Program

August 29 9:45-10:45 Plenary talk
Prof. Tetsuo Sawaragi (Kyoto University, Japan)
"Semiotic Structures Embedded within Human-in-the-Loop Systems for Realizing Human-Machine Symbiosis"

August 29 13:30-14:30 Keynote speech 1
Prof. Paul Chung (Loughborough University, UK)
"Integrated safety information repository and applications"

August 30 13:30-14:30 Keynote speech 2
Prof. Leonard Bond (Iowa State University, USA)
"Condition monitoring, symbiotic systems and prognostics"

August 31 13:00-14:00 Keynote speech 3
Dr. Leena Norros (VTT, Finland)
"Design of work from the resilience engineering perspective"

Plenary talk
(August 29 9:45-10:45)

Abstract:
Because of the intervention of the cognition, the design issues of human-in-the-loop systems are becoming extremely difficult and complex. The core difficulty herein is that cognitive agents (i.e., both human and artefact agents) are characterized as creative and adaptable to and within their environments. To tackle this problem, we have to clarify how the cognitive agent recognizes the external environment and other agents' behaviours, and how the context determines the cognition and makes the agent extract a particular meaning out of that environment. In this talk, the design issues of the mutual and inseparable relationships between the external environment and the internal constructs of the agent that is an actor, an observer, a cognizer, and an interpreter are provided. As a core design discipline, the classical idea of "semiosis" originally proposed by Peirce is introduced. The key properties of this idea can be summarized as follows. First, a cognitive agent's recognition of an object in the environment is constructed via visible, audible and/or haptically-displayed signs. Second, the meaning of a sign is not contained within it, but arises in its cognitive agent's interpretation; there is no absolutely fixed connection between the sign and its object, and the interpretation is affected by a variety of surrounding contexts. Wherein, the two different sorts of contexts are of importance; syntagmatic context organized via part-to-whole relationships among the elements making up the environment and paradigmatic context organized via instance-to-class relationships. These two sorts of contexts always exist universally, and man-made artefacts and human activities are organized along these two axes of contexts; languages, architects, townscapes, tasks, narratives, gestures (bodily motions), etc. Due to this structure, continuous production of variability of the meanings through the networks of similarity and difference is enabled. By mingling technologies with semiotics, the common design issues are investigated that vary from how the human make predictions about, and adapt to, their semiotic niche in the world, and to an aspect of the wider systems including architects, embodied robots, ambient intelligence for task teaching and motion understanding, and human-machine interfaces. Semiotic technology offers us an indispensable tool for the creation of a truly sustainable society and human-oriented technology, leading a paradigm shift from conventional "design for manufacture" to novel "design for nurture".

Biography:
Tetsuo Sawaragi was born in 1957 and is a professor in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Science in Kyoto University's Graduate School of Engineering. In addition to his professorship, he holds the concurrent posts of deputy director for research and international affairs of Kyoto University and of deputy director of the Organization for the Promotion of International Relations (OPIR). Sawaragi received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Systems Engineering from Kyoto University in 1981, 1983 and 1988, respectively. From 1991 to 1992, he was a visiting scholar in the Dept. of Engineering-Economic Systems of Stanford University, USA. He was a project leader of the government sponsored 21st Century COE Program "Center of Excellence for Research and Education on Complex Functional Mechanical Systems" of Kyoto University, and is currently a principal investigator of the Grant-in-Aid Creative Scientific Research 2007-2012 (19GS0208) on "Design Theory for Dynamical Systems with Semiosis" that is funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. He has been engaged in the researches on Systems Engineering, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, particularly in the development of human-machine collaborative systems. He was a chair of IEEE SMC Japan Chapter, a president of Human Interface Society, and is currently taking a role of IFAC Co-chair of TC on Human-Machine Systems from 2011.

Keynote speech 1
(August 29 13:30-14:30)

Abstract:
To ensure processing plants are designed and operated safely throughout their lifecycle many considerations need to be taken into account. In the past few decades different computer tools have been developed to consider the safety concerns. However, a huge amount of fragmented information is generated in disparate formats. With the advances in internet technologies the huge amount of engineering, hazard and risk data can be brought together in a coherent way so that they can be easily accessed for the purpose of managing safety throughout the life time of a plant. This talk will describe an integrated safety information repository approach and selected safety related applications will be used to illustrate how the approach can help to improve dataflow and break down barriers between different groups of people working on the same process plant in different geographical locations and periods.

Biography:
BSc (First Class Honours) Computing Science, Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, 1981.
PhD in Artificial Intelligence, Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh, 1985.
Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh
1984-1986 Research Associate
1986-1989 Project Leader
1989-1991 Senior Computer Scientist and Group Leader
Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University
1991-1998 British Gas/Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellow
1998-1999 Senior Lecturer
1999-1999 Reader
Department of Computer Science, Loughborough University
1999-Present Professor
2011-Present Dean, School of Science

Keynote speech 2
(August 30 13:30-14:30)

Abstract:
Operations and maintenance (O&M) practices include periodic overhauls or replacement of parts based primarily on historical maintenance records, without regard to the actual "health" of the system. Condition-based maintenance (CBM) and increased understanding of aging and degradation phenomena in both active and passive systems, when combined with distributed computing and adoption of centralized monitoring are revolutionizing O&M practice. With the availability of data from online monitoring, new opportunities are emerging to bring together expert and computer-based analysis to facilitate the adoption of prognostics, predict remaining life, and reduce potential for unscheduled outages. Given adequate advances in on-line monitoring and predictive tools, CBM will provide opportunities for savings due to better planned plant life utilization.
Online monitoring technologies and prognostics needed for active components (i.e., pumps, motors, valves etc.) current nuclear power plants are available. Some challenges remain in its adoption, including obtaining regulatory approvals. The deployment of online monitoring for passive components in light water reactors, and both active and passive components in some small modular reactor designs, still faces challenges. Open issues include determining where to measure parameters and what to do with the resulting data to best predict remaining life and quantify uncertainties.
Prognostics and health management, applied to a diverse array of engineered systems, has a history which stretches back about 20 years, from which much can be learned. It has been more slowly adopted in the nuclear power industry. When digital instrumentation is combined with wireless infrastructure they afford the opportunity to move beyond advanced diagnostics and pattern recognition. Prognostic methods that combine human domain experts with real-time computer-based analysis can improve plant state and situational awareness. It becomes possible to move from a find and fix approach to being proactive in system management; thereby reducing the risk of surprises. The 2011 Japan Earthquake has highlighted the need to re-visit and reconsider what technology can and should be deployed to enhance plant safety and aid in predictions of remaining life: hence interest in prognostics.
This talk will provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in advanced diagnostics and prognostics for deployed nuclear power systems. It will include discussion of the migration from periodic inspection to real-time analysis of on-line monitoring data. Opportunities exist for a human-computer based partnership that can identify early degradation, and better schedule intervention, thus reducing the risk of failures and unscheduled outages. The adoption of centralized monitoring offers opportunities for improved data display formats permitting enhanced situational awareness. This approach offers the potential for decreasing failures, lowering O&M costs, improving safety, and accelerating adoption of proactive approaches to plant life cycle management.

Biography:
He has more than 30 years R&D experience in academia, government laboratories, and the private sector. He is co-author of a new edition of a bestselling industry reference [Ultrasonics, Ensminger and Bond (2011)] which discusses the full breadth of ultrasonics applications for industrial and medical use, including NDE and materials characterization. His research is focused on making measurements in harsh environments and the integration of the resulting data into advanced diagnostics/prognostics schemes. His graduate work combined numerical modeling and experimentation to analyze Rayleigh wave scattering, and contributed to the science base for quantitative nondestructive evaluation and the first British Gas "Ultrasonic Pigs," used for pipeline inspection. With the support of the Ministry of Defense (UK) he then analyzed ultrasonic inspection applied to aging solid rocket motors and an increasingly diverse range of defense systems. He joined University College London (UCL), University of London and as a faculty member developed a research group focused on QNDE. In recognition of his contribution to the field he was promoted to "Reader in Ultrasonics." He moved to the United States in 1990, and initially worked at NIST in Boulder, CO and held Research Professorships with both the University of Colorado at Boulder and University of Denver. He joined PNNL in 1998, where he is a Laboratory Fellow. In 2005-6 he was on assignment to the Idaho National Laboratory, where he was the founding Director for CAES - the Center for Advanced Energy Studies. Following his return to PNNL in January 2007 he has focused on diagnostics and prognostics for aging light water reactors and small modular reactors. He is the Director of Center for Nondestructive Evaluation, Iowa State University from July 2012. He is also leading activities to develop under sodium viewing for sodium cooled fast reactors, and ultrasonic instrumentation for in-core and near-core deployment. He is author or co-author of more than 250 publications and holds 10 patents. He is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Physics (UK). He has held numerous positions in professional societies and in 2009-10 served on the IEEE Board of Directors, and Director IEEE Region 6 (Western USA).

Keynote speech 3
(August 31 13:00-14:00)

Abstract:
This paper focuses on the problem of how to improve the ability of safety-critical sociotechnical systems to withstand or recover quickly form difficult and sometimes very unlikely and unexpected conditions. The conceptual approach to the global functioning of sociotechnical systems that has currently found increasing support is the so-called Resilience Engineering approach. In agreement with the main assumptions of this approach I shall start my talk by discussing the need in organisations for striking balance between pre-planned preparedness and situation-driven acting.
The steps of the argument are, first, that in order for the organisations to act in an adaptive way in unexpected situations and to develop its structures on the basis of the operational experience, the organisation needs to create appropriate shared awareness of what are the preconditions of system safety and the strengths of human activity to maintain it. Second, it shall be argued that in the development of personnel competences and ways of working, it is necessary to identify generic patterns of behaviour which the personnel may value as good professional behaviour and which can be shown to support global safety and efficiency goals of the organisation. These behavioural patterns are learned routines which, at the same time, enable reflection of the existing conditions of their implementation. Appropriate behavioural patterns need to be identified and developed in collaboration with the actors themselves. Third, I shall argue, that it is possible to specify quality criteria for the technological tools that make explicit how these tools support targeted features of user activity and experience, and support resilient functioning of the organisation and the global goals of work. The overall quality criterion advocated is labelled Systems Usability, which concept will be explained and evaluation metrics introduced.
Evidence for the arguments is drawn from own research arising from different safety critical complex work domains.

Biography:
Dr. Phil. Leena Norros acts as research professor at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland where she leads a human factors research team. Her background is in general and work psychology and she has been working on the problems of cognitive ergonomics in complex industrial systems. She acts as an associate professor at Helsinki University and teaches human factors engineering at Aalto University. In her work she has focused on the analysis of joint human-technology systems in context, and she has conducted studies in various safety-critical domains like nuclear power plants, aviation (ATC), anaesthesia, maritime, or emergency response. She has participated as human factors expert in many accident investigations in collaboration with the Finnish Accident Investigation Board. She is member of the executive committee of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics, and vice chair of the Working Group of Human and Organisational Factors (WGHOF) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. She is the member of the editorial board of the international journal Cognition Technology and Work and acts as reviewer in several scientific journals in the field of human factors and safety. She has about 180 scientific publications in international journals, books and conference proceedings.