Be it the coronavirus pandemic, climate change or the energy crisis, current world events require action on a global scale. It is no longer sufficient for the solution-finding process to be restricted to a single country or discipline — especially when it comes to science. The coronavirus pandemic showed how important it is in times of crisis to collect as much data and knowledge from across the world as quickly as possible in order to systematically develop countermeasures or a vaccine.
Scientific excellence guaranteed by the peer review process
In this light, the annual AHFE Conference provides an international forum for applied work research, thus offering exactly the right framework for the research carried out at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO. With 17 papers from more than 20 scientists in the areas of design, engineering, healthcare and manufacturing, the institute made a significant qualitative and quantitative contribution to the conference. All of the abstracts submitted were first peer-reviewed by three independent referees from an international program committee, who evaluated the submitted papers in accordance with strict criteria. According to these criteria, each paper must, for example, contain new findings or correspond to the latest developments in science. As a result, peer reviews are an essential quality control tool for publishing scientific research.
Awards: one Best Paper Award and two Honorable Mention Papers
Special recognition was also afforded to three of the papers submitted: The paper entitled “Interdisciplinary communication and advice under uncertainty in a pandemic” by Manfred Dangelmaier, Wilhelm Bauer and Zimu Chen was awarded the AHFE 2022 BEST PAPER AWARD in the area of “Human Factors in Disease Control and Pandemic Prevention.” One of the institute’s focal points at the very varied conference was the Human Side of Service Engineering (HSSE) conference track. Former institute director Walter Ganz was on the Editorial Board, and Rainer Nägele and Jens Neuhüttler headed up two sessions as chairs. Another two papers were also among those in the HSSE track named as ISSIP HSSE Honorable Mention Papers 2022. Lena Ahner and Jens Neuhüttler, who are working on the digital transformation of small and medium enterprises as part of the “Business Innovation Engineering Center (BIEC)” initiative of Fraunhofer IAO, teamed up with Nicole Gladilov to submit an approach entitled “An approach for developing and assessing sustainable business models” designed to support businesses in developing and evaluating the sustainability aspects of their business model. Janika Kutz and Jens Neuhüttler investigated factors that positively influence the introduction of AI technologies in manufacturing in their paper entitled “Implementation of AI Technologies in manufacturing — success factors and challenges,” which they completed in collaboration with Prof. Thomas Lachmann and Jan Spilski at the TU Kaiserslautern.
“The scientific exchange at conferences like AHFE is not only fun — it also helps to gain new momentum and provides a platform to discuss research results with colleagues from other countries, broadening the knowledge base,” says Jens Neuhüttler.
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO