End-user programming tool for creating custom health surveys with automatically generated reports

Online survey data collection is becoming popular because it provides benefits in cost, ease of collecting and managing data, flexibility in format, and access to a diverse population. Surveys are often used for health studies such as Oregon State University’s WAVE Project, which utilizes the WavePipe system, a server enabling scientists to create studies, enroll subjects and their mobile devices, collect data from the devices and surveys and view/export data for analysis. This Master’s project presents an enhancement that lets scientists provide feedback to study subjects in response to their survey answers, thereby potentially helping to influence those subjects’ behavior. Scientists can import surveys into studies, select goal-settable questions from the surveys and allow subjects to set goals on those questions. Surveys are sent and responses collected over a period of time. The new sub-system automatically generates custom reports for each subject by aggregating survey responses with the subject’s goals. This way, scientists are not only collecting survey data, but also educating the subjects by providing feedback. An evaluation of the sub-system with a graduate student (representing the scientist side of the system) and with subjects showed that it is both usable and understandable

A tangible programming environment model informed by principles of perception and meaning

It is a fundamental Human-Computer Interaction problem to design a tangible programming environment for use by multiple persons that can also be individualised. This problem has its origin in the phenomenon that the meaning an object holds can vary across individuals. The Semiotics Research Domain studies the meaning objects hold. This research investigated a solution based on the user designing aspects of the environment at a time after it has been made operational and when the development team is no longer available to implement the user’s design requirements. Also considered is how objects can be positioned so that the collection of objects is interpreted as a program. I therefore explored how some of the principles of relative positioning of objects, as researched in the domains of Psychology and Art, could be applied to tangible programming environments. This study applied the Gestalt principle of perceptual grouping by proximity to the design of tangible programming environments to determine if a tangible programming environment is possible in which the relative positions of personally meaningful objects define the program. I did this by applying the Design Science Research methodology with five iterations and evaluations involving children. The outcome is a model of a Tangible Programming Environment that includes Gestalt principles and Semiotic theory; Semiotic theory explains that the user can choose a physical representation of the program element that carries personal meaning whereas the Gestalt principle of grouping by proximity predicts that objects can be arranged to appear as if linked to each other.School of ComputingPh. D. (Computer Science

A tool framework for developing context-sensitive user assistance systems using model-driven aspect weaving

Ankara : The Department of Computer Engineering and the Graduate School of Engineering and Science of Bilkent University, 2012.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2012.Includes bibliographical references.User assistance systems act as a guide for the users of software products. These systems aim to guarantee a successful user experience by helping in performing tasks. Early on, off-line user manuals were mostly the mediums of user assistance, and technically, they were independent of the systems they belong to. The upward trend in user assistance systems is that the provision of assistance is automated through some attached mechanisms to the software systems. There have been numerous proposals introducing fresh and novel methods for the purpose of automated user assistance. Specifically, embedded user assistance consists of instructional or conceptual information that appears within a software application window. It includes embedded help that appear within the application, field labels, and page overviews. The overall objective of this thesis is to reveal the state of the art advances in user assistance systems, and to propose a tool framework for developing contextsensitive user assistance systems. Firstly, we conducted two systematic literature reviews for both automated and embedded user assistance systems. The systematic literature reviews are required for acquiring solid background on embedded user assistance systems as well as for exploring the main obstacles to automated user assistance systems. The research findings are presented in parallel with the work published in the literature, and we aim at revealing a variety of techniques used for automated and embedded user assistance. The systematic reviews are conducted by a multiphase study selection process under a lot of articles obtained by dedicated search strategies. Since there has been no study to systematically undertake the state of user assistance systems, our work has a pioneering value of contents providing a road-map of current trends for further researchers in the field of user assistance. Having analyzed the results of systematic reviews, we conducted a survey of help authoring tools that revealed the lack of generalized context-sensitive user assistance solutions. Also, the utilization of methods, algorithms and tools differs from domain to domain, being rather scattered. We aimed at developing embedded context-sensitive user assistance systems, which is not trivial and has to meet several challenges. Unfortunately, user-assistance concerns such as help content and related weaving information cannot be easily localized in single modules and as such tend to crosscut multiple modules. The reuse of user assistance tools for different applications is required because developing custom-based user assistance for each separate application is laborious. Consequently, the obstacles related to the development of context-sensitive user assistance systems have brought out the idea of a tool framework for this purpose. To address these issues we developed an aspect-oriented tool framework Assistant-Pro that can be used to develop context-sensitive embedded user assistance for multiple applications. The framework provides tools for defining the process model, defining guidance related to process steps, and modularizing and weaving help concerns in the target application for which user guidance needs to be provided. The tool has been originally developed and validated in the context of Aselsan, a large Turkish defense electronics company.Açar, MuratM.S

Contextual Process Digitalization

This open access book presents an overview and step-by-step explanation of process management. It starts with the individual participants’ perspectives on their work in a process and its structuring and harmonization, and then moves on to its specification in a model and how it is embedded in the organizational and IT environment of the company. Lastly, the book examines the joint processing of instances in the resulting socio-technical systems. A corresponding illustration, which expands with the overview, enables readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of business process management. The book presents various facets of business process management from the perspective of the participants, and introduces a selection of models that have proved useful in practice. The design of such models supports the transition from a more-or-less unstructured or unsatisfactory way of working to a structured process that corresponds to the ideas of the company and its customers. The book is intended for professionals in industry as well as students in the field of business information systems who are looking for guidelines on how to discover, create and implement real-world processes

Contextual Process Digitalization

This open access book presents an overview and step-by-step explanation of process management. It starts with the individual participants’ perspectives on their work in a process and its structuring and harmonization, and then moves on to its specification in a model and how it is embedded in the organizational and IT environment of the company. Lastly, the book examines the joint processing of instances in the resulting socio-technical systems. A corresponding illustration, which expands with the overview, enables readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of business process management. The book presents various facets of business process management from the perspective of the participants, and introduces a selection of models that have proved useful in practice. The design of such models supports the transition from a more-or-less unstructured or unsatisfactory way of working to a structured process that corresponds to the ideas of the company and its customers. The book is intended for professionals in industry as well as students in the field of business information systems who are looking for guidelines on how to discover, create and implement real-world processes

Reports to the President

A compilation of annual reports for the 1989-1990 academic year, including a report from the President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as reports from the academic and administrative units of the Institute. The reports outline the year's goals, accomplishments, honors and awards, and future plans

Reports to the President

A compilation of annual reports for the 1988-1989 academic year, including a report from the President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as reports from the academic and administrative units of the Institute. The reports outline the year's goals, accomplishments, honors and awards, and future plans

Computer Aided Verification

This open access two-volume set LNCS 11561 and 11562 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2019, held in New York City, USA, in July 2019. The 52 full papers presented together with 13 tool papers and 2 case studies, were carefully reviewed and selected from 258 submissions. The papers were organized in the following topical sections: Part I: automata and timed systems; security and hyperproperties; synthesis; model checking; cyber-physical systems and machine learning; probabilistic systems, runtime techniques; dynamical, hybrid, and reactive systems; Part II: logics, decision procedures; and solvers; numerical programs; verification; distributed systems and networks; verification and invariants; and concurrency