Dagstuhl News January - December 2011

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic

CLiC-it 2017: A Retrospective

The Fourth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics (CLiC-it 2017) took place in Rome, in December 2017. As in previous editions, it served as the prime forum in Italy for discussing research in computational linguistics and Natural Language Processing. As General Chairs, we offer a retrospective over the conference, highlighting its international flavour and its attention to students and young researchers, with a particular focus on the innovations that were introduced at the 2017 edition

Present status and perceived importance of computer skills in a Taiwanese service industry

The purpose of this study was to provide researchers,computer technologists, management and trainers with information concerning the current status and importance regarding computer skills for agents in the Taiwanese life insurance industry. In addition to identifying important computer skills for this population, this research investigated differences in perceptions of computer directors (major computer system developers), sales managers(major training providers), and life insurance agents(computer end-users) regarding the current status and importance of computer skills for life insurance agents. Survey instruments were developed through the literature review as well as through expert interviews and validations. Investigated samples include all 30 computer directors of member companies of the Taipei Life Insurance Association, 200 randomly selected members of the General Agents and Managers Association, and 400 randomly selected members of the Life Underwriters Association in Taiwan. A 55.2% usable return rate was reached. Based on the data analysis, 49 important skills were identified in 8 categories including basic computer skills, database management, spreadsheet, word processing, communication, presentation, computer-based training, and artificial intelligence. Using a five-point Likert Scale,the means for importance level were found to be between 3 (moderate) and 4 (fairly high): 3.29 from agents, 3.71 from sales managers, and 3.59 from computer directors. The mean for levels of current expertise were between 2 (low) and 3 (moderate): 2.38 from agents, 2.60 from sales managers, and2.46 from computer directors. One-way ANOVAs at the .05 level were used to detect the existence of differences of perceptions among the three groups. The Fisher\u27s Least Significant Difference Procedure (three t-tests at the .01 level) was used for all significant ANOVAs found in previous stages to identify the significant differences between each two groups. The majority of significant differences, 28 out of 49 regarding importance level and 8 out of 49 regarding level of expertise, were found between sales managers and agents; 4 significant differences concerning importance level and 1 concerning level of expertise were found between sales managers and computer directors; only 4 items related to importance level were found significantly different between agents and computer directors. However, the ranking of both levels of importance and expertise showed more consensus between agents and sales managers than agents and computer directors. However, because of the difference in sample sizes, this finding should be interpreted with caution

SciTech News Volume 71, No. 3 (2017)

Columns and Reports From the Editor.........................3 Division News Science-Technology Division....5 Chemistry Division....................8 Conference Report, Marion E, Sparks Professional Development Award Recipient..9 Engineering Division................10 Engineering Division Award, Winners Reflect on their Conference Experience..15 Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division .....18 Architecture, Building Engineering, Construction, and Design Section of the Engineering Division................20 Reviews Sci-Tech Book News Reviews...22 Advertisements IEEE..........................................

Dagstuhl News January - December 2000

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic

Computational thinking: an investigation of the existing scholarship and research

2013 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Despite the prevalence of computing and technology in our everyday lives and in almost every discipline and profession, student interest and enrollment in computer science courses is declining. In response, computer science education in K-12 schools and universities is undergoing a transformation. Computational thinking has been proposed as a universal way of thinking with benefits for everyone, not just computer scientists. The focus on computational thinking moves beyond computer literacy, or the familiarity with software, to a way of thinking that benefits everyone. Many see computational thinking as a way to introduce students to computer science concepts and ways of thinking and to motivate student interest in computer science. The first part of this dissertation describes a study in which the researcher systematically examined the literature and scholarship on computational thinking since 2006. The aim was to explore nature and extent of the entire body of literature and to examine the theory and research evidence on computational thinking. Findings reveal that there has been a steady increase in the popularity of the concept of computational thinking, but it is not yet developed to the point where it can be studied in a meaningful way. An examination of the research evidence on computational thinking found inadequacies in the conceptual characteristics and the reporting of studies. Weaknesses were identified in the theoretical conceptualization of interventions, definitions of key concepts, intervention descriptions, research designs, and the presentation of findings. Recommendations for bolstering the research evidence around this burgeoning concept are presented, including collaboration between computer scientists and educational researchers to apply social science research methods to conduct robust studies of computational thinking interventions. The second part of this dissertation describes how computational thinking is currently incorporated into K-12 educational settings. The bulk of the literature on computational thinking describes ways in which programs promote this way of thinking in students. The K-12 programs that encourage computational thinking are classified, described, and discussed in a way that is intended to be meaningful for K-12 educators and educational researchers. Potential barriers and factors that might enable educators to use each category of interventions are discussed

Contexts and Contributions: Building the Distributed Library

This report updates and expands on A Survey of Digital Library Aggregation Services, originally commissioned by the DLF as an internal report in summer 2003, and released to the public later that year. It highlights major developments affecting the ecosystem of scholarly communications and digital libraries since the last survey and provides an analysis of OAI implementation demographics, based on a comparative review of repository registries and cross-archive search services. Secondly, it reviews the state-of-practice for a cohort of digital library aggregation services, grouping them in the context of the problem space to which they most closely adhere. Based in part on responses collected in fall 2005 from an online survey distributed to the original core services, the report investigates the purpose, function and challenges of next-generation aggregation services. On a case-by-case basis, the advances in each service are of interest in isolation from each other, but the report also attempts to situate these services in a larger context and to understand how they fit into a multi-dimensional and interdependent ecosystem supporting the worldwide community of scholars. Finally, the report summarizes the contributions of these services thus far and identifies obstacles requiring further attention to realize the goal of an open, distributed digital library system

Interim research assessment 2003-2005 - Computer Science

This report primarily serves as a source of information for the 2007 Interim Research Assessment Committee for Computer Science at the three technical universities in the Netherlands. The report also provides information for others interested in our research activities