Talking and discussing with many partners during the way has brought us to the most original meaning of Teaching as ‘fostering learning’. The present Teaching case is the result of all those discussions and considerations united by the convincement that doing research is an essential part of that just mentioned fostering learning. Besides a Case to work on, the current Teaching Case includes a series of guidelines plus a body of thoughts and considerations to be taken into account when conducting research on places in all their complexity. In the endwe have all agreed on the importance of becoming more knowledgeable and better informed. It all implies a commitment to do so!The MAGE Case illustrated in this Teaching Case compilation has been mainly the product of an already existing interest in learning more about specific areas in our cities, often the areas in which new venues of our universities have been built. Working with partners in real life cases we experienced an increasingly sense of being part of the whole. We stopped calling the companies and institutions we were working with as potential ‘clients’ and started to build on a partnership’s cooperation narrative. Next steps in this trajectory have been to take the time to better establish the implications of seriously adopting this partnership narrative as a way of working together in research and education. In this sense, it has been indispensable to review terms such as co-creation, design thinking or teaching case and to come to grips by incorporating them as concepts in a case glossary.In terms of context, it is relevant to know that the current IMAGE Case as described in these pages has been elaborated in three different editions during the academic years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. In each edition, we have been working with an international intercity cooperation from and within the cities of (in alphabetical order) Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris and Vienna. The different schools and faculties are all part of higher education institutions in the cooperating cities and have a location in the focus areas of the case. Our districts and neighborhoods in the partner cities: Amsterdam -Zuidoost-; Barcelona -El Raval-; Lisbon -Carnide-; Paris -La Defènse-; Vienna -St. Marx-. During these two years we have been working together with students coursing different subjects and mostly in the bachelor courses. Lecturers and all kind of local partners have been closely involved in the process of making the case happen. The case description in this compilation shows intentionally the dates of the 3rd edition that took place in the second semester 2021-2022. This last edition helped to improve and re-see the Case after a period of lockdowns because of covid-19 pandemic regulations. Operating between the specific years of 2020-2022 has been an extraordinary experience in the literal sense of the word. The Covid-19 pandemic became an exceptional situation even for online intercity cooperation at a distance. Despite the longer experience built on online working together at a distance with international partners, the truly limitation of offline face-to face meetings at all levels, together with the experiences of being ill and even losing loved ones, has obviously had an impact. In terms of conducting research and collecting first-handdata, the restrictions have been clearly visible as well. Looking at the footage elaborated by the different students’ teams during the first and second edition one sees at once the emptiness of the streets, to name an example. The trigger for the current Case IMAGE Researching the City Mapping Imaginaries was mainly born from the increasing awareness that our look at cities' reputations (and at the reputations of areas within cities) could use a more diverse lens. Without denying the relevance of by now referential iconic places, there is a need to go beyond the already established and towards a new positioning for cities to capture a broader and more substantiated city map-- a map which contributes to seeing beyond the obvious towards the less generally known.This need is urgent. Even before Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis, many European cities were facing various challenges from mass tourism, to gentrification and decreasing livability in some urban areas. Despite city campaigns, which insist on spreading residents and visitors through all over our cities, cities tend themselves to concentrate attention, and investments, in areas that are already considered referential. But the crux is then, why not extend our view on how reputations and attention is built and really contribute to a more informed city mapping including a larger diversity of areas and centres of interest? Or as some creative entrepreneurs have put it: Instead of everybody aiming to be in a place that is already successful, wouldn't it be better to find new ways of making more places successful? (Bures, 2012b, 2012a)
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Purpose – Cities are increasingly using events as an instrument for economic and social change and cultural and urban regeneration. Major events help cities to distinguish themselves, and attracting event-related tourism generates income and jobs and increases atmosphere and “liveliness”. Many cities have therefore positioned themselves as “eventful cities” or “festival cities” by adopting event-led strategies. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The effects of the 2007 European Capital of Culture (ECoC) in Sibiu, Romania were evaluated through a decade of longitudinal research including surveys and depth interviews with local residents, stakeholders and tourists to monitor the sustainability of event-related regeneration strategies. Findings – The impacts identified include increased cultural activity, tourism growth, image improvements and increased pride among residents. These impacts have been facilitated by a local growth coalition, and the increased linkage of the city to flows of investment, skills and talent through EU membership. The city has taken some important steps to becoming an “eventful city”, in which events are utilised to sustainably increase the quality of life. However, the momentum of eventfulness developed in 2007 has been difficult to maintain, and there are difficulties in separating the effect of event-related activities from wider cultural, social and economic development factors. Originality/value – The research indicates that the Sibiu ECoC in 2007 and the programme of cultural development leading up to it had substantial impacts on the city both in the short and longer term. The ECoC certainly met most of its short-term aims, as there was a significant economic boost from tourism and an improvement in the external image of the city.
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Vertical urbanisation is perceived as necessary to accommodate a growing population but is associated with severe risks for human well-being. It requires a profound understanding of how archi-tectural designs can ensure visually readable and liveable environments before it has been built. How-ever, current digital representation techniques fail to address the diverse interests of non-experts. Emerging biometric technologies may deliver the missing user information to involve (future) inhabit-ants at different stages of the planning process. The study aims to gain insight into how non-experts (visually) experience 3D city visualizations of designed urban areas. In two laboratory studies, univer-sity students were randomly assigned to view a set of the same level of detail images from one of two planned urban area developments in the Netherlands. Using eye-tracking technology, the visual behav-iour metrics of fixation count and duration and general eye-movement patterns were recorded for each image, followed by a short survey. The results show how visual behaviour and perception are remark-ably similar across different detail levels, implying that 3D visualizations of planned urban develop-ments can be examined by non-experts much earlier in the design process than previously thought.
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Many lithographically created optical components, such as photonic crystals, require the creation of periodically repeated structures [1]. The optical properties depend critically on the consistency of the shape and periodicity of the repeated structure. At the same time, the structure and its period may be similar to, or substantially below that of the optical diffraction limit, making inspection with optical microscopy difficult. Inspection tools must be able to scan an entire wafer (300 mm diameter), and identify wafers that fail to meet specifications rapidly. However, high resolution, and high throughput are often difficult to achieve simultaneously, and a compromise must be made. TeraNova is developing an optical inspection tool that can rapidly image features on wafers. Their product relies on (a) knowledge of what the features should be, and (b) a detailed and accurate model of light diffraction from the wafer surface. This combination allows deviations from features to be identified by modifying the model of the surface features until the calculated diffraction pattern matches the observed pattern. This form of microscopy—known as Fourier microscopy—has the potential to be very rapid and highly accurate. However, the solver, which calculates the wafer features from the diffraction pattern, must be very rapid and precise. To achieve this, a hardware solver will be implemented. The hardware solver must be combined with mechatronic tracking of the absolute wafer position, requiring the automatic identification of fiduciary markers. Finally, the problem of computer obsolescence in instrumentation (resulting in security weaknesses) will also be addressed by combining the digital hardware and software into a system-on-a-chip (SoC) to provide a powerful, yet secure operating environment for the microscope software.
Developing and realizing an innovative concept for the Active Aging campus in two years, where students, teachers, companies, residents of surrounding Campus neighborhoods will be invited to do exercise, sports, play, meet and participate. This includes, on the one hand, providing input with regard to a mobility-friendly design from an infrastructural perspective and, on the other hand, organizing activities that contribute to Healthy Aeging of the Zernike site and the city of Groningen. It is not only about having an Active Aging campus with an iconic image, but also about the process. In the process of realization, students, teachers, researchers, companies and residents from surrounding districts will be explicitly involved. This includes hardware (physical environment / infrastructure), software (social environment) and orgware (interaction between the two).
In our increasingly global society, organizations face many opportunities in innovation, improved productivity and easy access to talent. At the same time, one of the greatest challenges, businesses experience nowadays, is the importance of social and/or human capital for their effectiveness and success (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004; Mosley, 2007; Theurer et al., 2018; Tumasjan et al., 2020). High-quality employees are crucial to the competitive strength of an organization in the global economy, as these employees have a major influence on organizational reputation (Dowling at al., 2012). An important question is how, under these global circumstances, organizations and companies in the Netherlands can best be stimulated to attract and preserve social capital.Several studies have suggested the scarcity of talent and the crucial importance of gaining competitive advantage with recruitment communication to find the fit between personal and fundamental organizational characteristics and values for employees (Cable and Edwards, 2004; Bhatnagar and Srivastava, 2008; ManPower Group, 2014; European Communication Monitor (ECM), 2018). In order to become an employer of choice, organizations have to not only stand out from the crowd during the recruitment process but work on developing loyalty and a culture of trust in their relationship with employees (ECM, 2018). Employer Branding focuses on the process of promoting an organization, as the “employer of choice” to a desired target group, which an organization aims to attract and retain. This process encompasses building an identifiable and unique employer identity or, more specifically, “the promotion of a unique and attractive image” as an employer (Backhaus 2004, p. 117; Backhaus and Tikoo 2004, p. 502).One of the biggest challenges in the North of the Netherlands at the moment is the urgent need for qualified labor in the IT, energy and healthcare sectors and the excess supply of international graduates who are able to find a job in the North of the Netherlands (AWVN, 2019). Talent development, as part of the regional labor market and education policy, has been an important part of government programs and strategies in the region (VNO-NCW Noord, 2018). For instance, North Netherlands Alliance (SNN) signed a Northern Innovation Agenda for the 2014-2020 period. SNN encourages, facilitates and connects ambitions focused on the development of the Northern Netherlands. Also, the Social Economic council North Netherlands issued an advice on the labour market in the North Netherlands (SER Noord Nederland, 2017). Knowledge institutions also contribute through employability programs. Another example is the Regional Talent Agreement (Talent Akkoord) framework issued by the Groningen educational institutions, employers and employees’ organizations and regional authorities in which they jointly commit to recruiting, training, retaining and developing talent for the Northern labor market. Most of the hires with a maximum of five year of experience at companies are represented by millennials. To learn what values make an attractive brand for employees in the of the North of the Netherlands, we conducted a first study. When ranking the most important values of corporate culture which matter to young employees, they mention creative freedom, purposeful work, flexibility, work-life balance as well as personal development. Whereas attractive workplace and job security do not matter to such a degree. A positive work environment and a good relationship with colleagues are valued highly (Hein, 2019).To date, as far as we know, no other employer branding studies have been carried out for the North of the Netherlands. Further insight is needed into the role of employer branding as a powerful tool to retain talent in Northern industry in particular.The goal of this study is to provide a detailed analysis of the regional industry in the Northern Netherlands and contribute to: 1) the scientific body of knowledge about whether and how employer branding can strengthen the attractiveness of a regional industry in the labor market; 2) the application of this knowledge and insights by companies and governments in local policy development in the North of the Netherlands.
