Assumptions on accidents and consequences for investigation and remedial action

This three-year project addresses the methodology used in Sweidsh accident investigations. In the project, we first investigate prescribed practice, as described in manuals and policy documents, and then completed accident investigation cases. The aim is to improve accident investigation practices in Sweden.

The research focuses are as follows:

• What activities are prescribed, and what activities are conducted in accident investigations?
• How are accidents investigations integrated in safey work?
• What aspects are addressed as causes, for instance humans, technology or organizational factors?
• What accident models dominate, do they focus on component failure, or do they adress interactions between system functions?
• What is the scope of the investigation, are any additional aspects than what caused the accident included?
• Based on the results, we will produce recommendations for investigation work.

The project examines a variety of Sweidsh accident investigation manuals during 2006, and will investigate some completed accident investigation during 2007, as case studies. During 2008, the focus will be on recommendations for improving investigation practices.

The project was initiated in 2006, and funded to run for three years, by the Swedish National Rescue Services Agency.

(Information på svenska: Antaganden om olycksfall och dess konsekvenser för utredning och åtgärder.)

Web publishing system

To show how the findings in my thesis can be realized, I have developed the Shape CMS web publishing system. It is a parallel publishing system, based on Apache Cocoon and the eXist XML database. The system can publish a set of contents in several edited channels, with different output formats, such as PDF and HTML. It differs from traditional publishing systems in that you can have as many page layouts for a content set as you want. From a research perspective, this means that a set of contents, with a given site structure, can be rendered as different genres, at the same time, which gives a concrete demonstration of the genre perspective on interaction design, which I describe in my doctoral thesis. The system is available as open source from shapecms.sourceforge.net. You can find more information about the system there. Currently, you find examples of rendering a set of contents as a traditional discussion forum, and as a blog, at the same time. You also find two online newspaper layouts, rendering the most central news-carrying page elements, found in online newspapers. One uses a short front-page, and the other a longer front page (characteristic of many Swedish online newspapers). From the perspective of design, that allows you to test two site designs at the same time, and compare them. From a research perspective, experiments could be carried out on different designs. You can also read about the system in my portfolio.

The Electronic Newspaper Initiative (ELIN)

The aim of the Electronic Newspaper Initiative project was the ELIN toolkit, an add-on to the pubishing systems of media companies. The core technologies in the project were interactive video, personalisation, and automatic content adaption for mobile devices and newtwork capabilities. Also a 3D chat environment for news and advertisements was included in the toolkit. These technologies support the use and production of interactive news and advertisement on demand. Interoperability was achieved through the use of the MPEG 4,7, and 21 standards.

In the project, I acted as lead interaction designer, coordinating and carrying out desing work. This project was the main source of data for my doctoral thesis work.

Visual Interaction in the Cockpit (VINTHEC)

My masters thesis was made within the VINTHEC (Visual interaction in the cockpit) project, sponsored by the European Commission. The VINTHEC project was a joint research effort between companies in several countries, namely the National Aerospace Laboratory (NL) British Aerospace (UK), Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (UK), National Defence Research Establishment (SE), luleå University of Technology (SE), Saab AB (SE), H.A. Mooij Holding B.V (NL)

The project aim was to clarify the concept of situational awareness and to test and evaluate measurement tools for situational awareness, pilot workload and performance in simulation environments.

My work in the VINTHEC project was to conduct research on the eye-point-of gaze data from the simulation studies done at the National Aerospace Laboratory in Amsterdam. My work was done at the reserach site in Amsterdam, as a project employee of luleå University of Technology. My work was also included in one of the project deliverables.