Recently, the use of military robots – which may be drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), remotely piloted systems, autonomous weapon systems or ‘killer robots’ – has been debated in the media, politics, and academia. Military robots are increasingly automated, which means that they can perform tasks …

In medical education, student distress is known to hamper learning and professional development. To address this problem, recent studies aimed at helping students cope with stressful situations. Undergraduate students in clinical practice frequently use experiences of surrounding peers to estimate their …

‘Creating the Difference’ is the theme of the 2014 edition of the Chi Sparks conference. It is also the challenge that the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community is facing today. HCI is a creative field where practitioners engage in design, production, and evaluation of interactions between people …

In January 2013, I approached the Utrecht-based NGO LiveBuild to inform if I could write my thesis for them. After some preliminary research, it turned out that they could use some help in the realm of communication. LiveBuild was established in 2008 and had acquired over 1500 structural donors since …

Consumers expect product availability as well as product quality and safety in retail outlets. When designing or re-designing fruit and vegetables supply chain networks one has to take these demands into consideration next to traditional efficiency and responsiveness requirements. In food science literature, …

Computers create environmental problems. Their production requires electricity, raw materials, chemical materials and large amounts of water, and supplies (often toxic) waste. They poison dumping sites and pollute groundwater. In addition, the energy consumption in IT is growing exponentially, with and …

Information and communications technologies (ICT) can be very important to provide access to urban cultural heritage collections. Urban archives contain a lot of (historical) information about people, places, events, objects, trade and artefacts. Its worthwhile to make this information accessible for …

This marketing communications report was commissioned to examine how Primaflora can start internet marketing in order to establish valuable customer relationships and increase customer numbers for its German flower shops. The company’s main goal for creating an online presence is to increase brand awareness, …

Social media is becoming vitally important in today’s world. Big corporates and small companies both make use of it as part of their online marketing strategy (Ramachandran, 2014). It is a cheap, easy and it is a fast way to connect with customers, create dialogue and reach the mass. Consulting companies …

This dissertation was created with the goal to examine how online shopping has changed retail, specifically department stores and their business model, and to recommend a course of action and business model for entrepreneurs considering starting an (online) department store. There are several recommendations …