An iterative-style approach to constructing intelligent tutoring systems in mathematics

Mathematics is highly structured and also underpins most of science and engineering. For this reason, it has proved a very suitable domain for Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) research, with the result that probably more tutoring systems have been constructed for the domain than any other. However, the literature reveals that there still exists no consensus on a credible approach or approaches for the design of such systems, despite numerous documented efforts. Current approaches to the construction of ITSs leave much to be desired. Consequently, existing ITSs in the domain suffer from a considerable number of shortcomings which render them 'unintelligent'. The thesis examines some of the reasons why this is the case. Following a critical review of existing ITSs in the domain, and some pilot studies, an alternative approach to their construction is proposed (the 'iterative-style' approach); this supports an iterative style, and also improves on at least some of the shortcomings of existing approaches. The thesis also presents an ITS for fractions which has been developed using this approach, and which has been evaluated in various ways. It has, demonstrably, improved on many of the limitations of existing ITSs; furthermore, it has been shown to be largely 'intelligent', at least more so than current tutors for the domain. Perhaps more significantly, the tutor has also been evaluated against real students with, so far, very encouraging results. The thesis thus concludes that the novel iterative-style approach is a more credible approach to the construction of ITSs in mathematics than existing techniques.

Review of progress in implementing the recommendations of Sir Gareth Roberts regarding employability and career development of PhD students and research staff:A report for Research Councils UK by an independent review panel October 2010

The need for improvement in the development of research careers and researchers��� training in transferable skills was highlighted in two particular recommendations (numbers 4.2 and 5.3) in the 2002 report ���SET for success: the report of Sir Gareth Roberts��� Review - the supply of people with science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills��� (Roberts, 2002). As a consequence of that review, Research Councils UK (RCUK)1 have invested about ��120 million, usually referred to as ���Roberts��� Money���, in research organisations to address this concern in all research disciplines. The last ���Roberts��� Money��� payment will be for the period up to March 2011; it was therefore proposed to assess the progress made with taking forward these specific recommendations. An independent panel was formed by RCUK to undertake this review in 2010. The terms of reference for the panel are in Annex A. In summary, the panel was asked to review progress made and to advise RCUK and the higher education (HE) sector about future requirements for the development and training of researchers. In the course of their review, the panel considered a wide range of existing reports, interviewed key stakeholders in the HE sector and elsewhere, as well as drawing on their own knowledge and expertise. This report presents the findings of the panel���s review.

DML and RusDML ��� Virtual Library Initiatives for Covering All Mathematics Electronically

With the rapidly growing activities in electronic publishing ideas came up to install global repositories which deal with three mainstreams in this enterprise: storing the electronic material currently available, pursuing projects to solve the archiving problem for this material with the ambition to preserve the content in readable form for future generations, and to capture the printed literature in digital versions providing good access and search facilities for the readers. Long-term availability of published research articles in mathematics and easy access to them is a strong need for researchers working with mathematics. Hence in this domain some pioneering projects have been established addressing the above mentioned problems.

Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia University

The Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (FMI) of Sofia University ���St. Kliment Ohridski��� is briefly presented as an educational and research institution. The possible contribution of FMI to KT-DigiCULT-BG project is analyzed.

Frontal Solutions: an Information Technology Transfer to Abstract Mathematics

The paper introduces a method for dependencies discovery during human-machine interaction. It is based on an analysis of numerical data sets in knowledge-poor environments. The driven procedures are independent and they interact on a competitive principle. The research focuses on seven of them. The application is in Number Theory.

An Analysis and Forecast of Software and Services Research in Bulgaria

In the last 40 years much has been achieved in Software Engineering research and still more is to be done. Although significant progress is being made on several fronts in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), there is still no set of clear, central themes to focus research activity on. A task within the EU FP7 Sister project aimed at defining research priorities for the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (Sofia University) in the area of Software and Services. A dedicated methodology was proposed and developed, based on various sources of information. The information accumulated was systematised and processed according to this methodology. The final results obtained are described and discussed here.

Research of the Acoustic Characteristics of the Bell "Mazepa" of the Sofia Cathedral (Kiev) and their Comparison with Characteristics of Bulgarian Bells

Experimental researches of one of the eldest bells (��Mazepa��-see Appendix1) in Ukraine, are considered in the article. The spectra and spectra- time analysis of bell ringing is embodied, main frequencies of oscillation and musical intervals of sounding are determined. Comparative description of bell sounding with the known bells of Russia and Bulgaria is given.

Research on Linguistic Approaches, Used for Semantic Explanation of Bell���s Knowledge

This paper presents a research of linguistic structure of Bulgarian bells knowledge. The idea of building semantic structure of Bulgarian bells appeared during the ���Multimedia fund - BellKnow��� project. In this project was collected a lots of data about bells, their structure, history, technical data, etc. This is the first attempt for computation linguistic explain of bell knowledge and deliver a semantic representation of that knowledge. Based on this research some linguistic components, aiming to realize different types of analysis of text objects are implemented in term dictionaries. Thus, we lay the foundation of the linguistic analysis services in these digital dictionaries aiding the research of kinds, number and frequency of the lexical units that constitute various bell objects.