Bursting the Filter Bubble: Democracy, Design, and Ethics

Online web services such as Google and Facebook started using personalization algorithms. Because information is customized per user by the algorithms of these services, two users who use the same search query or have the same friend list may get different results. Online services argue that by using personalization algorithms, they may show the...

Selection and development of innovative design alternatives: Ethical, social and uncertainty issues

Innovative engineering design shapes the development of novel technologies and is ethically as well as socially relevant, because it affects what kind of possibilities and consequences will arise. A major challenge in engineering design work on innovative technologies is the multitude of uncertainties in the form of known unknowns, unknown...

Optic Compliance: Enforcement and Compliance in the Dutch Chemical Industry

Financial Flows in a Kaleckian Framework

This thesis extends the Kaleckian model of growth and income distribution, to include the influence of international financial flows. The focus is set on developing countries who borrow in a foreign currency, either through the public sector or the private sector. After a literature review on the merits of Kaleckian models, this thesis performs...

Failure: Analysis of an Engineering Concept

This thesis is an attempt to clarify a concept we are all familiar with, engineers and non-engineers alike. It shows that, behind the first impression of familiarity, there is a wide range of intuitions about failure which are not easily reconciled. While the ensuing ambiguities and lack of clarity may be tolerated in ordinary circumstances,...

Probability analysis of floods in catchments with dams

SMEs and supply chain management: A functional perspective