Research, Charlotta Johnsson
My research as always been driven by my own curiosity combined with industrial needs and interest. Today my research can be divided into into four areas; Automation-Control, Technology Management- Engineering Leadership, Innovation-Entrepreneurship, and Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. I started my research career as a PhD-student in 1993, with a focus on Automation-Control (focus on Graphical Programming Languages for Discrete Event systems and Batch Control Applications). After dissertation (1999) I left university for about 5 years working in industry as system architect and product manager for Orsi Automazione SpA, later Siemens MES, in Italy. Back at Lund University in 2004 I extended my research in the domain of Automation-Control to also include: MOS (Manufacturing Operations Systems), interoperability, plant-wide perspectives, and operational excellence. My research interest in the domain of Technology Management-Engineering Leadership domain started with my role as Program Director for the Technology Management Master program, a program that contains strong elements of leadership and innovation. I am curious about the transformational journey from student to a developed leader and/or entrepreneur. This curiousity is closely linked to pedagogical issues, i.e. the research domain Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. As a visiting scholar at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley, I actively participated in the research and development of Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE). I am involved in the development of several international standards and in various industrial networks and interest groups.
Research projects and interests:
- Automation, Control and Production Systems
- Interests; Interoperability, Manufacturing Operations Management, Graphical Control Languages, Plant-wide Disturbance Management, Process control, Key Performance Metrics, Smart Manufacturing.
- Projects: LCCC, PIC, LISA2, PiiA-Metrics
- Technology Management and Engineering Leadership
- Interests: The societal need of cross-disciplinarity, the longitudinal journey of becoming a leader, executive education
- Projects: ELPP-Sweden, technical MBA programs
- Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
- Interests: including Mindset elements in teaching and learning
- Projects: MIND-methodology
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Interestes: the longitudinal journey of becoming an entrepreneur
- Projects: Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship
1. Automation, Control and Production Systems
1.1. Project LCCC - Lund Center for Control of Complex Engineering Systems
LCCC is a Linnaeus Center at Lund University funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR). LCCC started in 2008 and focuses on Control of Complex Engineering Systems. The centre has ten principal investigators, I am one of them. In addition, I was serving as the vice coordinator of LCCC (2010-2013). My research within LCCC is centered around "Modeling support for Design and Verification" and "Process Control". More information is found on the homepage of LCCC.
1.2. Project PIC - Process Industrial Centre
PIC-LU: PIC-LU is a research project at Lund University funded by the Foundation of Strategic Research (SSF). PIC-LU started in 2008 and is a process industrial centre focusing on process optimization and control. PIC-LU has three thematic terms of importance; Availability, Flexibility and Controllability. I am serving as a member of the centre management team and as one of five sub-project leaders. My research within PIC-LU is focused around "Availability", More information is found on the homepage of PIC-LU.
PIC-opic: PIC-opic is a research project funded by the Foundation of Strategic Research (SSF). PIC-opic is short for Process Industrial Centre - Optimization, Performance, Integration and Control. PIC-opic, is a two year project, that started Q3-2012. It's aim is to integrate research activities of PICLU (Lund) and PICLI (Linköping) as well as to integrate the different level in the control hierarchy. PIC-opic refers to the four central terms; Optimization, Performance, Integration and Control. I am serving as the project leader of PIC-opic. More information is found on the homepage of PIC.
1.3. Project LISA2 - Line Information System Architecture 2
LISA2 is a research project funded by VINNOVA's FFI program for sustainable production engineering. LISA2 is succeedding the LISA project. LISA2 involves researchers and industrial representatives from; Lund University, Chalmers, KTH, Scania and Volvo Cars. LISA2, is a three year research project that started in Q3-2015. LISA2 includes several workpackages. More information on homepage of LISA2 and homepage of LISA.
1.4. Project PiiA-Metrics
Piia-Metrics is a research project funded by VINNOVA's strategic innovation program PiiA. PiiA-Metrics involves people from both academia (Lund University, and Linköping University) and industry. More information on homepage of PiiA-Metrics.
1.5. Interest Manufacturing Operations
Operations management is focused on overseeing and controlling the complete process of production. The process of production could be either discrete, batch or continuous/process oriented.
1.6. Interest Batch Control
In pharmaceutical production the production process is often batch oriented and the production is controlled though the execution of batch recipes. My research interest is related to the design and execution of batch recipes.
1.7. Interest Interoperability
I am interested in questions related to Interoperability between various systems needed in production, including both control systems (e.g. PLCs and DCSs), Manufacturing Operation systems (e.g. MOS and MES) and Business systems (e.g. ERPs and PLMs). How can these systems interoperate as somoothly as possible, not introducing unnecessary time-delays or errors.
1.8. Interest Graphical Control Languages
Many production processes are carried out in a sequantial way and can hence be controlled by sequantial graphical control languages. One such language is Grafchart. More information is found on the homepage of Grafchart.
1.9a. Interest Smart Manufacturing and Industrie 4.0
Collaborations with SmartFactory at DFKI and TU Kaiserslautern, Germany, concerning process control/management (using Grafchart) and OPC-UA.
Activities;
- Sept 22-23, 2016: Host of IEC TC65E AhG1 meetings on "Smart Manufacturing Information Model", in Lund, Sweden
- Sept 7th, 2016 Organiser of "Industrie 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing" seminar by Prof. Detlef Zuhlke, Germany, in Lund Sweden. More info here.
- June 16-17, 2016: Participation at IEC AhG3 meetings on "Smart Manufacturing Framework and System Architecture", Copenhagen, Denmark.
- April 2016: Participation in NIST Smart Manufacturing meeting, Washington DC, USA.
- March 2016: Participation at IEC TC65E AhG1 meetings on "Smart Manufacturing Information Model", Rome, Italy.
- ... and lots more.
1.9b. Interest International Standards
I am actively participating, as the Swedish national Expert, in several standardizational groups;
- ISA95 (Enterprise-Control System Integration)
- ISA88 (Batch Control),
- ISO 22400 (Key Performance Indicators for Manufacturing Operations Management),
- ISO 15746 (Advanced process Control and Optimization),
- ISO xxxx (Equipment Behavior Catalogue),
- ISO initiative 3I (integration of informatization and industrialization),
- ISO initiative on "RAMI 4.0" (reference Architecture Model Industrie 4.0)
- Swedish ISO Strategic Advisory Group on Industry4.0/SmartManufacturing.
2. Technology Management and Engineering Leadership
2.1.Interest Technology Management
Technology Management is the management of the use of technology for human advantage. It is a multi-disciplinary domain in which Engineering and Management/Economics play important roles. The master program named Technology Management started at Lund University in 1997 and was a pioneer in this domain. Keywords are Leadership, personal development, Mindset, and practicing worklife. Lund University cancelled the master program, for unclear reasons, in 2015. More information on www.tmonline.se.
2.2. Project Engineering Leadership
The mission of Engineering Leadership is to grow top-performing engineers to a higher level of impact and influence. I participated in the Eningeering Leadership Professional Program (ELPP) at UC Berkeley, and am currently developing a similar program at Lund University.
3. Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
3.1. Interest MIND-methodology
MIND-methodology is a pedagogical methodology that includes four building blocks; Theory, Practice, Mindset and Engagement. The first building block, Theory, stresses the learning of theory and thereby acquiring knowledge, the second building block, Practice, highlights the importance of practicing and thereby getting skills, and the third building block, Mindset, underlines the importance of changing or confirming an individual’s mindset and thereby experiencing personal growth. The fourth building block, Engagement, is supporting the other three and is a mean for improving the students’ self-efficacy, and enabling scale-ability of the curricula/program.
3.2. Interest Longitudinal study of becoming and belonging in entrepreneurship/leadership
4. Innovation and Entrepreneurship
4.1. Interest Entrepreneurship in Education
Entrepreneurship matters. Entrepreneurship is often thought of as the act of commercializing an innovation. In modern open economies, entrepreneurship is one of the key aspects for economic growth. Entrepreneurship is also about the capability of translating Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical (STEM) understanding into useful innovations. An understanding of fundamental ideas and mindsets from Entrepreneurship can be useful for STEM learning in general. Entrepreneurs are more willing to be outside their comfort zones, and real learning occurs when a person is challenged and outside this zone. The relationship between STEM learning and Entrepreneurship is therefore bi-directional. STEM is a pre-requisite for Innovations and Entrepreneurship, and understanding and applying the Entrepreneurship mindset is advancing the STEM learning. To teach and educate future entrepreneurs is orthogonal to traditional teaching in respect to how teaching is conducted. A leader/instructor that wants to educate innovators should e.g. lead from the side as opposed to lead from the top, should inspire as opposed to direct, should trust and delegate instead of check and control, should treat the group members as colleagues and not as a subordinate, etc. This is unconventional in teaching and learning situations and calls for a different mindset of the leader/instructor. It is essential that the students are exposed to this mindset if they themselves want to become leaders of future entrepreneurs, inter/intra-preneurs or innovators. See also MIND-methodology (section 3.1).
4.2. Project Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship
I spend the academic year 2013/2014 as a visiting scholar at CET, UC Berkeley, CA, USA (CET = Center for Entrepreneruship and Technology), during which I participated in the developement of the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE). More info on CET's homepage and in the BMoE-paper. In fall 2014 I received the "Familjen Knut och Ragnvi Jacobssons stiftelse", for continued collaboration with UC Berkeley in the area of Entrepreneurship and BMoE .
If you are interested in Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
- the 4-day BMoE-workshop taking place at UC Berkeley in mid-January and Mid-August every year, might be of interest to you. I usually participate as a mentor. If you are interested, please contact CET directly or contac me (and I will help you).
- the 3 week summer school European Innovation Academy, might be of interest to you. If you are interested, please contact EIA directly or contac me (and I will help you).
4.3. Interest SME creation facilitation process
I have co-designed the innovation course, iMDE (international Market-Drive Engineering). A course in which 40 Swedish students closely collaborate with 40 Chinese Students in 8 teams. Each team develops progress from "Zero" to Prototye" in 6 weeks. The course takes place at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. The course aims at facilitating the SME creation process for students. The number of students selecting an entrepreneurial career has increased since the introduction of the course (Before: 1.25%, After 5.83% => 500% increase ).