Computing in Northamptonshire

Nuffield Placement Researchers work: Twitter and Junkbots

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 15:52:00 +0100

This year I have been lucky enough to work with two Nuffield Placement Researchers one looking at extending junkbots via Scratch the other looking at producing some guidance on Twitter Analysis. They both produced blogs to share there activities:

Extending Junkbots

New blog https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/ by Muhammad Vadia on the Nuffield Foundation Researcher Placement Program has been working on developing a series of activities for the Junkbots project. These activities focus on using Scratch to develop coding skills by building up a simulation of the junkbot.

These can be found at:

What are Junkbots & intro to Scratch : https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-introduction.html

Activity 2 - Learning some new concepts: https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-computational-concepts.html

Junkbots - Understanding Scratch https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-understanding-scratch.html

Junkbots - Creating a sprite https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-creating-sprite.html

Junkbots - Moving the bot https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-moving-bot.html

Junkbots - Spawning some rocks https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-spawning-some-rocks.html

Junkbots - Scoring https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-scoring.html

Junkbots - Conclusion https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-conclusion.html

Twitter Data Analysis

Blog https://twitter-data-analysis.blogspot.com/ was developed by Dilan Patel looking into Sentiment Analysis and getting going with Twitter Analysis.

Twitter Data Analysis (Part 1) - Consumer Keys https://twitter-data-analysis.blogspot.com/2020/08/twitter-data-analysis-part-1-consumer.html

Twitter Data Analysis (Part 2) - Google Colab https://twitter-data-analysis.blogspot.com/2020/08/twitter-data-analysis-part-2-google.html

Twitter Data Analysis (Part 3) - Sentiment Analysis

https://twitter-data-analysis.blogspot.com/2020/08/twitter-data-analysis-part-3-sentiment.html

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

BCS Northampton online event: Agile and Scrum techniques have shifted

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 09:44:00 +0100

A webinar to discuss how the Agile and Scrum techniques have shifted how much of the digital tech industry develops products and services.

Date And Time

Tue, 25 August 2020

19:00 – 20:00 BST

About this Event

Speakers

Perry Timms - Founder and Chief Energy Officer for PTHR

Agenda

19:00 – Introduction – Ali Al-Sherbaz -The Chair of BCS (NN branch)

19:05 - Main presentation – Perry Timms

19:40 - Q&A –

20:00 - Close

Synopsis

Agile and Scrum techniques have shifted how much of the digital tech industry develops products and services. Unexpectedly, there's a second life to Agile: In the world of HR, learning and change. Hear from Perry Timms about his work in this area and how there's a growing band of HR practitioners using product stories, kanban boards and hosting retrospectives. And it's surprisingly effective. What can technologists take away from this? A way to let their own Agile methods crossover into creating roles and objectives, adapting people management approaches and designing organisations where people flourish.

Speaker Bios

Perry Timms is a renowned blogger and global speaker on the transformative power of HR professionals. He is the founder of People and Transformational HR Ltd, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Social Media and HR Adviser and TedX speaker on the future of work.

THIS EVENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Northampton Branch

Visit https://www.bcs.org/membership/member-communities/northampton-branch/

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Quick play with Sonic Pi

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Sun, 9 Aug 2020 16:39:00 +0100

I often play with the brilliant Sonic Pi https://sonic-pi.net/ for a bit of fun, but let's be clear I have no musical ability.

To get my head around it I tried turning thee one tune I know "Hot Cross Buns" for the recorder into a tune. I found a useful webpage https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/notes.html to turn the notes into the MIDI number (60, etc) . Played with the synthesier sounds and choose tech_saw just because I liked it. The code is below

use_synth :tech_saws

2.times do

play 71

sleep 0.5

play 69

sleep 0.5

play 67

sleep 0.5

end

4.times do

play 67

sleep 0.25

end

4.times do

play 69

sleep 0.25

end

play 71

sleep 0.5

play 69

sleep 0.5

play 67

Also tried it with changing the synth to prophet

Also tried to make it a bit more mournful (possible slightly aggressive) with minor chords - I used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_chord#:~:text=In%20music%20theory%2C%20a%20minor,is%20called%20a%20minor%20triad. to get the notes in combination with the MIDI notes list (I still think I got it wrong!)

use_synth :prophet

2.times do

play 71

play 62

play 66

sleep 0.5

play 69

play 60

play 64

sleep 0.5

play 67

play 70

play 62

sleep 0.5

end

4.times do

play 67

play 70

play 62

sleep 0.25

end

4.times do

play 69

play 60

play 64

sleep 0.25

end

play 71

play 62

play 66

sleep 0.5

play 69

play 60

play 64

sleep 0.5

play 67

play 70

play 62

sleep 0.5

Adding sound effects is great fun - same code as above with a slightly techno sound to it

use_synth :prophet

with_fx :ixi_techno do

  2.times do

    play 71

    play 62

    play 66

    sleep 0.5

    play 69

    play 60

    play 64

    sleep 0.5

    play 67

    play 70

    play 62

    sleep 0.5

end

  4.times do

    play 67

    play 70

    play 62

    sleep 0.25

end

  4.times do

    play 69

    play 60

    play 64

    sleep 0.25

end

  play 71

  play 62

  play 66

  sleep 0.5

  play 69

  play 60

  play 64

  sleep 0.5

  play 67

  play 70

  play 62

  sleep 0.5

end

or alternatively

use_synth :prophet
with_fx :ixi_techno do
  2.times do
    play chord(:b4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.5
    play chord(:a4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.5
    play chord(:g4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.5
  end
  4.times do
    play chord(:g4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.25
  end
  4.times do
    play chord(:a4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.25
  end
  play chord(:b4, :minor7)
  sleep 0.5
  play chord(:a4, :minor7)
  sleep 0.5
  play chord(:g4, :minor7)
  sleep 0.5
end

I am the first to admit I have little musical knowledge but playing with Sonic Pi is still good fun; just changing the sound effects (like changing it to whammy and getting it sounding like aliens) is enjoyable.

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

10 most read post (July 2020) on Computing in Northamptonshire

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 14:20:00 +0100

Winners Young Coder's Competition and you can play their games!
Young Coders Competition 2020 – Winners announced The competition aims to tackle a national shortage in coding ability by encouraging creativity.
WebVR: Adding animated 3D model to AR
In a previous post I looked to experimenting with adding 3D models in glTF form (GL Transmission Format) into AFrame as part of an Augment Reality System.
Keynote speech- Why everyone should learn a bit about ML
I recently had the honour of a providing a keynote speech for a conference in Iraq (virtually) at the New Trends in Information and Communications Conference
junkbots: School Outreach 2
Junkbots session 3: Move the robot but now there are rocks in the way. What is the Junkbots project?
Free Augmented Reality (updated with further links)
This post is part of the materials for a session on Augmented Reality presenting at the 2019 SolSTICE eLearning and CLT Conference 5-6th Jun2 2019
Hot House Student Consultancy helps antiques business establish online presence
.
Teaching of Genetic Algorithm with Excel
This post looks at using Excel and six-sided dice as a way of developing an understanding of Genetic Algorithms.

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Winners Young Coder's Competition and you can play their games!

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 11:26:00 +0100

Young Coders Competition 2020 – Winners announced

The competition aims to tackle a national shortage in coding ability by encouraging 8-11 year olds to have fun coding and spark a lifetime interest in the skill that may lead to them to a career developing websites, apps and computer software.

Organised by the University of Northampton, the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and Leicestershire Education Business Company, the Young Coders Competition aims to tackle a national shortage in coding skills. It does this by encouraging eight-to-11-year olds to have fun coding and hopefully spark a lifetime interest in the skill.

This year the challenge was to create a game in Scratch relating to the theme: "Teach your Pals about the Past" that can be used to teach their peers about a period of history or an historical event.

Top three were:-

1^st Broadheath Primary School, Altrincham

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/397741431/

2^nd Cheddon Fiztpaine Church School, Taunton

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/398098890/

3^rd Rothersthorpe Church of England Primary School, Northamptonshire

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/405125336

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Heuristic Optimization for Microload Shedding in Generation Constrained Power Systems - IEEE

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 10:39:00 +0100

Heuristic Optimization for Microload Shedding in Generation Constrained Power Systems

Julius Quarshie Azasoo, Triantafyllos Kanakis, Ali Al-Sherbaz, Michael Opoku Agyeman

J. Q. Azasoo, T. Kanakis, A. Al-Sherbaz and M. O. Agyeman, "Heuristic Optimization for Microload Shedding in Generation Constrained Power Systems," in IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 13294-13304, 2020, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2965819.

Abstract

While the causes of power system outages are often complex and multi-faceted, an apparent deficit in generation compared to a known demand for electricity could be more alarming. A sudden hike in demand at any given time may ultimately result in the total failure of an electricity network. In this paper, algorithms to efficiently allocate the available generation is investigated. Dynamic programming based algorithms are developed to achieve this constraint by uniquely controlling home appliances to reduce the overall demands for electricity by the consumers on the grid in context. To achieve this, heuristic optimization method (HOM) based on the consumers’ comfort and the benefits to the electricity utility is proposed. This is then validated by simulating microload management in generation constrained power systems. Three techniques; General Shedding (GS), Priority Based Shedding (PBS) and Excess Reuse Shedding (ERS) techniques were studied for effecting efficient microload shedding. The research is aimed at reducing the burden imposed on the consumers in a generation constrained power system by the traditional load shedding approach. Additionally, the reduction of the excess curtailment is a prime objective in this paper as it helps the utility companies to reduce wastage and ultimately reduce losses resulting from over shedding. Reducing the peak-to-average ratios (PAR) on the entire network in context as a critical factor in the determination of the efficiency of an electricity network is also investigated. In the long run, the PAR affects the price charged to the final consumer. Simulation results show the associated benefits that include effectiveness, deployability, and scalability of the proposed HOM to reduce these burdens.

DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2965819

Paper is available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8955857

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

junkbots: School Outreach 2

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 20:36:00 +0100

Junkbots session 3: Move the robot but now there are rocks in the way.

What is the Junkbots project

The Junkbots project has been running for a number of years as an initiative to bring sustainability, computing and engineering together by building bots out of junk; details of the project can be found at. https://junkbots.blogspot.com/ . Junkbots is an extension of the Research into the teaching problem-solving going on at the University of Northampton please feel to visit https://computingnorthampton.blogspot.com/2019/01/problem-solving-research-outputs-and.html for more details.

What are we going to do?

· Play with a Scratch robot on the screen!

· Build on the routines from the previous session.

· Look at example of what happens when the junkbot and the rock met.

· Adding key press to control the code to guide the junkbot around.

· Extend your solution

Activity 1: Reminder of the blocks we used previously? https://computingnorthampton.blogspot.com/2020/05/junkbots-school-outreach-1.html

This means when the green flag is pressed do whatever follows.

This means place our robot (go to block) to point on the screen roughly in the centre of the screen.

Do you want a challenge: What do think would happen if instead 0 and 0 in the white spaces in the go to block, we put in 50 and 50? Have a guess.

This means stop the scratch program for 1 second and then carry on.

We can use this block to move the robot 50 steps on the screen in the direction it is facing.

We can use this block to turn the robot to the right 45 degrees.

We are also going to look at two more ‘things’ today: one new block and a new type of blocks to make our programming easier – the control blocks.

We can use this block to change the direction the robot faces.

When we click on the control button at the side we see several more blocks we can use.

One of these we have played with before the wait block.

The other two we are going to use today in later activities.

When we want to repeat a combination of blocks so many times, we can use the middle block and then change the 10 to the number of times we want to repeat.

If we want it repeat something forever (or until we stop the program with the red button) we can use the last block.

Sometimes we want to change what the program does when something happens.

We will look at three types of instructions

- If this ‘thing’ happens then do this.

- If this ‘thing’ happens then do this else to this other thing

- When a key is pressed do this.

Activity 2: Have a go at guessing what it is going to do?

Follow this link to a new Scratch project https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/405642711

Challenge 1: Press the green flag and see what it does. THEN press the green flag and see what it does.

Tell others what you saw it do?

Challenge 2: Now go in the Scratch code for the rock (it should look like the scratch program shown next to this).

- describe what you think this does?

- tell others why do you think the if block is inside a forever block?

Activity 3: Modify and Make

· Staying with the same scratch code you might have noticed that the junkbot doesn’t always hit the rock.

· We are going change this so we can guide the junkbot to hit the rocks.

· Go to the code for the junkbot/robot/rcx.

· Challenge 3: Add instructions to move the junkbot by pressing the arrow keys. In the picture you can see two events blocks one group of blocks says what happens when the up key is pressed then other when the right key is pressed.

· Add blocks to make the down and left keys move the junkbot down or left.

Activity 4: Modify and make play

· Lets get it to add more blocks either using the program you have developed or https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/405650433

· Go to the stage code you will see a block saying create clone of Rocks every time this block is used a new rock is added to the screen.

· Challenge 4: Can you change the code so 20 rocks are put on the screen and now create a game where you have to hit every rock.

· Challenge 5 – looking at other scratch examples (for example https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/ghostbusters/4) could you add a scoring system to this game.

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Keynote speech- Why everyone should learn a bit about ML

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 14:18:00 +0100

I recently had the honour of a providing a keynote speech for a conference in Iraq (virtually) at the New Trends in Information and Communications Technology Applications conference http://www.uoitc.edu.iq/ntict2019/home.html

The recording is below:

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Predictive Learning Analytics in Higher Education: Factors, Methods and Challenges

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Tue, 9 Jun 2020 15:55:00 +0100

Predictive Learning Analytics in Higher Education: Factors, Methods and Challenges

Ghaith Al-Tameemi, James Xue, Suraj Ajit, Triantafyllos Kanakis, Israa Hadi

Abstract

In higher education institutions, a high number of studies show that the use of predictive learning analytics can positively impact student retention and the other aspects which lead to student success. Predictive learning analytics examines the learning data for intervening or improving the process itself that positively reflects on student performance. In our survey, we are considering the most recent research papers focusing on predictive learning analytics and how that affects the final student outcome in educational institutions. The process of predictive learning analytics, such as data collection, data preprocessing, data mining, and others, has been illustrated in detail. We have identified factors that affect student performance. Several machine learning approaches have also been compared to provide a clear view of the most suitable algorithms and tools used for implementing the learning analytics

IEEE

IEEE International Conference on Advances in Computing and Communication Engineering - Las Vegas, United States

22 Jun 2020 24 Jun 2020

Cite: Al-Tameemi, G, Xue, J, Ajit, S, Kanakis, T & Hadi, I 2020, Predictive Learning Analytics in Higher Education: Factors, Methods and Challenges. in Predictive Learning Analytics in Higher Education: Factors, Methods and Challenges. IEEE, 6th IEEE International Conference on Advances in Computing and Communication Engineering, Las Vegas, United States, 22/06/20.

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Towards a Paradigm Change in Group and Peer Assessment in Software Engineering Education

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Sat, 6 Jun 2020 17:48:00 +0100

Towards a Paradigm Change in Group and Peer Assessment in Software Engineering Education
Paul Vossen, Suraj Ajit

*Corresponding author for this work

Abstract

Conventional approaches to group and peer assessment are invariably based on highly questionable assumptions about educational measurement and how to weight and aggregate multiple scores into an overall judgement of outcome and performance. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach based on a sound theory of educational scoring and rating. Our approach is particularly relevant for software engineering education where group projects with multiple types of outcomes are used to assess individual students. We will also present recent progress with two experimental tools incorporating our novel approach and compare the latter with some well-known tools based on conventional approaches. We will focus on explaining the reasons for and benefits of adopting this paradigm-changing approach to group-peer marking.

Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering Education & Training (CSEE&T 2020)

Pages 1-8

https://ase.in.tum.de/cseet2020/

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

junkbots: School Outreach 1

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Sat, 30 May 2020 00:06:00 +0100

3 MINUTE READ

Junkbots session 1: Move the robot

from Junkbots: Move the robot

by Scott Turner

What is the Junkbots project

What are we going to do?

Play with a Scratch robot on the screen! Guess what the routine does. Run the routine see if it does as we guessed. Consider what it did and if it is different to what we thought it was going to do. Change the routine a little bit to do another task.

Activity 1: What blocks are we using?

This means when the green flag is pressed do whatever follows.

This means place our robot (go to block) to point on the screen roughly in the centre of the screen.

Do you want a challenge: What do think would happen if instead 0 and 0 in the white spaces in the go to block, we put in 50 and 50? Have a guess.

This means stop the scratch program for 1 second and the carry on.

We can use this block to move the robot 50 steps on the screen in the direction it is facing.

Do you want a challenge: How do you think we could get the robot to move 100 steps? Have a guess.

We can use this block to turn the robot to the right 45 degrees.

Do you want a challenge: How do you think we could get the robot to move 90 degrees to the right? Have a guess.

We are also going to look at two more ‘things’ today: one new block and a new type of blocks to make our programming easier – the control blocks.

We can use this block to change the direction the robot faces.

When we click on the control button at the side we see several more blocks we can use.

One of these we have played with before the wait block.

The other two we are going to use today in later activities.

When we want to repeat a combination of blocks so many times, we can use the middle block and then change the 10 to the number of times we want to repeat.

If we want it repeat something forever (or until we stop the program with the red button) we can use the last block.

Activity 2: Have a go at guessing what it is going to do?

Using what you have learnt in Activity 1.

Let us look at this block of programming.

What do you think it is going to do? If you have someone helping you tell them what you think it does.

If you don’t get it exactly right, it is more important to have a guess.

Activity 3: Try it for yourself

Now go to the weblink: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/3 84342734 You should see something that looks like figure below

Click on the box at the top of the screen that says see inside. You should a screen similar to figure above Now press the green flag it should now perform a little dance.

Questions

Does the robot work the way you thought it would from Activity 2? If it did move the way you thought– great! If it didn’t move the way thought still good. What was different?

Activity 4: Change it a bit

Save your work from Activity 3 by going to the top of the screen: find file, click on it and the click on Save to your computer. Then press the save button. Now change the code so that the robot moves in a square. Hint: We need to move in a straight line and then turn 90 degrees several times.

Did the robot work the way you thought it would? If it did move the way you thought– great! Can you make it move in a rectangle where two sides are longer than the other two? If it didn’t move the way thought still good. What was different?

Activity 5: Try it for yourself

Save your work from Activity 4. Now produce a dance routine for the robot. It must include moving forward and at least three turns.

You could also try adding in

 Making it move backwards (negative number in the move block)

 Turning left

Activity 6: Have a go at guessing what it is going to do?

Follow this link to a new Scratch project https://bit.ly/ScratchJunkbot2

Challenge 1: Can you describe using the chat what you see it do?

Challenge 2: Can you rewrite the routine so when you press the green flag it hits the rock? What happens when it hits the rock share on the chat? Can you do this using less than seven blocks?

Challenge 3: Rewrite the routine so when we press the green flag it goes around the rock in a square. Hints: You did a similar task last week so please feel free use what you have done before. You might have to change the starting position of the robot. It is worth putting the wait blocks in to help you see it in action.

Activity 7: Modify and Make

Now go to the weblink: https://bit.ly/Junkbot3 Press the green flag and see what it does. Challenge 4: Using the chat describing what it did, please include when do you think it will stop? Challenge 5: How can we change this so that it goes around the rock twice?

Activity 8: Modify and make play

Challenge 6: Try and change what you did in Activity 3 so that the robot goes around the block in a different shape Challenge 7: The really tough challenge. How to we get the robot to move in a figure 8? It must not hit the rock. Have a go yourself and if you want to see one possible answer (there are more than one way to do this) go to https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/398164007/

Questions

Does the robot work the way you thought it would? If it did move the way you thought– great! Can you make it move in a rectangle where two sides are longer than the other two? If it didn’t move the way thought still good. What was different?If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Top 10 views on Computing in Northants - April 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Fri, 1 May 2020 11:24:00 +0100

Top 10 post on Computing in Northamptonshire in August 2019

Framework for Future Emergency Systems Basil, A , Mu, M and Opoku Agyeman, M 2019, A Multi-Modal Framework for Future Emer...
A Software Defined Network Based Research on Fairness in Multimedia

A Software Defined Network Based Research on Fairness in Multimedia Ahmed Osama Basil , Mu Mu , Ali Al-Sherbaz Abstract ...
WebVR: Adding animated 3D model to AR

In a previous post I looked to experimenting with adding 3D models in glTF form (GL Transmission Format) into AFrame as part of an Augment...
Top posts on this blog: March 2020

Due to the COVID-19 it has been a relatively quiet month but here are the top posts on this blog read in March 2020. Click on the highlight ...
Social media network Analysis: TAGS to start with

I am fascinated by connections and seeing connections between things, One area that particularly intrigues me is people connecting via socia...
Talking AI, Physical Computing, IoT, and Industry 4.0

A podcast has been recently released on some of the aspects of research in computing. Drs Michael Opuku Agyeman, Triantafyllos Kanakis a...
Problem-solving and robots

Scott Turner and Gary Hill from the Division of Computing (along with Jonathan Adams from the Division of Engineering on a related project...
Miniproject: Augmented Reality for free

Augmented Reality doesn't need to be expensive, free tools based around AFrame WebVR exist that are fairly easy to use. In Northampton, ...
A Problem-Based Learning Technique to Improve Student Engagement in Multidisciplinary Groups in Higher Education

A Problem-Based Learning Technique to Improve Student Engagement in Multidisciplinary Groups in Higher Education Michael Opoku Agyeman ...
Call for Papers: "Emerging Technologies in Higher Education

Call for papers to the Journal of Research in Education and Learning Innovation Archives for a special issue on Emerging Technologies in H...

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

A Software Defined Network Based Research on Fairness in Multimedia

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 16:41:00 +0100

A Software Defined Network Based Research on Fairness in Multimedia

Ahmed Osama Basil, Mu Mu, Ali Al-Sherbaz

Abstract

The demand for online distribution of high quality and high throughput content has led to non-cooperative competition of network resources between a growing number of media applications. This causes a significant impact on network efficiency, the quality of user experience (QoE) as well as a discrepancy of QoE across user devices. Within a multi-user multi-device environment, measuring and maintaining perceivable fairness becomes as critical as achieving the QoE on individual user applications. This paper discusses application- and humanlevel fairness over networked multimedia applications and how such fairness can be managed through novel network designs using programmable networks such as software-defined networks (SDN).

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in MultiMedia
Publisher	ACM Press
Pages	11-18
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Print)	9781450369152
Publication status	Published - 25 Oct 2019
Event	FAT/MM: Fairness Accountability and Transparency in Multimedia : An ACM MM 2019 Workshop - Nice, France Duration: 21 Oct 2019 → 25 Oct 2019 https://acmmm.org/workshops/

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in MultiMedia

Internet address	https://acmmm.org/workshops/

DOI: 10.1145/3347447.3356750

Paper available at: http://www.mendeley.com/research/software-defined-network-based-research-fairness-multimedia

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Heuristic Optimization for Microload Shedding in Generation Constrained Power Systems

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 12:49:00 GMT

Heuristic Optimization for Microload

Shedding in Generation Constrained Power Systems

Julius Quarshie Azasoo, Triantafyllos Kanakis, Ali Al-Sherbaz,

Michael Opoku Agyeman

Graduate School

Computing

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article

DOI:10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2965819

Abstract

While the causes of power system outages are often complex and multi-faceted,

an apparent deficit in generation compared to a known demand for electricity could be

more alarming. A sudden hike in demand at any given time may ultimately result in the

total failure of an electricity network. In this paper, algorithms to efficiently allocate the

available generation is investigated. Dynamic programming based algorithms are

developed to achieve this constraint by uniquely controlling home appliances to reduce

the overall demands for electricity by the consumers on the grid in context. To achieve

this, heuristic optimization method (HOM) based on the consumers’ comfort and the

benefits to the electricity utility is proposed. This is then validated by simulating

microload management in generation constrained power systems. Three techniques;

General Shedding (GS), Priority Based Shedding (PBS) and Excess Reuse Shedding

(ERS) techniques were studied for effecting efficient microload shedding. The research

is aimed at reducing the burden imposed on the consumers in a generation constrained

power system by the traditional load shedding approach. Additionally, the reduction of

the excess curtailment is a prime objective in this paper as it helps the utility companies

to reduce wastage and ultimately reduce losses resulting from over shedding. Reducing

the peak-to-average ratios (PAR) on the entire network in context as a critical factor in

the determination of the efficiency of an electricity network is also investigated. In the

long run, the PAR affects the price charged to the final consumer. Simulation results

show the associated benefits that include effectiveness, deployability, and scalability

of the proposed HOM to reduce these burdens.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	13294-13304
Number of pages	11
Journal	IEEE Access
Volume	8
Publication status	Published - 10 Jan 2020

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

A Problem-Based Learning Technique to Improve Student Engagement in Multidisciplinary Groups in Higher Education

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 12:40:00 GMT

A Problem-Based Learning Technique to Improve Student Engagement in Multidisciplinary Groups in Higher Education

Michael Opoku Agyeman, Mary Haiping Cui, Shirley Bennett

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339297805_A_Problem-Based_Learning_Technique_to_Improve_Student_Engagement_in_Multidisciplinary_Groups_in_Higher_Education

Abstract

Recently, there has been a rise in the integration of curriculum from different disciplines in Higher Education (HE) in response to the multidisciplinary nature of the skillset required by modern job market. In cases where the curriculum is delivered to students from the same discipline, it is intuitive for students to easily identify with its relevance. However, the aforementioned will not be as obvious in situations where a curriculum is taken by multidisciplinary groups of students. Consequently, there is a risk of student disengagement. This chapter evaluates how to enhance student engagement in modules thought to multidisciplinary groups in HE. The chapter presents an action research which uses mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative research to improve student engagement in a real-world module taken by Computing, Electrical & Electronics Eng., and Mechatronics Eng. students at University of Northampton. By using a problem-based learning strategy as an intervention, student engagement has been significantly improved with evidences in grade distribution and satisfaction.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Handbook of Research on Enhancing Innovation in Higher Education Institutions
Editors	Verica Babić, Zlatko Nedelko
Publisher	IGI Global
Chapter	23
ISBN (Electronic)	9781799827092
ISBN (Print)	9781799827092, 9781799827085, 1799827089
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2020

Book details: https://www.igi-global.com/book/handbook-research-enhancing-innovation-higher/237829

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Talking AI, Physical Computing, IoT, and Industry 4.0

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 11:14:00 GMT

A podcast has been recently released on some of the aspects of research in computing. Drs Michael Opuku Agyeman, Triantafyllos Kanakis and Scott Turner discussed computing, physical aspects of computing, social benefits of technologies, industry 4.0, their research and a whole lot more.

The podcast can be found below:

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Overview of BCS Northampton / DigitalNorthampton Event on 11th February 2020 Virtual Reality Therapies

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 13:27:00 GMT

Wakelet of tweets is available at https://wke.lt/w/s/16i52Z

Great event and very informative. Have made contact with @vrtherapiesltd as think they will be of great benefit to the work we do.
— Lorraine Lewis BCA (@Lorraine1984198) February 12, 2020

🔀 Last night summed up our #MergedFutures mantra, bringing together @VRTherapiesLtd and @Dr_Alisherbaz from @BCSNorthampton at @UniNorthants

🤝 Among those attending, we enjoyed meeting Lorraine from @uk_tlf and Jake from @NorthamptonColl, along with Rebecca's very proud dad! pic.twitter.com/YOv6Ok5y4A
— Digital Northampton (@DigiNorthampton) February 12, 2020

Aww thank you @bjgreen25 and thank you for coming along too! 💙💙💙 https://t.co/HrCOQhUfSK
— VR Therapies (@vrtherapiesltd) February 11, 2020

Great event! Thank you to @DigiNorthampton & @Dr_Alisherbaz for inviting me to talk tonight, and @BcsNorthampton & @UniNorthants for hosting. It was great to meet so many inspiring and innovative people 🤩 special shout out to @scottturneruon, @bjgreen25 & @RichardBeards! 💙 pic.twitter.com/cYN7FM0q2w
— VR Therapies (@vrtherapiesltd) February 11, 2020

Thank you @scottturneruon! It was great to meet you and talk about all our crazy plans within #immersivehealthcare and #raspberrypi, as well as bounce ideas about a potential #vrtherapies #hackathon!! 🤩 https://t.co/v0I3jXUDnI
— VR Therapies (@vrtherapiesltd) February 11, 2020

🗣 After a couple of short intros from @RichardBeards and @Dr_Alisherbaz, we’re going to dive into the @VRTherapiesLtd experience with a presentation followed by the chance to try #VR headsets.

🚀 Let’s go! pic.twitter.com/hK5EWmEP9q
— Digital Northampton (@DigiNorthampton) February 11, 2020

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Call for Papers: "Emerging Technologies in Higher Education

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Sat, 1 Feb 2020 12:10:00 GMT

Call for papers to the Journal of Research in Education and Learning Innovation Archives for a special issue on Emerging Technologies in Higher Education

CFP: No.26. Call for Papers "Emerging Technologies in Higher Education"

Description and purpose of Special Issue

A number of technologies have the potential to impact and innovate Education. Much has been written in the media about the positive and negative impact of emerging technologies. This call is for papers on applying emerging technologies including Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Social Media and Artificial Intelligence to Tertiary Education. Specifically, we are looking for papers that critically consider the practice and experience of using these technologies in a Higher Educational context.A range of papers types will be considered, including original research, practice-focused papers, position papers, literature reviews and meta-analyses. It is expected that the papers will be of particular interest to readers interested in the teaching, learning and assessment processes in Higher Education, as well in technologies for learning.

Guidelines for submission

Research in Education and Learning Innovation Archives (REALIA) accepts articles in English, Spanish or Catalan languages.
Manuscripts should be sent following the Online Submission

Instructions detailed here: http://go.uv.es/L3Svjpb

Original Call: https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/realia/announcement/view/229

Research in Education and Learning Innovation Archives (REALIA) ISSN: 2659-9031
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7203/realia.v.n.id is Edited by: Servei de Formació Permanent i Innovació Educativa. University of Valencia.
Contact: Serpis Street, 29, Campus dels Tarongers. University of Valencia. 46022 Valencia, Spain.
0034 961625042

editor.realia@uv.es @REALIA10174486

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Social media network Analysis: Further visualisation

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 21:04:00 GMT

In a previous post (http://bit.ly/TAGS2GEPHI ) I look at moving data from a TAGS (https://tags.hawksey.info/) spreadsheet collecting tweets into a network visualisation tool (GEPHI) to plot a network of interactions based on how replied to whom. We left it at a graph like the one below with the thick the line the stronger/more replies there were.

Still going to use the same data but look at some of the other options to visualise these relationship. Tools like Gephi offer many ways to layout the plots

The one below is the ForceAtlas2 layout is good for showing groupings for this problem:

One I like because it is attractive and I feel shows the number of nodes and their interactions is the Fructerman Reingold (shown below)

One of the features of Gephi is you can add plug-ins; including new layouts. Two I am enjoying playing with is the Circular layout

Also the Dual circular layout - where you set two circles based on some criterian in this case number of interactions - the outer ring has the 20 highest scoring nodes and the central ring is the remaining nodes.

What does it show? Possibly there is a lot of interactions between the highest scoring nodes.

Take home item I think is just play with the layouts and the tools.

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Social media network Analysis: Going from TAGS to Gephi

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 15:18:00 GMT

In a previous post the use of the brilliant Twitter capture and analysis tool TAGS developed by Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) was introduced, click here to read it. In this post, I am going to show using the data collected and transferring some of it into a Network Visualisation tool Gephi.

Setting up Gephi

The software is open-source and can be downloaded from https://gephi.org/ Gephi does have some system requirements, which can be found here, but it should run on lot of machines (Mac, PC and Linux with a graphics card) but Java will need to added or already installed.

I have found a problem, and I was very relieved to find out I was not the only one, with Gephi not working because I couldn't finding Java. The bug is known and there is a fix is available and how to do it can be found at https://bryanemichael.wordpress.com/2017/04/11/gephi-0-9-1-wont-work-unless-you-specific-a-java-folder/ (Thankyou @NomadWarMachine for sharing this) or on a Mac http://forum-gephi.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3580#p10873

Hopefully Gephi now works

Transferring the data from TAGS

We are going to have a play with showing who replies to who (crude method but shows some of the links happening), The video below shows the stages in action

Stage 1: Open the TAGS spreadsheet and go to Archive sheet. Save this sheet as CSV file.

Stage 2: In a spreadsheet package open the new CSV file and remove the first column (id_str). If we save it again as a CSV file it is ready to load in Gephi. Don't close down the spreadsheet we will want it later.

Stage 3: Open Gephi and from the file menu import the spreadsheet. It will give an error, just change the Import as: to Nodes table and then press Next > and then Finish and then ok. You will probably get a graph with lots of dots (e.g. like the figure below) but not much more there are no connections between the nodes.

Stage 4: Go back to the spreadsheet used in stage 2, in this example we are only interested in connections based on replies, so we delete all columns except from_user and in_reply_to_screen_name and now save the spreadsheet as a CSV file but with a different file name. Change from_user to Source and in_reply_to_screen_name to Target, Gephi needs these two headings for the next stage and now save again.

Stage 5: Now go back into Gephi and import the new spreadsheet from stage 4 in this time it should find Source and Target and not give an error. Follow the clicks through it will say at some point that there is missing values for Target ignore it but make the merged setting be set to something like Sum. You should now get a plot a bit like the one seen in the video with nodes connected by edges in most cases. If we go to the bottom of the graph there is an arrow icon; click on this and we add labels to the graph, it is worth playing around with this to work out the operation of this function

Now we have it in Gephi we apply different ways to present and analyse the network. This will be discussed in a later blog post.

Some more information on this and some other techniques can be found at:

You too can analyse social media - well twitter from Scott Turner

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

BCS Northampton - VR Therapies

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Turner) — Wed, 8 Jan 2020 14:54:00 GMT

Taken from: https://www.bcs.org/events/2020/february/bcs-northampton-vr-therapies/

BCS Northampton - VR Therapies

Date and time

11 February, 7:30pm - 9:00pm

Location

The University of Northampton
Learning Hub LH017
University Drive
Northampton
England
NN1 5PH

Free

Eventbrite booking link:

https://northampton11022020.eventbrite.co.uk

Presentation on the latest advances in immersive healthcare and how they are improving lives around the world. Virtual Reality (VR) is changing pain management and offering an alternative to addictive pain-killers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SPEAKERS
Rebecca Gill - Nurse & Founder of VR therapies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AGENDA
19.30 - Presentation
21.00 - Close of event
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SYNOPSIS
Rebecca Gill, founder of VR Therapies, will be discussing the latest advances in immersive healthcare and how they are improving lives around the world.
From reducing recovery time in rehabilitation to supporting children with chemotherapy, immersive technology is transforming healthcare. Virtual Reality (VR) is changing pain management and offering an alternative to addictive pain-killers.
https://www.vrtherapies.co.uk/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Speaker: Rebecca Gill -https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-gill-31492a172/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For overseas delegates who wish to attend the event please note that BCS does not issue invitation letters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THIS EVENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
BCS Northampton Branch
Visit https://www.bcs.org/membership/member-communities/northampton-branch/

Eventbrite booking link:

https://northampton11022020.eventbrite.co.uk

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Computing in Northamptonshire

Nuffield Placement Researchers work: Twitter and Junkbots

What are Junkbots & intro to Scratch : https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-introduction.html

Activity 2 - Learning some new concepts: https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-computational-concepts.html

Junkbots - Understanding Scratch https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-understanding-scratch.html

Junkbots - Creating a sprite https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-creating-sprite.html

Junkbots - Moving the bot https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-moving-bot.html

Junkbots - Spawning some rocks https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-spawning-some-rocks.html

Junkbots - Scoring https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-scoring.html

Junkbots - Conclusion https://junkbotactivities.blogspot.com/2020/08/junkbots-conclusion.html

Twitter Data Analysis (Part 1) - Consumer Keys https://twitter-data-analysis.blogspot.com/2020/08/twitter-data-analysis-part-1-consumer.html

Twitter Data Analysis (Part 2) - Google Colab https://twitter-data-analysis.blogspot.com/2020/08/twitter-data-analysis-part-2-google.html

Twitter Data Analysis (Part 3) - Sentiment Analysis

BCS Northampton online event: Agile and Scrum techniques have shifted

Date And Time

About this Event

Speakers

Perry Timms - Founder and Chief Energy Officer for PTHR

Agenda

Synopsis

Speaker Bios

Quick play with Sonic Pi

10 most read post (July 2020) on Computing in Northamptonshire

Winners Young Coder's Competition and you can play their games!

Top 10 most read posts (June 2020) on Computing in Northamptonshire Blog

Subscribe To

Heuristic Optimization for Microload Shedding in Generation Constrained Power Systems - IEEE

Heuristic Optimization for Microload Shedding in Generation Constrained Power Systems

Abstract

junkbots: School Outreach 2

Keynote speech- Why everyone should learn a bit about ML

Predictive Learning Analytics in Higher Education: Factors, Methods and Challenges

Towards a Paradigm Change in Group and Peer Assessment in Software Engineering Education

Towards a Paradigm Change in Group and Peer Assessment in Software Engineering EducationPaul Vossen*, Suraj Ajit*

Top 10 viewed posts on Computing in Northampton in May 2020

Subscribe To

junkbots: School Outreach 1

Junkbots session 1: Move the robot

What is the Junkbots project

What are we going to do?

Activity 1: What blocks are we using?

Activity 2: Have a go at guessing what it is going to do?

Activity 3: Try it for yourself

Activity 5: Try it for yourself

Activity 6: Have a go at guessing what it is going to do?

Activity 7: Modify and Make

Activity 8: Modify and make play

Top 10 views on Computing in Northants - April 2020

A Software Defined Network Based Research on Fairness in Multimedia

A Software Defined Network Based Research on Fairness in Multimedia

Abstract

Publication series

Top posts on this blog: March 2020

Heuristic Optimization for Microload Shedding in Generation Constrained Power Systems

Heuristic Optimization for Microload

Shedding in Generation Constrained Power Systems

Abstract

While the causes of power system outages are often complex and multi-faceted,

an apparent deficit in generation compared to a known demand for electricity could be

more alarming. A sudden hike in demand at any given time may ultimately result in the

total failure of an electricity network. In this paper, algorithms to efficiently allocate the

available generation is investigated. Dynamic programming based algorithms are

developed to achieve this constraint by uniquely controlling home appliances to reduce

the overall demands for electricity by the consumers on the grid in context. To achieve

this, heuristic optimization method (HOM) based on the consumers’ comfort and the

benefits to the electricity utility is proposed. This is then validated by simulating

microload management in generation constrained power systems. Three techniques;

General Shedding (GS), Priority Based Shedding (PBS) and Excess Reuse Shedding

(ERS) techniques were studied for effecting efficient microload shedding. The research

is aimed at reducing the burden imposed on the consumers in a generation constrained

power system by the traditional load shedding approach. Additionally, the reduction of

the excess curtailment is a prime objective in this paper as it helps the utility companies

to reduce wastage and ultimately reduce losses resulting from over shedding. Reducing

the peak-to-average ratios (PAR) on the entire network in context as a critical factor in

the determination of the efficiency of an electricity network is also investigated. In the

long run, the PAR affects the price charged to the final consumer. Simulation results

show the associated benefits that include effectiveness, deployability, and scalability

of the proposed HOM to reduce these burdens.

A Problem-Based Learning Technique to Improve Student Engagement in Multidisciplinary Groups in Higher Education

A Problem-Based Learning Technique to Improve Student Engagement in Multidisciplinary Groups in Higher Education

Towards a Paradigm Change in Group and Peer Assessment in Software Engineering Education
Paul Vossen, Suraj Ajit