Think, code, succeed: The Programming Studio as a games-based collaboration:Paper published in the Proceedings of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe conference: Teacher Education through Partnerships and Collaborative Learning Communities, Glasgow, UK. ATEE, 2015

This paper investigates the profile of teachers in the island of Ireland who declared themselves willing to undertake professional development activities in programming, in particular to master programming by taking on-line courses involving the design of computer games. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), it compares scores for teachers “willing” to undertake the courses with scores for those who declined, and examines other differences between the groups of respondents. Findings reflect the perceived difficulties of programming and the current low status accorded to the subject in Ireland. The paper also reviews the use of games-based learning as a “hook” to engage learners in programming and discusses the role of gamification as a tool for motivating learners in an on-line course. The on-line course focusing on games design was met with enthusiasm, and there was general consensus that gamification was appropriate for motivating learners in structured courses such as those provided.

Creating New Design-Build-Test Experiences as Outputs of Undergraduate Design-Build-Test Projects

This paper describes a methodology of using individual engineering undergraduate student projects as a means of effectively and efficiently developing new Design-Build-Test (DBT) learning experiences and challenges.
A key aspect of the rationale for this approach is that it benefits all parties. The student undertaking the individual project gets an authentic experience of producing a functional artefact, which has been the result of a design process that addresses conception, design, implementation and operation. The supervising faculty member benefits from live prototyping of new curriculum content and resources with a student who is at a similar level of knowledge and experience as the intended end users of the DBT outputs. The multiple students who ultimately undertake the DBT experiences / challenges benefit from the enhanced nature of a learning experience which has been “road tested” and optimised.
To demonstrate the methodology the paper will describe a case study example of an individual project completed in 2015. This resulted in a DBT design challenge with a theme of designing a catapult for throwing table tennis balls, the device being made from components laser cut from medium density fibreboard (MDF). Further three different modes of operation will be described which use the same resource materials but operate over different timescales and with different learning outcomes, from an icebreaker exercise focused on developing team dynamics through to full DBT where students get an opportunity to experience the full impact of their design decisions by competing against other students with a catapult they have designed and built themselves.

Making sustainability ‘real’: using group-enquiry to promote education

Sustainable development is now widely held as a transcendental ideal of town and country planning, yet the way in which it is taught in planning schools remains problematic. This arises from a range of factors, including the all-persuasive nature of sustainability and the lack of solid examples of success through implementation. The issue of how best to promote learning for sustainable development in planning has arguably intensified in the last two years in the case of the Royal Town Planning Institute- sponsored ‘fast track’ one-year Masters, which has reduced the opportunities for students to engage in wider (and perhaps even deeper) concepts, including that of sustainable development. This paper explores this through discussion of a specific project developed at Queen’s University Belfast, facilitated by a grant from the UK Higher Education Academy. Working with a local community, this entailed a group of students working on their Masters thesis collectively addressing issues of sustainable regeneration in a small Irish market town. The design of the project draws heavily on the concepts of enquiry based learning, experiential learning and action competence, whichare seen as being central to improving education for sustainable development (ESD). The paper explores the benefits of such an approach and discusses the ways in which this experience can help enhance student’s experience of ESD.

Semi-formal Models to Support Program Development: Autonomic Management within Component Based Parallel and Distributed Programming

Functional and non-functional concerns require different programming effort, different techniques and different methodologies when attempting to program efficient parallel/distributed applications. In this work we present a "programmer oriented" methodology based on formal tools that permits reasoning about parallel/distributed program development and refinement. The proposed methodology is semi-formal in that it does not require the exploitation of highly formal tools and techniques, while providing a palatable and effective support to programmers developing parallel/distributed applications, in particular when handling non-functional concerns.

Intelligent Assembly Time Analysis Using a Digital Knowledge-Based Approach

The implementation of effective time analysis methods fast and accurately in the era of digital manufacturing has become a significant challenge for aerospace manufacturers hoping to build and maintain a competitive advantage. This paper proposes a structure oriented, knowledge-based approach for intelligent time analysis of aircraft assembly processes within a digital manufacturing framework. A knowledge system is developed so that the design knowledge can be intelligently retrieved for implementing assembly time analysis automatically. A time estimation method based on MOST, is reviewed and employed. Knowledge capture, transfer and storage within the digital manufacturing environment are extensively discussed. Configured plantypes, GUIs and functional modules are designed and developed for the automated time analysis. An exemplar study using an aircraft panel assembly from a regional jet is also presented. Although the method currently focuses on aircraft assembly, it can also be well utilized in other industry sectors, such as transportation, automobile and shipbuilding. The main contribution of the work is to present a methodology that facilitates the integration of time analysis with design and manufacturing using a digital manufacturing platform solution.

An accelerated method of developing DBT projects using CDIO partner institutions as parallel processors

The cycle of the academic year impacts on efforts to refine and improve major group design-build-test (DBT) projects since the time to run and evaluate projects is generally a full calendar year. By definition these major projects have a high degree of complexity since they act as the vehicle for the application of a range of technical knowledge and skills. There is also often an extensive list of desired learning outcomes which extends to include professional skills and attributes such as communication and team working. It is contended that student project definition and operation, like any other designed product, requires a number of iterations to achieve optimisation. The problem however is that if this cycle takes four or more years then by the time a project’s operational structure is fine tuned it is quite possible that the project theme is no longer relevant. The majority of the students will also inevitably experience a sub-optimal project experience over the 5 year development period. It would be much better if the ratio were flipped so that in 1 year an optimised project definition could be achieved which had sufficient longevity that it could run in the same efficient manner for 4 further years. An increased number of parallel investigators would also enable more varied and adventurous project concepts to be examined than a single institution could undertake alone in the same time frame.
This work-in-progress paper describes a parallel processing methodology for the accelerated definition of new student DBT project concepts. This methodology has been devised and implemented by a number of CDIO partner institutions in the UK & Ireland region. An agreed project theme was operated in parallel in one academic year with the objective of replacing a multi-year iterative cycle. Additionally the close collaboration and peer learning derived from the interaction between the coordinating academics facilitated the development of faculty teaching skills in line with CDIO standard 10.

Architecture as Pedagogy: Alive and Kicking

This workshop draws on an emerging collaborative body of research by Lovett, Morrow and McClean that aims to understand architecture and its processes as a form of pedagogical practice: a civic pedagogy.

Architectural education can be valued not only as a process that delivers architecture-specific skills and knowledges, but also as a process that transforms people into critically active contributors to society. We are keen to examine how and where those skills are developed in architectural education and trace their existence and/or application within practice. We intend to examine whether some architectural and spatial practices are intrinsically pedagogical in their nature and how the level of involvement of clients, users and communities can mimic the project-based learning of architectural education – in particularly in the context of ‘live project learning’

1. This workshop begins with a brief discussion paper from Morrow that sets out the arguments behind why and how architecture can be understood as pedagogy. It will do so by presenting firstly the relationship between architectural practice and pedagogy, drawing out both contemporary and historical examples of architecture and architects acting pedagogically. It will also consider some other forms of creative practice that explicitly frame themselves pedagogically, and focus on participatory approaches in architectural practice that overlap with inclusive and live pedagogies, concluding with a draft and tentative abstracted pedagogical framework for architectural practice.

2. Lovett will examine practices of architectural operation that have a pedagogical approach, or which recognise within themselves an educational subtext/current. He is most interested in a 'liveness' beyond the 'Architectural Education' of university institutions. The presentation will question the scope for both spatial empowerment / agency and a greater understanding and awareness of the value of good design when operating as architects with participant-clients younger than 18, older than 25 or across varied parts of society. Positing that the learning might be greatest when there are no prescribed 'Learning Outcomes' and that such work might depend on risk-taking and playfulness, the presentation will be a curated showcase drawing on his own ongoing work.

Both brief presentations will inform the basis of the workshop’s discussion which hopes to draw on participants views and expereinces to enrich the research process. The intention is that the overall workshop will lead to a call for contributors and respondents to a forthcoming publication on ‘Architecture as Pedagogy’.

Critical Dialogue in Architecture Studio: Peer Interaction and Feedback

Most tutors in architecture education regard studio-based learning to be rich in feedback due to is dialogic nature. Yet, student perceptions communicated via audits such as the UK National Student Survey appear to contradict this assumption and challenge the efficacy of design studio as a truly discursive learning setting. This paper presents findings from a collaborative study that was undertaken by the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and Queen’s University Belfast that develop a deeper understanding of the role that peer interaction and dialogue plays within feedback processes, and the value that students attribute to these within the overall learning experience.

The paper adopts a broad definition of feedback, with emphasis on formative processes, and including the various kinds of dialogue that typify studio-based learning, and which constitute forms of guidance, direction, and reflection. The study adopted an ethnographic approach, gathering data on student and staff perceptions over the course of an academic year, and utilising methods embracing both quantitative and qualitative data.

The study found that the informal, socially-based peer interaction that characterises the studio is complementary to, and quite distinct from, the learning derived through tutor interaction. The findings also articulate the respective properties of informal and formally derived feedback and the contribution each makes to the quality of studio-based learning. It also identifies limitations in the use or value of peer learning, understanding of which is valuable to enhancing studio learning in architecture.

Measurement-based Policy-driven QoS Management in Converged Next Generation Networks

Policy-based management is considered an effective approach to address the challenges of resource management in large complex networks. Within the IU-ATC QoS Frameworks project, a policy-based network management framework, CNQF (Converged Networks QoS Framework) is being developed aimed at providing context-aware, end-to-end QoS control and resource management in converged next generation networks. CNQF is designed to provide homogeneous, transparent QoS control over heterogeneous access technologies by means of distributed functional entities that co-ordinate the resources of the transport network through policy-driven decisions. In this paper, we present a measurement-based evaluation of policy-driven QoS management based on CNQF architecture, with real traffic flows on an experimental testbed. A Java based implementation of the CNQF Resource Management Subsystem is deployed on the testbed and results of the experiments validate the framework operation for policy-based QoS management of real traffic flows.

Evaluation of Video Presentation to Deliver Surgical Anatomy Teaching

Title Evaluation of Video Presentation to Deliver Surgical Anatomy Teaching

Authors Walsh I.K., Boohan M., Dorman A.

Objectives To evaluate the efficacy of newly introduced video presentation to deliver Surgical Anatomy teaching to undergraduate medical students.

Design and Setting Qualitative and quantitative study using questionnaires and focus groups, employing students undertaking the perioperative medicine module of the phase 4 undergraduate medical curriculum at Queen’s University Belfast.

Outcome Measures To determine:
(1) if video presentation is effective in delivering surgical anatomy teaching,
(2) student’s learning preferences regarding this teaching method.
Results The questionnaire response rate was 89% (216 of 244 students; female: male ratio 1.25) and 42 students participated in 6 focus groups. Mean questionnaire responses indicated a favourable opinion on quality assurance items, with a mixed response to video presentation as a learning method. 71% of students preferred to receive a lecture in person, rather than via video presentation. There were no statistically significant differences between genders regarding learning preferences in general and regarding video versus live presentation in particular. Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that favourable responses to video presentation were strongly associated with perceived audiovisual quality and learning preferences (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient 0.77), with 72% of students considering video presentation worthwhile. Positive perception of overall quality was strongly associated with learning preferences as well as more generic quality assurance issues (80% students; alpha coefficient 0.83).
The results were supported by triangulation of the above quantitative data with qualitative data generated by the focus groups. Students further articulated the view that video presentation may be more appropriate and effective in a mixed method setting.

Reference Basu Roy R, McMahon GT. Video-based cases disrupt deep critical thinking in problem-based learning. Med Educ 2012 Apr;46(4):426-435.

An Efficient LS-SVM-Based Method for Fuzzy System Construction

This paper proposes an efficient learning mechanism to build fuzzy rule-based systems through the construction of sparse least-squares support vector machines (LS-SVMs). In addition to the significantly reduced computational complexity in model training, the resultant LS-SVM-based fuzzy system is sparser while offers satisfactory generalization capability over unseen data. It is well known that the LS-SVMs have their computational advantage over conventional SVMs in the model training process; however, the model sparseness is lost, which is the main drawback of LS-SVMs. This is an open problem for the LS-SVMs. To tackle the nonsparseness issue, a new regression alternative to the Lagrangian solution for the LS-SVM is first presented. A novel efficient learning mechanism is then proposed in this paper to extract a sparse set of support vectors for generating fuzzy IF-THEN rules. This novel mechanism works in a stepwise subset selection manner, including a forward expansion phase and a backward exclusion phase in each selection step. The implementation of the algorithm is computationally very efficient due to the introduction of a few key techniques to avoid the matrix inverse operations to accelerate the training process. The computational efficiency is also confirmed by detailed computational complexity analysis. As a result, the proposed approach is not only able to achieve the sparseness of the resultant LS-SVM-based fuzzy systems but significantly reduces the amount of computational effort in model training as well. Three experimental examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed learning mechanism and the sparseness of the obtained LS-SVM-based fuzzy systems, in comparison with other SVM-based learning techniques.

The application of early contractor involvement and its impact on project performance

Early contractor involvement is a topic that has attracted attention from construction practitioners and researchers in the UK since the 1990s. It has been adopted to introduce construction knowledge and experience to the design process, and to integrate design with construction. In contrast with the limited number of previous studies on early contractor involvement, which used case studies, a questionnaire survey was conducted in this study, to investigate the application of early contractor involvement in current practice and its impact on project performance in terms of time, cost and quality. From an analysis of the questionnaire results, early contractor involvement is found to be increasingly used in the construction industry, and to have a significant impact on cost and time performance. This research provides empirical evidence related to the practice of early contractor involvement. It demonstrates the major influence of early contractor involvement on management processes and working relationships during a project, which contribute to performance improvement and project success.

Wishful Thinking: Lessons from the internal and external evaluations of an innovatory education project in Northern Ireland

From March 1999 to August 2000, the authors were involved in simultaneous internal and external evaluations of the social civic and political education (SCaPE) project in Northern Ireland. This project was a major initiative established by the Citizenship Foundation, the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examination and Assessment (CCEA), and the School of Education at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. It was a 2-year project in 25 secondary schools established to design, develop, pilot and evaluate a new programme of social, civic and political education for Northern Ireland. It also aimed to serve as a model for future Citizenship curriculum developments throughout Northern Ireland and elsewhere. This paper describes the background to the project, the design and conduct of the two evaluations, and the links between them. It outlines the main conclusions of each evaluation and describes the way SCaPE has since evolved into a mainstream curriculum development project. The final part of the paper analyses the key opportunities, tensions and challenges involved in running such evaluations at a critical time in the history of Northern Ireland – a time when innovation is both necessary and controversial. It argues that, especially in such circumstances, evaluation cannot be conducted from a neutral, objective standpoint, and that it is incumbent on evaluators to recognise the emotional, personal and political commitment they make to the projects in which they are engaged.