The role of communication in the restaurant crowdfunding’s success

PurposeIn recent years, crowdfunding is assuming an increasingly central role in the development of business projects as an alternative financing tool to traditional sources. This study analyses the role of communication in the success of crowdfunding campaigns in the restaurant sector in the European context.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducts a regression analysis on a sample of 442 European restaurant crowdfunding projects launched on the Kickstarter platform in a time period spanning from 2014 to 2021. More specifically, this study uses a logistic regression model to test the impact of communication on the success of restaurant crowdfunding projects.FindingsEmpirical results suggest a strong impact of communication, declined in its different forms, on the success of restaurant crowdfunding campaigns. More specifically, they highlight a positive impact of the number of images, number of videos, readability and community orientation of the project description, number of comments and number of updates on the success of restaurant crowdfunding projects.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first research that examines the effect of the communication on the success of restaurant crowdfunding projects conducted in the European context.

Dead voices and lost sounds: an imagined sonic history

A project description of a sound art installation and interactive performance presented as part of the Up Close Festival in New York City in the winter of 2019/2020. The article is authored by the creator and director of the piece, Adrienne Kapstein. Created for an all-age audience, the piece was a unique, relational and socially engaged experience that merged sound art, live performance, illusion, technology, and audience participation. Designed to be completed in partnership with members of the community it sought to serve, the piece invited participation from every audience member through multiple and varied means of engagement.

Rushed Decisions: Ethical Considerations for Digital Storytelling Practitioners

The American Dreaming project, a community-based participatory research study conducted in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Define American, focuses on bolstering the mental health of immigrant rights advocates between the ages of 25 and 40 years. All participants identify as undocumented or formerly undocumented and have been public with their status since 2012. Seven people were recruited for the pilot program to participate in a digital storytelling (DST) workshop. They created digital stories (videos approximately 3 minutes in duration) from a series of general story prompts about their lives. Participants also completed pre- and posttests with measures assessing change in posttraumatic stress disorder, stress, self-esteem, depression, belonging, social support, and resilience. Follow-up, semistructured workshop evaluations were gathered, and life history interviews were conducted. The project also included a strategic communications component. In this article, I outline ethical challenges faced as the goals and parameters of the project shifted while conducting a multifaceted critical narrative intervention. The key lesson learned was to make space, prior to the DST workshop, for establishing and agreeing on project priorities with all stakeholders. I recommend creating a one-page memorandum of understanding that includes (1) a brief project description outlining the objectives, (2) goals listed in priority order, and (3) a decision tree to help stakeholders navigate competing interests. While DST is a powerful tool for supporting storyteller agency, working within structures of funding, support, and research can create challenges that critically complicate the narrative intervention.

Chemical and Radiological Sensors Integration in Unmanned Aerial Systems with ATEX Compliance

Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats pose many challenges to address in terms of reconnaissance, detection, personnel protection and countermeasures comprising a common set of techniques and procedures that fit in the concept of “all hazard” approach. The scientific and technological developments that led to the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in an ubiquitous manner, enables its integration in CBRN operations, as sensors platforms for detection. In this scope, the GammaEx project targets to validate the concepts of operation using a specifically developed UAS with ATmosphères EXplosives (ATEX) compliance, equipped with chemical and radiological sensors for detection in CBRN scenarios. This paper aims to review the main concepts and challenges involving the sensors integration in UAS for specific CBRN environments considering the ATEX compliance, followed by the GammaEx project description and the presentation of the preliminary results of the laboratory and field comparative assays concerning the specifically developed sensors for the project and the commercial of the shelf sensors, follow on activities and future trends.

MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS: AN ENGINEERING DESIGN COURSE PROJECT

To enhance the learning objectives of the course: Systems Modelling and Simulation (MSE 380), a Design-Based Learning (DBL) project centered on sustainability was developed and has been implemented for five years. The project consists of designing, modeling, and simulating a renewable energy system that solves a particular problem within a predefined scenario. Thescenario changes every year: past scenarios are a remote dwelling, a camping trip, a daily-life setting, a village in an underdeveloped country, and the design of a device that assists in the fight against COVID-19. The design of the system comprises two phases; first renewable energy is harvested and stored, and later the stored energy is used to solve the problem. Students model the systems using statespace representation and linear graphs; and simulate the response as linear, linearized, and nonlinear problems. Project examples for the scenario of underdeveloped villages are: discharge of flooded rice fields during monsoon season in South Asia using pumps, irrigation during the drought season in Northern India using stupas (artificial glaciers), uncovering of a Russian village after sandstorm with mechanical shovels, irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa using solar uplift towers, saving crops from freezing temperatures in rural Iran using solar collectors (as opposed to burning tires which is the current practice), and producing hydroelectricity to power a cooking device in an Amazonian village. Our pedagogical experience with this didactic approach has been very positive. Students are creative and engaged with their own designs. As the project description and requirements have evolved through the years, not only the quality of the projects has improved but also it has had a positive impact on the course learning.

Future tense can reduce present bias in infrastructure design

Design professionals (N = 261) were randomly assigned to either a future or present-framed project description before recommending design attributes for an infrastructure project. The future condition led designers to propose a significantly longer infrastructure design life, useful life to the community, and acceptable return on financial investment. The findings suggest that using future framing when soliciting sustainable design expertise can be a straightforward and inexpensive way to lessen present bias.

Structural-Parametric Model of the Design System

Purpose of research. In the design process developers dealing with professional issues related to the development of new design methods and tools inevitably face problems associated with the modeling of automated and designed objects. The analysis of the problems of designing complex systems have shown that the disadvantages of the design process appear, in particular, due to the incomplete generation of possible project options, as well as their partial ordering. At the same time, there is a certain imbalance in the properties of design systems and the problem of the lack of adequate methods for describing design processes arises. Methods. In the process of partial ordering of acceptable project options, when determining the structure of the design system at the generation stage, the structure of some generative grammar is used, which should have, first of all, control properties that provide a partial ordering of options already in the generation process. In addition, to take into account changes in the composition and parameters of design solutions, the generative grammar must have adaptive properties, which determines the need to choose an appropriate method for adaptive control of the generation process, taking into account, for example, the frequent repetition of the design process. Results. A model of a formalized recognition system is determined when choosing a project variant presented in the class of recognizing grammars. Rules for the formation of elements of recognizing grammars are given, and the alphabet can be represented by a multi-alternative probabilistic network of design options. The choice of the design object type is considered, the elements of the design system structure are determined. Conclusion. The structure of the design system can be parametrically determined based on the rules for generating elements of recognizing grammars, and the possibilities for generating variants can be coordinated with its recognizing capabilities, while the choice of the structure and forecasting of project parameters is made taking into account the number and properties of design resources. It should be noted that providing only the properties of the design system that reduce the description of the process can lead to difficulties in recognizing variants. At the same time, the choice of an adaptive design system structure allows you to build a language system with variable properties that provide the required reduction or expansion of the project description.

ECOLE

ECOLE is a Comenius 3 Network under the SOCRATES programme in the field of education running from 2002-2004. The main goal of Comenius Networks is to create links between projects carried out by school partnerships and those relating to the training of school education staff. This paper presents the outcome of the first year of the project with a special emphasis on the information and communication (ICT) infrastructure and the events. Project description covers an interactive website comprising information related to the activities of the network and an advisory reference point on running projects, database with projects, best practices, online teacher training, open working areas, project space, communication tools and so on.

Innovative technologies in teaching foreign languages at the university: the project method

The article deals with the methodology of teaching a foreign language at a university using the project method. In the article, the project method is considered as a specially organized, motivated learning activity that is aimed at researching and solving a practical or theoretically significant problem.The article describes the typology of projects and the key stages of project activities. The main tasks of implementing project activities at the university are also considered. The advantages of using the project method in pedagogical practice in comparison with traditional methods of teaching at the present stage are noted. Working on projects promotes the development of constructive thinking of students, increases motivation for learning, develops the ability to work in a team, leadership qualities, as well as skills of cooperation and self-presentation. The author discribes the new digital platform “Projectorium”, implemented in the Don State Technical University (DSTU). Attention is focused on the description of this platform and its training opportunities. As an example of the effective use of the project methodology, the project description on the topic “My career opportunities in the field of foreign languages” is given.