CSCI 8970 – Colloquium Series – Fall 2010 – Sixth Event

Safety, Security, and Reliability in Medical Device Systems

Monday, October 18, 2010

Presenter:  Dr. Mats Heimdahl

Dr. Mats Heimdahl lecture dealt with the concept of safety and the difficulties at times of development software that will understand both situations and exceptions to situations. Unfortunately, as a result of human error and at times of poor planning and software/hardware development lives have been lost. It is Dr. Mats Heimdahl to engineer systems that prevent this from happening, as such the University of Minnesota Engineering Center current received a 5 million dollar grant to improve the safety, security and reliability in Medical Device Systems.

Dr. Heimdahl career as a software engineer began with the desire of being part of something cool. In 1984, Graphic interfaces and GUI was the top of the line technology. Yet, overtime he developed an interest in improving software to increase their safety. He mentioned how while at times accidents are the result of negligence (such as being sucked into a jet engine <- the most common cause of death in airports), other times it is the result of poor program design (Therac 25 radiation therapy machine is one of the most commonly cited examples).  He gave examples of planes that crashed and exploded despite the software operating properly and the equipment having safety mechanism. Unfortunately, the software did not function properly during a rough winter in Poland and the plane kept going after touching the ground and bursted into flames. In another occasion, a plane “adequately” prevented a pilot from raising the plane after the pilot had entered landing mode by flying close to the runway. The software engineering department works on solving these types of problems primarily with the FAA and and FDA. Currently most of his graduates are hired by the FDA and the medical industry.

At times problems in the medical industry are the result of “widespread ignorance” but another major problem had been the growth of complexity.  A company closed down when they were preparing to submit a new [critical device with various real-time constraints] device for certification, but had developed their software using Visual Basic under Windows. They had no clue about the limitations of Visual Basic. Another company built a large medical device controlled by a PC but forgot to place an emergency stop red bottom. Later, instead of putting the red bottom in the machine, they placed in the computer (Red Bottom was in the computer only). Luckily that system turned out to be fairly simple in terms of electric power and the system could be shot down by simply cutting down the power.

Other problems, such as surgical fires are significantly more complex. Over 500 fires with horrific burns are caused every year when surgeons accidently sever the oxygen tube and creating a combustion. Surgical team must remember to reduce O2, but are regularly forgetting. Despite a proposal to fix these problems, the multiple interest from various companies delay the implementation of reforms.

Another problem that could be solved is the communication between the patient condition in relationship to the height of the bed and the blood pressure meter. Hundreds of accidents happen every year, where they think that the blood pressure goes down, when it is only a change of relative high and a question of physics. According to Heimdahl, every physician in the emergency room has made this mistake. Heimdahl also promoted the meet for the pacemakers and the MRI to communicate.

Some hospitals have tried to visualize the future and the integration of equipment by creating pilot and simulation models. Massachusetts General created an Operating Room (OR) of the Future where they are having a large number of problems in increasing the comprehensive integration between clinical and non-clinical devices. Some suggestions to improve OR room of the future include: Workflow support that closes the workflow loop, smart alarms requiring contextual awareness, and safety interlocks that require tight system integration

UMN’s project overview includes building a language to work in a clinical scenario, working on some form of network to monitor what is really going on, control what is really going on to help us out. In addition, apart from trying to solve problems that originate out of human error, the program is also exploring how to prevent individuals from hacking the program and holding it ransom. Someone could kill someone from far away, and blackmail the hospital <– Give us 50 million or we will kill some of your patients.

Other challenges for tomorrow include preparing products for sale by focusing on evidence based certification, which includes identifying the potential failure modes of software which can give rise to, or contribute to, hazards in the system context. It is also important to develop a safety case. Increasing security also encourages the question. How much security is enough?  “We can never make it completely security” Because of this large array of questions and the extensiveness of the program, software engineering will be recruiting a large number of students for its projects during the next few years. They currently have a large staff working in this project, but they are looking for more people. Maybe I could help in one way or another. It is definitely and interesting project.

Colloquium Notes

“The goal of an engineer is to retire without having caused (being blamed for) any major catastrophe”. – Dilbert 🙂

Dr. Mats Heimdahl

Professor

Director – University of Minnesota Software Engineering Center

PhD from UC Irvine

University of Minnesota Software Engineering Center [UMSEC]

Anything you want to learn about engineering you can learn from Dilbert

Safety, Security, and reliability in Medical Device Systems. (5 million dollar project)

Program is just ramping up, and they are looking for students to work in the program.

“When I started in CS, I wanted to do something cool” <– 1984 – Graphics, GUI was cool

1984 – first movie to use computer graphics – The last Star Fighter

1977 – Starwars used miniature models.

Most common cause of death in Airports, is being sucked into Jet Engines.

Some reason get hurt because they are stupid.

Therac 25 – A radiation therapy machine

The program radiated cancer patients too much, and some died horrific deaths.

Therac 25 – had poor hardware and software.

The FDA did not do their job – everything was screwed up.

A student wrote a 25 page paper of how everything was messed up – will not ask that problem again

He decided reducing software problems more important… way cooler

We are not that good or that bad, developing software.

When they touch down, they gun the engine. — without those, the air plane cannot stop

Thrust reverser details have various mechanisms to prevent it from closing accidentally

As a result, you have a number of sensors to prevent it from closing erroneously.

It went well until they failed in Poland:

There was too much snow, and the plane did not record that it touched ground, so it kept going, crashed and busted into flames.

We need to understand much much more to get the software right.

Sometimes the programs work well and they contribute to the accident happen.

Software switched from descent mode to landing mode.

The landing mode software prevented the pilot from raising the plane

Yet he hit the override bottom but it was too late and crashed into the trees.

What is safety?? – freedom from accidents and losses.

Software is not dangerous by itself.

It only harms people when it is interacting with the physical world.

He is interested in the cyber-physical systems.

Research group focused on airplanes – regular by the FAA.gov

Also works with the military and the FDA (and medical devices)

Reasons why things do not work…

-Because people are stupid… Widespread ignorance

“We are preparing to submit our new [critical device with various real-time constraints] device for certification. Our software has been developed using Visual Basic under windows, do you have any advice on how to best prepare our certification package?”

-They had no clue about the limitations of Visual Basic

A company did a fairly big medical device controlled by a PC, but they do not have an emergency stop red bottom.

They instead of putting the red bottom in the machine, they placed in the computer (Red Bottom was in the computer only)…

And the system was simply.. All you had to do was cut down the power.

Yet the company did not understand that all they needed was a 5 dollars fix.

Surgical Fires

-Airway Laser Surgery + O2 –> Bad News

O2 in breathing gas supports combustion

If laser hits breathing tube, could produce burns. (surgical laser)

Surgical team must remember to reduce O2

Yet 500 of these fires happen <– they get horrific burns

Yet things could easily be fixed by reducing the O2 level to under 25%

Proposed and published by Goldman in 1999, but it is not commercially available.

Now a political problem, but unfortunately, this is really important.

Intravenous Blood Pressure

Should the bed talk to the blood pressure meter

Hundreds of accidents happen every year, where they think that the blood pressure goes down, when it is only a change of relative high and a question of physics.

Every physician in the emergency room has made this mistake.

Defibrillator and MRI and Pacemaker.

Defibrillator shocks the heart to get the heart back into rhythm.

Pacemaker makes the MRI think that there is something wrong.

They shock the person needlessly.

They also forget to turn the pacemaker on.

Massachusetts General: Operating Room (OR) of the Future

• Build an operation room where everything talks to each other. <– unfortunately, they are having a lot of problems.

Lessons from OR of the Future Project

-Comprehensive integration between clinical and non-clinical devices should provide

-Workflow support that closes the workflow loop

-Smart alarms requiring contextual awareness (for an alarm to know when it is a nuisance and when it is not, it needs to take into account the context)

-Safety interlocks that require tight system integration

-Not limited to the OR

-ICU,ER, home, etc.

Project Overview

Build a language to work in a clinical scenario

Working on some form of network to monitor what is really going on

Control what is really going on to help us out.

You will have a number of devices, so how will you know when they are safe, and how they interact.

There is a lot of stuff, and if pieces are not understood and how they work together, then there will be problems

If this puzzle is solved then the FDA, the Medical Industry, and Doctors will support the initiative.

Some of this is going to have to be done on run time.

You have to worry about people screwing up accidently or hacking the program.

Caregiver –> Supervisor (connected with the data logging) –> Network Controller (also communicating with an external network) –> Devices (1, 2, 3 and adapters) –> Patient

Working together with Penn State University.

It will require some middleware.

Security issues to prevent hacking.

There was no protection for pacemakers – since they wanted the battery to last longer.

Someone could kill someone from far away, and blackmail the hospital <– Give us 50 million or we will kill some of your patients.

Certification – How do you get it ready for sale

Today, process based

-Follow these steps and hope for t he best

Tomorrow, evidence based

-Identify the potential failure modes of software which can give rise to, or contribute to, hazards in the system context.

Develop a Safety case

Certification Challenges

-Need for clinical studies to show it is effective and its safe.

-Shop a panel filled with cronies and hide data to obtain certification.

How much security is enough? – We can never make it completely security

Car Industry – often you do not see computers in there.

None of them are called safety systems – they are called driver assist system

They assist, not help prevent because they would be sued.

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Data Intensive Systems

-Doctor and hospital have a prescription, a print out –> the nurse double checks (if it is right, then gives it to the patient)

-The nurse checked, but the technical support office said this is ok, but after they got more glitches, they told everyone to stop

A bug, the database was off by a couple of slots.. – there were no manual records of the database

Nurses had to find the data they had from yesterday (the trash can, papers on desks) — No one got hurt, but it signaled a problem.

Automation can be problematic.

Someone that wanted to cause mayhem could do it.

They have a large staff working in this project, but they are looking for more people.

CSCI 8970 – Colloquium Series – Fall 2010 – Seventh Event

Modular Data Center Network Design and Implementation

Monday, October 25, 2010

Presenter:  Chuanxiong Guo, Microsoft Asia

Last Monday, the University of Minnesota had the privilege of receiving Chuanxiong Guo, a well respected computer scientist from Microsoft Research Asia. Chuanxiong Guo work focuses on Data Centers and their networking complications. Currently he is focused on DCN architecture and topology design, and in particular on the Dcell, Bcube, MDCube and technologies such as DNC Management, visualization, protocol. He is currently working with a large number of graduate interns.

His talk focused on Modular Data Center Network Design and Implementation, the Bcube and MDCube, and the DNC platform (SeverSwitch). He started his talk with some background information, including the recent growth of Data Centers as a key infrastructure component for cloud computing. The USA is currently building a lot of data centers around the world. Some of which are hundreds of times larger than super-computer. The average cost is $500 million for constructing a data center. Data centers are composed of servers which are stored in rack (40 to 80 servers) which use a switch to connect all the servers.

Microsoft has currently been working on improving the way switches and servers communicate in an effort to make the communication and the transfer of data faster and more efficient. One of the ways in which they are making data centers more efficient is through the use of container-based data centers, where they can store 1000 – 2000 servers in a single container. The core benefits of shipping containers are their easy and quick deployment, high mobility and their increased cooling efficiency.

Chuanxiong Guo also discussed modular, mega-data center networking. He overviewed ways in which to connect to the server using the container: through a tree (oversubscribed, bottlenecked root), or a fat tree (1:1 subscription). While the fat tree is better, it is more expensive due to the large number of switches. As such, their goal was to create a high networked capacity, with low costs with commodity devices and low cabling complexity. By adding some switching functions to the server they can speedup for one-to-several traffic (Theorem 4), speedup for one-to-all traffic (Theorem 5), aggregate bottleneck throughput for all-to-all traffic and aggregate bottleneck through (ABT) is the total number of flows times the throughput of the bottleneck flow under the all-to-all communication pattern.

To solve the issue they created an MDCube. The MDCube leveraged the link rate hierarchy of Ethernet switches, treated each container as a “virtual node”, treated switches’ high speed uplink interfaces as “virtual interfaces”, connected switches to peer switches directly, and used virtual nodes form a data center. In conclusion, the 2-D MDCube has proved to be both cheap and effective. He also spoke of the development of a ServerSwitch and its capability as a platform, a programmable packet forwarding engine, and its flow/congestion control support. He also mentioned other related worked the MSR Asia group is researching and by doing so the audience was able to have a better understanding of some of the currently challenges faced by Microsoft through their Data Centers and some possible research studies for current graduate students at the University of Minnesota. The colloquium reminded us of the need to remember the flexibility of both hardware and software components and how one could be used solve some of the difficulties being faced with the other component.

 Global Youth Leadership and Community Engagement (GYLCE)

10/14/2010

Global Youth Leadership and Community Engagement (GYLCE) is a six-unit cohort course that takes place over three semesters (spring, summer, and fall). Students take courses at the University of Minnesota (spring and fall) and at FLASCO University in Buenos Aires, Argentina (four week July/August summer session). This course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of youth-engagement and empowerment to address issues that affect their lives, their communities, and the broader global society. The course examines these issues through the lens of youth leadership whereby young people (ages 25 and under) are seen as having assets, talents, knowledge, creativity, and understanding that can be harnessed and applied to make positive advances in their lives and in society.  The course takes a global view by exploring some of the national youth engagement and youth leadership initiatives now underway in various countries. This course is designed for undergraduate students interested in the role of youth in promoting societal change and wish to deepen their understandings or the theories, research, and practices that undergird this work.

10/14/2010

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

● Understand and discuss the potential of youth to contribute to the advancement of society;

● Articulate various philosophies and theoretical frameworks that guide youth engagement research and practice, and how these conceptual pieces inform the development of youth community engagement programs

● Identify and apply best practices of community youth engagement and relate these practices to national and local contexts;

● Gain global perspectives on the role of youth engagement in community development initiatives in various countries; and

● Consider future directions for further study and research on youth engagement issues.

CSCI 8970 – Colloquium Series – Fall 2010 – Fifth Event

Database Support for Private and Personalized Location-based Services

Monday, October 11, 2010

Presenter:  Dr. Mohamed F. Mokbel

The fifth colloquium presentation of CSCI 8970 dealt with private and personalized location-based services. Dr. Mohamed F. Mokbel is currently working on a project that allows individuals to obtain services through the use of GPS technology without completely giving away their position or location. The Casper project does this by reducing the service-privacy trade off. While some individuals do not care about privacy and are interested only in obtaining a service (they obtain 100% service), other individuals are concerned about retaining various degrees of privacy, yet as privacy increases service tends to decrease. Casper’s location anonymizer diminishes this trade off by allowing users to switch their privacy requirements at any time. Cloaked in a wide location, an individual will receive four answers to their query, where some of which will be closer to various points within one’s cloaking area. Mokbel showed as a demonstration of this technology and how the Casper project has improved since 2007.

Answering various questions, Mokbel explained that Casper can change the user “identity” every time one submits a query. The more one moves, the more it is necessary to appear as a different person, since one increasingly separates oneself from the original group within which one was initially cloaked. They project recently expanded into possible applications for a P2P environment, a TinyCasper System (Sensornet), and it is continuously trying to improve its interface and its ability to provide services to users who wish to retain their privacy.

The second part of the colloquium dealt with the CareDB project. This project attempts to make user searching more specific. While we are currently able to find out where are the closest services, we have no way of knowing the quality of different businesses. CareDB takes those variables into account. The CareDB architecture includes user context/preference, environmental context and database context. Looking at different preference evaluation methods, the team decided to use Top-K, Skyline, K-Dom, K-Freq, and Top-K Dom in the project. The search system they designed allows the user to pick which evaluation method he/she wants to use. They then tested various approaches to make a system practical and scalable. Using a layered approached, which required only 200 lines of code, proved to provide bad or less accurate results. A built in approach provided very accurate results, but required 8000 lines of code! In comparison, the extensible approach, provided results almost as good as the built-in approach but only requiring 300 lines of code.

Currently the objectives of CareDB include providing better information through the search system as well as improving the FrexPref software prototype. Other projects Mokbel’s team is currently working on include: GeoSocialDB, FAST (A framework for Flash-Aware Search Trees), RecStore, Spatial Hadoop, Pantheon, and Predictive Queries over Spatio-temporal Streams. Attending the lecture was very informative as Dr. Mokbel is currently involved in very innovative work. One can only imagine the possibilities for his works applications. Currently Dr. Mokbel receives funding primarily from Microsoft and the NSF.

October 11, 2010

Chapter 18: Groupthink: The Desperate Drive for Consensus at Any Cost
Irving L. Janis (1971)  pp185-192

HEADINGS:
1. “Groupy” pp185 – 186
2. 1984 p186
3. Kill p186
4. Norms p186
5. Stress pp186-187
6. Symptoms pp187-190
7. Products p190
8. Support pp190 – 191
9. Pride p191
10. Remedies p191-192
11. How p192

The term groupthink was coined by Irving L. Janis. Through his research he developed a theory by which he accounted for individuals’ collective rationalization. To him, group think could have various negative effects such as the deterioration of mental efficiency, moral judgment, and reality testing. By thinking as a group, the group ignores alternative viewpoints. It is important for an organization to understand the problems that arise from groupthinking and reduce their influence by promoting critical evaluation, avoid stating clear preferences, outside experts should be encouraged to visit and challenge the views of the group members, group members should invest time in developing alternative scenarios. (Janis, 2005)

Chapter 47: Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony
John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan (1977)  pp505 -520

HEADINGS:
1.Prevailing Theories of Formal Structure p506-507
2. Institutional Sources of Formal Structure pp507 – 514
a. The Relation of Organizations to Their Institutional Environments pp509 – 510
b. The Origins of Rational Institutional Myths pp510 – 511
c. The Impact of Institutional Environments on Organizations pp511-514
3. Institutionalized Structures and Organizational Activities pp514-518
a. Types of Organization pp514-515
b. Structural Inconsistencies in Institutionalized Organizations pp515-516
c. Resolving Inconsistencies pp516 – 518
4. Summary and Research Implications pp518-519

Meyer and Rowan go through a series of examples in which myths have proven to influence institutions and their operating procedures. Overtime institutions develop rules that become rationalized by the organization. Rules help an institution gain legitimacy, stability and enhances its survival. In order to maintain legitimacy, institution sometimes becomes rigid as they try to reflect their funding myths rather than adapt to change. Loosely coupled parts of organizations are more likely to differentiate themselves from the rules institutionalized through organizational myths. The elaboration of rules in societies and states partly account for the increasing complexity of organizational structures. (Meyer & Rowan, 2005)

Works Cited

Janis, I. (2005). Groupthink: The Desperate Drive for Consensus at Any Cost. In J. Sharfritz, S. Ott, & Y. Suk Jang, Classics of Organization Theory (pp. 185-192). Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth.

Meyer, J. W., & Rowan, B. (2005). Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. In J. Sharfritz, S. Ott, & Y. Suk Jang, Classics of Organization Theory (pp. 505-520). Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth.

Employing a meme framework, please evaluate the utility for your proposed term paper topic of four roles: the Hurdler; the Collaborator; the Director; and the Experience Architect. (Try to compose your evaluations within a total of two pages.)

Referencing your proposed term paper topic, please write an evaluation of the StoryTech material with respect to its utility in constructing cultural meanings, cultural simulations, cultural innovations, and cultural designs. (Try to compose your evaluation within a total of two pages.)

October 11, 2010

While I am interested in the growing use of mmorpgs and other computer games as an educational tool, I decided to change focus for the term paper topic in this class and develop a plan for implementing an innovative educational program in the Dominican Republic.

The Hurdler: Having a hurdler’s mentality allows an individual to transverse obstacles, and to continue moving despite complications. When looking for a new location in which to research, it is likely that various attempts to establish a connection will prove fruitless, yet perseverance allows an individual to increase his likelihood of success.

The Collaborator: Bringing individuals from different backgrounds together can greatly enrich a research project. By promoting the development of software that can be accessed either by mobile phones or computers with or without access to the internet at both private and public schools individuals of different social classes will have a stake in the success of the project. Promoting a common interest towards the success of the project can increase the national support for the initiative. To promote a rapid development within a country and deal with major problems such as corruption and broken institutions, the rift between social groups must be reduced. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” By listening to different interest groups and including them in the discussion the impact of the program could increase exponentially.

The Director: Rotating the master of ceremony and encouraging individuals to brainstorm can increase the rapport between individuals and their association and general interest in the success of the group’s projects. While there are various institutions dealing with ICT and innovation in the Dominican Republic, it is difficult to access to what degree they are communicating and brainstorming together. Proper direction from the government could increase their output and rate of innovation. In addition, it will also increase their collaboration.

Experience Architect: When trying to get everyone to admire a product and feel it is both innovative but endogenous what should be encouraged? To what degree should a country utilize elements of their past, and their culture when developing innovations? To what degree should they try to be avant garde, modern? Several of the concepts which were promoted by the Experience Architect persona appeared to be novel and sophisticated (Toilet Enclosed by Mirrors), yet Kelley also encourages organizations to focus on improving “trigger points”. With limited funds, what investment will bring about the greatest rate of return? What will most efficiently increase quality and satisfaction?

>>>

StoryTech allows one to visualize large numbers of scenarios and possibilities. By using different innovations personae one can envision a particular scenario through different sets of glasses. StoryTech’s open ended scenarios allow one to frame the prompt to one’s personal interests and goals. Tom Kelley’s book enhances the experience by allowing the participant to analyze a prompt through a number of perspectives.

Please write a short evaluation of the meme material in Wikipedia, focusing on this question: How useful is the meme concept with respect to its utility in constructing cultural meanings, cultural simulations, cultural innovations, and cultural designs?

Employing a meme framework, please evaluate the utility for your developing career of four roles: the Devil’s Advocate; the Anthropologist; the Experimenter; and the Cross-Pollinator.

October 4, 2010

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According to Wikipedia, the word ‘meme’ originates from the Greek word μιμητισμός (/mɪmetɪsmos/) for “something imitated” (Wikipedia). The word functions as a unit of culture which is transmitted in society through imitable phenomena (speech, gestures, rituals, writing, etc…). Coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, a meme is comparable within human society to a gene within a human being.  Yet, one of the strongest criticisms of memes has been the ambiguity and differing sizes a meme can take. A meme can be a word, a phrase, an idea, a book, or any other unit of culture which is created and then transferred to others through imitation. As such a meme can be contained within another meme. Among the various uses of the concept, it allows an individual to visualize human culture as an ever changing structure where memes are constantly competing with one another for a space in which to replicate. Memes can spread both horizontally and vertically, and as they influence a greater number of individuals they increase their likelihood to carry on.

Yet, while the meme is an interesting concept, is a meme a significantly new idea or has cultural adaptation and replication been significantly addressed in other fields of study? Is there a need for this new term?  Other terms, including “culturgen” have failed to survive over the years. Will the concept of memes flourish, or will theories within fields such as of sociology, cultural anthropology, and social psychology dictate how the concept of culture, cultural adaptation, and cultural change is addressed within academic literature? Is the concept of memes itself a self-replicating meme?

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Devil’s Advocate:  As long as there is a strong sense of team work present, criticism can prove to be a very useful tool. However, if an individual is criticizing ideas by focusing on their weaknesses, even if there are only a few, and does so with the intention of discrediting the presenter, then that individual will likely have a detrimental effect in the innovative capacity of that organization. It is important to be honest and to provide one’s views and opinion but in a constructive manner.

Anthropologist: A good anthropologist will be aware of the cultural changes, and the new memes being replicated within an environment.  By carefully observing others and being aware of different memes they use, particularly memes used by competing organizations, clients, and prospective clients, an organization can adapt itself and increase its appeal to clients and prospects. Always being in the lookout can increase one’s ability to adapt and respond effectively to new memes and innovations.

Experimenter: As Tom Kelley contends, by bringing to the board more than one idea, it is more likely that you ideas and prototypes will be evaluated for their individual worth rather than as a reflection of others’ opinion of your general work. The criticism is also less likely to be perceived as personal. Memes are constantly being created, yet will these memes replicate themselves or perish? By having an array of ideas as well as constructive criticism, the organization will be in a better position to benefit from these innovations.

Cross-Pollinator:  Moving to the United States fundamentally altered my perceptions and broadened my perspective, this was not simply the result of learning a different language and having a higher standard of living, but more importantly it allowed me to perceive that there was more than one way to reach a goal, one way to interact with others, one way to see the world. Constantly travelling and anthropologically analyzing different contexts can allow for a cross-pollinator to build bridges between previously separated view points. As a cross pollinator, and a T-shaped individual, after obtaining a PhD, an individual can perhaps have both the credibility within their field of expertise, and a general knowledge of other fields of study to promote cultural innovations and the creation of new memes and cultural designs.

Problem Summary: How a principal’s limited leadership abilities within a highly coupled, culturally diverse organization led to an increased feeling of isolation, unappreciation, and alienation by a group of staff members, all of whom shared a common identity, by which they believed themselves to be grouped, secluded and ignored by the rest of the staff members from the administration’s decision making process. Poor leadership exacerbated cultural differences between staff members encouraging the development of an out-group, in-group dichotomy within the school.

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Hope Ranch Middle School, located in Ocala, Florida, opened its doors as a public charter middle school in 2008. The school promoted the increased use of technology in education, the importance of afterschool academic programs in math and science, and the correlation between hard work and academic success. This science and math academy was very successful during its initial year, including finishing the school year as an “A” school as a result of its FCAT scores. The school enrolled 80 students during its first year. The student body was demographically diverse. The school had a very successful chess, science and math team, finishing 3^rd in its regional science academy competition.

One of the most interesting aspects of the school was the composition of its staff. The staff was evenly composed of both men and women and international and domestic teachers. The social science and the humanities departments were comprised of domestic female instructors, while the natural science and math classes were taught by foreign male instructors. Many of the international teachers followed Islamic beliefs, while the majority of the domestic teachers and students observed Christian values. However, at first, these differences did not detrimentally influence the quality of the institution, instead, as a result of good leadership, they contributed to the student’s educational experience. The success of the school was credited to a large degree to its principal, who promoted a feeling of openness and camaraderie among the staff members. However, due to an administrative decision by the consortium of charter schools, the principal was transferred to another school within this charter school conglomerate.

This decision proved to be highly detrimental to the school. After the principal changed, the new administration’s actions appeared to favor one group of staff members over the other. In addition to the general staff meetings, the new principal would meet with the foreign male staff members in his office during after school hours, where they discussed school policies in a foreign language and did not inform the domestic teachers about the decisions taken during their meetings. The poor leadership exhibited by the principal led to a fragmentation of the staff and increased dissatisfaction. The conflictive and disruptive environment within the organization fostered a feeling of malaise and dissatisfaction within the student body, who openly discussed the conflict between staff members and the administration, as well as voicing their own dissatisfaction with staff members and the organization. The members of the staff who were part of the in-group did little to reduce the tension this division generated.

While the differences in the identities of the staff members, and the socio-cultural complexity of the institution could have promoted an environment of tolerance, understanding and cultural exchange, inadequate management exacerbated socio-cultural differences between the members of the staff and led to a breakdown of trust and communication. This contributed to a decrease in the quality of instruction, voiced dissatisfaction by some staff members in regards to their employment, and an increase in turnover rate among the isolated group of staff members.

In an increasingly cosmopolitan world, this study hopes to contribute to literature regarding the impact of leadership in culturally diverse environments, tightly coupled institutions and the importance of increasing communication within diverse environments. This study is another example of how poor leadership, and the development of an in-group, out-group dichotomy can detrimentally impact and threaten the sustainability of a recently established educational institution. The findings could be applied to many other organizations, but are particularly relevant for institutions that are tightly coupled and/or have hierarchical, centralized structures.

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Problem Summary: How a principal’s limited leadership abilities within a highly coupled, culturally diverse organization led to an increased feeling of isolation, unappreciation, and alienation by a group of staff members, all of whom shared a common identity, by which they believed themselves to be grouped, secluded and ignored by the rest of the staff members from the administration’s decision making process. Poor leadership exacerbated cultural differences between staff members encouraging the development of an out-group, in-group dichotomy within the school.

CSCI 8970 – Colloquium Series – Fall 2010 – Third Event

Probabilistic Models for Matrix Analysis

Monday, September 27, 2010

Dr. Banerjee’s presentation dealt with the new forms in which researchers are analysis matrixes, in particular, the use of Bayesian network analysis methods. Data matrixes had been able to process single label classifications, and optimized a problem to cluster similar values, yet the goal of Dr. Banerjee process is to not simply fit the data to the best model but analyze all possible straight lines. After evaluating different linear relationships, some of the lines will gain and lose weight according to how much they are used. Using gene expression analysis, it is possible to find some valuable data in the matrix. Through the use of a dirichlet distribution of all possible mixed memberships, and the use of plate diagrams, the use of a Bayesian co-clustering process permits for an accurate and rapid evaluation of data.

Through the use of variation inference, Dr. Banerjee demonstrated the results the process when analyzing movielens information and foodmart information. The datasets allowed for the comparison of RBC and RBC-FF to other matrix management systems including SVD. While SVD can be more accurate obtaining results, RBC obtained similar results at a faster rate. Dr. Banerjee’s team competed in the one million dollar Netflix challenge and their approach obtained significant praise. The tests showed how some information was better in providing taste predictions. When analyzing genre and cast, the matches were more helpful, while the use of plot data was detrimental. Other applications for this method of analysis includes: text classifications (discrimination between topics), cluster ensembles (combines multiple clusters of a dataset), and Bayesian kernel methods (nonlinear covariance among rows and columns).

In conclusion, unlike the other two presentations, this one was somewhat harder to follow, perhaps due to its mathematical complexity. The study was very interesting and demonstrated how important it is for constantly find different ways to look at data and find which evaluations methods will be most helpful. Another application which Dr. Banerjee shared with the audience included the use of multi label classifications, and their use in evaluating NASA aviation safety reports. Other applications for their matrixes analysis includes: covariance models – nonlinear, high-dimensional, online learning and tracking covariances over rows, as well as applications in climate science, finance and health care. Apart from the staff at the University of Minnesota, the project works in collaboration with the NSA and NASA.

#39 – The Z organization, William G. Ouchi

William G. Ouchi paper highlights the positive aspects of type “Z” organizations. Being “clan-like” these organizations tend to promote trust between their members and a greater degree of cooperation among staff members than Type “A” organizations. Through offering lifetime job positions and inclusion through social events outside the job area, communication among the different levels of the organization tends to be more fluid and supportive. These business practices have deep cultural origins in both Japan and China where through kinship networks, individuals participate in communal lending systems where members would contribute an amount to the group (the example given is of only 12 members) and in return, in a particular week they would receive the sum of contributions given by other members for that week.

While the individuals who received loans at the beginning of the lending circle, benefited from an interest free loan for a longer extent of time than other individuals and individuals did not benefit from the arrangement to the same degree, this form of lending continues to perpetuate itself. Lending is seen as a sign of cooperation and trust by community members and is encouraged as a way of increasingly linkages between community members. It is not uncommon for individuals to owe money to a variety of individuals simultaneously, while individuals owe them money in return.

Type “Z” organizations benefit from their “clan-like” structure by having an increased sense of understanding about implicit opinions and viewpoints expressed by members of the organization. This type of bond develops over long periods of time and as a consequence, it faces difficulties when the organization attempts to increase heterogeneity and diversity within the work place. Also, innovation at times, though not always, can be seen as contrary to the organization’s ideology. While the organization promotes managers to set themselves independent goals, rapid change can be perceived as contrary to the organizations traditions. Some examples of type “Z” organizations include: the US military, IBM and Eastman Kodak (Ouchi, 2005).

#44 Creating the multicultural organization: The challenge of managing diversity, Taylor Cox, Jr.

Taylor Cox introduces the idea of personnel diversity within an organization’s structure by analyzing the benefits and negative impacts of diversity as well as the difficulties organizations face when attempting to increase diversity in the work place. One of the reactions against increasing diversity in the workplace results from its disturbance of the status quo and the innate preference of individuals to hire people who are similar to themselves. While women today account for the majority of both undergraduate and graduate school graduates, women have still do not account for half of the faculty position at universities or in the business world. In addition, religious or ethnic minorities have also experienced difficulties receiving promotions and climbing up on organizational ladders despite attempts by organizations to recruit minorities and promote a diverse environment.

The benefits of hiring minority workers includes a greater level of creativity and innovation (which can increase by up to ten percent), higher levels of cognitive flexibility (particularly by bilingual staff members), and increased problem solving skills and decision making skills. However, while these benefits are possible, without the proper promotion of diversity, diversity could have a detrimental effect for the organization. Various organizations, including Alcoa (an organization for which Cox worked as a consultant), have attempted to successful diversify the working environment, yet they have met with difficulties such as “(1) misdiagnosis of the problem, (2) wrong solution (that is failure to use a systemic approach), and (3) failure to understand the shape o the learning curve” (Cox, 2005, p. 473). By this Cox implies that organizations tend to focus on recruiting a more diverse work force but they do not integrate them successfully into the organization. In addition, they tend to assume that the change will take place over a short span of time, while in reality, it make take many years for an organization to successfully increase its cultural diversity.

#35 – Defining organizational culture, Edgar H. Schein

What is Culture? The concept of culture has been analyzed and reviewed by a large number of academics over the years and continues to be debated. Through this article, Edgar Schein demonstrates the importance of culture through his prior experiences in working with different companies and the difficulties he faced by not taking into account particular elements within the culture of these institutions. In this article, he provides two brief examples of companies, an “action” and a “multi” company.

In the “action” company workers experienced a combative and argumentative environment as the company believed that ideas needed to be aggressively debated, and only ideas that survived after debating were implemented. As such, despite attempts to increase workers satisfaction with their work environment, the confrontational nature of the culture had promoted an unfriendly and non-collaborative environment. In a “multi” company, despite efforts to bring about change, changes were not implemented. In this company’s culture, managers were protective of their turf and expertise and were unwelcoming of unannounced memos, particularly if the information challenged their standard operating procedures.

Based on his experiences, Schein contended that cultures shared deep and stable beliefs. As a result of the dynamism of the business environment, companies that promoted an adaptable and flexible culture are more likely to survive. Organizational cultures are usually taught by older staff members to new employees, as they are taught not only the official rules but also the nuances and unwritten rules of the organization. Not all group behavior is a cultural manifestation, and large organizations can have a culture and various subcultures (Schein, 2005, p. 366).

Also, not all groups of people or organizations have a culture, as cultures are hard to develop if there is a high turnover rate. Leaders can be influential in the success of an institution by not only creating an organization’s culture, but by constantly helping to shape it, adapt it and modify it in order to ensure the organization’s continued existence  (Schein, 2005).

Below are additional notes taken from particular reading:

-“Too much seems to be bureaucratic, or political, or just plain irrational” – pg 360

-“One could argue that the only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture and that the unique talent of leaders is their ability to understand and work with culture” – pg 361

Two Brief Examples

-Describes two situations: The Action Company, and the Multi Company

-Action Company – combative, argumentative environment. To the manager unless an idea was put to the fire, debated, and managed to survive, it was not an idea worth implementing

-Multi Company – Sending memos did not increase innovation. Managers were protective of their turf and expertise and were unwelcoming of unannounced memos, particularly if the information challenged their standard operating procedures.

Towards a Formal Definition of Culture

-“the concept of culture has been the subject of considerable academic debate in the last five years” – pg 362

-“One of these elements is that culture implies some level of structural stability in the group. When we say that something is “cultural,” we imply that it is not only shared but deep and stable” – pg 363

-“The most useful way to think about culture is to view it as the accumulated shared learning of a give group, covering behavior, emotional, and cognitive elements of the group members’ total psychological functioning.” – pg 363

– “I am not arguing, however, that all groups develop integrated cultures in this sense.” – pg 364

-Two problems groups must deal with: 1) “survival growth and adaptation in their environment” 2) “internal integration that permits daily functioning and the ability to adapt.” – pg 364

-“A group has a culture when it has had enough of a shared history to have formed such a set of shared assumptions.” – pg 364

Culture Formally Defined

-“once shared assumptions exist, however, the culture survives through teaching them to newcomers” – pg 365

-How a group behavior may be or may not be a cultural manifestation – pg 365

-Large organizations can have a culture and various subcultures. – pg 366

-Not all groups of people have cultures. They are hard to develop if there are high turnover rates

-Leaders can create an organization’s culture, help shape it and modify it.

Also Read:

#36 Culture and organizational learning, by Scott D.N. Cook and Dvora Yanow

#41 The fifth discipline: A shift of mind, Peter M. Senge