NMU example for transnational networking

Written by Matthias Hahn  |  Monday, 12 July 2010  | 

On June 8, 2010 the German NMU partner Matthias Hahn (University of Applied Sciences Bremen) took part at the licentiate thesis seminar of Cecilia Österman at Chalmers University in Gothenburg. Her doctoral thesis is on "Ergonomics: An uncharted route to improved overall systems performance in shipping". The NMU partners Maria Anne Wagtmann (University of Southern Denmark) as moderator and Eric Fridell (Swedish Environmental Institute) were present, too.

In her thesis, Cecilia Österman argues that despite of high levels of technological progress and systems efficiency in shipping, the area of occupational ergonomics is yet uncharted. With systems growing in complexity, the likelihood of inefficient operations as well as occupational accidents is probable to grow. In the discussion following Cecilia Österman’s presentation of her thesis, the question was raised among others why such an important issue does not attract more attention. In his concluding statement Matthias Hahn emphasized, that despite of undisputable obstacles to tackle the issue, it really had to be done anyway. And that after all there was absolutely nothing wrong about doing the right thing - an estimation that received unanimous approval among the seminar participants.

Later the same day Matthias Hahn and Maria Anne Wagtmann met with representatives of the Human Resources Management from University of Gothenburg. The NMU partners presented their work and got into an intensive discussion exchanging ideas on maritime research with Gill Widell, Staffan Gran and other experts.

View to the global NMU objective to build up a strong transnational network of universities in the North Sea Region the trip is an excellent example for the different project activities.

The thesis is available at:
Department of Shipping and Marine Technology
Division of Ship Work Environment and Safety
CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
Telephone +46(0)31 772 10 00
www.chalmers.se.
ISSN 1652-9189