The telecommunication market is growing at a very fast pace with the evolution of new technologies to support high speed throughput and the availability of a wide range of services and applications in the mobile networks. This has led to a need for communication service providers (CSPs) to shift their focus from network elements monitoring towards services monitoring and subscribers’ satisfaction by introducing the service quality management (SQM) and the customer experience management (CEM) that require fast responses to reduce the time to find and solve network problems, to ensure efficiency and proactive maintenance, to improve the quality of service (QoS) and the quality of experience (QoE) of the subscribers. While both the SQM and the CEM demand multiple information from different interfaces, managing multiple data sources adds an extra layer of complexity with the collection of data. While several studies and researches have been conducted for data analytics in mobile networks, most of them did not consider analytics based on the four dimensions involved in the mobile networks environment which are the subscriber, the handset, the service and the network element with multiple interface correlation. The main objective of this research was to develop mobile network analytics models applied to the 3G packet-switched domain by analysing data from the radio network with the Iub interface and the core network with the Gn interface to provide a fast root cause analysis (RCA) approach considering the four dimensions involved in the mobile networks. This was achieved by using the latest computer engineering advancements which are Big Data platforms and data mining techniques through machine learning algorithms. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Electrical Engineering)

Saltmarshes provide a diverse range of ecosystem services and are protected under a number of international designations. Nevertheless they are generally declining in extent in the United Kingdom and North West Europe. The drivers of this decline are complex and poorly understood. When considering mitigation and management for future ecosystem service provision it will be important to understand why, where, and to what extent decline is likely to occur. Few studies have attempted to forecast saltmarsh morphodynamics at a system level over decadal time scales. There is no synthesis of existing knowledge available for specific site predictions nor is there a formalised framework for individual site assessment and management. This project evaluates the extent to which machine learning model approaches (boosted regression trees, neural networks and Bayesian networks) can facilitate synthesis of information and prediction of decadal-scale morphological tendencies of saltmarshes. Importantly, data-driven predictions are independent of the assumptions underlying physically-based models, and therefore offer an additional opportunity to crossvalidate between two paradigms. Marsh margins and interiors are both considered but are treated separately since they are regarded as being sensitive to different process suites. The study therefore identifies factors likely to control morphological trajectories and develops geospatial methodologies to derive proxy measures relating to controls or processes. These metrics are developed at a high spatial density in the order of tens of metres allowing for the resolution of fine-scale behavioural differences. Conventional statistical approaches, as have been previously adopted, are applied to the dataset to assess consistency with previous findings, with some agreement being found. The data are subsequently used to train and compare three types of machine learning model. Boosted regression trees outperform the other two methods in this context. The resulting models are able to explain more than 95% of the variance in marginal changes and 91% for internal dynamics. Models are selected based on validation performance and are then queried with realistic future scenarios which represent altered input conditions that may arise as a consequence of future environmental change. Responses to these scenarios are evaluated, suggesting system sensitivity to all scenarios tested and offering a high degree of spatial detail in responses. While mechanistic interpretation of some responses is challenging, process-based justifications are offered for many of the observed behaviours, providing confidence that the results are realistic. The work demonstrates a potentially powerful alternative (and complement) to current morphodynamic models that can be applied over large areas with relative ease, compared to numerical implementations. Powerful analyses with broad scope are now available to the field of coastal geomorphology through the combination of spatial data streams and machine learning. Such methods are shown to be of great potential value in support of applied management and monitoring interventions.

Corruption is a social evil that resonates far and deep in societies, eroding trust in governance, weakening the rule of law, impairing economic development, and exacerbating poverty, social tension, and inequality. It is a multidimensional and complex societal malady that occurs in various forms and contexts. As such, any effort to combat corruption must be accompanied by a thorough examination of the attributes that might play a key role in exacerbating or mitigating corrupt environments. This dissertation identifies a number of attributes that influence corruption, using machine learning techniques, neural network analysis, and time series causal relationship analysis and aggregated data from 113 countries from 2007 to 2017. The results suggest that improvements in technological readiness, human development index, and e-governance index have the most profound impacts on corruption reduction. This dissertation discusses corruption at each phase of infrastructure systems development and engineering ethics that serve as a foundation for corruption mitigation. The dissertation then applies novel analytical efficiency measurement methods to measure infrastructure inefficiencies, and to rank infrastructure administrative jurisdictions at the state level. An efficiency frontier is developed using optimization and the highest performing jurisdictions are identified. The dissertation’s framework could serve as a starting point for governmental and non-governmental oversight agencies to study forms and contexts of corruption and inefficiencies, and to propose influential methods for reducing the instances. Moreover, the framework can help oversight agencies to promote the overall accountability of infrastructure agencies by establishing a clearer connection between infrastructure investment and performance, and by carrying out comparative assessments of infrastructure performance across the jurisdictions under their oversight or supervision.

<p>Professional engineers think and act in distinctive ways when addressing engineering problems. Students need to develop this reasoning or engineering thinking during their education. Unfolding the undergraduate students’ thinking is a necessary step in designing experiences and teaching materials that foster not only their understanding of engineering concepts but also their learning to think as professional engineers. While there are previous studies about the students' thinking in other disciplines, more research is needed in engineering. This three-study dissertation aims to further our comprehension of undergraduate students’ engineering thinking using an adapted version of the Engineering Habits of Mind (EHoM) model. Specifically, the dissertation’s studies work together to continue the research that addresses the question:<em> What are the characteristics of undergraduate students</em>’ <em>engineering thinking?</em></p> <p><br></p> <p>The first study used naturalistic inquiry to holistically explore the cognition associated with the EHoM of senior chemical engineering students when improving a chemical plant. The analysis of students’ interactions showed that their redesign process followed an iterative co-evolution of the problem and solution spaces. Furthermore, they treated the task as a socio-technical problem considering engineering and non-engineering factors. In addition, while exploring problem and solution entities, they used multiple representations to communicate ideas but had difficulties translating symbolic representations into more physical, concrete representations. Regardless the technical issues and time constraints, the students completed the conceptual redesign and communicated their proposal to the client.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The second study used qualitative content analysis to examine first-year engineering students’ ideation as a cognitive skill associated with the EHoM of problem finding and creative problem solving. Particularly, it focused on students’ ideation of questions and recommendations when doing data analytics to help improve a client’s enterprise. The analysis of students’ reports showed that they expanded the problem space of the task by bringing additional information that was not provided. They asked questions focused on performing statistical analysis of the dataset and requesting information about the company’s business model. At the end of their data analytics, students made high- and low-quality recommendations considering their alignment with a specific problem, robust evidence, and the client’s needs. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The third study used qualitative descriptive research to investigate undergraduate participants' cognitive competencies within engineering systems thinking at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. These competencies are associated with the EHoM of problem finding, creative problem solving, systems thinking, and visualization. Mainly, the study focused on analyzing the evidence of cognitive competencies documented in the publicly available participants’ wikis where they registered their design process. Results showed that iGEM teams developed solutions with biological systems interacting with other systems and used concepts and tools from multiple disciplines. They also cooperated with stakeholders, which helped them analyze their system from multiple lenses. Moreover, depending on their upfront task, they fluidly represented their systems from structural, behavioral, and functional perspectives. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The final chapter of this dissertation presents an overarching discussion across the studies. The findings and implications will support curriculum designers, instructors, and other interested readers to prepare learning environments that promote undergraduate students’ engineering thinking. Furthermore, they may guide future efforts to continue exploring the students' thinking process when addressing engineering problems. </p>

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This master thesis explores the transformative potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) in enhancing business processes across various industries, with a specific focus on Management Innovation. As organizations face the pressures of digitalization, LLMs emerge as powerful tools that can revolutionize traditional business workflows through enhanced decision-making, automation of routine tasks, and improved operational efficiency. The research investigates the integration of LLMs within four key business domains: Human Resources, Tender Management, Consultancy, and Compliance. It highlights how LLMs facilitate Management Innovation by enabling new forms of workflow automation, data analysis, and compliance management, thus driving substantial improvements in efficiency and innovation. Employing a mixed-method approach, the study combines an extensive literature review with surveys and interviews with industry professionals to evaluate the impact and practical applications of LLMs. The findings reveal that LLMs not only offer significant operational benefits but also pose challenges related to data security, integration complexities, and privacy concerns. This thesis significantly contributes to the academic and practical understanding of LLMs, proposing a framework for their strategic adoption to foster Management Innovation. It underscores the need for businesses to align LLM integration with both technological capabilities and strategic business objectives, paving the way for a new era of management practices shaped by advanced technologies. / Denna masteruppsats utforskar den transformativa potentialen hos Stora Språkmodeller (LLMs) i att förbättra affärsprocesser över olika industrier, med särskilt fokus på Management Innovation. När organisationer möter digitaliseringens press, framträder LLMs som kraftfulla verktyg som kan revolutionera traditionella affärsarbetsflöden genom förbättrat beslutsfattande, automatisering av rutinuppgifter och förbättrad operationell effektivitet. Forskningen undersöker integrationen av LLMs inom fyra centrala affärsområden: Human Resources, Anbudshantering, Konsultverksamhet och Regelefterlevnad. Den belyser hur LLMs underlättar Management Innovation genom att möjliggöra nya former av arbetsflödesautomatisering, dataanalys och efterlevnadshantering, vilket driver påtagliga förbättringar i effektivitet och innovation. Genom att använda en blandad metodansats kombinerar studien en omfattande litteraturöversikt med enkäter och intervjuer med branschproffs för att utvärdera påverkan och praktiska tillämpningar av LLMs. Resultaten visar att LLMs inte bara erbjuder betydande operationella fördelar utan även medför utmaningar relaterade till datasäkerhet, integrationskomplexitet och integritetsfrågor. Denna uppsats bidrar avsevärt till den akademiska och praktiska förståelsen av LLMs, och föreslår en ram för deras strategiska antagande för att främja Management Innovation. Den understryker behovet för företag att anpassa LLM-integrationen med både teknologiska kapabiliteter och strategiska affärsmål, vilket banar väg för en ny era av ledningspraxis formad av avancerade teknologier.

Whole-exome and genome sequencing are widely used to diagnose individual patients. However, despite its success, this approach leaves many patients undiagnosed. This could be due to the need to discover more disease genes and variants or because disease phenotypes are novel and arise from a combination of variants of multiple known genes related to the disease. Recent rapid increases in available genomic, biomedical, and phenotypic data enable computational analyses, reducing the search space for disease-causing genes or variants and facilitating the prediction of causal variants. Therefore, artificial intelligence, data mining, machine learning, and deep learning are essential tools that have been used to identify biological interactions, including protein-protein interactions, gene-disease predictions, and variant--disease associations. Predicting these biological associations is a critical step in diagnosing patients with rare or complex diseases. In recent years, computational methods have emerged to improve gene-disease prioritization by incorporating phenotype information. These methods evaluate a patient's phenotype against a database of gene-phenotype associations to identify the closest match. However, inadequate knowledge of phenotypes linked with specific genes in humans and model organisms limits the effectiveness of the prediction. Information about gene product functions and anatomical locations of gene expression is accessible for many genes and can be associated with phenotypes through ontologies and machine-learning models. Incorporating this information can enhance gene-disease prioritization methods and more accurately identify potential disease-causing genes. This dissertation aims to address key limitations in gene-disease prediction and variant prioritization by developing computational methods that systematically relate human phenotypes that arise as a consequence of the loss or change of gene function to gene functions and anatomical and cellular locations of activity. To achieve this objective, this work focuses on crucial problems in the causative variant prioritization pipeline and presents novel computational methods that significantly improve prediction performance by leveraging large background knowledge data and integrating multiple techniques. Therefore, this dissertation presents novel approaches that utilize graph-based machine-learning techniques to leverage biomedical ontologies and linked biological data as background knowledge graphs. The methods employ representation learning with knowledge graphs and introduce generic models that address computational problems in gene-disease associations and variant prioritization. I demonstrate that my approach is capable of compensating for incomplete information in public databases and efficiently integrating with other biomedical data for similar prediction tasks. Moreover, my methods outperform other relevant approaches that rely on manually crafted features and laborious pre-processing. I systematically evaluate our methods and illustrate their potential applications for data analytics in biomedicine. Finally, I demonstrate how our prediction tools can be used in the clinic to assist geneticists in decision-making. In summary, this dissertation contributes to the development of more effective methods for predicting disease-causing variants and advancing precision medicine.

Underhåll är en aktivitet som varje produktion vill undvika så mycket som möjligt på grund av kostnaderna och tiden som anknyts till den. Trots detta så är en väl fungerande underhållsverksamhet väsentlig för att främja produktionens funktionssäkerhet och tillgänglighet att tillverka. En effektiv underhållsorganisation går däremot inte ut på att genomföra mer underhåll än vad som egentligen är nödvändigt utan att genomföra underhåll i rätt tid. På traditionellt sätt så genomförs detta genom att ersätta slitage delar och serva utrustningen med fastställda mellanrum för att förebygga att haveri, vilket kallas för förebyggande underhåll. De tidsintervaller som angivits för service bestäms av leverantörerna och grundar sig i en generell uppskattning av slitagedelarnas livslängd utifrån tester och analys. Till skillnad från att köra utrustningen till den går sönder som kallas för Avhjälpande underhåll så kan underhåll genomföras vid lämpliga tider så att det inte påverkar produktion och tillgänglighet. Men de tidsintervall som leverantörerna rekommenderar till företagen garanterar inte att slitage delen håller sig till det intervallet, delarna kan exempelvis rasa tidigare än angivet eller till och med hålla längre. Av denna anledning är det naturliga steget i underhållets utveckling att kunna övervaka utrustningens hälsa i hopp om att kunna förutspå när och varför ett haveri ska uppstå. Den här typen av underhåll kallas för tillståndsbaserat och prediktivt underhåll och medför ultimat tillgänglighet av utrustning och den mest kostnadseffektiva underhållsorganisationen, då god framförhållning och översikt uppnås för att enbart genomföra underhåll när det behövs. Det som gör tillståndsbaserat och prediktivt underhåll möjligt är den fjärde industriella revolutionen “Industri 4.0” och teknologierna som associeras med den som går ut på absolut digitalisering av produktionen och smarta fabriker. Teknologier som IoT, Big Dataanalys och Artificiell Intelligens används för att koppla upp utrustning till nätet med hjälp av givare för att samla in och lagra data som ska användas i analyser för att prognosera dess livslängd. Uppdragsgivaren AstraZeneca i Södertälje tillverkar olika typer av läkemedel som många är livsviktiga för de patienter som tar dessa mediciner. Om AstraZenecas produktion står still på grund av fel i utrustningen kommer det inte enbart medföra stora ekonomiska konsekvenser utan även påverka de människor som med livet förlitar sig på den medicin som levereras. För att försäkra produktionens tillgänglighet har AstraZeneca gjort försök att tillämpa tillståndsbaserat och prediktivt underhåll men det är fortfarande enbart i startgroparna. Eftersom ventilation är kritisk del av AstraZeneca produktion då ett fel i ventilationssystemet resulterar i totalt produktionsstopp i byggnaden förens problemet åtgärdas och anläggningen sanerats blev det även rapportens fokusområde. Arbetets uppgift går därför ut på att undersöka möjligheter för AstraZeneca att utveckla deras prediktiva och tillståndsbaserat underhåll på deras ventilationssystem, för att sedan kunna identifiera och presentera förslag på åtgärder. Dessa förslag analyserades sedan med hjälp av verktygen QFD-Matris och Pugh-Matris för att kunna uppskatta vilket förslag som är mest kostnadseffektivt, funktions effektivt samt vilket förslag som kommer tillföra mest nytta för underhållet på AstraZeneca. / Maintenance is an activity that every production wants to avoid as much as possible due to the costs and the time associated with it. Despite this, a well-functioning maintenance operation is essential to promote the production's availability to manufacture and operational reliability. Running an efficient maintenance operation is not about carrying out more maintenance than is necessary but carrying out the right amount of maintenance at the right time. Traditionally speaking this is done by replacing worn parts and servicing the equipment at set intervals to prevent breakdowns, this method is called preventive maintenance. The intervals specified for service are determined by the suppliers and are based on general estimates of the service life for the spare parts from test and analytics. Preventive maintenance allows for maintenance to be carried out at appropriate time to not affect production and availability unlike running the equipment until breakdown, which is called reactive maintenance. However, these intervals that the suppliers recommend do not guarantee that the parts adhere to the given interval, the part can for example break down earlier than expected or even outlast its prescribed lifetime. Because of this, the natural step in the development of maintenance is giving companies the ability to monitor the health of the equipment in hope of being able to predict potential breakdowns. This is what Condition-Based and predictive maintenance is and it provides the ultimate availability of equipment and the most cost-effective maintenance organization, because the good foresight and overview allows maintenance to be carried out only when needed. The fourth industrial revolution “Industry 4.0”, absolute digitalization of production, smart factories and all the technologies associated with this is what makes this type of maintenance possible. Technologies such as IoT, Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence are used to connect equipment to the network using sensors so that data can be stored and collected to be analyzed to forecast the lifespan of parts and equipment. AstraZeneca in Södertälje manufactures different types of medicine, many of which are vital for the patients who take them. If their production comes to a standstill due to equipment failure, it will not only have major financial consequences but also greatly affect the people who rely on the medicine offered with their lives. To ensure the availability of production, AstraZeneca has made attempts to apply condition-based and predictive maintenance, but it is still only in its infancy. Since ventilation is a critical part of AstraZeneca's production, as a failure here will result in a total production stoppage for the building affected and will not resume before the problem is remedied and the plant is decontaminated, it also became the report's focus area. The task at hand is therefore to investigate the opportunities AstraZeneca must develop their predictive and condition-based maintenance for their ventilation systems, in order to be able to present proposals for measures. The proposals will then be analyzed using tools like the QFD-Matrix and the Pugh-Matrix in order to estimate which is more cost effective, function effective and which one will bring the most benefit to AstraZeneca.

In recent years, generative AI has made significant strides, likely leaving an irreversible mark on contemporary society. The launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT 3.5 in 2022 manifested the greatness of the innovative technology, highlighting its performance and accessibility. This has led to a demand for implementation solutions across various industries and companies eager to leverage these new opportunities generative AI brings. This thesis explores the common operational challenges faced by a small-scale Tech Enterprise and, with these challenges identified, examines the opportunities that contemporary generative AI solutions may offer. Furthermore, the thesis investigates what type of generative technology is suitable for adoption and how it can be implemented responsibly and sustainably. The authors approach this topic through 14 interviews involving several AI researchers and the employees and executives of a small-scale Tech Enterprise, which served as a case company, combined with a literature review.  The information was processed using multiple inductive thematic analyses to establish a solid foundation for the investigation, which led to the development of a Proof of Concept. The findings and conclusions of the authors emphasize the high relevance of having a clear purpose for the implementation of generative technology. Moreover, the authors predict that a sustainable and responsible implementation can create the conditions necessary for the specified small-scale company to grow.  When the authors investigated potential operational challenges at the case company it was made clear that the most significant issue arose from unstructured and partially absent documentation. The conclusion reached by the authors is that a data management system powered by a Retrieval model in a LLM presents a potential path forward for significant value creation, as this solution enables data retrieval functionality from unstructured project data and also mitigates a major inherent issue with the technology, namely, hallucinations. Furthermore, in terms of implementation circumstances, both empirical and theoretical findings suggest that responsible use of generative technology requires training; hence, the authors have developed an educational framework named "KLART".  Moving forward, the authors describe that sustainable implementation necessitates transparent systems, as this increases understanding, which in turn affects trust and secure use. The findings also indicate that sustainability is strongly linked to the user-friendliness of the AI service, leading the authors to emphasize the importance of HCD while developing and maintaining AI services. Finally, the authors argue for the value of automation, as it allows for continuous data and system updates that potentially can reduce maintenance.  In summary, this thesis aims to contribute to an understanding of how small-scale Tech Enterprises can implement generative AI technology sustainably to enhance their competitive edge through innovation and data-driven decision-making.