The pace of introduction of new technology and thus continuous change in skill needs at workplaces, especially for the engineers, has increased. While digitization induced changes in manufacturing, construction and supply chain sectors may not be felt the same in every sector, this will be hard to escape. Both young and experienced engineers will experience the change, and the need to continuously assess and close the skills gap will arise. How will we, the continuing engineering educators and administrators will respond to it? Prepared for engineering educators and administrators, this workshop will shed light on the future of continuing engineering education as we go through exponentially shortened time frames of technological revolution and in very recent time, in an unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. S. Chakrabarti, P. Caratozzolo, E. Sjoer and B. Norgaard.
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This article explores the decision-making processes in the ongoing development of an AI-supported youth mental health app. Document analysis reveals decisions taken during the grant proposal and funding phase and reflects upon reasons why AI is incorporated in innovative youth mental health care. An innovative multilogue among the transdisciplinary team of researchers, covering AI-experts, biomedical engineers, ethicists, social scientists, psychiatrists and young experts by experience points out which decisions are taken how. This covers i) the role of a biomedical and exposomic understanding of psychiatry as compared to a phenomenological and experiential perspective, ii) the impact and limits of AI-co-creation by young experts by experience and mental health experts, and iii) the different perspectives regarding the impact of AI on autonomy, empowerment and human relationships. The multilogue does not merely highlight different steps taken during human decision-making in AI-development, it also raises awareness about the many complexities, and sometimes contradictions, when engaging in transdisciplinary work, and it points towards ethical challenges of digitalized youth mental health care.
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Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable biopolymers (polyesters), produced by a wide range of bacterial strains. They are gaining increasing interest in different research fields, due to their sustainability and environmental-friendly properties. Additionally, PHAs are also biocompatible, which makes them interesting for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. At the same time, they are characterized by properties ideal for 3D printing processing, such as high tensile strength, easy processability and thermoplasticity. To date, the techniques employed in PHAs printing mostly include fused deposition modeling (FDM), selective laser sintering (SLS), electrospinning (ES), and melt electrospinning (MES). In this review, we provide a comprehensive summary of the versatile and sustainably sourced bacterial PHAs, also modified by blending with natural and synthetic polymers (e.g., PLA, PGA) or combining them with inorganic fillers (e.g., nanoparticles, glass), used for 3D printing in biomedical applications. We specify focus on the printing conditions and the properties of the obtained scaffolds with a focus on the print resolution and scaffolds mechanical and biological properties. New perspectives in the emerging field of PHAs biofabrication process, characterized by sustainability and efficiency of the scaffold production, are demonstrated. The use of alternative printing techniques, i.e. melt electrowriting (MEW), and producing smart and functional materials degrading on demand under in vitro and in vivo conditions is proposed.
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