Jigsaw percolation: What social networks can collaboratively solve a puzzle?

We introduce a new kind of percolation on finite graphs called jigsaw percolation. This model attempts to capture networks of people who innovate by merging ideas and who solve problems by piecing together solutions. Each person in a social network has a unique piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Acquainted people with compatible puzzle pieces merge their puzzle pieces. More generally, groups of people with merged puzzle pieces merge if the groups know one another and have a pair of compatible puzzle pieces. The social network solves the puzzle if it eventually merges all the puzzle pieces. For an Erd\H{o}s-R\'{e}nyi social network with $n$ vertices and edge probability $p_n$, we define the critical value $p_c(n)$ for a connected puzzle graph to be the $p_n$ for which the chance of solving the puzzle equals $1/2$. We prove that for the $n$-cycle (ring) puzzle, $p_c(n)=\Theta(1/\log n)$, and for an arbitrary connected puzzle graph with bounded maximum degree, $p_c(n)=O(1/\log n)$ and $\omega(1/n^b)$ for any $b>0$. Surprisingly, with probability tending to 1 as the network size increases to infinity, social networks with a power-law degree distribution cannot solve any bounded-degree puzzle. This model suggests a mechanism for recent empirical claims that innovation increases with social density, and it might begin to show what social networks stifle creativity and what networks collectively innovate.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AAP1041 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Jigsaw percolation on random hypergraphs

The jigsaw percolation process on graphs was introduced by Brummitt, Chatterjee, Dey, and Sivakoff as a model of collaborative solutions of puzzles in social networks. Percolation in this process may be viewed as the joint connectedness of two graphs on a common vertex set. Our aim is to extend a result of Bollob\'as, Riordan, Slivken, and Smith concerning this process to hypergraphs for a variety of possible definitions of connectedness. In particular, we determine the asymptotic order of the critical threshold probability for percolation when both hypergraphs are chosen binomially at random.Comment: 17 page

Puzzle Based Learning in Undergraduate Studies

All undergraduate Radiography students require training in image interpretation and evaluation of x-ray images in their second year of studies as part of work integrated learning. The method of teaching pedagogy influences the student\u27s learning process and recall ability during examinations. if the teaching process moves to a student-centred approach, students become responsible for their own learning allowing active engagement and construction of their knowledge systems. Aim/ Objectives The aim of the study is to implement and evaluate the use of puzzle-based learning in the teaching and learning process of undergraduate studies Objectives To determine the efficacy of crossword and jigsaw puzzles as a novel teaching tool for medical imaging education To increase student\u27s interest and involvement with image interpretation topics To improve and assess recognition and recall of medical terminology To improve the understanding of innovative learning Methods The study is a cross sectional qualitative research design. Approval will be obtained from the Research and Ethics Committee of health Sciences. Online consent will be obtained from students involved, by means of Google Form submission, followed by an information session on Blackboard collaborate on the topic "Image evaluation and interpretation of radiographic imaging". Conclusion The research will prove the important collaboration of active teaching methodologies with simple, easy to use didactic material to improve student\u27s understanding of basic concepts in their core module subjec

Creating Your Bubble: Personal Space On and Around Large Public Displays

We describe an empirical study that explores how users establish and use personal space around large public displays (LPDs). Our study complements field studies in this space by more fully characterizing interpersonal distances based on coupling and confirms the use of on-screen territories on vertical displays. Finally, we discuss implications for future research: limitations of proxemics and territoriality, how user range can augment existing theory, and the influence of display size on personal space

Semi-automatic Solving of "Jigsaw puzzles" for Material Reconstruction of Dead Sea Scrolls

Digital solving of jigsaw puzzles have been well researched throughout the years and multiple approaches to solve them have been proposed. But these approaches have not been applied to reconstructing ancient manuscripts out of transient material such as leather or parchment. The literature describes ways to reconstruct ancient artefacts but they describe the process for more durable objects like pottery. In this thesis we explore the usability of the existing state-of-the-art methods for the purpose of aiding reconstructing of the Dead Sea Scrolls, also known as Qumran scrolls. Our experiments show that the existing methods as such do not provide good results in this domain, but with modifications provide help through a semi-automated reconstruction process. We expect these modifications and the software that was created as a by-product of this thesis to ease the researchers' work by automating the previously laborious manual work

Epik Platform - Design and Development of Interactive Puzzles as an Educational Activity

Nowadays, many types of games are used as an educational tool, capturing more easily students attention by keeping them interested in the lectured topics, which accelerates the learning process and provides collaborative learning in an entertaining way. Puzzle games in specific are one of the most used games for educational purposes due to its variety of formats, themes, and logics to solve them, having an adjustable difficulty according to students capacity of problem solving, with the view of developing these capacities. Despite this gain of popularity, there are not a lot of options regarding computacional platforms to develop educational games. The Epik Platform consists in a web-based framework dedicated to the management of didactic contents and development of educational games. With this platform, the creation and edition of games turned to the educational environment is quite simplified, which makes it a good option for this purpose [1]. However, this platform’s games only include quiz type activities of multiple choices, true or false and matching, not offering much variety for the users to work with. Having this in mind, the development of interactive puzzle activities of different types, which is the main objective of this thesis, will allow the extension of the range of activities available in the set of games at the Epik platform. To be able to develop the interactive puzzle activities, a study must be done so that the right framework is selected according to the needs and limitations of development. With the addition of this new type of activity, the users will be able to develop their own interactive puzzles according to the three different puzzle games included, each one having a specific development environment for it. Overall, the platform will now be able to provide games performing a group of activities of different kinds in the same game, making it more appealing for the users. At a global level, this dissertation is inserted on the project ’Restructure, Flexibilize and Update the Epik Platform’, which aims to reimplement, extend and restructure features of the Epik platform, whose development was made for a previous master thesis by a student (Bruno Sampaio) [2]

How Foot Tracking Matters: The Impact of an Animated Self-Avatar on Interaction, Embodiment and Presence in Shared Virtual Environments

The use of a self-avatar representation in head-mounted displays has been shown to have important effects on user behavior. However, relatively few studies focus on feet and legs. We implemented a shared virtual reality for consumer virtual reality systems where each user could be represented by a gender-matched self-avatar controlled by multiple trackers. The self-avatar allowed users to see their feet, legs and part of their torso when they looked down. We implemented an experiment where participants worked together to solve jigsaw puzzles. Participants experienced either no-avatar, a self-avatar with floating feet, or a self-avatar with tracked feet, in a between-subjects manipulation. First, we found that participants could solve the puzzle more quickly with self-avatars than without self-avatars; but there was no significant difference between the latter two conditions, solely on task completion time. Second, we found participants with tracked feet placed their feet statistically significantly closer to obstacles than participants with floating feet, whereas participants who did not have a self-avatar usually ignored obstacles. Our post-experience questionnaire results confirmed that the use of a self-avatar has important effects on presence and interaction. Together the results show that although the impact of animated legs might be subtle, it does change how users behave around obstacles. This could have important implications for the design of virtual spaces for applications such as training or behavioral analysis

The threshold for jigsaw percolation on random graphs

Jigsaw percolation is a model for the process of solving puzzles within a social network, which was recently proposed by Brummitt, Chatterjee, Dey and Sivakoff. In the model there are two graphs on a single vertex set (the `people' graph and the `puzzle' graph), and vertices merge to form components if they are joined by an edge of each graph. These components then merge to form larger components if again there is an edge of each graph joining them, and so on. Percolation is said to occur if the process terminates with a single component containing every vertex. In this note we determine the threshold for percolation up to a constant factor, in the case where both graphs are Erd\H{o}s--R\'enyi random graphs.Comment: 13 page

ROTOЯ Review

The ROTOЯ partnership between Huddersfield Art Gallery and the University of Huddersfield was established in 2011. ROTOЯ I and II was a programme of eight exhibitions and accompanying events that commenced in 2012 and was completed in 2013. ROTOЯ continues into 2014 and the programme for 2015 and 2016 is already firmly underway. In brief, the aim of ROTOЯ is to improve the cultural vitality of Kirklees, expand audiences, and provide new ways for people to engage with and understand academic research in contemporary art and design. Why ROTOЯ , Why Now? As Vice Chancellors position their institutions’ identities and future trajectories in context to national and international league tables, Professor John Goddard1 proposes the notion of the ‘civic’ university as a ‘place embedded’ institution; one that is committed to ‘place making’ and which recognises its responsibility to engaging with the public. The civic university has deep institutional connections to different social, cultural and economic spheres within its locality and beyond. A fundamental question for both the university sector and cultural organisations alike, including local authority, is how the many different articulations of public engagement and cultural leadership which exist can be brought together to form one coherent, common language. It is critical that we reach out and engage the community so we can participate in local issues, impact upon society, help to forge well-being and maintain a robust cultural economy. Within the lexicon of public centered objectives sits the Arts Council England’s strategic goals, and those of the Arts and Humanities Research Council – in particular its current Cultural Value initiative. What these developments reveal is that art and design education and professional practice, its projected oeuvre as well as its relationship to cultural life and public funding, is now challenged with having to comprehensively audit its usefulness in financially austere times. It was in the wake of these concerns coming to light, and of the 2010 Government Spending Review that ROTOЯ was conceived. These issues and the discussions surrounding them are not completely new. Research into the social benefits of the arts, for both the individual and the community, was championed by the Community Arts Movement in the 1960s. During the 1980s and ‘90s, John Myerscough and Janet Wolff, amongst others, provided significant debate on the role and value of the arts in the public domain. What these discussions demonstrated was a growing concern that the cultural sector could not, and should not, be understood in terms of economic benefit alone. Thankfully, the value of the relationships between art, education, culture and society is now recognised as being far more complex than the reductive quantification of their market and GDP benefits. Writing in ‘Art School (Propositions for the 21st Century)’, Ernesto Pujol proposes:‘…it is absolutely crucial that art schools consider their institutional role in support of democracy. The history of creative expression is linked to the history of freedom. There is a link between the state of artistic expression and the state of democracy.’ When we were approached by Huddersfield Art Gallery to work collaboratively on an exhibition programme that could showcase academic staff research, one of our first concerns was to ask the question, how can we really contribute to cultural leadership within the town?’ The many soundbite examples of public engagement that we might underline within our annual reports or website news are one thing, but what really makes a difference to a town’s cultural identity, and what affects people in their daily lives? With these questions in mind we sought a distinctive programme within the muncipal gallery space, that would introduce academic research in art, design and architecture beyond the university in innovative ways