Northstar Technology Transfer and Facility Development Work Package FY19 Summary Report

BACKGROUND Adolescence (13-17 years) is a key developmental stage for physical activity promotion (PA), but it remains unclear what works to change PA in this group. Virtual reality (VR) exergaming is a promising intervention strategy to engage adolescents with physical activity. OBJECTIVE We hypothesise that a multicomponent intervention with VR exergaming at the core could increase physical activity in adolescents. However, substantial intervention development work is required. METHODS The vEngage study involves collaboration between academics and commercial games designers and employs a staged, mixed-methods approach to intervention development, combining traditional research processes and iterative game design processes. This protocol reports on our experiences of the methods and procedures for the initial development phases of the intervention. Ethics and Dissemination: The results from each work package have been disseminated through peer-review publications and scientific presentations. Ethical approval for each work package has been obtained through the University College London Research Ethics Committee. RESULTS This project developed a novel intervention involving VR exergaming with embedded elements designed to engage adolescents in physical activity. The unique academic and industry partnership from the outset, support from public health funders, and involvement of users and stakeholders throughout has been crucial to success. CONCLUSIONS This project is a world first attempt to develop a VR exergame designed to engage adolescents with PA, embracing academic-industry collaboration. We proposed and described very early development work in order to raise awareness of the study, and still open up possibilities and invite other researchers and industry partners to link with us. As such we welcome potential collaboration, and input on our planned and future work.

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Outsourcing - The Real Way To Reduce Costs

PIRETC-Proceeding of The International Research Education & Training Centre ◽

10.36962/ecs104/1-2-181 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 104 (1-2) ◽

pp. 181-189

Author(s):

Tatia Ghurtskaia Tatia Ghurtskaia ◽

Guram Samkharadze Guram Samkharadze ◽

Karlo Gurtskaia Karlo Gurtskaia

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Technology Transfer ◽

Research And Development ◽

Business Processes ◽

Development Work ◽

The Real ◽

Core Business ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages ◽

Innovation Processes

Outsourcing allows companies to reduce costs, which contributes to the growth of their competitiveness. Simply outsourcing is the transfer of production or business processes from one company to another that is an expert in this field. This process has both advantages and disadvantages. Outsourcing allows companies to focus on their core business, while performing non-core operations can be entrusted to outsourcers who are professionals in this field. Globalization has led to an increase in the quality of outsourcing. Outsourcing plays an important role in the development of information technology, as large Western companies in the field of information technology transfer their research and development work to countries such as China, India and Brazil. Without outsourcing, the creative minds of these countries will not be able to participate in innovation processes and development. Consequently, by promoting the development and growth of information technology, outsourcing has accelerated the process of globalization. Keywords: outsourcing, costs, costly activities, transportation-logistics operations.

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