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Business Area
Data Representation and Interfaces
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Recent technology-based learning and working environments are frequently engineered in a manner that provides only a relatively static experience. This often appears as a barrier to effectively exchange data and metadata, to sustainably manage archiving in repositories, and digital preservation as well as to accomplish efficient networking. Today, those user-friendly networked learning and working environments are essential that allow for managing individual concepts, and for structuring and delivery of digital content. Additionally, these environments need to reflect on the existent and the necessary competencies of the users, and also on the individual preferences in an organizational framework.
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The research and development work in the business area Data Representation and Interfaces concerns the meaningful alignment between innovative technologies for information, data and competency management, and user-centered solutions for the man-machine-interaction. Also Job Performance Management is a main focus due to the continuous need to improve the individual and corporate output as a measure for the efficiency provided by each organization. The technological solutions of the business area are applied in the fields of corporate training, education and competency management, human resource management, and digital archives. An example towards this development is the Learning-Content-Management-System EDMedia, which technologies cover various fields in the human resource management. EDMedia bonds high technological standards with quality assurance standards, requirements-based communication and collaboration options, pro-active knowledge management as well as sustainable education methods. Within the project "Development and Assurance of Quality Standards in a Technology Transfer
Network” EDMedia is applied to serve as a technical platform for the transfer of knowledge and data. The aim of this project concerns the formation of a nationwide technology transfer network towards continuing education and global knowledge sharing in the fields of optics, optoelectronics, microtechnology and machine vision. The project is one of the two winners of the innovation competition “Economy meets Science" of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building und Urban Affairs and was selected among more than 140 proposals.
A further direction of the research and development work concerns technologies for sensor fusion. Here, the main focus is to effectively pre-process and process data, and to discover, and analyze various scenes. Consequently, real-time-identification and awareness of risky situations in working and living environments is possible. The technological solutions of the business area are applied in the fields of automated production where humans cooperate with machines and robots in hazardous processes as well as in the fields of robotics, nursing, and personal services.
Moreover, the business area Data Representation and Interfaces is doing advanced research and development of methodologies and appropriate applications towards the evaluation and assessment of ground-breaking solutions in the fields of ontologies, agent technologies, machine learning, multimode dialog technologies, and interfaces. This know-how is applied among others in the projects THESEUS, and PROTAGE. Merging results from interdisciplinary research with results from man-machine interface design provides this business area an opportunity to work towards user-friendly applications that cover recent as well as future dimensions of working, living, and learning environments.
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Fields of Competence |
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Web-based information management
Transfer of knowledge, learning content management and knowledge management
Competency and job performance management
Man-machine cooperation
Quality assurance, evaluation and test of technological solutions
Quality assurance for learning, education and training systems
Standardization |
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Web-based information management
The Internet has an enormous role in the formation of strategic networks in multinational institutions. Thus, the business area Data Representation and Interfaces develops technologies and applications, which allow for a ubiquitous and multilingual access to data and knowledge as well as for an automated update between product and training data. Furthermore, based on recent standards, it provides solutions for the description, exchange, search, discovery and archiving of data in distributed networks and digital archives.
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Transfer of knowledge, learning content management, and knowledge management
Innovative human resource development, learning and content management as well as professional training and customer training are an inseparable part of each institution. Thus, the business area Data Representation and Interfaces offers solutions towards interoperability of content and systems for the management of information, content and knowledge. To achieve this aim, it develops environments, which assure fast adaptation, user-friendly presentation of information, and standards-based information and data exchange between institutions and beyond borders, based on web-services and secure rights management.
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Competency and job performance management
Continuously setting up new organizational and working forms, and rapidly changing business requirements lay out the need for systems and sustainable technologies that support the adoption of competency models and taxonomies along with the portability of competencies. The businessarea Data Representation and Interfaces provides solutions for the above-mentioned advanced themes by stressing on standard-conformant sharable competency data and web-based assessments as well as analysis and visualization of test results. Pooled together with learning-content-management-systems as well as further relevant corporate systems, the solutions assure an enhancement of knowledge and skills by following various types of iterative assessment.
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Man-machine cooperation
New application fields of robots such as automated production and personal services require close cooperation between humans and machines.The business brea Data Representation and Interfaces works on innovative applications, which address the fields of real-time processing of rapid image sequences, sensor fusion, and decision support systems towards motion control.
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Quality assurance, evaluation and test of technological solutions
The fields of system design and quality in use represent a very important factor to ensure an optimal solution for systems and technologies towards various quality requirements. The business area Data Representation and Interfaces offers profound evaluation that involves measures for the technical quality of the products as well as for their quality in use. Up-to-date evaluation techniques and well established ISO standards for quality and user-centered design such as ISO 9126, ISO 13407, ISO 9241-110, ISO 9241-11 und ISO 9241-12, etc. are merged together to serve the optimization process of products.
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Quality assurance for learning, education and training systems
In order to allow educational institutions to offer educational services that are approved according to various certified regulations, the adoption of standards such as ISO 9001:2000 as well as diverse quality approaches, and models for the qualitative evaluation of educational services is essential. Thus, the business area Data Representation and Interfaces provides customized solutions for 360° assessment, surveys, reports, and evaluation.
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Standardization
Up-to-date systems need to provide interoperability and furthermore, reuse and exchange of digital data. In following this line, the business area Data Representation and Interfaces addresses newest standardization efforts as a focal point of research and development. It actively participates in the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee and ISO JTC1 SC 36 "Information Technology for Learning, Education and Training", and benefits from sharing of knowledge, presentation of best-practices in the area of systems development and test as well as the joint work on relevant trends.
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