Multi-man flight simulator

A prototype Air Traffic Control facility and multiman flight simulator facility was designed and one of the component simulators fabricated as a proof of concept. The facility was designed to provide a number of independent simple simulator cabs that would have the capability of some local, stand alone processing that would in turn interface with a larger host computer. The system can accommodate up to eight flight simulators (commercially available instrument trainers) which could be operated stand alone if no graphics were required or could operate in a common simulated airspace if connected to the host computer. A proposed addition to the original design is the capability of inputing pilot inputs and quantities displayed on the flight and navigation instruments to the microcomputer when the simulator operates in the stand alone mode to allow independent use of these commercially available instrument trainers for research. The conceptual design of the system and progress made to date on its implementation are described

Designing for a Repository of Virtual Crisis Management Tabletop Exercises – Lessons Learned from a Scandinavian R&D Project

Crisis training exercises play a vital role in preparing local and regional governments for the management of crises and disasters. Unfortunately, conducting sufficient training is demanding, especially in small municipalities, due to constrained time and personnel resources, but also complex planning and scheduling of the dominant on-site training methods. Virtual training has been suggested as a resource-efficient and flexible complement. However, despite numerous specifications of digital technology for training, research on organisational implementation and usage is lacking, indicating a low uptake. This article presents a cross-border R&D effort to facilitate the digitalisation of crisis management training by developing generic virtual tabletop exercises (VTTXs) to be shared via a repository, and (re-)used in, and adapted for, diverse contexts. The purpose of this article is to identify essential aspects in designing and conducting virtual tabletop exercises (VTTXs) for collaborative crisis management training

Essential Design Elements for Successful Online Courses

This article describes a study of how students perceive and interact with web-based education, with the intent of improving the experience. In particular, the study aimed to understand how undergraduate students learn classical geological laboratory ideas and skills through activity-based instruction via the internet. The focus of this case study was an embryonic web-based course in introductory geology. Over the 2-year study the website expanded and improved iteratively based on feedback from students each term. The study was descriptive in nature and was intended to discover the basic nature of an effective website, regardless of its complexity. The authors suggest several basic rules for pedagogical design of online courses. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

How blockchain impacts cloud-based system performance: a case study for a groupware communication application

This paper examines the performance trade-off when implementing a blockchain architecture for a cloud-based groupware communication application. We measure the additional cloud-based resources and performance costs of the overhead required to implement a groupware collaboration system over a blockchain architecture. To evaluate our groupware application, we develop measuring instruments for testing scalability and performance of computer systems deployed as cloud computing applications. While some details of our groupware collaboration application have been published in earlier work, in this paper we reflect on a generalized measuring method for blockchain-enabled applications which may in turn lead to a general methodology for testing cloud-based system performance and scalability using blockchain. Response time and transaction throughput metrics are collected for the blockchain implementation against the non-blockchain implementation and some conclusions are drawn about the additional resources that a blockchain architecture for a groupware collaboration application impose

Survey on Combinatorial Register Allocation and Instruction Scheduling

Register allocation (mapping variables to processor registers or memory) and instruction scheduling (reordering instructions to increase instruction-level parallelism) are essential tasks for generating efficient assembly code in a compiler. In the last three decades, combinatorial optimization has emerged as an alternative to traditional, heuristic algorithms for these two tasks. Combinatorial optimization approaches can deliver optimal solutions according to a model, can precisely capture trade-offs between conflicting decisions, and are more flexible at the expense of increased compilation time. This paper provides an exhaustive literature review and a classification of combinatorial optimization approaches to register allocation and instruction scheduling, with a focus on the techniques that are most applied in this context: integer programming, constraint programming, partitioned Boolean quadratic programming, and enumeration. Researchers in compilers and combinatorial optimization can benefit from identifying developments, trends, and challenges in the area; compiler practitioners may discern opportunities and grasp the potential benefit of applying combinatorial optimization