german research project database - club of bologna

A08-16 (1)© 2008VDI-MEG Project Database „Ag Engineering“

Prof. em. Dr. Dr. habil.Prof. em. Dr. Dr. habil.

Hermann AuernhammerHermann Auernhammer

1919thth Club of Bologna MembersClub of Bologna Members‘‘ MeetingMeetingNovember 15 & 16, 2008November 15 & 16, 2008

BolognaBologna

German Research Project DatabaseGerman Research Project DatabaseAgricultural EngineeringAgricultural Engineering


Outline

Ø Organization of Agricultural Engineers in Germany

Ø Objectives of the database

Ø State of the art

Ø Structure of the databaseØ Project databaseØ Publications databaseØ (Slides database)

Ø Advantages and disadvantages

Ø Improvements

Ø Conclusions


Ø In Germany most of the engineers are members in VDI (The Association of German Engineers)

Ø Also “Agricultural Engineers” are members in VDI

Ø Like other professions in VDI Agricultural Engineers have its own “Technical Division”, called “Max Eyth Society for Agricultural Engineering (VDI-MEG)” with a total of about 1.500 members

Ø Besides the program committee for the Agricultural Engineering Congress and the committee for the promotion of young engineers, there are Technical Committees for:

- Research and science FAFL (scientific research and education)- Science and applied research at technical universities and colleges- Environmental technologies- Ergonomics and work sciences in agriculture- International collaboration in agricultural engineering- History of agricultural engineering- Honorary distinctions

The German Agricultural Engineers


Technical Working Group “Research and Science (FAFL)”

Ø Members in the Technical Committee FAFL are all agricultural engineering professors from German universities as well as all directors of German federal research stations

Ø Activities following the constitution in §2 of FAFL are:

- Solicitor of scientific research and education with sustainable (future oriented) contributions to agricultural engineering in Germany and an effective influence to the international community

- Advancement of information and discussion related to topics in agricultural engineering research and education

- Nomination of representatives and experts in scientific and professional organisations (e.g. DFG, the German research association)

à All decisions have to be discussed and approved in the annual FAFL-meetingsor with other words

All members must be informed about all activities in the community !


What we did

As in all societies and working groups, committees or task forcesthe activities depend on the activity of the chair person the activities depend on the activity of the chair person !

In FAFL:

Ø Sometimes committee members had no information at the annual meetings

Ø Sometimes records with research projects as well as with lectures and modules were established and circulated before or during the annual meeting

Ø Sometimes a comprehensive paper with all research projects and all lectures related to the universities, professors and stuff was established (and after a short time obsolete)

So my proposal was in 2005 to establish an agricultural engineering agricultural engineering online research project databaseonline research project database

and I expressed at this time my willingness to establish the database at our institute together with my assistance Prof. Dr. Rothmund


The objectives

Ø Use of an Open Source Data Base System (no costs, independence)

Ø Development at our institute with a possible transfer to the VDI information centre later on

Ø Input restricted to the FAFL-members only (user ID, password)

Ø Simplified input with input forms (mandatory subjects, supplemental items)

Ø Project handling restricted to “creation”, “modification”, “deletion”

Ø Compulsory use of determined key words for retrieval purposes

Ø German language as system language only

Ø Project description language in the authority of the project owner

Ø Free access for information and retrieval across the internet by everyone

And later defined:

Ø Establishment of an additional database for dissertations with an integrated “search_function”


Creation process

1. Definition of the objectives by a very small group- Ass. Prof. Dr. Rothmund (Lead and programming)- Prof. Dr. Auernhammer (Overall responsibility)- Prof. Dr. Hahn (Chairman of FAFL)- Dr. Herrmann (Secretary of FAFL)

2. Database creation in the leisure time of ass. Prof. Dr. Rothmund only

3. First tests with projects from our institute

4. Additional tests with projects from Prof. Hahn

5. Retrieval tests by secretary Dr. Herrmann

6. Required input by all FAFL-members

7. Free access across the internet http://www.tec.wzw.tum.de/pflanztech/projekte/akfl/

8. Database creation for VDI-MEG publication series

http://www.tec.wzw.tum.de/pflanztech/projekte/akfl/


State of the art

Ø All research projects were gathered effective until fall 2006

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360

Time in 2006

No

of in

tegr

ated

pro

ject

s

J F M A M DNOSAJJ

Annual MeetingFAFL

Input requiredFeb 15


VDI – Home Page


Technical divisions in VDI

Ø A total of 21 technical divisions

Ø No 1 in an alphabetical order is “Max Eyth Society for Agricultural Engineering of the VDI (Max Eyth Gesellschaft für Agrartechnik im VDI)


Max Eyth Society for Agricultural Engineering of the VDI


VDI–MEG _ Community

Ø Der Blick zurück

Ø Landtechnik und Forschung in Bayern


Organization of VDI-MEG


Technical Committee “Research & Education”


Structure of the Project Data Base

Ø Free access by “topics” and by “institutions”

Ø Sorting by “project”, “institution”, “topic”, “date”

Ø Access for- input- modification- deletion

by the institutions only


Sorting by “Topics”

Ø Sorting by (the structure of the “Yearbook of Agricultural Engineering”)

- main topics- sub topics with numbers of projects


Sorting by “Topics”


Project description

Ø Der Blick zurück

Ø Landtechnik und Forschung in Bayern Title

Institution

Key words

Duration, last update

Project description

Ø Descriptions are very short, but- give a good idea of the objective(s)- show where it comes from and what’s going on


Sorting by institutions

Ø All universities in Germany with- chairs

- number of projects

Chair of agricultural engineering (5)Chair of animal husbandry (5)Chair of horticultural engineering (11)


“Project database” and “Publication database”

Ø Besides the project database FAFL also has a publication series (mainly dissertations) as printed volumes (outcomes from research projects)

Ø So, FAFL has 2 types of publications:

Project database(online)

Publication series(printed volumes)

FAFL in VDI-MEG

• Established 2005/06

• Created and hosted at TUM until 2007 (AUERNHAMMER retired)

• Transferred to VDI-MEG 2008(supervision and maintenance now by the secretary of VDI-MEG, Dr. HERRMANN)

• Created in 1975

• Printed volumes in the responsibility of the Ph.D.-students (self published)

• Up to now 447 volumes(mainly in German, recently more in English)


Ø In 2006 we established an own database for this publications

Ø No link to the project database ! ! !

Ø Only minimum information ! ! !

MEG- Publication series (Dissertations, others)

Title

Author, year, type

Vol no

Abstract

University & Supervisor(source of supply)


Function “Search”

Show all(recursive)

ØSearch with “and” and with “or” conditions

ØSearch is done in title, author(s) and abstract


Project database - Positive experiences

1. The small definition group

- did a very efficient work- made decisions and modifications within a short time- did effective testing

2. Most of the institutes react fast- made input- created proposals for improvements


Project database - DisappointmentsDisappointments

1. Some universities/labs were not willing/able to made any input- confidential projects- new projects with new working items- “under statement” (e.g. master theses)- no stuff- reorganization in the university (future of chair/lab is not clear)- Professor retired and no replacement has happened

2. Some react only after several reminders

3. No one made an update during the last two years

4. Until now there is no reaction, no comment and no information from the agricultural technology manufactures

5. Some concerns against project publication was brought up during the last three years, dealing with disadvantages in competition,confidentiality, …


Project database - Improvements

1) The database needs an archive

2) If there is no project activity (update, modification, extension) within one year, automatically those projects should be moved to the archive with an email information to the project owner

3) A distribution list with email-addresses of the agricultural technology manufactures must be created

4) Every 4 (8) weeks members of the “distribution list” must be automated informed about

- new projects- updated or modified projects- finished projects- available new reports (master theses, Ph.D. theses, journal publications)

5) “Search function” In the project database may be extended

6) In the database with finished Ph.D.-thesis it should be possible to get a download in full text format and there should be links to the projects itself


Project database - Input of full time

Ø Definition and creation of the database

- requirement definition (4 persons) 2 weeks- development of a test version (1 person) 4 weeks- test and improvement (4 persons) 1 week- extended test (other members, new projects, .. ) 1 week

Ø System maintenance 5 d/a

Ø Definition and introduction of a new function 2 d

Ø Input (modification) of a project 1 h


Project database - Input of costs

Ø Definition and creation was done on a voluntarily basis (cost may be calculated on salary basis of the engaged persons)

Ø Administrative efforts are low when the system- is well defined- located either in an university or at a powerful organisation like VDI

(UNACOMA)- watched and monitored by a scientific organisation (VDI-MEG, Club of

Bologna)

Ø Use is free of costs

Ø Even no costs for “full paper downloads” ! ??


Conclusions

Ø The established project database full fills the expectations

Ø Demands for maintenance are low

NeverthelessØ The project database depends (and lives) from the activity of the

members and users

Ø An “active administrator” is a “must” !

Ø Automation of routines and maintenance are crucial requirements

Ø Our German agricultural technology manufactures gave no response to our activities !!!

Ø Also some of our colleagues are still not convinced to have and to improve this tool !!!

german research project database - club of bologna

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