Towards multilingual domain module acquisition

Máster y Doctorado en Sistemas Informáticos Avanzados, Informatika Fakultatea - Facultad de Informática

Semi-automatic generation of learning domain modules for technology supported learning systems

In a time when Technology Supported Learning Systems are being widely used, there is a lack of tools that allows their development in an automatic or semi-automatic way. Technology Supported Learning Systems require an appropriate Domain Module, ie. the pedagogical representation of the domain to be mastered, in order to be effective. However, content authoring is a time and effort consuming task, therefore, efforts in automatising the Domain Module acquisition are necessary.Traditionally, textbooks have been used as the main mechanism to maintain and transmit the knowledge of a certain subject or domain. Textbooks have been authored by domain experts who have organised the contents in a means that facilitate understanding and learning, considering pedagogical issues.Given that textbooks are appropriate sources of information, they can be used to facilitate the development of the Domain Module allowing the identification of the topics to be mastered and the pedagogical relationships among them, as well as the extraction of Learning Objects, ie. meaningful fragments of the textbook with educational purpose.Consequently, in this work DOM-Sortze, a framework for the semi-automatic construction of Domain Modules from electronic textbooks, has been developed. DOM-Sortze uses NLP techniques, heuristic reasoning and ontologies to fulfill its work. DOM-Sortze has been designed and developed with the aim of automatising the development of the Domain Module, regardless of the subject, promoting the knowledge reuse and facilitating the collaboration of the users during the process.

Open Personalization: Involving Third Parties in Improving the User Experience of Websites

Traditional software development captures the user needs during the requirement analysis. The Web makes this endeavour even harder due to the difficulty to determine who these users are. In an attempt to tackle the heterogeneity of the user base, Web Personalization techniques are proposed to guide the users’ experience. In addition, Open Innovation allows organisations to look beyond their internal resources to develop new products or improve existing processes. This thesis sits in between by introducing Open Personalization as a means to incorporate actors other than webmasters in the personalization of web applications. The aim is to provide the technological basis that builds up a trusty environment for webmasters and companion actors to collaborate, i.e. "an architecture of participation". Such architecture very much depends on these actors’ profile. This work tackles three profiles (i.e. software partners, hobby programmers and end users), and proposes three "architectures of participation" tuned for each profile. Each architecture rests on different technologies: a .NET annotation library based on Inversion of Control for software partners, a Modding Interface in JavaScript for hobby programmers, and finally, a domain specific language for end-users. Proof-of-concept implementations are available for the three cases while a quantitative evaluation is conducted for the domain specific language.

Sistema konkurrenteak simulatzeko kernel bat: multiprozesadore sistemak

Jarraian, hainbat hilabetetan zehar garatutako proiektuaren deskribapena biltzen duen memoria dugu eskuragarri. Proiektu hau, sistema konkurrenteen simulazioan zentratzen da eta horretarako, mota honetako sistemen arloan hain erabiliak diren Petri Sareak lantzeaz gain, simulatzaile bat programatzeko informazio nahikoa ere barneratzen ditu. Gertaera diskretuko simulatzaile estatistiko batean oinarrituko da proiektuaren garapena, helburua izanik Petri Sareen bidez formalizatzen diren sistemak simulatzeko softwarea osatzea. Proiektuaren helburua da objektuetara zuzendutako hizkuntzaren bidez, Java hizkuntzaren bidez alegia, simulatzailearen programazioa erraztea eta ingurune honen baliabideak erabiltzea, bereziki XML teknologiari lotutakoak. Proiektu hau, bi zati nagusitan banatzen dela esan daiteke. Lehenengo zatiari dagokionez, konputazio munduan simulazioa aurkeztu eta honi buruzko behar adina informazio emango da. Hau, oso erabilgarria izango da programatuko den simulatzailearen nondik norakoak ulertu eta klase desberdinen inplementazioa egin ahal izateko. Horrez gain, zorizko aldagaiak eta hauen simulazioa ere islatzen dira, simulazio prozesu hori ahalik eta era errealean gauzatzeko helburuarekin. Ondoren, Petri Sareak aurkeztuko dira, hauen ezaugarri eta sailkapen desberdinak goraipatuz. Gainera, Petri Sareak definitzeko XML lengoaia erabiliko denez, mota honetako dokumentu eta eskemak aztertuko dira, hauek, garatuko den aplikazioaren oinarri izango direlarik. Bestalde, aplikazioaren muin izango diren klaseen diseinu eta inplementazioak bildu dira azken aurreko kapituluan. Alde batetik, erabili den DOM egituraren inguruko informazioa islatzen da eta bestetik, XML-tik habiatuz lortuko diren PetriNet instantziak maneiatzeko ezinbestekoak diren Java klaseen kodeak erakusten dira. Amaitzeko, egileak ateratako ondorioez gain, proiektuaren garapen prozesuan erabili den bibliografiaren berri ere ematen da.