ITM Management blogs

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

Öppettider under sommaren

Christina Carlsson

, 2018-06-25

Samtliga funktioner inom stödverksamheten är bemannade under hela sommaren. Expedition Sing Sing har dock stängt under veckorna 26-31. Expedition Nord har öppet under hela sommaren, under veckorna 27-31 är expeditionen bemannad mellan 08.30-13.00.

Personalen går att nå via service@itm.kth.se under hela sommaren mellan 08.30-16.30.

Vi inom stödverksamheten hoppas att vi alla får en riktigt skön och varm sommar!

/Christina Carlsson, administrativ chef

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

Ongoing educational issues and nice example of student project

Anna Jerbrant

, 2018-06-08

Finally we have reached the end of the spring semester, after a very intense period. The last couple of weeks my time has been filled with both examination, research conferences and the graduation ceremony for our master of science students in the City Hall. During the graduation ceremony the presentation of the diplomandi was mixed with musical entertainment by the KTH academic orchestra conducted by director musices Gunnar Julin and the student choir. It was a very impressive and beautiful arrangement, I really appreciated the opportunity to present and congratulate all of ITMs graduates 🙂

Coming closer to summer vacations it’s time to summarize all P4 courses, complete the work of writing and correcting all the examination and enjoy the knowledge gained by all our excellent students when conducting their master thesis projects. But this week has also offered other exciting and interesting education-focused events. For instance I got to see the impressive work done by the students in the Energy Management course (MJ2410), since they presented their project results in Sing-sing (where my office is located). The students have studied each Tokyo district, during the course, to propose solutions for a more energy efficient Tokyo in the year of 2040. The initiative is based on a collaboration between KTH and the Gadelius company (which operates in the interface between Sweden and Japan). The students proposed creative and innovative solutions based on a holistic approach in order to reduce the energy use in buildings, increasing the amount of renewable energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. On June 4^th, five groups presented their solutions to Japanese ambassadors, KTH representatives, external companies and the Gadelius company. The two winning groups won a trip to Tokyo in September to present their solution proposals for various representatives from companies and representatives for Tokyo City.

/ Anna Jerbrant, GA

Here’s a picture from the event:

The Presidents’ Visit

Christina Carlsson

, 2018-05-23

On May 9, Sigbritt and Mikael visited the School of Industrial Engineering and Management (ITM). The day began in Södertälje and ended in the M block.

In anticipation of the visit, the Dean of School had recorded video greeting welcoming Sigbritt and Mikael and outlining the strategic initiatives ITM aims to accomplish before 2019, as well as school-specific investment needs.

The Dean of School presented the necessary and quality-driven expansion of the school’s research. The intention is that this expansion will occur within three or four main categories:

Research and educational infrastructure
- The innovation arena
Strategic research areas
- Circular economy
- Industrial digitization for sustainability and innovation
- Energy-efficient industry
- Advanced manufacturing
- Carbon dioxide-free metal production
New research centers
- MERIT – Critical edge computing for industrial application
- Mechanics and materials design
- Live-in-Lab
- Basic support for potential KIC Manufacturing
Department-specific focus areas

The day began in Södertälje, at the Department of Sustainable Production Development. In preparation for a little surprise later in the day, Sigbritt received a full-body scan upon arrival. One of the issues discussed in the course of the morning was “the challenge of making KTH Södertälje better known to the outside world.”

Thereafter, Sigbritt and Mikael continued to Campus Valhallavägen, where they were greeted by members of the school leadership. The school’s heads of department had recorded a video presenting each department’s vision and outlining challenges to achieving their objectives.

The heads of department and the departments’ video recordings were uploaded to Canvas as a course date, and Sigbritt was enrolled as a student. We watched the videos together, and discussed the departments’ various visions and challenges.

After this, service center staff arrived in electric cars and drove Sigbritt and Mikael up to the departments of Production Engineering, Machine Design, and Energy Technology. There they visited the Machine Design and Industrial Production prototype labs. Sigbritt also received her surprise: a “small mini-Sigbritt” made of various materials and based on the scan that had been made that morning. The visit ended with a visit to EGI and its Solar Lab facility.

After all this, the tired crowd of colleagues headed home to enjoy the long weekend.

The school leadership was very happy and proud to have had the opportunity to showcase ITM over the course of an entire day and to communicate the school’s vision and challenges.

Everyone at ITM hopes that Sigbritt and Mikael also enjoyed the day.

/Christina Carlsson, Head of Administration

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Öppettider under sommaren

The future of ITM

Ongoing educational issues and nice example of student project

The Presidents’ Visit