Technology and Innovation

TechInn - ISSN 2399-8571 - © ISTE Ltd

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This paper will address the issue of the Decarbonized Industrial Process (DIP) by adopting a systemic technological style. The DIP will be considered as an artificial system interacting with the earth’s natural, the social system and the technical systems. Designing the DIP involves engineering it as a system, and implementing the rules of Sustainable Systems Engineering (SSE). SSE provides concepts, methods and modeling techniques for clarifying the context, the requirements and the architecture of the DIP of interest, and framing the embodiment design of new solutions. An illustration will be given in the case of a highly carbon dioxide-producing process, namely clinkerization. However, our proposal is subject to significant limitations. We do not yet have any feedback on DIPs’ concrete implementation, and SSE remains an engineer-centric framework that cannot include key contributions from the natural sciences and the social sciences.

Commissioned during the post-war reconstruction period, Emile Huchet was one of France’s main coal-fired power plants and underwent continuous modernization until the 1990s. At the end of Moselle’s coal mining operations (2004), the site entered a new phase marked by the privatization, deterritorialization, and diversification (into gas) of its activity, before being impacted by the acceleration of the energy transition and the announcement of the closure of the country’s last coal-fired power plants (2017). Since then, a public support scheme has been introduced to assist affected workers and foster the emergence of new substitute industrial activities, all sharing the common goal of reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions. This strategy of “decarbonized reindustrialization” thus positions the decarbonization of Emile Huchet as a lever for the site’s industrial (re)conversion and for the broader redevelopment of the Lorraine coal basin. Studying the trajectory of the Emile Huchet plant therefore provides a valuable opportunity to place this new decarbonization-driven recovery cycle within the longer historical reconfiguration of structural redevelopment dynamics in post-mining and post-industrial territories and, thus, to identify the nature of the current obstacles to the implementation of these associated objectives of industrial decarbonization and (re)conversion.

This article presents, with an explicit angle on decarbonisation, the research that we carried out in the book: Ecological Transition and Technological Change, ISTE Volume 42, London 2024.The article highlights and describes three main decarbonisation paths, corresponding to three ecological transition issues: decarbonization as mitigation through capture and storage of emitted C02 with an unchanged technical and economic system; decarbonization as a solution to the ecological transition matter, centred on technological mutation, introducing decarbonised technologies as a replacement of fossil-fuel-based technologies, mainly combustion technologies. Finally, in view of the difficulty of achieving a satisfactory level of decarbonization, a third ecological transition issue is taking shape, namely the reorganization of our production, consumption and transport patterns, based essentially on sobriety and a reduction in the level of activity. The importance of the challenge means that these three decarbonization systems will continue to work in synergy.

This research presents an innovative digital platform that combines the Haitian kolòn model with communities of practice theory to support projects’ co-design and collaborative learning in maker spaces. Build on a study involving 57 participants and five international maker communities, this platform has been designed to facilitate peer learning and skills development through a distributed mentoring system. Our results show significant improvements in collaborative capabilities and project success rates. The results highlight the co-creation process of a technological solution centered on a community-based, collaborative and inclusive approach. This work contributes to advancing Innovation and skills development in the field of digital fabrication by providing a framework for ‘learning by making together’ that bridges virtual and physical maker spaces.

This article questions decarbonization as a vector of systemic transformations through the prism of the cluster concept. It examines the interactions between technological innovations and new resources around the ETI, but also between social innovations, environmental issues and a new territorial project, in a context linking reindustrialization with climate objectives. Through the industrial-port complex of Fos-Etang de Berre, within the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis, decarbonization of existing industries and new low-carbon sites reveal the challenges of a collective structuring bringing the industrial world, public actors and civil society in a dynamic of multiple transitions.

Serious games as artifacts and serious play activities go back a long way. In the introduction to this issue of Technology & Innovation, we’d like to take a look at the history of playful practices and devices used for serious purposes. The history of these games can be dated back to early man, or to the first jacks (knucklebones) and dices found in archaeological excavations. But in written terms, it’s from the 5th century B.C. onwards that the first references to games in a utilitarian context appear. Quickly identified for some of its teaching qualities for children, or for adults by metaphor, it was also diverted to less praiseworthy ends such as betting, the staging of power or the manipulation of crowds. While these practices did not disappear over the centuries, they were more discreet until the year 1000, when they began to take on a new lease of life. However, it wasn’t until the 18th century that new edutainment activities appeared. Children’s games and military games were the focus of numerous experiments. With wargames, military games were also used to test ideas. Next came business and health games, which continued to develop well into the computer age. Indeed, from the very beginning, digital technology offered new, serious uses for games, and from the 1970s onwards enabled the development of a variety of utility games, the number of which has grown exponentially over the decades. This has led to the emergence of numerous sub-categories (advert games, newsgames, persuasive games, games with a purpose, agile games, etc.) and the resurgence of activities based on analog games or components thereof (serious gaming, serious play, gamification, etc.).

The aim of this paper is to determine whether the Serious Game is a human invention. To answer this question, we propose to check whether both Serious Game and Serious Play can be found in the animal kingdom. If such a census proves negative, then we can conclude that the Serious Game could indeed correspond to a human invention. If this were not the case, then Serious Play would be better regarded as inter-species activities. This would then lead us to study whether it is possible to identify common aspects and specificities between species. If, at the same time, it is possible to identify animals that also used objects to play for utilitarian purposes, then we could see the Serious Game not as an invention, but rather as the object of human innovation. To carry out this study, we will conduct a hypothetico-deductive analysis combining readings from ethology, biology and the humanities.

Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing professions, requiring a growing number of competent decision-makers. The need to make adequate decisions is not limited only to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialists, but is also largely the responsibility of management. One of the methods to improve decision-making is to train through scenario-based serious games offering a preparedness review before a crisis materializes. The decision scope also changes with some new actors: politically, financially and psychologically motivated groups targeting cyber assets. Serious games often treat security in red (offensive) and blue (defensive) terms. This paper is mapping the potential differences that arise when the threat actor profile is presented in addition to the scenario, allowing the response plans of hospitals to be tailored to the specific threat. As the result, two contrasting scenarios are introduced, generating a response plan for a geopolitically-motivated hacker group and ideologically-motivated hacktivist. This approach could be further applied to cyber preparedness in hospitals, utilizing the process described in this study.

Agile games form a special category of serious games, because they are historically and above all associated with so-called agile methods. These methods emerged in the 1990s and they were structured around a manifesto in the early 2000s. Initially, these methods were essentially designed to improve the management of software and information technology design and development teams. Since then, their scope has been extended to the management of almost all types of projects and organizations. The success of some of their implementations has made the adjective "agile" trendy, leading to its overuse as a language element to describe a company as competitive or innovative. After a brief presentation of these methods, we turn in this text to the agile games that have been developed to promote them or support certain steps in their implementation. We draw up a cartography of these games, based on data collected from five websites and one book dedicated to them. Based on this collection, we estimate the variety and usefulness of these games. In fact, we present different sub-categories of these games, qualifying them and describing the most popular among the sources surveyed.

This paper explores the use of serious games as provocative methods in research. Through a detailed case study of research through gaming, the authors demonstrate how the researcher becomes a provocative agent who influences the dynamics studied, revealing behaviors otherwise inaccessible through traditional methods. This interdisciplinary approach enriches research but presents challenges in terms of method validation. Serious games require diverse skills and raise important ethical questions, particularly regarding participant protection. Ultimately, they transform research practice, promoting a more creative and engaged exploration of social phenomena.