Practices
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Practices
The core practices of the Mobile First Technology Initiative are Applied Research and Experimental Development. These core practices are organized into the following activities:
- Mobile Software Systems Development
- Mobile Hardware Systems Development
- Evaluation & Experimentation
- Analysis
- Design Thinking
- Knowledge Mobilization
- Training
Applied Research & Experimental Development
The Mobile First Technology Initiative supports a program of applied research and experimental development in the service of early-stage mobile product and service development.
Our clients include New Brunswick companies and organizations, and NBCC students, faculty, and staff.
We complement New Brunswick’s later-stage innovation programs by focusing on the scientific and technical aspects of product and service development.
We carry out our applied research and experimental development activities within our Mobile Ideaspace, a distributed research facility spanning NBCC’s six campuses that enables us to leverage expertise across the Province.
The Frascati Manual of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines the linkages between basic research, applied research, and experimental development. Research and development (R&D) is defined broadly as comprising “creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications”. Relative to R&D, basic research is defined as “experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundation of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application or use in view”. Relative to basic research, applied research is defined as “original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge. It is, however, directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective”. Relative to all of the above, experimental development is defined as “systematic work, drawing on existing knowledge gained from research and/or practical experience, which is directed to producing new materials, products or devices, to installing new processes, systems and services, or to improving substantially those already produced or installed”.
OECD (2015), Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264239012-en
Mobile Software Systems Development
We design and develop mobile software systems, including mobile apps and external systems required to support them.
Systems required to support a mobile app typically include Web services software, but may also include special hardware.
We have competencies in the several approaches to mobile app development:
- Native app development, including Android, BlackBerry, and iOS;
- Mobile Web app development, including
- Responsive Web design technologies, such as Boostrap,
- Progressive Web design technologies, such as Google Polymer, and
- Isomorphic JavaScript frameworks, such as React;
- Cross-platform app technologies, such as Xamarin and React Native.
