Virtual reality or virtually real : blended teaching and learning in a Master's level research methods class

This paper examines the enabling effect of using blended learning and synchronous internet mediated communication technologies to improve learning and develop a Sense of Community (SOC) in a group of post-graduate students consisting of a mix of on-campus and off-campus students. Both quantitative and qualitative data collected over a number of years supports the assertion that the blended learning environment enhanced both teaching and learning. The development of a SOC was pivotal to the success of the blended approach when working with geographically isolated groups within a single learning environment.

Fast reconstruction of aerodynamic shapes using evolutionary algorithms and virtual Nash strategies in a CFD design environment

This paper compares the performances of two different optimisation techniques for solving inverse problems; the first one deals with the Hierarchical Asynchronous Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms software (HAPEA) and the second is implemented with a game strategy named Nash-EA. The HAPEA software is based on a hierarchical topology and asynchronous parallel computation. The Nash-EA methodology is introduced as a distributed virtual game and consists of splitting the wing design variables - aerofoil sections - supervised by players optimising their own strategy. The HAPEA and Nash-EA software methodologies are applied to a single objective aerodynamic ONERA M6 wing reconstruction. Numerical results from the two approaches are compared in terms of the quality of model and computational expense and demonstrate the superiority of the distributed Nash-EA methodology in a parallel environment for a similar design quality.

Construction virtual prototyping : a survey of use

Purpose –The introduction of Building Information Model tools over the last 20 years is resulting in radical changes in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction industry. One of these changes concerns the use of Virtual Prototyping - an advanced technology integrating BIM with realistic graphical simulations. Construction Virtual Prototyping (CVP) has now been developed and implemented on ten real construction projects in Hong Kong in the past three years. This paper reports on a survey aimed at establishing the effects of adopting this new technology and obtaining recommendations for future development. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was conducted in 2007 of 28 key participants involved in four major Hong Kong construction projects – these projects being chosen because the CVP approach was used in more than one stage in each project. In addition, several interviews were conducted with the project manager, planning manager and project engineer of an individual project. Findings –All the respondents and interviewees gave a positive response to the CVP approach, with the most useful software functions considered to be those relating to visualisation and communication. The CVP approach was thought to improve the collaboration efficiency of the main contractor and sub-contractors by approximately 30 percent, and with a concomitant 30 to 50 percent reduction in meeting time. The most important benefits of CPV in the construction planning stage are the improved accuracy of process planning and shorter planning times, while improved fieldwork instruction and reducing rework occur in the construction implementation stage. Although project teams are hesitant to attribute the use of CVP directly to any specific time savings, it was also acknowledged that the workload of project planners is decreased. Suggestions for further development of the approach include incorporation of automatic scheduling and advanced assembly study. Originality/value –Whilst the research, development and implementation of CVP is relatively new in the construction industry, it is clear from the applications and feedback to date that the approach provides considerable added value to the organisation and management of construction projects.

Optimizing construction planning schedules by virtual prototyping enabled resource analysis

The inherent uncertainty and complexity of construction work make construction planning a particularly difficult task for project managers due to the need to anticipate and visualize likely future events. Conventional computer-assisted technology can help but is often limited to the constructability issues involved. Virtual prototyping, however, offers an improved method through the visualization of construction activities by computer simulation — enabling a range of ‘what-if’ questions to be asked and their implications on the total project to be investigated. This paper describes the use of virtual prototyping to optimize construction planning schedules by analyzing resource allocation and planning with integrated construction models, resource models, construction planning schedules and site-layout plans. A real-life case study is presented that demonstrates the use of a virtual prototyping enabled resource analysis to reallocate space, logistic on access road and arrange tower cranes to achieve a 6-day floor construction cycle.

Conceptual Modelling in 3D Virtual Worlds for Process Communication

Traditionally, conceptual modelling of business processes involves the use of visual grammars for the representation of, amongst other things, activities, choices and events. These grammars, while very useful for experts, are difficult to understand by naive stakeholders. Annotations of such process models have been developed to assist in understanding aspects of these grammars via map-based approaches, and further work has looked at forms of 3D conceptual models. However, no one has sought to embed the conceptual models into a fully featured 3D world, using the spatial annotations to explicate the underlying model clearly. In this paper, we present an approach to conceptual process model visualisation that enhances a 3D virtual world with annotations representing process constructs, facilitating insight into the developed model. We then present a prototype implementation of a 3D Virtual BPMN Editor that embeds BPMN process models into a 3D world. We show how this gives extra support for tasks performed by the conceptual modeller, providing better process model communication to stakeholders..

Robot path planning in dynamic environments using a simulated annealing based approach

Mobile robots are widely used in many industrial fields. Research on path planning for mobile robots is one of the most important aspects in mobile robots research. Path planning for a mobile robot is to find a collision-free route, through the robot’s environment with obstacles, from a specified start location to a desired goal destination while satisfying certain optimization criteria. Most of the existing path planning methods, such as the visibility graph, the cell decomposition, and the potential field are designed with the focus on static environments, in which there are only stationary obstacles. However, in practical systems such as Marine Science Research, Robots in Mining Industry, and RoboCup games, robots usually face dynamic environments, in which both moving and stationary obstacles exist. Because of the complexity of the dynamic environments, research on path planning in the environments with dynamic obstacles is limited. Limited numbers of papers have been published in this area in comparison with hundreds of reports on path planning in stationary environments in the open literature. Recently, a genetic algorithm based approach has been introduced to plan the optimal path for a mobile robot in a dynamic environment with moving obstacles. However, with the increase of the number of the obstacles in the environment, and the changes of the moving speed and direction of the robot and obstacles, the size of the problem to be solved increases sharply. Consequently, the performance of the genetic algorithm based approach deteriorates significantly. This motivates the research of this work. This research develops and implements a simulated annealing algorithm based approach to find the optimal path for a mobile robot in a dynamic environment with moving obstacles. The simulated annealing algorithm is an optimization algorithm similar to the genetic algorithm in principle. However, our investigation and simulations have indicated that the simulated annealing algorithm based approach is simpler and easier to implement. Its performance is also shown to be superior to that of the genetic algorithm based approach in both online and offline processing times as well as in obtaining the optimal solution for path planning of the robot in the dynamic environment. The first step of many path planning methods is to search an initial feasible path for the robot. A commonly used method for searching the initial path is to randomly pick up some vertices of the obstacles in the search space. This is time consuming in both static and dynamic path planning, and has an important impact on the efficiency of the dynamic path planning. This research proposes a heuristic method to search the feasible initial path efficiently. Then, the heuristic method is incorporated into the proposed simulated annealing algorithm based approach for dynamic robot path planning. Simulation experiments have shown that with the incorporation of the heuristic method, the developed simulated annealing algorithm based approach requires much shorter processing time to get the optimal solutions in the dynamic path planning problem. Furthermore, the quality of the solution, as characterized by the length of the planned path, is also improved with the incorporated heuristic method in the simulated annealing based approach for both online and offline path planning.

On the (partially) inalienable rights of participants in virtual communities

As virtual communities become more central to the everyday activities of connected individuals, we face increasingly pressing questions about the proper allocation of power, rights and responsibilities. This paper argues that our current legal discourse is ill-equipped to provide answers that will safeguard the legitimate interests of participants and simultaneously refrain from limiting the future innovative development of these spaces. From social networking sites like Facebook to virtual worlds like World of Warcraft and Second Life, participants who are banned from these communities stand to lose their virtual property, their connections to their friends and family, and their personal expression. Because our legal system views the proprietor’s interests as absolute private property rights, however, participants who are arbitrarily, capriciously or maliciously ejected have little recourse under law. This paper argues that, rather than assuming that a private property and freedom of contract model will provide the most desirable outcomes, a more critical approach is warranted. By rejecting the false dichotomy between ‘public’ and ‘private’ spaces, and recognising some of the absolutist and necessitarian trends in the current property debate, we may be able to craft legal rules that respect the social bonds between participants while simultaneously protecting the interests of developers.

Enabling authentic collaborative education in an online environment : the QUT Virtual Law Placement

This paper explores an innovative model for work-integrated learning using a virtual paradigm – The Virtual Law Placement Unit at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Australia. It builds upon the conceptual model previously explored at WACE 2007 and provides an account of the lessons learned from the pilot offering of the unit which was conducted and evaluated in 2008. ----- The Virtual Placement Unit offers students the opportunity to complete an authentic workplace task under the guidance of a real-life workplace supervisor, where student-student communication and student-supervisor communication is all conducted virtually (and potentially asynchronously) to create an engaging but flexible learning environment using a combination of Blackboard and SharePoint technologies. This virtual experience is pioneering in the sense that it enables law students to access an unprecedented range of law graduate destination workplaces and projects, including international and social justice placements, absent the constraints traditionally associated with arranging physical placements. ----- All aspects of this unit have been designed in conjunction with community partners with a view to balancing student learning objectives with community needs through co-operative education. This paper will also explore how the implementation of the project is serving to strengthen those partnerships with the wider community, simultaneously addressing the community engagement agenda of the University and enabling students to engage meaningfully with local, national and international community partners in the real world of work.

Evaluating the Java Virtual Machine as a Target for Languages Other Than Java

The portability and runtime safety of programs which are executed on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) makes the JVM an attractive target for compilers of languages other than Java. Unfortunately, the JVM was designed with language Java in mind, and lacks many of the primitives required for a straighforward implementation of other languages. Here, we discuss how the JVM may be used to implement other object-oriented languages. As a practical example of the possibilities, we report on a comprehensive case study. The open source Gardens Point Component Pascal compiler compiles the entire Component Pascal language, a dialect of Oberon-2, to JVM bytecodes. This compiler achieves runtime efficiencies which are comparable to native-code implementations of procedural languages.

Implementing languages other than Java on the Java Virtual Machine

The portability and runtime safety of programs which are executed on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) makes the JVM an attractive target for compilers of languages other than Java. Unfortunately, the JVM was designed with language Java in mind, and lacks many of the primitives required for a straight forward implementation of other languages. Here, we discuss how the JVM may be used to implement other object oriented languages. As a practical example of the possibilities, we report on a comprehensive case study. The open source Gardens Point Component Pascal compiler compiles the entire Component Pascal language, a dialect of Oberon 2, to JVM bytecodes. This compiler achieves runtime efficiencies which are comparable to native code implementations of procedural languages.

Leveraging managed frameworks from modular languages

Managed execution frameworks, such as the.NET Common Language Runtime or the Java Virtual Machine, provide a rich environment for the creation of application programs. These execution environments are ideally suited for languages that depend on type-safety and the declarative control of feature access. Furthermore, such frameworks typically provide a rich collection of library primitives specialized for almost every domain of application programming. Thus, when a new language is implemented on one of these frameworks it becomes necessary to provide some kind of mapping from the new language to the libraries of the framework. The design of such mappings is challenging since the type-system of the new language may not span the domain exposed in the library application programming interfaces (APIs). The nature of these design considerations was clarified in the implementation of the Gardens Point Component Pascal (gpcp) compiler. In this paper we describe the issues, and the solutions that we settled on in this case. The problems that were solved have a wider applicability than just our example, since they arise whenever any similar language is hosted in such an environment.

A brush with the real world : the future of inertial motion capture in live performance

3D Motion capture is a medium that plots motion, typically human motion, converting it into a form that can be represented digitally. It is a fast evolving field and recent inertial technology may provide new artistic possibilities for its use in live performance. Although not often used in this context, motion capture has a combination of attributes that can provide unique forms of collaboration with performance arts. The inertial motion capture suit used for this study has orientation sensors placed at strategic points on the body to map body motion. Its portability, real-time performance, ease of use, and its immunity from line-of-sight problems inherent in optical systems suggest it would work well as a live performance technology. Many animation techniques can be used in real-time. This research examines a broad cross-section of these techniques using four practice-led cases to assess the suitability of inertial motion capture to live performance. Although each case explores different visual possibilities, all make use of the performativity of the medium, using either an improvisational format or interactivity among stage, audience and screen that would be difficult to emulate any other way. A real-time environment is not capable of reproducing the depth and sophistication of animation people have come to expect through media. These environments take many hours to render. In time the combination of what can be produced in real-time and the tools available in a 3D environment will no doubt create their own tree of aesthetic directions in live performance. The case study looks at the potential of interactivity that this technology offers.

Virtual mooting : using technology to enhance the mooting experience

While a range of benefits to students participating in mooting have been identified by the legal education literature, there are impediments to students participating in mooting that have been revealed by recent surveys of law students at QUT. These impediments include time, geographical location and a failure to perceive the benefits of mooting. This paper will explore the benefits of using technology to overcome these impediments, evaluate technological options to facilitate distance mooting, such as the use of Second Life, Elluminate and video conferencing, and will recommend a trial of these options.

Managing hostile environments : journalists and media workers : learning to survive the world's difficult, remote and hostile environments

The aim of this research is to examine the changing nature of risks that face journalists and media workers in the world's difficult, remote and hostile environments, and consider the 'adequacy' of managing hostile environment safety courses that some media organizations require prior to foreign assignments. The study utilizes several creative works and contributions to this area of analysis, which includes a documentary film production, course contributions, an emergency reference handbook, security and incident management reviews and a template for evacuation and contingency planning. The research acknowledges that employers have a 'duty of care' to personnel working in these environments, identifies the necessity for pre-deployment training and support, and provides a solution for organizations that wish to initiate a comprehensive framework to advise, monitor, protect and respond to incidents. Finally, it explores the possible development of a unique and holistic service to facilitate proactive and responsive support, in the form of a new profession of 'Editorial Logistics Officer' or 'Editorial Safety Officer' within media organizations. This area of research is vitally important to the profession, and the intended contribution is to introduce a simple and cost-efficient framework for media organizations that desire to implement pre-deployment training and field-support – as these programs save lives. The complete proactive and responsive services may be several years from implementation. However, this study demonstrates that the facilitation of Managing Hostile Environment (MHE) courses should be the minimum professional standard. These courses have saved lives in the past and they provide journalists with the tools to "cover the story, and not become the story."