Studying Recommender Systems to Enhance Distributed Computing Schedulers

Distributed Computing frameworks belong to a class of programming models that allow developers to

launch workloads on large clusters of machines. Due to the dramatic increase in the volume of

data gathered by ubiquitous computing devices, data analytic workloads have become a common

case among distributed computing applications, making Data Science an entire field of

Computer Science. We argue that Data Scientist's concern lays in three main components: a dataset,

a sequence of operations they wish to apply on this dataset, and some constraint they may have

related to their work (performances, QoS, budget, etc). However, it is actually extremely

difficult, without domain expertise, to perform data science. One need to select the right amount

and type of resources, pick up a framework, and configure it. Also, users are often running their

application in shared environments, ruled by schedulers expecting them to specify precisely their resource

needs. Inherent to the distributed and concurrent nature of the cited frameworks, monitoring and

profiling are hard, high dimensional problems that block users from making the right

configuration choices and determining the right amount of resources they need. Paradoxically, the

system is gathering a large amount of monitoring data at runtime, which remains unused.

In the ideal abstraction we envision for data scientists, the system is adaptive, able to exploit

monitoring data to learn about workloads, and process user requests into a tailored execution

context. In this work, we study different techniques that have been used to make steps toward

such system awareness, and explore a new way to do so by implementing machine learning

techniques to recommend a specific subset of system configurations for Apache Spark applications.

Furthermore, we present an in depth study of Apache Spark executors configuration, which highlight

the complexity in choosing the best one for a given workload.

Towards Proactive Context-aware Computing and Systems

A primary goal of context-aware systems is delivering the right information at the right place and right time to users in order to enable them to make effective decisions and improve their quality of life. There are three key requirements for achieving this goal: determining what information is relevant, personalizing it based on the users’ context (location, preferences, behavioral history etc.), and delivering it to them in a timely manner without an explicit request from them. These requirements create a paradigm that we term as “Proactive Context-aware Computing”. Most of the existing context-aware systems fulfill only a subset of these requirements. Many of these systems focus only on personalization of the requested information based on users’ current context. Moreover, they are often designed for specific domains. In addition, most of the existing systems are reactive - the users request for some information and the system delivers it to them. These systems are not proactive i.e. they cannot anticipate users’ intent and behavior and act proactively without an explicit request from them. In order to overcome these limitations, we need to conduct a deeper analysis and enhance our understanding of context-aware systems that are generic, universal, proactive and applicable to a wide variety of domains. To support this dissertation, we explore several directions. Clearly the most significant sources of information about users today are smartphones. A large amount of users’ context can be acquired through them and they can be used as an effective means to deliver information to users. In addition, social media such as Facebook, Flickr and Foursquare provide a rich and powerful platform to mine users’ interests, preferences and behavioral history. We employ the ubiquity of smartphones and the wealth of information available from social media to address the challenge of building proactive context-aware systems. We have implemented and evaluated a few approaches, including some as part of the Rover framework, to achieve the paradigm of Proactive Context-aware Computing. Rover is a context-aware research platform which has been evolving for the last 6 years. Since location is one of the most important context for users, we have developed ‘Locus’, an indoor localization, tracking and navigation system for multi-story buildings. Other important dimensions of users’ context include the activities that they are engaged in. To this end, we have developed ‘SenseMe’, a system that leverages the smartphone and its multiple sensors in order to perform multidimensional context and activity recognition for users. As part of the ‘SenseMe’ project, we also conducted an exploratory study of privacy, trust, risks and other concerns of users with smart phone based personal sensing systems and applications. To determine what information would be relevant to users’ situations, we have developed ‘TellMe’ - a system that employs a new, flexible and scalable approach based on Natural Language Processing techniques to perform bootstrapped discovery and ranking of relevant information in context-aware systems. In order to personalize the relevant information, we have also developed an algorithm and system for mining a broad range of users’ preferences from their social network profiles and activities. For recommending new information to the users based on their past behavior and context history (such as visited locations, activities and time), we have developed a recommender system and approach for performing multi-dimensional collaborative recommendations using tensor factorization. For timely delivery of personalized and relevant information, it is essential to anticipate and predict users’ behavior. To this end, we have developed a unified infrastructure, within the Rover framework, and implemented several novel approaches and algorithms that employ various contextual features and state of the art machine learning techniques for building diverse behavioral models of users. Examples of generated models include classifying users’ semantic places and mobility states, predicting their availability for accepting calls on smartphones and inferring their device charging behavior. Finally, to enable proactivity in context-aware systems, we have also developed a planning framework based on HTN planning. Together, these works provide a major push in the direction of proactive context-aware computing.

A framework for abstraction and virtualization of sensors in mobile context-aware computing

110 p.

Talking about watching : using the video card game and wiki-web technology to engage IT students in developing observational skills.

Designers need to develop good observational skills in order to conduct user studies that reveal the subtleties of human interactions and adequately inform design activity. In this paper we describe a game format that we have used in concert with wiki-web technology, to engage our IT and Information Environments students in developing much sharper observational skills. The Video Card Game is a method of video analysis that is suited to design practitioners as well as to researchers. It uses the familiar format of a card game similar to "Happy Families,, to help students develop themes of interactions from watching video clips. Students then post their interaction themes on wiki-web pages, which allows the teaching team and other students to edit and comment on them. We found that the tangible (cards), game, role playing and sharing aspects of this method led to a much larger amount of interaction and discussion between student groups and between students and the teaching team, than we have achieved using our traditional teaching methods, while taking no more time on the part of the teaching staff. The quality of the resulting interaction themes indicates that this method fosters development of observational skills.In the paper we describe the motivations, method and results in full. We also describe the research context in which we collected the videotape data, and how this method relates to state of the art research methods in interaction design for ubiquitous computing technology.

The lens of ludic engagement : evaluating participation in interactive art installations

Designers and artists have integrated recent advances in interactive, tangible and ubiquitous computing technologies to create new forms of interactive environments in the domains of work, recreation, culture and leisure. Many designs of technology systems begin with the workplace in mind, and with function, ease of use, and efficiency high on the list of priorities. [1] These priorities do not fit well with works designed for an interactive art environment, where the aims are many, and where the focus on utility and functionality is to support a playful, ambiguous or even experimental experience for the participants. To evaluate such works requires an integration of art-criticism techniques with more recent Human Computer Interaction (HCI) methods, and an understanding of the different nature of engagement in these environments. This paper begins a process of mapping a set of priorities for amplifying engagement in interactive art installations. I first define the concept of ludic engagement and its usefulness as a lens for both design and evaluation in these settings. I then detail two fieldwork evaluations I conducted within two exhibitions of interactive artworks, and discuss their outcomes and the future directions of this research.

Interactive lounge : an interdisciplinary approach to the design of a gestural interaction device

Among the many new opportunities that digital technologies are enabling are an increased capacity for viewers to interact not only with the program content, but with an increasingly wide array of other digital applications. Within this context this project has developed a new interaction device (incorporating gestural platform technology) and user interfaces to facilitate interactive access to digital media in a lounge room setting. This paper provides an overview of an interdisciplinary design process applied by Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID) researchers—in order to develop the device and present in detail its unique features.

Conveying identity with mobile content

A series of mobile phone prototypes called The Swarm have been developed in response to the user needs identified in a three-year empirical study of young people’s use of mobile phones. The prototypes take cues from user led innovation and provide multiple avatars that allow individuals to define and manage their own virtual identity. This paper briefly maps the evolution of the prototypes and then describes how the pre-defined, color coded avatars in the latest version are being given greater context and personalization through the use of digital images. This not only gives ‘serendipity a nudge’ by allowing groups to come together more easily, it provides contextual information that can reduce gratuitous contact.

Enhancing the experience of public transport users with urban screens and mobile applications

Public transportation is an environment with great potential for applying location-based services through mobile devices. This paper provides the underpinning rationale for research that will be looking at how the real-time passenger information system deployed by the Translink Transit Authority across all of South East Queensland in Australia can provide a core platform to improve commuters’ user experiences. This system relies on mobile computing and GPS technology to provide accurate information on transport vehicle locations. The proposal builds on this platform to inform the design and development of innovative social media, mobile computing and geospatial information applications. The core aim is to digitally augment the public transport environment to enhance the user experience of commuters for a more enjoyable journey.

Specifying and enforcing a fine-grained information flow policy : model and experiments

In this paper we present a model for defining and enforcing a fine-grained information flow policy. We describe how the policy can be enforced on a typical computer and present experiments using the proposed model. A key feature of the model is that it allows the expression of rules which detail precisely which information elements are allowed to mix together. For example, the model allows the expression of a policy which forbids a doctor from mixing the personal medical details of the patients. The enforcement mechanisms tracks and records information flows within the system so that dynamic changes to the policy can be made with respect to information elements which may have propagated to different locations in the system.

Playpolis : transyouth and urban networking in Seoul

The overarching aim of this study is to create new knowledge about how playful interactions (re)create the city via ubiquitous technologies, with an outlook to apply the knowledge for pragmatic innovations in relevant fields such as urban planning and technology development in the future. The study looks at the case of transyouth, the in-between demographic bridging youth and adulthood in Seoul, one of the most connected, densely populated, and quickly transforming metropolises in the world. To unravel the elusiveness of ‘play’ as a subject and the complexity of urban networks, this study takes a three-tier transdisciplinary approach comprised of an extensive literature review, Shared Visual Ethnography (SVE), and interviews with leading industry representatives who design and develop the playscape for Seoul transyouth. Through these methodological tools, the study responds to the following four research aims: 1. Examine the sociocultural, technological, and architectural context of Seoul 2. Investigate Seoul transyouth’s perception of the self and their technosocial environment 3. Identify the pattern of their playful interaction through which meanings of the self and the city are recreated 4. Develop an analytical framework for enactment of play This thesis argues that the city is a contested space that continuously changes through multiple interactions among its constituents on the seam of control and freedom. At the core of this interactive (re)creation process is play. Play is a phenomenon that is enacted at the centre of three inter-related elements of pressure, possibility, and pleasure, the analytical framework this thesis puts forward as a conceptual apparatus for studying play across disciplines. The thesis concludes by illustrating possible trajectories for pragmatic application of the framework for envisioning and building the creative, sustainable, and seductive city.

Creativity, knowledge, engagement : keys to finding the right governance model for a regional community precinct

This paper investigates the Cooroy Mill community precinct (Sunshine Coast, Queensland), as a case study, seeking to understand the way local dynamics interplay and work with the community strengths to build a governance model of best fit. As we move to an age of ubiquitous computing and creative economies, the definition of public place and its governance take on new dimensions, which – while often utilizing models of the past – will need to acknowledge and change to the direction of the future. This paper considers a newly developed community precinct that has been built on three key principles: to foster creative expression with new media, to establish a knowledge economy in a regional area, and to subscribe to principles of community engagement. The study involved qualitative interviews with key stakeholders and a review of common practice models of governance along a spectrum from community control to state control. The paper concludes with a call for governance structures that are locally situated and tailored, inclusive, engaging, dynamic and flexible in order to build community capacity, encourage creativity, and build knowledge economies within emerging digital media cityscapes.

Advancing design for sustainable food cultures

Our paper, “HCI & Sustainable Food Culture: A Design Framework for Engagement,” presented at the 2010 NordiCHI conference, introduced a design framework for understanding engagement between people and sustainable food cultures (Choi and Blevis, 2010). Our goal for this chapter “Advancing Design for Sustainable Food Cultures” is to expand our notion of this design framework and the programme of research it implies. This chapter presents the three elements of design framework for sustainability: (i) engagement across disciplines; (ii) engagement with and amongst users/non-users and; (iii) engagement for sustained usability. The uses a corresponding sample of photographic records of experiences that reflect three key issues in the current sustainable food domain: respectively, (i) context of food cultures, (ii) farmers’ markets, and (iii) producing food.

Connecting people and resource consumption in real time

The authors currently engage in two projects to improve human-computer interaction (HCI) designs that can help conserve resources. The projects explore motivation and persuasion strategies relevant to ubiquitous computing systems that bring real-time consumption data into the homes and hands of residents in Brisbane, Australia. The first project seeks to increase understanding among university staff of the tangible and negative effects that excessive printing has on the workplace and local environment. The second project seeks to shift attitudes toward domestic energy conservation through software and hardware that monitor real-time, in situ electricity consumption in homes across Queensland. The insights drawn from these projects will help develop resource consumption user archetypes, providing a framework linking people to differing interface design requirements.