Improving collaborative work and project management in a nuclear power plant design team: A human-centered design approach

Abstract

This article presents a collaborative system, called SCORE, useful for a multi-disciplinary team designing a new nuclear power plant (NPP). It was developed during the first phase of the I 2 S-LWR project (Integral Inherently Safe Light Water Reactor). SCORE enables the generation of design cards (DCs). A DC includes four main spaces (Boy, 2005): (1) a rationalization space where the various components of the system being designed (SBD) are described in terms of design rationale, integration and requirements; this space includes declarative and procedural descriptions and statements; (2) an activity space where the current version of the SBD is displayed; it includes static and dynamic features; this space enables SBD manipulation; (3) a structure space where the various components and their inter-relations are formally and declaratively described as systems of systems; (4) a function space where the various functions of the SBD are described in terms of procedural knowledge and dynamic processes involved; this space includes qualitative and quantitative physical and cognitive models. The rationalization space is informed using an adapted version of the QOC method (Questions, Options, Criteria), which was tested within the I 2 S-LWR design team. The activity space contains 3D models developed using AutoDesk Inventor, and transferred into the Unity game engine web player in order to facilitate integration within the DC spaces and enable intuitive manipulation of objects in the activity space. Two additional spaces were added: an instant messaging capability that allows design team members (DTMs) to exchange with one another on a DC; and a structured evaluation space. DCs are cooperatively created and refined by DTMs, and synthesized during periodic design meetings, the frequency of which may vary. Incrementally combining abstract explanations of designed elements and integration with their explicit visual representation improves mutual understanding among DTMs, and consolidates design decisions. This human-centered design (HCD) approach also improves individual and collective familiarization with the complexity of mixing several expert contributions in NPP design. In this case, HCD is not focused on end-users, but rather on the designers themselves.

The effect of collaborative problem solving & collaborative project-based learning models to improve the project competences of pre-service teachers

“…In a CPBL environment, students seem confused when suddenly asked to do project tasks without paying attention to the team structure. This confirms that in collaborative learning, meaningful team interactions are challenging, and to make it happen students must struggle (Harney et al, 2015;Tawfik et al, 2018) and trying to understand each other so that the process of thesis ideas runs optimally (Boy et al, 2016). Therefore, solving complex scientific problems collaboratively requires a good mental representation of the team so that it can accommodate problem-solving.…”

“…Referring to the revised Bloom taxonomy of Anderson and Krathwohl (2001;, problemsolving is identified as a project (product) competency. This reality is verified by the results of the Tarmizi & Bayat, (2012); Jaime, et al, (2016);Blomquist, et al, (2016); Boy, et al, (2016); who emphasized that problem-solving competence is an abstract domain while project competence is a concrete domain. In other words, a project is a tangible form of the learner's cognitive processes when working on real-world problem-solving tasks.…”

Human-centered design of complex systems: An experience-based approach

“…The concept of active design document (ADD), initially developed for traceability purposes, is useful for rationalization of innovative concepts and incremental formative evaluations (Boy 2005). The SFAC model was the basis of the SCORE system used to support a team, designing a light water nuclear reactor, in their collaborative work and project management (Boy et al 2016).…”

“…The SFAC model was the basis of the SCORE system used to support a team, designing a light water nuclear reactor, in their collaborative work and project management (Boy et al. 2016).…”

Interfaces em Ação: sobre interações e layers comunicacionais nas práticas de projeto remoto

“…Segundo Boy et al (2016) "Collaborative work has been extensively studied and supported in the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) community. […] Computing is used to mediate human-human interaction.…”