Cloudbus Toolkit for Market-Oriented Cloud Computing

This keynote paper: (1) presents the 21st century vision of computing and identifies various IT paradigms promising to deliver computing as a utility; (2) defines the architecture for creating market-oriented Clouds and computing atmosphere by leveraging technologies such as virtual machines; (3) provides thoughts on market-based resource management strategies that encompass both customer-driven service management and computational risk management to sustain SLA-oriented resource allocation; (4) presents the work carried out as part of our new Cloud Computing initiative, called Cloudbus: (i) Aneka, a Platform as a Service software system containing SDK (Software Development Kit) for construction of Cloud applications and deployment on private or public Clouds, in addition to supporting market-oriented resource management; (ii) internetworking of Clouds for dynamic creation of federated computing environments for scaling of elastic applications; (iii) creation of 3rd party Cloud brokering services for building content delivery networks and e-Science applications and their deployment on capabilities of IaaS providers such as Amazon along with Grid mashups; (iv) CloudSim supporting modelling and simulation of Clouds for performance studies; (v) Energy Efficient Resource Allocation Mechanisms and Techniques for creation and management of Green Clouds; and (vi) pathways for future research.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, Conference pape

e-Skills: The International dimension and the Impact of Globalisation - Final Report 2014

In today’s increasingly knowledge-based economies, new information and communication technologies are a key engine for growth fuelled by the innovative ideas of highly - skilled workers. However, obtaining adequate quantities of employees with the necessary e-skills is a challenge. This is a growing international problem with many countries having an insufficient numbers of workers with the right e-Skills. For example: Australia: “Even though there’s 10,000 jobs a year created in IT, there are only 4500 students studying IT at university, and not all of them graduate” (Talevski and Osman, 2013). Brazil: “Brazil’s ICT sector requires about 78,000 [new] people by 2014. But, according to Brasscom, there are only 33,000 youths studying ICT related courses in the country” (Ammachchi, 2012). Canada: “It is widely acknowledged that it is becoming inc reasingly difficult to recruit for a variety of critical ICT occupations –from entry level to seasoned” (Ticoll and Nordicity, 2012). Europe: It is estimated that there will be an e-skills gap within Europe of up to 900,000 (main forecast scenario) ICT pr actitioners by 2020” (Empirica, 2014). Japan: It is reported that 80% of IT and user companies report an e-skills shortage (IPA, IT HR White Paper, 2013) United States: “Unlike the fiscal cliff where we are still peering over the edge, we careened over the “IT Skills Cliff” some years ago as our economy digitalized, mobilized and further “technologized”, and our IT skilled labour supply failed to keep up” (Miano, 2013)

Causes of Gender Digital Divide in Ebonyi State and Its Possible Solutions

Digital divide describes a gap between those who have access to information and communication technology and the skills to make use of the technology and those who do not have the access or skills to its use within a geographic area, society, community or a specified group of people. Empirical studies clearly show that women in the developing world have significantly lower technology participation rates than men; as a result of entrenched socio-cultural attitudes about the role of women in society. In this, Ebonyi state has her own share as one of the states in one of the developing countries ­- Nigeria. However, as studies are beginning to show, when those women are able to engage with Internet technology, a wide range of personal, family and community benefits become possible. This seminar gives an overview of the digital divide with specific consideration to gender digital divide in Ebonyi state, before focusing specifically on its major causes and possible solutions. Current gender disparities in Internet use will be outlined and the barriers that potentially hinder Ebonyi women’s access and participation in the online world and all other related technologies has been considered. We will also consider a promising avenue for future research

ICT Adoption and Organizational Change. An Innovative Training System on Industrial Automation Systems for enhancing competitiveness of SMEs

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss the benefits of on-line training on automation and innovation fields and try to explain their organizational impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Besides it tries to understand what are the main barriers for SMEs with respect to the realisation of their innovative potential and their capacity to improve internal processes by ICT adoption and organizational change. They are becoming particularly important for achieving greater productivity, lower operational costs, and higher revenues (usually characterized by reduced access to external finance, unavailability of wider distribution channels, low internationalization, etc.). The purpose of the paper is also to synthetize the experience done and the benefits of e-learning and of a specific online environment in the training process in this field. The project provides training contents to enhance participants background and some innovative simulations to improve knowledge of employees on industrial automation systems.The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss the benefits of on-line training on automation and innovation fields and try to explain their organizational impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Besides it tries to understand what are the main barriers for SMEs with respect to the realisation of their innovative potential and their capacity to improve internal processes by ICT adoption and organizational change. They are becoming particularly important for achieving greater productivity, lower operational costs, and higher revenues (usually characterized by reduced access to external finance, unavailability of wider distribution channels, low internationalization, etc.). The purpose of the paper is also to synthetize the experience done and the benefits of e-learning and of a specific online environment in the training process in this field. The project provides training contents to enhance participants background and some innovative simulations to improve knowledge of employees on industrial automation systems.Invited Submission

Relationships: computational thinking, pedagogy of programming, and Bloom’s Taxonomy

This study explores the relationship between computational thinking, teaching programming, and Bloom’s Taxonomy. Data is collected from teachers, academics, and professionals, purposively selected because of their knowledge of the topics of problem solving, computational thinking, or the teaching of programming. This data is analysed following a grounded theory approach. A computational thinking taxonomy is developed. The relationships between cognitive processes, the pedagogy of programming, and the perceived levels of difficulty of computational thinking skills are illustrated by a model. Specifically, a definition for computational thinking is presented. The skills identified are mapped to Bloom’s Taxonomy: Cognitive Domain. This mapping concentrates computational skills at the application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation levels. Analysis of the data indicates that abstraction of functionality is less difficult than abstraction of data, but both are perceived as difficult. The most difficult computational thinking skill is reported as decomposition. This ordering of difficulty for learners is a reversal of the cognitive complexity predicted by Bloom’s model. The plausibility of this inconsistency is explored. The taxonomy, model, and the other results of this study may be used by educators to focus learning onto the computational thinking skills acquired by the learners, while using programming as a tool. They may also be employed in the design of curriculum subjects, such as ICT, computing, or computer science. <br/

'Enhancing the Employability of Students’ Passing from Technical Institutions

India has the world’s second largest education system and provides one of the largest pool of skilled manpower. In the recent years, the problem of under-employment or rather unemployment among technical and professional engineering graduates &amp; diploma pass outs is a cause of serious concern. Substandard Institutes are producing mere graduates &amp; diploma holders instead of technically sound and competent professionals as intended. These pass outs are either under- employed or if employed, they do not fulfill or meet out the expectations of Industries or organizations. There is immediate need to take few corrective measures by the academic coordinators, policy makers and management of the institutes associated in providing technical manpower to the industries system; otherwise India will face an explosion of unemployed technical graduates/diploma holders. The world of academia will have to understand the nerve of Industries/organizations and require producing true professionals instead of mere graduates/diploma holders. The paper principally focuses on the multiple ways and means with suggested strategies for the technical teachers as well as institutions to plan, practice and administer such innovations in to their daily instructions, so as to fulfill the gap to a large exten

Supplementary skills guides for built environment researchers

Deepening specialised knowledge-base and wider skills of researchers in a wider variety of disciplines are prerequisite for developing successful leadership in higher education, the public sector and industry. In response to this repeated calls for enhancing supplementary skills of the built environment researchers, TG53 (Postgraduate Research Training in Building and Construction) initiated steps to develop and nurture understanding of supplementary skills and providing a common frame of reference for use and further discourse and has developed 6 good practice examples highlighting skills for researchers within the built environment. Accordingly, this TG53 publication is in response to the repeated calls for enhancing supplementary skills of the built environment researchers

Identifying the science and technology dimensions of emerging public policy issues through horizon scanning

Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique [1]. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics) elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security.Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique [1]. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics) elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security