{"id":8495,"date":"2019-06-25T09:41:04","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T07:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.productdevelopment.se\/?p=8495"},"modified":"2022-03-21T20:45:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T19:45:35","slug":"v-com-presented-at-stanford-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.productdevelopment.se\/v-com-presented-at-stanford-university\/","title":{"rendered":"V-Com presented at Stanford University"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

V-Com, a precautionary system that communicates safety-critical information between truck drivers and vulnerable road users was presented by six final year MSc students from Blekinge Institute of Technology and Stanford University at this year\u2019s Stanford EXPE – design experience. In their capstone project, ME310, which runs from October to June, they move in a Design Thinking process through phases of needfinding, ideation, prototyping and more to arrive at a final detail designed product to display at the final exhibition, the EXPE.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The BTH team of Dastan Gomli and Erik Lindstr\u00f6m, having worked with their American colleagues (Charvi Aggarwal, Catie Cuan, Gaurav Gude, and Bhargav Reddy) using distance-spanning technology through the better part of the academic year, travelled to Stanford a few weeks before the final event to complete the final system prototype.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>
The students, coaches and liaisons involved in this year's project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s project was the first time that Volvo Group Connected Solutions, with its Innovation Lab that has recently established an office just a stone's throw from Stanford in Mountain View, was project sponsor having taken over the baton from sister company Volvo CE. Jenny Elfsberg, who is heading up Volvo Group\u2019s Silicon Valley office, and also has been involved with ME310 during a decade explains why this sponsorship is so valuable to the company;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe ME310 course is a great way for our company to engage with academia and both support the students and generate unique value for the company. During a full school year with a team of students both in Sweden and USA we get to take part in a design thinking journey, from day one, when we provide the challenge, and all the way through. We get to witness the struggle with a distributed team finding ways to collaborate effectively, we get to see their needfinding activities and their insights, which by itself adds tremendous value to us, because we rarely have time to perform proper, in-depth needfinding, and when we do it many of us have difficulty to see beyond the traditional Volvo product range, which is crucial in order to identify truly valuable innovative solutions. We also get to see several prototyping iterations – including testing of the prototypes, from which we learn a lot. The final presentation, at the ME310 EXPE, only give a brief taste of the full year experience. The way we get to engage with the faculties – both at Stanford and BTH, the master students and the design journey is truly unique, and time and money well spent.\u201d<\/em>, says Jenny<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>
Volvo Group Connected Solutions Innovation Lab Hub 335 in Mountain View.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The prompt – \u201cEnhancing partnership between humans and vehicles in the connected society\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Automation, electrification and connectivity is changing our society. Volvo Group with Trucks, Buses and Construction Equipment are working with different and increased levels of these capabilities. With these changes, they want to understand how professional drivers and operators are affected since full automation is still somewhat distant in the future and the transition will be gradual. They also want to understand how to improve the quality of the professional drivers and the operators lives by leveraging the positives of the new technology.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

At the same time as vehicles and machinery is advancing, the entire society is becoming more connected, with the advent of the Smart City around the corner. The drivers and operators will become collaborators with inhabitants and infrastructure of the Smart City. Vehicles will need to operate safely and efficiently in connected urban environment. Volvo wants to explore and develop the relationships between citizens, drivers\/operators and the smart solutions in this landscape \u2013 via the assistance of technology.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

“I think this year\u2019s challenge is a really interesting one from an innovation point of view because we are working at the intersection of several interesting developments, with future autonomous and electrified heavy vehicles are brought into the mix of the smart city where we will still have many unprotected road users inhabiting the streets. This gives an opportunity for novel solutions to serve needs of these stakeholders that I have confidence in the students to uncover.\u201d ,<\/em> says Christian Johansson Askling, responsible teacher from BTH.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n