The analysis in hand provides a brief assessment of the United States’ and Canada’s marine transportation system and relevant search and rescue (SAR) support in relation to the Northwest Passage, with the purpose of examining to what extent these countries’ relevant infrastructure resources are able to meet the expected growth of shipping operations and business activities in the Arctic. Through an extensive literature review, this assessment will specifically describe the most important influences upon the maritime transportation system, with the issue of certain geographical details and the capabilities of existing ports standing out. Additionally, vessel activity trends and vessel traffic routing measure initiatives will be examined. Furthermore, the SAR infrastructure details and means to render assistance to people in distress along the Northwest Passage will be discussed. The reality remains that port characteristics are limited and vessel traffic routing measure initiatives and upgrades to SAR assets are commendable but slow-paced. It is true that both the United States and Canada are taking proper measures to build up infrastructure needs, but they both may run out of time to put adequate infrastructure in place to deal effectively with the changing environment.

“Knowledge transfer” is achieved through sharing or disseminating knowledge, and providing inputs to problem solving; it is commonly associated with attending a series of classroom lectures and maintaining students’ engagement with the taught subject. This paper examines how a specific radio frequency identification (RFID) based information system (IS) solution could be utilized to help monitor and increase engagement of university students during lecturing activities. This IS solution relies on student attendance as the main method to measure their engagement. Initially, the main stakeholders were identified: students, lecturers, administration team and the Student Loans Company (source of funding). A value proposition canvas was subsequently created, and potential system requirements were identified. A design of the proposed RFID based system was created based on these requirements and then compared with a real-life (already existing) system at Henley Business School. By comparing these two systems, the authors determined related benefits/drawbacks of the proposed system in monitoring student engagement. Potential benefits consisted of allowing all parties to easily capture attendance (with very minimal involvement of the university’s staff) and increased efficiency in analyzing student attendance data. Its main limitation was inaccurately capturing the exact time a student leaves a session. Building a working prototype for detailed evaluation and further fine-tuning/improvements must be part of future work.