Semcon (Norway)

Abstract The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of Design Thinking techniques for capturing and communicating human values in the early phase of Systems Engineering. To develop products, systems, or services that satisfy the stakeholders, the systems engineer (SE) must understand the emotional needs of the stakeholder. The goal is to derive stakeholder requirements from the need analysis to create solutions that satisfy the quantitative and emotional need of the stakeholders. A development project team conducts three field visits where they interview and observe stakeholders in their work environment. The project team uses visual mapping tools to communicate and discuss findings and to create a mutual understanding of the stakeholder needs. We evaluate the method using interviews, surveys, and analyses of the derived requirements. The results indicate that the team gained a better understanding of the human values and succeeded in deriving human values into stakeholder requirements.

We surveyed the occurrence of rats in Miyagi Prefecture, a Tsunami disaster region of east Japan, in early November 2011, eight months after the Tsunami event. Snap-traps were set for 210 trap-nights in four sites, which were seemingly filled with diet, but no traces of rats were observed. Also we found no sign of rats in areas surrounding the trapping sites including temporal fish markets. However, nest holes, runways and fresh footprints of the Norway rat, Rattus norvegicus, were identified in an outside corner of a rice storehouse at a port. We conclude the Tsunami swept away most of the rats.