Assignment 28: Reflecting - Sarah

1. Where have I succeeded in the Project?

Working in this project I had much fun and I succeeded in supporting the team. Everyone had their tasks in the project and also, I was working on parts of the concepts. Most successful was learning from the others and working together.

2. What kind of challenges I have encountered?

For me the challenges were the many assignments we got from the university. In some of them I saw no sense for our project and it was really hard to deal with them. Start working after doing them was a challenge of motivating myself.

3. What kind of challenges have you encountered as a group?

The biggest challenge in my opinion was the different language and the different habits of people. People with other backgrounds have another point of view. As a group, we found out what was expected from us and how we could deal with it. Because we are also from different countries we could talk together about many approaches and find a solution everyone agreed.

4. What would I do differently?

Next time I would repeat my Spanish lessons before going there. I could understand the people talking when they speak slowly, but talking was not possible for me. I was expecting that the people in hotels or bar would understand us in English.

5. Have I done something extra for the Project?

I did some research extra after we met, but it doesn’t feel like extra work. The whole group worked a lot during this three weeks. On the weekend, I explored the city what was also nice to see for the whole impression of the city.

6. What have I learned?

First, I learned a lot about the culture and the habits of the people in Alcoy. The whole atmosphere and environment is different. This leads to a different behavior. At the end of the project I can understand better why for example a car is so important for the people there. I can also see why many of the people don’t like to use the bike to move or walk to their destination. From my home town I am used to move with public transport or bike, but here it is way harder, because of the infrastructure.

I also learned more about my group members. To work with them and of course to have fun with them. In my opinion we are a good team and did a lot of good work together.

Assignment 28: Reflecting - Isabel

1. Where have I succeeded in the project?

My principal role in the group has been resource investigator, I found many interesting contacts and great opportunities to work it them. At the beginning I proposed local companies for work with them in smart cities concepts, and we based some concepts of our project in these companies. As well I had to transmit our ideas to the municipality team in a final presentation and during some previous meeting, and my knowledge about the city was very important to give a better explanation about our concepts.

2. What kind of challenges I have encountered?

During the project the we had to do different assignments, and I spent too much time doing research and calculations, and it was hard for me also doing tasks on time because I had to put aside the part of the project, that according to my point of view, was most important.

3. What kind of challenges have you encountered as a group?

At the beginning, the way of work, but it was easy to find a methodology to work, but at the end the most important thing is the respect to others members, and given we are in an international team, it is essential respect each country and culture. Some member forgot this part several times.

4. What would I do differently?

We advance quickie with the project being in Alcoy, because it was easier to find information from the municipality, I think a extra week in Alcoy would have been the most appropriate.

5. Have I done something extra for the project?

During the 3 weeks in Alcoy my implication in the project was 24/7, I was enthusiastic with the project and I wanted to obtain the best possible solutions for Alcoy, so I spent a lot of time finding information, reading articles about CO2 emissions in smart cities, and improving our concepts.

6. What have I learned?

I have learned a lot about CO2 emissions (and other gases), and how work the traffic in a city, and how improve the mobility in a normal city to get a more sustainable city.

Assignment 28: Reflecting - Steffen

Where have I succeeded in the Project?

During this Project I succeeded to fulfil my role as a specialist and implementer by researching important information, that was needed to create the developed concepts. Focussing on the e-scooter sharing system I could help the team and calculate or estimate the costs and CO₂ emissions. During the brainstorm sessions I tried my best to search for new ideas and combine others. Ten of the most potential ideas were then presented by Lennart and me to the client.

What kind of challenges I have encountered?

Studying to be an engineer, I am not used to think creative and come up with totally new ideas but to implement ideas. The field of transportation was also new for me.

What kind of challenges have you encountered as a group?

The biggest challenge for the whole team was the time. Three weeks was not enough to conduct extensive calculations on the CO₂ emissions and some of the contacted companies didn’t answer in this time to our questions or offer requests. Furthermore, we got some useful research papers and the traffic data quite late, so it was difficult to include them in our concepts.

What would I do differently?

Looking back there are only few things, that I or the whole team could have done better. Seeing the sales pitch again for example, I could have spoken louder.

Have I done something extra for the Project?

During two days, I analysed the traffic data, that we got quite late and therefore could not be included into the concepts or research. This was attached as additional attachment and could be seen as additional service, as the raw data can viewed much better now.

What have I learned?

I learned to work in an interdisciplinary context with an international team. Furthermore, it was interesting to research about the traffic topic and the current situation in Alcoy. This information had to spread in the team and the reports. Doing this, my level of English also improved a lot.

6.  

Assignment 28: Reflecting - Stefan

Hiking in Alcoy

1. Where have I succeeded in the Project?

Hopefully as a project leader but I have to admit that I had a great assistance by Lennart and an amazing team. We managed to present some interesting concepts and got nice feedback on them by the mayor. Another success was probably my role as an interpreter =)

 

2. What kind of challenges have I encountered?

It was not always that easy to set priority to all those assignments we had on the one hand and the actual concept development on the other hand.

3. What kind of challenges have you encountered as a group?

Time is always a scarce good! Furthermore, there were some minor misunderstandings due to different cultural backgrounds and language abilities.

4. What would I do differently?

I would have known that a mobility analysis and concept has been developed recently I would have asked for it in December.

5. Have I done something extra for the Project?

I put a lot of effort in this project and tried to organize our time as good as possible. What should I have done extra if me and my team mates fulfilled the roles in an excellent way?

6. What have I learned?

This question is not that easy to answer. Besides the knowledge that I gained through research and idea development there are some things that I learned which are hard to grasp right now but I will notice with some distance. I reexperienced how import communication is to avoid knowledge imbalances and of course I got to know a new city.

Assignment 28: Reflecting - Lennart

1. Where have I succeeded in the project?
I believe my two most important roles where I succeeded were as co-team-leader and blogger. As co-team-leader as support for Stefan our team-leader. Together we made sure that no assignments are missed, everything is done on time and well strucutred. Since I never did a blog before, I learned many things about that by writing a lot of posts. Especially I took the opportunity to improve my writing skills.

2. What kind of challenges have I encountered?
Pushing myself to the limits to deliver a product that I am proud of was the hardest challenge. At some points I had to say to myself "finish this now" or "keep going". We achieved something good so I am happy with it.
3. What kind of challenges have you encountered as a group?

I learned about the importance of communication, I realised this in some arguments we had in the group. One time for example we had a small conflict. Most of us were not too sure about a certain topic, because we received mixed signals from our partners at UPV. We were cautious about this topic and many team members had different unspoken opinions about it.This did not come out for a long time which led to a small argument eventually. It was a typical case of not communicating enough.

4. What would you do differently?

During the two weeks before Christmas Stefan, the team leader, was sick for a couple days and could not participate in the working as he wished. I stepped up and took his position to lead the team through the assignments and the idea generating and we worked properly. Nevertheless, looking back I think I could have done a better job on keeping the team focused to fulfil the role of a team leader correctly.

5. Have I done something extra for the project?
I tried to work extra long on the project and with that motivating the rest to get as much done as early as possible so we would not get in tim trouble later. I knew that would happen anyway, but with working hard in the beginning we got more done.
6. What have I learned?
I learned many things about myself and my own behaviour that are hard to define but I am aware of them. The last months definitley changed me to something better. I improved many skills like presentation or group works.