Strathclyde University and Associates: Scottish Energy Systems Group

A NEW FOCUS ON QUALITY: The building regulations update away back in 2002 introduced new flexibility into how compliance could be demonstrated. The novel carbon emissions based alternative offered a whole building approach to achieving targets compared to the prescriptive elemental approach which until then had been the only route. It occurred to many building design practitioners that traditional manual design calculation methods would not allow these opportunities to be fully explored.

Strathclyde University and Associates: Scottish Energy Systems Group: Dynamic computer modelling and simulation tools obviously could have a part to play, but where to start? What computational tool to use? What about hardware requirements, recruitment, training? Thus the Scottish Energy Systems Group was established, with funding from The Scottish Executive and Strathclyde European Partnership, to provide guidance and support to the industry. The objective was to give the Scottish building design community a head start in producing a better quality of building design, incorporating more innovation and new ideas, and with confidence that the solution would work as intended.

Strathclyde University and Associates: Scottish Energy Systems Group: Four years on, and a whole new set of regulations are being introduced, with target carbon emissions the only route to compliance. Now computer modelling is an almost indispensable tool for design evaluation, and indeed is becoming an integral part of the route to compliance (see article on New Building Regulations). Most of our members are using one of the various packages available, or at least have explored the possibilities via consultancy partnerships.

So what else is there to do?

Our philosophy from the outset has been total engagement with our members. That means not just putting on seminars and technology introduction workshops, valuable activities in themselves, but also getting out into members’ offices and working on real projects, setting up the technology within their working environment, even lending them the necessary hardware.

Strathclyde University and Associates: Scottish Energy Systems Group: Some members could now be described as pioneers; real leaders in the use of dynamic modelling tools applied to building systems design. Others have had a go, but things have fallen by the wayside, because in adopting the technology they did not adopt an integrated process to go with it. The focus was all on the tool, rather than on how modelling would fit into the overall design process. Starting up an airline is more than just deciding which aircraft to fly. Likewise, there is a lot more to consider in establishing building energy modelling than just which particular software package to go for. That is why, in this issue of HotNews, we are focussing on Quality Assurance (see article “Quality Assurance process for building modelling”). We want members to take a step back and look at how they are using their modelling tools. A good starting point would be to conduct an audit. And where to turn to for help with that? SESG of course! Even if you think you don’t have a problem, a half day of free, on-site consultancy could give you the reassurance you need. If you want to use modelling tools to develop Part L compliant designs, your modelling capabilities will be mission critical (in Scotland it will be Section 6, and a different route to compliance is being developed). We will continue to support this core service (we call it Supported Technology Deployment) with seminars on topical subjects (see the events section) which are often followed up by a technology introduction workshop that allows members to try out various computational approaches for themselves, and even to explore solutions to real live projects, with on-hand support from SESG staff. We will always seek to involve the “pioneers” in such events; they can relate the practicalities of reconciling business-as-usual with new ways of doing things. The usual pattern is that after attending a seminar, say on renewable technologies, a member sees benefits in being able to model, for example, building integrated renewables, and so attends a technology introduction workshop, led by an expert in the field. The next step is for the member to invite SESG staff to come to their office, help with installation of the software, ensure that quality assurance issues are dealt with, and leave the member up and running with a new capability, with occasional follow up sessions as required.

Strathclyde University and Associates: Scottish Energy Systems Group: If you are a Scotland based building design practitioner, installer or manufacturer, no matter how small your organisation might be, you can benefit from this service. How? Very simply, by becoming a member. A simple audit of your current process or evaluation of your needs will start you off, and we will further support you as you move to adopt your chosen packages and integrate their use into your practice. If your needs could be met through a development effort, we may be able to do that for you too. If you would like to have a chat about joining, please contact us at: Jeremy@sesg.strath.ac.uk,

0141 548 5765.

Strathclyde is a great place to study and enjoy life at the same time. And this is where you can find out everything about us - from how we teach, to what's on in Glasgow and how to get around. We want to help you make the most of your time here, so we hope you'll come back to these pages to get all the latest news about what's happening on campus and in and around the city.

Strathclyde University and Associates: New Faces at SESG

We have seen big changes at SESG over the past few months. Meet the new team!

Strathclyde University and Associates: Dr Jeremy Cockroft took over as director of SESG at the beginning of April 2006. He is supported by Dr Jon Hand and Dr Aizaz Samuel. We have a vacancy that we hope to fill soon. Here is a brief resume of the people now in the group: Jon has had experience as a practicing architect specializing in low energy buildings and alternative construction techniques. He is a simulation consultant in several continents, a software developer, and a mentor to companies embedding computational support for the design process. He possesses a particular aptitude for identifying simulation quality assurance weaknesses and developing improvement programmes for building design practitioners.

Strathclyde University and Associates: Aizaz has a background in advanced energy conservation measures. He is also an expert on modelling contaminant distribution in the indoor air quality field, using both network airflow and computational fluid dynamic modelling techniques. Jeremy was deeply involved in the early years of energy and air flow modelling, subsequently was a product development manager and business unit leader in the building controls industry, before returning to academia to support energy related consultancy services within the ESRU group. On taking over as Director of SESG, Jeremy said “When I think back to the pioneering days of building energy modelling and simulation, not so many years ago, the idea of building design practitioners using modeling software on a routine basis was a distant dream. Now we see these tools being used as an integral step in achieving building regulation compliance, which is an extraordinary achievement for the modelling community and those building designers who pioneered the use of these tools in their practice. But we have to keep moving forward; the modelling challenges are always with us. Now we face the need to look beyond just the building fabric and plant systems, and consider how energy flows interact at a community level, with increasing integration of renewable energy generation and interactions between fluctuating supplies and demands to manage the overall energy system balance. Scotland is ideally positioned as a renewable energy powerhouse, surrounded as we are with wind, wave and hydro resources to exploit, so we see our supporting role continuing to add value to the Scottish building design community as they develop new performance assessment services based on computational modeling technologies. Whilst we will continue to promote our seminar programme, I will be putting much more emphasis on direct engagement; getting out there and providing member with one-to-one support in achieving their goals. And I hope members won’t be slow in coming forward when they want us to assist them; after all, it is all free!”

Strathclyde is a great place to study and enjoy life at the same time. And this is where you can find out everything about us - from how we teach, to what's on in Glasgow and how to get around. We want to help you make the most of your time here, so we hope you'll come back to these pages to get all the latest news about what's happening on campus and in and around the city.

Strathclyde University and Associates: Virus Scam Warnings And Other Hoaxes

If you receive a 'virus or a scam warning' in your email, the first and only action you should take is to forward it to the Helpdesk, maybe copy the message to your Departmental Computing Officer, and await advice. We will check it out, and let you know if it is a genuine threat, whether anyone in the University is at risk, and whether we need to issue a general alert.

Strathclyde University and Associates: Guidelines For Dealing With Virus Warnings And Other Hoaxes - Do not forward it to everyone you know. If this warning did not come from your recognised IT support people (IT Services or your Departmental Computing Officer), then the chances are extremely high that it is a hoax. This is especially likely to be true if the mail was forwarded by a friend, even if they "know about these things".

Spotting Virus Hoaxes

Virus hoaxes are actually fairly easy to spot, once you've seen a few of them. They all use pretty much the same sort of language, lots of use of CAPITALS, usually mention some major IT company you've heard of (e.g., IBM, Microsoft, AOL) or some government, and almost always advise you to "pass it on to AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU KNOW". They often refer to dire consequences such as the destruction of "EVERYTHING on your hard drive". You can find out more about the characteristics of virus hoaxes at:

Strathclyde University and Associates: Guidelines For Dealing With Virus Warnings And Other Hoaxes - CIAC Internet Hoax Information: How To Identify A Hoax

Unless you're extremely unlucky, they first people who will receive information about new, real viruses are the virus vendors and the various organisations concerned with Internet security. These are the people who will send out alerts to relevant mailing lists, and put information about the viruses on their web pages. They won't mail "everyone on the Internet" to inform them about the virus. If you've asked to be kept informed about virus threats by registering on an email distribution list, then you will probably receive mail from them. If you haven't, and you receive mail about a virus purporting to be from an anti-virus software vendor, and it hasn't been forwarded by a friend or associate, then be extremely suspicious.

Strathclyde University and Associates: Guidelines For Dealing With Virus Warnings And Other Hoaxes - Other Hoaxes: More commonly seen now are other types of hoaxes; so-called 'phishing' attempts (messages from a bank or other financial site, asking you to confirm your identity and login details) and 419 scams (messages on behalf of the relatives of dead but rich people, often in unstable African states, who need assistance in transferring money out of their country).

Strathclyde University Affiliated Researchers and External Associates

Prof Joseph Francois. Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, and Senior Research Fellow, Department of Economics, Strathclyde Business School.

Strathclyde University Affiliated Researchers and External Associates : I am professor of economics (with a chair in economic theory) with the Johannes Kepler Universität Linz.  I am also a fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London) and the Tinbergen Institute (Amsterdam/Rotterdam), director of the European Trade Study Group and the Institute for International and Development Economics, research fellow with the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, and a board member of the Global Trade Analysis Project. I serve on the editorial board of the Review of Development Economics, and the World Trade Review. I am also a member of the policy advisory group TradePartnership. Past professional incarnations have included professor of economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, research economist for the World Trade Organization, and chief of research and acting director of economics for the U.S. International Trade Commission. I studied economics at the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia.

Strathclyde University Affiliated Researchers and External Associates: My current research interests are somewhat scattered. They include: trade linkages to recession and growth; globalization and in equality trends: trade in services; open economy competition policy and the regulation of firm behavior; financial market integration; open economy growth and development; economic integration (like EU enlargement and American hemisphere integration schemes); the multilateral trading system (including China’s accession); trade and investment policy under imperfect competition (including the location of industry); uncertainty in computable general equilibrium; the labor market impact of globalization; the role of the service sector (finance, margin and intermediate services, etc.) in trade and development; competition in the service sectors; computational partial and general equilibrium modeling; income distribution in general equilibrium models of trade and competition; and estimation and inference within nonlinear systems (like large scale, multi-sector general equilibrium econometric models).

Strathclyde University Affiliated Researchers and External Associates : Working papers & publications

You can find links to most of the papers listed below (published and unpublished) on the right. REPEC has the most complete collection of links. If you are looking for a book chapter of something of the sort, let me know and I will try to post it.

Recent working papers: Market Structure and Market Access,  Francois, J.  and I. Wooton,  fothcoming inWorld Economy. Services Trade and Policy , Francois, J.  and B. Hoekman, this version 2009,  forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Literature. Trading Profiles and Developing Country Participation in the WTO Dispute Settlement System, Francois, J., H.Horn and N. Kaunitz, this version 2008.  Heterogeneous Firms, the Structure of Industry & Trade under Oligopoly, Bekkers, E. and J. Francois, this version 2008.  Dynamic Factor Price Equalization and International Convergence, J. Francois and C. Shiells, this version 2008. Equity and International Trade, J. Francois and H. Rojas-Romagosa, 2008.  Economic perspectives for Central America after CAFTA, J. Francois, L. Rivera, and H. Rojas-Romagosa, this version 2008. Reassessing the relationship between inequality and development, J. Francois & H.Rojas-Romagosa, this version 2008. Cross-Border Trade and FDI in Services, C. Fillat-Castejon, J. Francois, and J. Woerz, this version 2008. Endogenous Protection in General Equilibrium: estimating political weights in the EU,  Francois, J., D. Nelson and A, Balaoing, this version 2008. Institutions, Infrastructure, and Trade,  Francois J and M. Manchin, this version 2007.

Strathclyde is a great place to study and enjoy life at the same time. And this is where you can find out everything about us - from how we teach, to what's on in Glasgow and how to get around. We want to help you make the most of your time here, so we hope you'll come back to these pages to get all the latest news about what's happening on campus and in and around the city.

Prof Peter Liesch : Strathclyde University Affiliated Researchers and External Associates Prof Peter Liesch. University of Queensland.

Strathclyde University Affiliated Researchers and External Associates : Professor Liesch researches the processes and nature of the internationalisation of the firm, both large and small firms. He also investigates the nature of international business operations abroad, from export through to wholly-owned subsidiaries. The manner in which interfirm and intrafirm exchange is undertaken through these international operations is part of his research.

Peter Liesch is Professor of International Business and Leader of the Enterprise and International Business Cluster. He joined The University of Queensland in 1999 after several years at The University of Tasmania where he was Professor of Management in International Business and Head of the School of Management. At The University of Queensland, he has served as Head of the previous, pre-merger School of Management and Director of the MBA Program.

Strathclyde University Affiliated Researchers and External Associates : His Ph.D in Economics, written on the topic of government mandated-countertrade, was awarded by The University of Queensland. He has a book by this title. He has published many book chapters, and widely in the academic journals which include: Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Management Studies, Management International Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, International Journal of Technology Management, Prometheus, Industrial Marketing Management, European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Innovation Management, International Marketing Review and others. Professor Liesch serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of International Business Studies and the Journal of International Management.

He is a Professional Member of the Economic Society of Australia (Qld. Inc) and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. His primary research interests include: internationalisation of the firm (particularly the smaller firm), alternative systems of inter-firm exchange, and international business operations in their diversity, both their strategies and organisational forms. He has interests in research methodology. Professor Liesch is a CI on a current ARC Discovery Grant researching the early and rapid internationalisation of the firm, the so-called born global phenomenon. Professor Liesch has served on many university committees, and is a current member of The University of Queensland Standing Committee of its Academic Board.

Strathclyde is a great place to study and enjoy life at the same time. And this is where you can find out everything about us - from how we teach, to what's on in Glasgow and how to get around. We want to help you make the most of your time here, so we hope you'll come back to these pages to get all the latest news about what's happening on campus and in and around the city.

Prof George Tesar: Strathclyde University Affiliated Researchers and External Associates

Prof George Tesar. University of Umea, Sweden. Umeå School of Business, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå.

Current position / Job Summary  Professor of Marketing and International BusinessTeaching Area  Marketing Management, Strategic Marketing, Product Development and Management, Business Research Methods, Marketing Theory, International Marketing, Research in Marketing, and Marketing Theory.Research Area  Internationalization of smaller manufacturing firms, executive education in science and business management, technology transfer, and new product management.Awards / Honours  2004 Product Development and Management Association's Execellence Award; Life Member, Western Society of Engineers; Past Board member, Society of Automotive Analysts and Product Development and Management Association; Past member, Wisconsin International Trade Council.Other Merits  Chair, Academic Board, Brno International Business School, Czech Republic. Visiting Professor, Aalborg University, Denmark; Brno Technical University, Czech Republic; Czech Management Center, Czech Republic; and Helsinki School of Economics, Finland. Seminars and lectures, University of Oulu, Finland; University of St. Gallen, Switzerland; University of Turku, Finland; University of Vaasa, Finland; University of Veszprem, Hungary; Arnhem Business School, Netherlands; Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, Finland; University of Calgary, Canada.

The University is right at the heart of Glasgow - Scotland's biggest and most cosmopolitan city. The city centre has a vibrant arts scene, cutting-edge music, legendary nightlife, an exciting selection of places to eat out and much more. So studying at Strathclyde goes hand-in-hand with having a great time.

Inter-campus bus service. There's a regular shuttle bus between the John Anderson Campus and the Jordanhill Campus.

Seeing more of Glasgow. There's a lot to see in and around Glasgow - stately homes and museums like the Burrell Collection and Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum are unmissable. And with Loch Lomond just half an hour away there's plenty of breathtaking scenery to enjoy too. Glasgow also has great shopping and inspiring architecture - why not take a look at www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk and www.scotcities.com to get some ideas?

As the biggest city in Scotland and the third biggest in Britain, Glasgow has excellent national and international transport links. And it's easy to get around once you're here too. This section gives you all the information you need to find us - and some hints on what visitors should see in Glasgow.

Live music. Glasgow is home to many bands that are now international names and there's loads of new talent coming out of the city's live music venues. So whether you are into rock or indie, punk or even country music, there's a place where you can give your eardrums a treat.

High culture. As well as its thriving street culture, Glasgow has more than its fair share of high culture, with a year-round programme of arts and music. There are over 20 museums and galleries, and the city is home to Scottish Opera, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Royal Ballet.

Green spaces. People visiting Glasgow for the first time are often surprised at the amount of green space in the city centre - all the 19th-century landscaped parks and gardens are the perfect balance to the urban pace of life.

Sporting highlights. With a keenly contested rivalry between the country's two top football teams - Rangers and Celtic - an international stadium at Hampden and hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2014, Glasgow has a rightful claim to be Scotland's sporting capital.

The Highlands and Islands. With so much to do in the city centre, it's a wonder anyone finds time to venture out further - but with the highlands and islands less than an hour away, it's too tempting to resist.

Strathclyde is a great place to study and enjoy life at the same time. And this is where you can find out everything about us - from how we teach, to what's on in Glasgow and how to get around. We want to help you make the most of your time here, so we hope you'll come back to these pages to get all the latest news about what's happening on campus and in and around the city.

Strathclyde Associates Trading and Management Construction Company

 We have recently purchased and shipped a large quantity of cement type HE: High Early Strength from Indonesia for one of our projects in Seoul, South Korea. Though we did extensive quality control testing on arrival in Seoul, we found substantial defects in the quality of the cement.
Though we do not wish to name the manufacturer, please be extra careful in your quality control testing. 
This was obviously blatant fraud and a scam. This sort of scamming is endemic and please be careful out there. 
“As mentioned our two main areas of expertise are construction materials and management personnel. In both these fields, there is some bad reputations in the area of fraud and fraudulent transactions. There are many scams and in the field of personnel, many scammers. We are proud of our reputation of checking and verifying all our products and personnel. Fraudulent financial transactions is the norm. Our checking procedures are second to none.”
For over 5 years, Strathclyde Associates Trading and Management Construction Company's professionals have been a leading Service Providers to the construction industry. Bringing together a wealth of Business, Legal, Financial, and Specialized Industry experience, Consolidated Construction Services helps industry professionals continue to thrive in an increasingly competitive and challenging business environment. 
We are very involved in clean room IT factories in Thailand and particularly the new Songdo International City near Seoul in Korea.
Strathclyde Associates Trading and Management Construction Company is passionate in the belief that from adversity comes opportunity. We believe that sustainable competitive advantage is always predicated upon the focused execution of a few core strengths or priniciples that are indemic to each particular company.

Challenging economic times provide the opportunity for companies to take the steps necessary to becoming more successful, to get leaner and more focused. Those actions taken today to make a company more successful, also provide the needed framework for eventual transition of the business.

We help companies find those core strengths and take those steps now.
Soon after its establishment, Strathclyde Associates Trading and Management Construction Company made a number of associations mainly in the Pacific and Southeast Asia regions. These business partnerships added extra strength to Strathclyde Associates Trading and Management Construction Company. We are proud to be associated with projects in countries including Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Seoul, S Korea.