Annika Lilja

Welcome back!

Annika Lilja

, 2018-08-13

I hope that you all have had a relaxing summer vacation “despite” the nice weather.

It is clear that weather and climate are very different things but according to Professor Johan Rockström, SU and Stockholm Resilience Centre: “The warmest summer ever can only be explained by understanding that climate changes interact with weather” (my translation from svd.se/larmet-extremsommaren-konsekvens-av-uppvarmningen/om/johan-rockstrom). Further from the same article Professor Rockström responds to a question:

“Do we still have chance to alter the development?

Yes, we have. We are probably already now foreseeing an unavoidable 1.5 degree increase. But if we bend the global emission curve by 2020 at the latest and reach ZERO emission by 2050 we have a chance keep us below 2 degrees. But the only chance to succeed is that the world becomes fossil free by 2050 and that we manage all our eco-systems on the globe such that the planet maintains its resilience” ……”We have more and more evidence that a fossil free development is not only possible but also economically competitive compared to oil, coal and natural gas, and that it would give large benefits for societies in terms of economy, health, justice, democracy and safety.”

To meet these very clear objectives on emission reduction and finally elimination will require a lot of new solutions, approaches, products, systems, industries and behavioural patterns where industrial engineering is both a necessity and an enabler. Therefore it is my hope that you will now take the opportunity to read, or at least have a glance at the ITM Development plan 2018-2023.

Looking forward to a fruitful fall semester!

Jan Wikander, Head of School

The future of ITM

Annika Lilja

, 2018-06-12

Many of our faculty members, researchers and teachers are now in one way or the other involved in sketching the future of ITM via intensive work on the ITM development plan 2018-2023. Already now I choose to disclose a few quotes from the current development plan draft:

“The vision of our school is to be a preferred partner – nationally and internationally – for students, faculty, industry and society in the area of industrial engineering with particular focus on manufacturing, energy and transport. Our main mission is to be a leading contributor to the transition of this industry to a future sustainable state characterized by new product and service designs, new materials, new business models, renewable energy systems, recycling, reuse and remanufacture.“

“The School of Industrial Engineering and Management (ITM) graduates yearly 10% of all new MSc engineers in Sweden. These engineering graduates constitute our most direct and powerful impact force on society. No other educational establishment in Sweden has such a large opportunity to influence the society through industrial engineering. With this comes an enormous responsibility to make sure that our graduates possess the right knowledge, skills and capabilities. Our School is determined to take the opportunity and accept the responsibility to firmly develop our education programs in the direction of sustainability.”

The coming steps regarding our development plan is that a draft will be distributed to the School’s Strategic Council and to all faculty members, researchers and teachers by the end of this week. And in the following week, the draft will be discussed in the Strategic Council meeting on June 19 and at the Faculty Club meeting on June 20. A finalized version will be submitted to our president by June 30.

The ITM Strategic Council has from this spring new representatives from the School; from our faculty the new representatives are Viktoria Martin (EGI), Per Lundqvist (EGI), Martin Törngren (MMK) and Cali Nuur (INDEK). The technical/administrative side is represented by Caroline Ahlstedt (INDEK). As external members we have Rachel Pettersson, research manager at Jernkontoret, Jonas Mann, vice president R&D industrial technique at Atlas Copco, and Per Grünewald, founding partner, Pegroco Invest. KTH management is represented by Vice president for digitalisation, Jan Gulliksen, as an adjunct member.

Equality and equal treatment are core values of KTH. An equality office has been set up centrally at KTH led by Anna Wahl, Vice President for gender equality and values. As we all know, Anna is also professor in gender, organization and management at ITM. The current KTH focus on gender equality has also led to quite substantial new resources to increase and strengthen the research and education on gender equality, led by Anna Wahl and her team. To enforce equality and equal treatment under the slogan “One KTH” every school has appointed a responsible person (JMLA) to monitor and supervise our development towards a more equal working place and towards a more equal society. The ITM management team has appointed professor Sofia Ritzén as our JMLA.

Finally I wish you all and nice and equal summer vacation!

Jan Wikander, Head of School

ITM PhD student conference

Annika Lilja

, 2018-05-18

A Wednesday and Thursday in April we had the annual ITM PhD student conference at Skogshem and Wijk on Lindingö. The theme this year was Research skills from different perspectives. Linda Söderlindh gave a very inspiring combined lecture/workshop on Presentation skills (see picture). Greta Quesada Richardson & Margareta Fathli informed us about Open Access publishing. In the evening before a very nice dinner, there was a poster session with the goal to bridge the gap between different research fields i.e. find a PhD student colleague in another area where there is some overlap in interest. This year Linda gave feedback on the posters to as many students as she could.

The second day started with an open-air quiz led by Andrea de Giorgio from the THS PhD Chapter. On the picture below the participants try to form a square of a string that they all hold on to. Not so easy since they have to keep their eyes shut and only orally communicate how the problem should be solved.

After the outdoor activity Mats Magnusson (PA for the Machine Design Doctoral Program) gave a short presentation about the recent survey, the result was quite similar to last year´s. We will now look into the result in more detail. The last lecture was given by Sven Ove Hansson, Ethics in research, a subject that is always highly relevant and interesting.

Thank you all lecturers, PAs and participants!

/ Malin Selleby, FA

Result of external revision and new Docents at ITM

Annika Lilja

, 2018-04-25

The external revision of KTH and ITM to determine if we meet the environmental standards described in the Swedish standard ISO 14001 took place on April 16-20, for the ITM school. At the end of the revision week, it was clear that KTH passed the revision. I cannot refer to the whole document, but I wish to share some good examples from ITM that was highlighted in the revision document:

Minor field studies in the education, especially at INDEK (Anna Jerbrant)
Movie on “not another brick in the wall” illustrating the production of bricks and gases from landfill waste (New Mine – Weihong Yang project leader)
Digital information in form of youtube movies by, for example, Mikael Ersson
Documentation of impact of projects leading to an improved sustainability (Adde Jeihouni and Charlotte Flodin )

Many people were involved in the work with the external revision, but I especially wish to thank Adde Jeihouni and Charlotte Flodin, who were responsible for the preparation and administrated of the ITM revision work. They did it in an excellent manner!

As I have discussed before, new Docents are important for ITM since they increase the number of people that can act as main supervisors.

Pavel Ramirex Lopez from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has become a Docent in Casting. On Friday April 13 he held a Docent presentation entitled “Casting Research at Swerea MEFOS: Past Activities, Present Challenges and Future Perspectives”. The audience were close to 70 people, since it was held in connection to department meeting organized by the Department Head Annika Borgenstam. Docent Ramirez is employed by Swerea-Mefos, but after becoming a Docent he will participate in both research and teaching at KTH.

Pernilla Ulfvengren from the Department of Industrial Economics and Management has become a Docent in industrial technology focusing on socio-technological systems. On Friday April 20 she held a Docent presentation entitled “Safety and change in sociotechnical systems”. The audience were 20 people mainly from the department.

Finally, I want to say that it was marvelous to finally get some sunny weather. I hurried up to plant potatoes in buckets and two new cherry trees in the ground. I could not wait any longer for the spring to come, after this long and cold winter!

Pär Jönsson, Vice Head of School

ITM’s Service Center celebrated its first birthday on 1 April 2018!

Annika Lilja

, 2018-04-20

The event was marked with balloons and loads of sweets.
It has been an eventful year – starting up an entirely new function, with no experience, and without really knowing what needs existed out in the operation. And this had to be done in parallel with recruiting new personnel. It’s no understatement to say that there were some significant fluctuations during the first few months.

But a year has now passed. Our employees, who were newly recruited at the time, now have a whole year of experience. They have got to know KTH and its structure to some extent, and have become familiar with our departments, their employees and their needs.

At times, running support activities is more about setbacks than successes. You need openness, dialogue and the ability to accept success and cope with adversity. To be able to handle situations in a professional manner, to persevere and to focus on solutions.

Annika Lilja and her colleagues have managed all of this with willpower. A huge thank you to everyone!

If you have not yet discovered how the Service Center can help you:

Register and archiving
Dissertation and licentiate
Purchasing and procurement
Catering
Conferences
Conference rooms & booking
Keys and key cards
Post, parcels and couriers
Travel
Success in the kitchen, print room & conference room
Caretaking

The Service Center is your point of access to support and assistance at the ITM school. You can contact the Center at any time if you have questions or to report faults of any kind.

The school’s offices are open Mon-Fri 8.30 am to 4.30 pm (except holidays and bridge days). All matters can be sent to service@itm.se.

If you have not yet been in contact with the Service Center, we hope to be able to help you in future too!

If you are already using the Service Center’s resources, we are always happy to receive any suggestions you may have for improvements. Without this feedback, we have nothing to work towards. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please send them to Annika Lilja, anlil@kth.se. I am convinced that she and her colleagues will do everything they can to help you!

Take care!

/Christina Carlsson, Head of Administration

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Welcome back!

The future of ITM

ITM PhD student conference

Result of external revision and new Docents at ITM

ITM’s Service Center celebrated its first birthday on 1 April 2018!