Topic outline

  • General

    The course TU-EV00026 Leading Innovation and Compatibility is now starting with two segments: Interactive video lectures and a project work, 2 and 3 ECTS, respectively.

    Leading Innovation and Compatibility by Standardization provides exceptional visibility to the world of standards and standardization with a focus on innovation leadership through compatibility pursuit.
    The course is primarely intended for Master and Doctoral Students in Aalto.

    Important dates:

    • To join the course Sisu will open 15.8.2022 and closes 17.9.2023 (at 23:59) Note, The registration window has been extended! If you have issues with registration, please contact Timo Ali-Vehmas.
    • The project kick off meeting will be 18.9.2023
    • There are three mandatory seminars in the course. First 25.9.2023, second 9.10.2023, and third 23.10.2023.
    • Project kick off and Seminars 1&2&3 will take place at 16:00-19:00 (earlier information was 15:15-18:00) in the lecture hall 1171-1172
    • The Project works are agreed in the third seminar session and the project report deadline is 21.11.2023.


      Overview

      With the emerging data economy and platform-driven business models, the role of standardization and regulation is gaining importance as a tool to shape the market and speed up the development of services and products. This course will help you to have insight and understanding of the global industry collaboration and competition in several businesses subject to interoperability and network effects. Standardization is a tool to shape and drive the evolution or revolutions in the business systems. This course aims to go beyond the traditional aims of standardization training that is focusing mainly on how to utilize existing standards. In this course the emphasis is in the business leadership, innovation and value creation and capture.

      The course is very timely. A Parlamentary study group focusing Information and technology Policies in Finland published 19/12/2022 a document listing 55 recommended actions, out of which 7 actions directly call for Innovation and Compatibility by Standardization  (Document available currently only in Finnish).

      https://tietopolitiikka.fi/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/tietopolitiikka.fi-A4-netti.pdf

      Furthermore, Standardization is even an opportunity to achieve global recognition, like Technology Emmy reward 2019! Congratulations to a highly competitive and collaborative team developing Video coding formats, including strong contributions by the team in Finland. https://www.iso.org/news/ref2441.html


      Content

      The course is in two parts, interactive seminars using video lectures as an introduction and a separate a project work.  The Part I is a combination of three face to face seminars where the learnings of the video lectures are debated. The seminars focus on three areas: 1. Introduction to relevant theories, 2: Presentations on different standardization dynamics through relevant practical cases and finally, 3: Discussions on selected special topics relevant in the current business life. The course utilizes examples of ICT driven businesses, but the relevance is not limited to this domain only.

      Project work of the part two may address business-critical issues in ICT driven industries, such as telecommunications, transportation, healthcare, power grid, and IOT as well as forward-looking views to the key future standards for data economy, such as digital identity, AI and blockchains, and of course 6G. Standardization as a business driver is however applicable to all sectors of society where new technologies shape the old tradional ways of working, such as biology, construction and environmental industries. Using standards and standardization in all sectors of life is the ultimate scope of this course. Smart application of standards and standardization requires deep understanding of the sector specific dynamics combined with the theoretical models,  tools, methods and practices discuused in this course.

      Learning Outcomes

      This course provides an overview and practical ideas on the ways to drive innovations in different types of ecosystems using standards and standardization as a tool. Furthermore, the course draws a scenario map of standardization in the context of the boundary conditions (such as regulations), equilibrium of competition and collaboration as well as diffusion of innovations. This is essential knowledge to people whose interests include market and technology strategies for emerging practical opportunities in global and regional platforms and data economy. Furthermore, the holistic approach in the lectures encourages participants to think big while the practical project work takes a deep dive to a specific concrete case and aims to form a list of executable actions to drive standards, standardization and in essence drive compatbility and relevant business opportunities.

      Level of the Course

      This course is suitable for Masters' level and provides several perspectives for strategy or innovation leadership oriented post graduate students. The course is available also for Aalto Alumni responsible on standardization or industry collaborative business (subject to separate agreement). The course is recommended only in exceptional cases for students preparing their candidate degree, requiring pre-approval by the teacher.

      Assesment Methods and Criteria


      Part one
      Part one of the course consists of a combination of video lectures and related seminar sessions. There are 10 video sessions, each including 3-6 videos addressing earlier literature on standards and standardization, innovation, interoperability. These videos are taking the participants to practical standardization through case specific examples.

      The sessions are grouped to three sets: theory, practical cases and some specific topics. Each set is supported by some recommended reading. Each set is completed in a seminar session where the content of the set is discussed debated.  You can pass the part one of the course (and earn 2 ECTS) by watching the video lectures, participating these 3 seminar sessions, each having a short pre-work presenting your observations (of the videos) in writing and naturally by actively participating the discussions.

      Part two

      Part two of the course is a deep dive to some specific area withing the scope of the course. Part two is a project oriented teamwork, for teams of 2-3 people. The outcome of this teamwork is to have a report which should propose a viable solution to a specific business motivated problem using standards and standardization mechanisms as the primary tool. The Project work requires some specific knowledge on the chosen business domain as well as knowledge learned during the part one of the course. Some basic supportive written material will be available as well as tutoring when necessary. In order to pass the part two of the course (and earn another 3 ECTS) is an acceptable report as well as a short oral presentation on the main findings by the team members together.


      Workload 2+3 credits, 54 h + 72 h = 126 hours

      Part one; 2 credits 54 h

      • Learning landscape and practices by listening 3 sets of video lectures: 30 h (3*10 h = 30h)

      • Reading of two relevant articles for each set: 12 h (3*2*2h/article=12 h)

      • For each set complete a questionnaire and write a short summary and participate a seminar session to share and discuss the learnings: 12 h (3*1.5 h + 3*2.5 h)

      Part two; 3 credits 72 h

      • Take a deep dive to one specific topic in the field. A teamwork of 2-3 people to utilize the learnings in a research project.

      • Choosing/defining the topic of the project work: 2 h

      • Reading 3-5 articles, papers, or other documents: 8 h (4*2 h=8 h)

      • Exploring and reading 3-5 relevant other references: 8 h (4*4 h=8 h)

      • Short empirical study in the for of applying learnings and earlier literature to the chosen research topic. This may also include interviews or some form of analyses of data 27 h

      • Writing a project report approximately 5 -10 pages in the form of academic conference paper 25 h

      • Creating a presentation and presenting the paper in a seminar: 4 h


      Prerequisites 

      TU-E1010 Advanced Strategic Management and TU-E2111 Innovation in Operations and Services, or equivalent courses and expertise.

      Status of the Course

      Elective course of the majors of Industrial Engineering and Management and Information Networks. 

      Language of instruction and studies 

      English

      Contacts

      The teacher of the course is Executive in Residence Dr. Timo Ali-Vehmas (timo.ali-vehmas@aalto.fi).

      The course assistant for the course is Niko Lipiäinen (niko.lipiainen@aalto.fi)