The Echo: March 13, 2020

TU reaches COVID-19 decision – Three varsity sports cut from athletics – Update to Zondervan Library – Super Tuesday results – Business as missions to Costa Rica – Hot to plan a cheaper spring break -- #TaylorU’s Top Tweets – Airband coordinators prepare their teams for competition – The Weekly Bachelor and Bachelorette – Sudoku – KenKen – True Confessions – Jut how smart are you? New club opens Taylor campus to esports – Dystopian series focuses on faith and the value of life – Pixar journeys ‘Onward’ with new animated modern fantasy – A&E Events – Coming to Taylor – Artist renders reflections of homes – To Catch A Mantis: A creative nonfiction flash piece – Our View – A closer look at the Taylor Clery report – The Taylor Spaceship Building – Primacy of Christian Celibacy – Women’s basketball season comes to a close – Sports across the globe halted by coronavirus craze – Waters resigns as track head coach – Crossroads League Standings – NAIA cancels all winter championships – Weekly Preview – Track and Field competes in Nationals – Coronavirus precautions grow – Scoreboard – Athletes of the Weekhttps://pillars.taylor.edu/echo-2019-2020/1017/thumbnail.jp

A Survey of Smart Classroom Literature

Recently, there has been a substantial amount of research on smart classrooms, encompassing a number of areas, including Information and Communication Technology, Machine Learning, Sensor Networks, Cloud Computing, and Hardware. Smart classroom research has been quickly implemented to enhance education systems, resulting in higher engagement and empowerment of students, educators, and administrators. Despite decades of using emerging technology to improve teaching practices, critics often point out that methods miss adequate theoretical and technical foundations. As a result, there have been a number of conflicting reviews on different perspectives of smart classrooms. For a realistic smart classroom approach, a piecemeal implementation is insufficient. This survey contributes to the current literature by presenting a comprehensive analysis of various disciplines using a standard terminology and taxonomy. This multi-field study reveals new research possibilities and problems that must be tackled in order to integrate interdisciplinary works in a synergic manner. Our analysis shows that smart classroom is a rapidly developing research area that complements a number of emerging technologies. Moreover, this paper also describes the co-occurrence network of technological keywords using VOSviewer for an in-depth analysis

Guide for Teaching Faculty, 2018-2019

The intention of the Guide for Teaching Faculty is to ensure that all faculty members have the requisite knowledge about University policies, procedures, and services to effectively carry out their instructional assignments

Penerapan Teknologi Imersif pada Axioo Class Program di jenjang SMK

Revolusi 4.0 membuat kemajuan di segala aspek, baik sosial, ekonomi, budaya, bahkan pendidikan, yang sangat terlihat adalah berkembangnya teknologi di semua aspek. Banyak aspek selalu menggunakan teknologi, seperti pendidikan dimana para pengajar sekarang memanfaatkan teknologi untuk berlangsungnya proses pembelajaran, ini memberi kesempatan kepada perusahaan teknologi untuk membantu proses terjadinya tujuan pembelajaran bahkan pendidikan, salah satunya adalah perusahaan axioo yang bekerja sama dengan sekolah-sekolah, khususnya SMK untuk mendesain kelas yang di dalamnya menggunakan teknologi saat proses pembelajaran, bahkan memberikan kesempatan kepada para siswa untuk mencoba merakit perangkat elektronik seperti komputer, laptop dan sebagainya. Kata Kunci: Axioo; Axioo Class Program; Smartclass   Abstract Revolution 4.0 made progress in all aspects, both social, economic, cultural, even education, that is so obvious is that the development of technology in almost every aspect has always been technology, like education where teachers now utilize technology to help the learning process, giving technology the opportunity to help the purpose of learning even education. One of them is axioo companies that work with schools, particularly Vocational School to design classes that inside use technology during the learning process, even giving students the opportunity to try to assemble electronic devices like computers, laptops, etc

Online source separation in reverberant environments exploiting known speaker locations

This thesis concerns blind source separation techniques using second order statistics and higher order statistics for reverberant environments. A focus of the thesis is algorithmic simplicity with a view to the algorithms being implemented in their online forms. The main challenge of blind source separation applications is to handle reverberant acoustic environments; a further complication is changes in the acoustic environment such as when human speakers physically move. A novel time-domain method which utilises a pair of finite impulse response filters is proposed. The method of principle angles is defined which exploits a singular value decomposition for their design. The pair of filters are implemented within a generalised sidelobe canceller structure, thus the method can be considered as a beamforming method which cancels one source. An adaptive filtering stage is then employed to recover the remaining source, by exploiting the output of the beamforming stage as a noise reference. A common approach to blind source separation is to use methods that use higher order statistics such as independent component analysis. When dealing with realistic convolutive audio and speech mixtures, processing in the frequency domain at each frequency bin is required. As a result this introduces the permutation problem, inherent in independent component analysis, across the frequency bins. Independent vector analysis directly addresses this issue by modeling the dependencies between frequency bins, namely making use of a source vector prior. An alternative source prior for real-time (online) natural gradient independent vector analysis is proposed. A Student's t probability density function is known to be more suited for speech sources, due to its heavier tails, and is incorporated into a real-time version of natural gradient independent vector analysis. The final algorithm is realised as a real-time embedded application on a floating point Texas Instruments digital signal processor platform. Moving sources, along with reverberant environments, cause significant problems in realistic source separation systems as mixing filters become time variant. A method which employs the pair of cancellation filters, is proposed to cancel one source coupled with an online natural gradient independent vector analysis technique to improve average separation performance in the context of step-wise moving sources. This addresses `dips' in performance when sources move. Results show the average convergence time of the performance parameters is improved. Online methods introduced in thesis are tested using impulse responses measured in reverberant environments, demonstrating their robustness and are shown to perform better than established methods in a variety of situations

Video Conferencing Technology for Distance Learning in Saudi Arabia: Current Problems, Feasible Solutions and Developing an Innovative Interactive Communication System based on Internet and wifi Technology for Communication Enhancement

Context: In Saudi Arabia, distance-learning plays a vital role in the female higher education system. This system is considered unique among all the world’s countries because, for religious reasons, intermixing of the genders is not allowed within most educational settings in Saudi society. This system is currently facing a problem with an overflow of female students in higher educational institutions as these institutions suffer from a lack of female faculty members. To resolve this problem, all universities in Saudi Arabia utilise synchronous distance learning technologies such as video and audio conferences technologies for the delivery of subjects by male faculty members to female students, as this is the only authorised way for male faculty to teach female students. Although this method has been used in Saudi Arabia continuously since 1970, no study has addressed the perceptions of female students, regarding the problems they face whilst studying, through such technologies or proposed any solution for these problems. Aim: The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of female students at King Saud University regarding the difficulties and barriers they encounter in the distance learning classrooms that use video conferencing technology. This study also proposes feasible solutions for the most common problems. It has developed an innovative interactive communication system, CommEasy, based on the internet and Wi-Fi technologies for handheld devices and uses this system to enhance communication and participation in distance learning. Method: The research questions are answered by applying a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches that have been selected according to the nature of the research. A case study research design was chosen to address all the research questions related to KSU. Identifying the perceptions of female students about the problems they encounter in distance learning classrooms was gathered through a questionnaire with five main parts: classroom physical design, classroom physical features, technical support, communication and participation with male instructors and classroom management. Each part used a number of questions to measure the students' perceptions and the students were asked to respond to each question using a five-point Likert scale. Proposing feasible solutions for the problems reported by students required using a mixture of methods, such as observations, structured interviews and surveys. An incremental software development approach was used to develop the CommEasy tool that was used in this thesis and the quasi-experimental method was used to evaluate this tool in the actual learning environment. Results: The results of the thesis presented the perceptions of students towards the components of the distance-learning classrooms and showed all the satisfactory and unsatisfactory components. It produced a list of strategies for effective designing of the distance-learning classroom that uses video conference technology, produced a new physical design for the distance-learning classrooms that used video conference technologies, provided a set of feasible solutions for the problems identified and finally, showed that the CommEasy system has a positive impact, in supporting communication in the distance-learning classroom, leading to an increased level of student participation with instructors, as well as solving most of the problems students were faced with in this regard. Conclusions: in summary, the outcome of this thesis should provide both researchers and decision makers with an insight into the problems facing students in distance-learning, as well as providing them with feasible solutions for these problems. This thesis will serve as a basis for further research in this field to be conducted in Saudi Arabia

The dawn of the human-machine era: a forecast of new and emerging language technologies

New language technologies are coming, thanks to the huge and competing private investment fuelling rapid progress; we can either understand and foresee their effects, or be taken by surprise and spend our time trying to catch up. This report scketches out some transformative new technologies that are likely to fundamentally change our use of language. Some of these may feel unrealistically futuristic or far-fetched, but a central purpose of this report - and the wider LITHME network - is to illustrate that these are mostly just the logical development and maturation of technologies currently in prototype. But will everyone benefit from all these shiny new gadgets? Throughout this report we emphasise a range of groups who will be disadvantaged and issues of inequality. Important issues of security and privacy will accompany new language technologies. A further caution is to re-emphasise the current limitations of AI. Looking ahead, we see many intriguing opportunities and new capabilities, but a range of other uncertainties and inequalities. New devices will enable new ways to talk, to translate, to remember, and to learn. But advances in technology will reproduce existing inequalities among those who cannot afford these devices, among the world's smaller languages, and especially for sign language. Debates over privacy and security will flare and crackle with every new immersive gadget. We will move together into this curious new world with a mix of excitement and apprehension - reacting, debating, sharing and disagreeing as we always do. Plug in, as the human-machine era dawn

Inaudible acoustics: Techniques and applications

This dissertation is focused on developing a sub-area of acoustics that we call inaudible acoustics. We have developed two core capabilities, (1) BackDoor and (2) Ripple, and demonstrated their use in various mobile and IoT applications. In BackDoor, we synthesize ultrasound signals that are inaudible to humans yet naturally recordable by all microphones. Importantly, the microphone does not require any modification, enabling billions of microphone-enabled devices, including phones, laptops, voice assistants, and IoT devices, to leverage the capability. Example applications include acoustic data beacons, acoustic watermarking, and spy-microphone jamming. In Ripple, we develop modulation and sensing techniques for vibratory signals that traverse through solid surfaces, enabling a new form of secure proximal communication. Applications of the vibratory communication system include on-body communication through imperceptible physical vibrations and device-device secure data transfer through physical contacts. Our prototypes include an inaudible jammer that secures private conversations from electronic eavesdropping, acoustic beacons for location-based information sharing, and vibratory communication in a smart-ring sending password through a finger touch. Our research also uncovers new security threats to acoustic devices. While simple abuse of inaudible jammer can disable hearing aids and cell phones, our work shows that voice interfaces, such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, Siri, etc., can be compromised through carefully designed inaudible voice commands. The contributions of this dissertation can be summarized in three primitives: (1) exploiting inherent hardware nonlinearity for sensing out-of-band signals, (2) developing the vibratory communication system for secure touch-based data exchange, and (3) structured information reconstruction from noisy acoustic signals. In developing these primitives, we draw from principles in wireless networking, digital communications, signal processing, and embedded design and translate them to completely functional systems