Reconfigurable phased microstrip antenna array with defected ground structure and defected microstrip structure for beam steering application

Beam steering is defined as the ability to electronically steer the beam maximum of an antenna electric field pattern to some predefined point in space. The performance of a phased antenna array for beam steering without moving the antennas is important to military and civil applications. A steerable antenna with tunable phase shifter continues to be a popular choice to provide such systems. However, this additional device makes the structure more complicated, bulky and it represent a great part of the production cost of a phased array antenna. Therefore, it creates new challenges to find an alternative approach. This work proposed two alternative approaches to steer the main beam. The first is based on a defected ground structure (DGS), while the second is a defected microstrip structure (DMS), which due to their slow wave effect and band-stop property, are able to disturb surface current distribution, then change the element phase and hence steer the main beam. This work started with investigating and applying new method for beam steering based on using DGS and DMS, where this reflects the first objective. As a second objective, this work proposed new approach for beam steering, where DGS is integrated between two patches for the bandwidth within X-band. The simulated results revealed the achievement of the target to steer the main beam to 50° along H-plane. For the third objective, a spiral antenna array (SAA) has been proposed, and it was observed that the best choice for selecting feed network for feeding circular antenna array is a common sequential feed network (SFN), which has a circular shape with four ports to feed four elements. In order to increase the number of ports and hence design suitable feed network for feeding SAA, this study proposed new spiral sequential feed network (SSFN). As a dual structure of DGS, and compared with DGS, DMS is of great advantage in design due to its reduced size and the feature of electromagnetic interference noise immunity. Furthermore, DMS has higher effective inductance compared to DGS. Therefore, this work proposed new reconfigurable SAA with DMS fed by SSFN within C-band. The simulated results showed the achievement of the target to steer the main beam to 61° and 84° along E-plane and H-plane, respectively. Furthermore, as the last objective, a new approach was proposed for extracting equivalent circuit model for DGS with dual patches, SSFN and SAA. Two prototypes of dual patches with and without DGS, SSFN and two prototypes of SAA with DMS were fabricated for scattering parameter and far-field radiation pattern measurements. The results showed close agreement with the predicted results, where array with DGS confirmed a beam steering of 36° along H-plane, while SAA with DMS displayed 45° beam steering along E-plane, respectively. Future works will focus on increasing the array gain and reducing the array beam width which will give a clear vision for beam steering of array

Contributions of online social networks for e-learning

The emergence of Web 2.0 offers users the opportunity to not only see but also introduce new content and interact with the authors of original content and other users. The structure of the Web 2.0 offers an online space for groups of people with common interests to share experiences and information. Today, websites such as online social networks are extremely well known worldwide, with more users each day. The concept of Web 2.0 is based on these sites, encouraging the creation of collaborative environments of sharing among its users. Such concepts are extremely interesting when applied in an academic environment. The use of e-learning platforms have become widespread, however, such systems tend to be mostly mere repositories of content and are not stimulant systems for students. Concepts such as community, relationship and sharing, present in online social networks will be important in shaping the learning process of the student, making him an active element in this process by encouraging his critical spirit and his ability to solve problems

CRUD On The Web Pedagogical Modules For Web-Based Data Access

The growing popularity of Internet-enabled commerce has produced increased demand for Information Technology (IT) professionals who are skilled in the development and management of data-driven, Web-based business applications. Many academic programs in information systems offer courses on relational database design and management, as well as courses on Web development using technologies such as PHP or Microsofts ASP.NET. However, such courses typically contain independent content, which tends to leave students with a fragmented understanding of how these technologies (i.e. the Web and relational databases) interact. In this paper, we present integrated instructional modules for teaching best practices in connecting advanced Web applications with a relational database backend. The objective of these modules is to provide students with a seamless context for developing both a relational database and a Web interface supporting database transactions

Design and implementation of a software agent platform applied in E-learning and course management

Text in English; Abstract: English and TurkishIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 86-89)xi, 115 leavesIn this thesis, we report an experience on constructing a software agent platform for development and implementation of software agent systems running with integrated e-learning and course management applications which are developed and running under different technologies. The proposed platform consists of an agent development framework namely JADE (Java Agent Development Environmet), a common database infrastructure serving to many different applications and the applications infrastructure running on different platforms. An example e-university application module which is an integrated course management software running on the proposed platform namely Course ON-LINE and an agent application running as an add-on utility to this application namely GAIA is explained in detail to demonstrate the use of the proposed application.Bu çalışmada farklı teknolojiler kullanılarak geliştirilen ve farklı platformlarda çalıştırılmakta olan ve tümleşik yapıdaki uzaktan eğtim ve ders yönetimi araçları uygulamalarla birlikte çalışabilecek yazılım etmen sistemlerinin geliştirilebilmesini sağlayan bir yazılım geliştirme ve çalıştırma ortamı inşa etme deneyimi aktarılmıştır. Önerilen ortam JADE (Java Agent Development Environmet), isimli bir etmen geliştirme aracı, etmen sistemleri dahil tüm uygulamaların ortak kullandıkları bir veritabanı altyapısı, ve farklı ortamlarda çalışan ve farklı teknolojilerle geliştirilmiş uygulamaların altyapısından oluşmaktadır. Önerilen ortamın kullanılışını göstermek için tümleşik ders web sayfaları yönetim aracı olan ve e-üniversite uygulamalarının bir parçası olan Course ON-LINE ve onunla birlikte çalışan bir yazılım etmeni uygulaması olan GAIA uygulamaları detaylıca sunulmuştur

Web application for the Mentoring academy program

Mentoring Academy is a program which aims to integrate students of Instituto Politécnico de Bragança in the academy through peer mentoring and peer tutoring. This program needed an application that permits its execution. Motivated by this demand, we aimed at proposing a web application that complies with the Mentoring Academy requirements. The system requirements were defined together with the program stakeholders. Based on the literature review, we opted for the technologies ASP.NET Core and MySQL, for the backend, and Angular 6, for the frontend. Subsequently, the system architecture was planned. SCRUM methodology was used in the application development, with biweekly meetings with the stakeholders to evaluate what was done and to define the efforts for the following fortnight. Eighteen features were developed and presented, including assigning mentors and tutors to new students, scheduling meetings, generating graphics with information about the students, notifications made by the system and importing new users. Finally, the system was deployed on a Linux server provided by the Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão de Bragança, allowing it to be tested and later used by the Mentoring Academy users. Approximately 61% of the functional requirements defined in the system modeling were developed (44 out of 72) and some functionalities not previously defined were also implemented. The units tests developed for the web application proved promising in terms of components generation and HTTP request services, both exception-free. That said, the system provides students’ integration, permitting them to have socio-academic inclusion and support in curricular units.Mentoring Academy é um programa que visa a integração de estudantes do ensino superior do Instituto Politécnico de Bragança por meio de mentoria e tutoria em pares. Esse programa necessitava de uma aplicação que viabilize sua execução. Motivado por essa demanda, o objetivo deste trabalho é propor uma aplicação web que atenda aos requisitos do Mentoring Academy. Em conjunto com os stakeholders do programa, os requisitos do sistema foram definidos. Com base na revisão bibliográfica, optou-se pelas tecnologias ASP.NET Core e Angular 6. O desenvolvimento da aplicação ocorreu nos moldes da metodologia SCRUM, com reuniões quinzenais com os stakeholders para avaliar o que foi feito e definir os esforços da quinzena seguinte. Dezoito funcionalidades foram desenvolvidas e apresentadas, dentre elas atribuição de mentores e tutores aos novos alunos, marcação de reuniões, geração de gráficos com informações sobre os alunos e importação de novos utilizadores. Por fim, o deploy do sistema ocorreu em um servidor Linux disponibilizado pela Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão de Bragança, permitindo que ele fosse testado e posteriormente usado pelos utilizadores do Mentoring Academy. 44 dos 72 requisitos funcionais definidos na modelagem do sistema foram desenvolvidos. Também foram desenvolvidas algumas funcionalidades não definidas anteriormente. Os testes de unidade desenvolvidos para o aplicativo web mostraram-se promissores em termos de geração de componentes e serviços para requisições HTTP, ambos livres de exceções. Posto isso, o sistema fornece um meio de integração de estudantes, permitindo-lhes ter inclusão socio-académica e apoio em unidades curriculares.Dupla diplomação com o Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerai

E-Classroom for an Underserved Institution

The E-Class Room system is a web based project. An educational institution in India is understaffed and has limited interaction among faculty, student and industry experts. The project is to provide an online platform for the students and faculty of the institution to enhance their educational needs and to share their learning with their fellow students, faculty or industrial experts. It aims to provide a platform for mutual cooperation between different kinds of learning. The new system will provide directional way for online learning between faculty, student and industrial experts

WARP : speeding up the software development process

Estágio realizado na Qimonda Portugal, S. ATese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informátca e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Improving Connectivity Between Members and Alumni of Alpha Pi Mu

The purpose of this project was to solve the problems of a lack of connectivity between the current members and alumni of Alpha Pi Mu, as well as the lack of incentives for prospective members to join the club. These problems were solved by creating a website that allowed current members to be able to view the complete work experiences of alumni and provided a way to reach out to those alumni directly to network with them. The agile project management system was used to develop the website and helped to successfully complete all of our design requirements listed in the following report well and on time. After thorough user testing, the result of the project was a clean, user-friendly website that will help members of Alpha Pi Mu network with alumni for years to come

ClipFlair, Audiovisual Translation and Computer Assisted Language Learning: beyond the four-walled classroom

89 p. : il.The purpose of this thesis is to present ClipFlair, a European-funded project aimed at providing a user-friendly, easily accessible online platform to learn foreign languages through captioning and revoicing activities. In order to understand why it was necessary to create a platform like ClipFlair, the thesis will also introduce a theoretical review of the role of translation in the foreign language classroom, gauging ClipFlair against the main theories and contributions on the field. The focus will be on the research fields with which ClipFlair is related: a) translation in language teaching (TILT); b) audiovisual translation (AVT) and the use of captioning and revoicing as a passive and active foreign language learning practice; and d) computer assisted language learning (CALL), since ClipFlair is a CALL pedagogical environment