADF-SL accelerates model training on clients by up to 22.7%, 10.4%, and 5.8% compared to Vanilla SL, SplitFed, and FairFed, respectively, while maintaining model convergence and accuracy. Furthermore, the conducted ablation study has confirmed the importance of ADF-SL decay enrichment, which has outperformed non-decay ADF-SL for each used dataset by up to 15.8%, 43.9%, and 7.6%, respectively.
Utforska den cirkulära ekonomins principer inom byggbranschen : Strategier för leveranskedjan och blockkedjans potentiella roll – En fallstudie hos Skanska Sverige
No full textThis research focuses on Skanska Sweden’s next sustainability focus area. This thesis explores how Skanska Sweden can enhance its circular construction strategy through supply chain management and technologies like blockchain to maintain its position as a sustainability leader over the next five to ten years. The objective is to examine circular economy principles within the construction sector, investigate how these principles can be integrated with supply chain management, assess how blockchain technologies can be utilized in these applications, and provide suggestions for the future. The research included a qualitative case study methodology based on an extensive literature review and 12 semi-structured interviews with professionals from the sustainability, supply chain, digitalization, and project delivery departments of Skanska, Sweden. Leximancer-supported content analysis was used to identify patterns and insights in the interview data. The findings of the study indicated that conceptual awareness of circularity is strong, especially in the early design stages, but areas for improvement in terms of implementation were identified due to fragmented supply chains, underdeveloped reuse logistics networks, and limited interoperability in some areas with digital systems. Participants identified blockchain and SAP as promising tools for improvement in material and lifecycle traceability, carbon data integration, and process optimization. Beyond technological aspects and organizational development aspects, such as internal knowledge gaps and cultural readiness, were also identified as areas for improvement for better integration of sustainability. In addition, organizational alignment, supplier engagement, and customer collaboration were found to be critical success factors. The thesis presents applicable solutions such as improving SAP integration for material tracking, piloting BIM-Blockchain projects, and developing regional circularity. It also suggests increasing digital literacy within the company and contributing more directly to circularity at the design stage, together with customers. This study contributes to academic and sectoral discourses by demonstrating how circularity and digitalization can act as mutually reinforcing drivers of sustainable innovation when anchored in coherent strategy and institutional commitment
Evaluating Strategies for User Onboarding in Web Applications
No full textBackground: User onboarding is a critical phase in web applications that significantly impacts user retention and perceived value. Although various onboarding strategies exist, there is a lack of comparative empirical evidence on their relative effectiveness, particularly concerning newer approaches such as nudging and LLM-powered chatbots in complex SaaS setup contexts. Objectives: This study aims to systematically evaluate and compare the effectiveness of five different onboarding strategies - wizards, interactive walkthroughs, gamification, nudging and LLM chatbots - within the same application environment to determine which best guides users through essential setup tasks. Methods: A quasi-experimental approach was implemented using a multi-armed bandit strategy, where 620 real users of Lapsula.com, a SaaS platform for the health and wellness industry, were dynamically assigned to different onboarding strategies based on their performance. The UCB (Upper Confidence Bound) algorithm was used to optimize strategy allocation after an initial uniform distribution. Effectiveness was measured through completion rates, completion time, partial completion percentages, and user satisfaction ratings. Results: Interactive walkthroughs demonstrated the highest completion rate (52.43%) and satisfaction (94.85%), while LLM chatbots had the lowest completion rate (19.15%) but the fastest completion time (5.85 days) and high satisfaction (94.44%) among participants. Wizards showed moderate performance with the second highest completion rate (41.45%) but the longest completion time. Nudging performed poorly in satisfaction (22.73%), despite moderate completion times, while Gamified checklists did slightly better. Conclusions: The choice of onboarding strategy significantly impacts user success and satisfaction, with this experiment suggesting that interactive walkthroughs provide a solid approach for complex SaaS applications. This research provides an evidence-based foundation for designing effective onboarding experiences that balance user autonomy with a very directed and goal-oriented approach
Eldistribution: En stagnerande marknad? : En produktivitetsstudie med Malmquist-index på den svenska elnätsmarknaden
No full textElectricity is in today's society transmitted all around the world, and an essential part of everyday life. The nature of this utility is that it creates natural monopolies where the electricity grid resides. Since monopolies can take advantage of consumers, regulation exists to cap the revenue of the electricity distribution operators (DOs). This thesis aims to examine what factors affect the change in productivity for Swedish DOs during 2016-2020 supporting regulators and DOs in future strategic decision-making, ensuring a productive electricity market. By securing a cost effective and sufficient grid, society can commit to the transition towards electrification and continue to obtain economic growth supporting long-term welfare of society. The thesis used a quantitative method, calculating the total factor productivity through a DEA Malmquist index. Then, using a second-stage analysis, applying a multiple regression on potential factors contributing to a change in productivity on the Malmquist TFP index. The analysis shows that during 2020, a large increase in productivity was identified, but the overall productivity had not changed much during the period. R&D investments and Network losses influenced productivity. The results showed that private firms had an approximately 1% better performance than private cooperatives, but there were no signs that private firms performed better than public ones. The thesis concluded that regulatory periods most likely played a part in the sudden increase of productivity during 2020. Drivers of productivity change where investments in R&D, which potentially could increase the overall technical production frontier. In addition, decreasing network losses had a significant effect on productivity change. Results from the ownership variable showed signs that the privatization of the electricity DOs during 1990 had a small, but significantly positive effect
Effektiv feedbackhantering i en digital utbildningsplattform : en gestaltande undersökning
No full textDigitala utbildningsplattformar måste kontinuerligt utvecklas för att möta användarnas behov och stärka kvaliteten i lärandet. En central del i detta arbete är insamling av användarfeedback, men ett bristfälligt system riskerar att generera ostrukturerad data som är svår att tolka och tillämpa. Denna studie undersöker hur ett digitalt feedbacksystem kan utformas för att möjliggöra kontextuell och kategoriserad återkoppling i en lärplattform.Studien genomfördes i samarbete med P&L Nordic AB och baserades på en användarcentrerad designprocess. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med produktutvecklare, en innehållsanalys av 509 elevkommentarer samt en kvalitativ konkurrensanalys identifierades centrala behov och utmaningar i nuvarande feedbacksystem.Resultaten visar att användare behöver kunna lämna återkoppling direkt i anslutning till specifikt innehåll, med möjlighet att välja kategori och bifoga filer. Det framtagna designförslaget, integrerat i LearnWARE, använder principer från interaktionsdesign för att vägleda användaren och stärka känslan av delaktighet.Studien bidrar med insikter om hur digital återkoppling kan struktureras för att stödja pedagogisk utveckling och systemförbättring, samt vilka designprinciper som främjar konstruktiv och användbar feedback.Digital learning platforms must continuously evolve to meet user needs and improve learning quality. A critical part of this process is gathering user feedback, but a poorly designed system can produce unstructured data that is hard to interpret and act upon. This study investigates how a digital feedback system can be designed to collect contextual and categorized feedback in a learning environment.The work was carried out in collaboration with P&L Nordic AB and followed a user-centered design process. Semi-structured interviews with product developers, a content analysis of 509 student feedback entries, and a qualitative competitor review provided a multi-layered foundation for identifying core needs and design requirements.Findings show that users need a simple and accessible way to leave feedback linked to specific course content, with support for categorization and optional file attachments. The resulting prototype, integrated into the LearnWARE platform, guides users through a structured form and applies principles from interaction design to enhance clarity, control, and usability.This study contributes practical and theoretical knowledge on how feedback can be structured to benefit both users and developers, and highlights design strategies that promote constructive, actionable input in digital learning environments
Tail Threading of Flooring Mat : Reduction of operator’s physical effort and enhancingsafety
No full textTail threading is the process of guiding a continuous sheet through multiple rollers. It is a critical step in paper, board, and textile production, especially after a break or during startup. This thesis investigates the development of improved methods for tail threading in flooring mat production, which is heavier compared to paper and textile production, to reduce operator physical effort and enhance safety. The current manual threading process at Tarkett AB involves considerable physical effort and safety risks for operators, particularly in tight spaces and areas with limited visibility. Using the Design Thinking methodology, this study developed six distinct concepts to replace manual threading. The iterative process involved multiple phases, including empathizing with operators, defining the problem, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing. A weighted decision matrix was utilized, and the concepts of tube threading and wire tracking were combined and tested. The final iteration features a track with a guide hole for the wire, a retractable gate, and two movable tubes that blow the wire onto the rollers. Additionally, two concepts for connecting the wire to the flooring mat were investigated. The hybrid combined concept was not tested on the production line. However, it has the potential to improve ergonomics and reduce manual labor, as operators would no longer need to thread the flooring manually. Additionally, many parts of the concept could be automated. The findings suggest that design thinking can address well-defined industrial problems, offering insights into the broader application of Design Thinking in structured engineering contexts. Future work includes full-scale testing on the production line and exploring additional concepts to further optimize the threading process.'Trädning av material genom rullar är processen där ett kontinuerligt material, såsom papper, textil eller golvmatta, leds genom flera rullar. Det är ett avgörande moment inom produktionen av papper, kartong och textil, särskilt vid uppstart eller efter ett avbrott. Detta examensarbete undersöker utvecklingen av förbättrade metoder för att trä mattan genom rullar vid produktion, vilket är tyngre jämfört med pappers- och textilproduktion, för att minska operatörernas fysiska insats och öka säkerheten. Den nuvarande manuella processen för att trä mattan genom rullarna på Tarkett AB medför betydande fysisk insats och säkerhetsrisker för operatörerna, särskilt i trånga utrymmen och områden med begränsad synlighet. Genom att använda Design Thinking-metodiken utvecklade denna studie sex distinkta koncept för att ersätta den manuella trädningen av mattan. Den iterativa processen involverade flera faser, inklusive att skapa empati med operatörerna, definiera problemet, skapa lösningar, prototypa och testa. Vidare användes en viktad beslutsmatris, där två koncept kombinerades, prototyptillverkades och testades. Den slutgiltiga iterationen innehåller ett spår med ett styrhål för vajern, en infällbar grind samt två rör som kan flyttas och blåser vajern mot rullarna. Dessutom undersöktes två koncept för att koppla vajern till golvmattan. Det kombinerade hybridkonceptet testades inte i produktionslinjen, men har potential att förbättra ergonomin och minska det manuella arbetet, eftersom operatörer inte längre skulle behöva trä mattan manuellt. Många delar av konceptet skulle dessutom kunna automatiseras. Resultaten tyder på att design thinking kan användas för att lösa väldefinierade industriella problem och ger insikter i hur design thinking kan tillämpas bredare inom strukturerade ingenjörssammanhang. Framtida arbete innefattar tester i full skala på produktionslinjen samt vidare utforskning av koncept för att ytterligare optimera processen