Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This paper presents a propose for support learning in a pervasive computing environment. It is composed of educational service agents (ESA) and a pervasive personal pedagogical agent (P3A). ESA will support educational applications using the pervasive environment ISAM. Agents will be accessed through P3A, which shall always be with the learner (the agent moves to devices that the learner is using - desktop, cellular phone, handhelds, etc), assisting the process of global learning through the identification and adaptation of the resources in agreement with the learner’s educational model composed of the learner model, learner context and learning object model.

Creating web based educational (e-learning) applications is a complex process that poses several challenges. We are especially concerned with two aspects: the cost of production and maintenance of educational contents, and the personalization of contents to suit individual learners. The Learning Objects (LO) model was proposed in response to reusability and adaptability concerns. IMS, ADL, IEEE and other initiatives have proposed standards for metadata description and packaging facilities in order to facilitate the interchange of LOs across Learning Management Systems (LMS). Metadata and packaging description demand additional work from content developers. In this paper, we address how DocBook, an XML/SGML document model, facilitates the creation of learning content and allows the countless DocBook materials already existing on the Internet to be reused. The main goals are to simplify the creation of adaptive learning content following the LO paradigm and to study how DocBook and its associated tools facilitate the authors’ task when dealing with the XML documents needed for LO description and interchange.

This work proposes a Java-based framework to teach computer architecture design. Our methodology allows students rapidly to explore many different concepts across multiple research and design domains. Our environment is based on Hades editor/simulator tool by showing how to profite from the Java portability and reusability, open source component behaviour description, and VHDL generation. In addition, we have improved Hades tool by increasing the component library, by adding a power consumption estimation, and by performing program behaviour instrumentation. Our approach have been validated by showing two processor examples. Morevover, we have used real workloads to show simulation performance and flexibility.

This paper presents a didactic Simulated Annealing placement tool. Simulated Annealing is a very famous generic combinatorial optimization algorithm that has been successfully applied to VLSI placement. Our tool allows any user to change several parameters of the algorithm and see their implications in the results graphically. At every algorithm step, the current placement disposition is displayed along with statistics related to the circuit connections. A plot of wirelength variation progress is also shown for visualization of the whole optimization process, and the user may play with different temperature schedules, perturbations and cost functions to see how this progress is affected by those parameters. The didactic tool can be used for teaching of both Simulated Annealing and Placement disciplines, as it significantly contributes to the understanding of the cell placement process and the Simulated Annealing method.

This paper presents an application of problem/project based learning (PBL) to a new course called Analog Microelectronics in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Adelaide. The course is part of the fourth year programs for B.E. (Computer Systems Engineering) and B.E. (Electrical and Electronic Engineering). The paper highlights the motivation behind the proposed introduction of the new approach and the benefits of moving to a PBL teaching style in contrast to traditional lecturing style. Also this paper presents a sample problem definition that was used in the course. The outcome of the new teaching style was evaluated through exam performance and formal feedback proceeders.

The present paper describes the CRTC and EuNICE-Test project actions and outcomes. The original idea was to build a long-lasting European Network for test engineering education using both test resource mutualisation and remote experiments. This objective is fully fulfilled and we have now, in Europe, five centers of competence able to deliver high-level and high-specialized training courses in the field of test engineering using a high-performing industrial ATE. All the centers propose training courses on digital testing, three of them propose mixed-signal trainings and three of them propose memory trainings. Taking into account the demand in test engineering, the network is planned to continue in a stand alone mode.

The solution that is shown in this paper allows to students of different subject of Power Electronics, the accomplishment of a complete study of DC/DC converters, by means of two different exercises:

The developed system is based on a test bench manufactured by Hewlett-Packard. Taking this one as starting point, a software application has been developed using the graphical programming language “LabVIEW”. This programming tool combined with CGI (Common Gateway Interface), allows the remotely execution using a web browser, increases the versatility and utility of the system.

In general the global pedagogical goal of the creation and use of dictionaries is the mastery of languages. The specific goal is to facilitate the assimilation of basic linguistic concepts: lexicon, sense (meaning), semantic categories, lexico-semantic relations, etc. In this paper, we describe the linguistic concepts that constitute the pedagogical goals to attain, as well as the constructivist model of learning. The conceptual knowledge linked to the terms is arranged in taxonomies. However, in our previous work, the concepts and their relationships were represented as simple hierarchical trees. Nevertheless, these taxonomies are quite limited and thus do not capture the complexities of reality in a given area, as they only allow a category to have one parent category. We thus opted for a directed acyclic graph (DAG) to represent the conceptual knowledge as this structure allows a more specific category to be the child of multiple broader categories. With these requirements we have developed tools to direct the activities that allow building and querying monolingual dictionaries based on a DAG-shaped taxonomy. Using these tools to build a dictionary, users can learn in a simple and natural way some semantic aspects that are necessary for the mastery of languages.

This article introduces an approach per competence to curriculum construction in Computer Science and relevant implications, also demonstrating how important is to be familiar with theoretical - conceptual matrixes that the process involves. It proposes an Iterative Method for Identification and Mapping of Competences based on an analysis of pedagogic projects of Computer Science courses already implemented in Universities, which allows us to generate competence matrixes for Universities and Companies. Such matrixes, when crossed, should provide qualitative and quantitative contribution to Universities in constructing and developing pedagogic projects to Computer Science.

An interactive tutorial is a very efficient way to teach a rich programming language to a large group of e.g. graduate students in the field of IC design. We are creating a novel online course for SystemC that provides real-time compiling and result analysis functions, using server-side tools exclusively. The tutorial is called SCOTT (SystemC Online Tutorial and Training) and represents an advancement of our previously established interactive course on VHDL. The users following the SCOTT course submit their SystemC code over a standard web browser and get instant feedback from the tutorial system, including error description, context-sensitive hints, proposals for improvement, and simulation results. In this contribution, we will point out the emerging importance of teaching SystemC, discuss the functionality of our interactive tutorial system and illustrate the methodology by practical examples.