FOSTER D2.1 - Technical protocol for rich metadata categorization and content classification

FOSTER aims to set in place sustainable mechanisms for EU researchers to FOSTER OPEN SCIENCE in their daily workflow, supporting researchers optimizing their research visibility and impact and the adoption of EU open access policies in line with the EU objectives on Responsible Research & Innovation.<p></p> More specifically, the FOSTER objectives are to:<p></p> • Support different stakeholders, especially young researchers, in adopting open access in the context of the European Research Area (ERA) and in complying with the open access policies and rules of participation set out for Horizon 2020;<p></p> • Integrate open access principles and practice in the current research workflow by targeting the young researcher training environment;<p></p> • Strengthen the institutional training capacity to foster compliance with the open access policies of the ERA and Horizon 2020 (beyond the FOSTER project); <p></p> • Facilitate the adoption, reinforcement and implementation of open access policies from other European funders, in line with the EC’s recommendation, in partnership with PASTEUR4OA project.<p></p> As stated in the project Description of Work (DoW) these objectives will be pursued and achieved through the combination of 3 main activities: content identification, repacking and creation; creation of the FOSTER Portal; delivery of training.<p></p> The core activity of the Task T2.1 will be to define a basic quality control protocol for content, and map available content by target group, and content type in parallel with WP3 Task 3.1.<p></p> Training materials include the full range of classical (structured presentation slides) and multi-media content (short videos, interactive e-books, ) that clearly and succinctly frames a problem and offers a working solution, in support of the learning objectives of each target group, and the range of learning options to be used in WP4 (elearning, blended learning, self-learning).<p></p> The map of existing content metadata will be delivered to WP3 for best choice of system requirements for continuous and sustainable content aggregation, enhancement and content delivery via “Tasks 3.2 e-Learning Portal” and “Task 3.4 Content Upload”. The resulting content compilation will be tailored to each Target Group and delivered to WP4

A Project Based Approach to Statistics and Data Science

In an increasingly data-driven world, facility with statistics is more important than ever for our students. At institutions without a statistician, it often falls to the mathematics faculty to teach statistics courses. This paper presents a model that a mathematician asked to teach statistics can follow. This model entails connecting with faculty from numerous departments on campus to develop a list of topics, building a repository of real-world datasets from these faculty, and creating projects where students interface with these datasets to write lab reports aimed at consumers of statistics in other disciplines. The end result is students who are well prepared for interdisciplinary research, who are accustomed to coping with the idiosyncrasies of real data, and who have sharpened their technical writing and speaking skills

The Fund's Capacity Development Strategy: Better Policies Through Stronger Institutions

This paper outlines reforms to increase the effectiveness of the Fund's capacity development (CD) program. It builds on the 2008 and 2011 reviews of technical assistance (TA) and the 2008 review of training, which set in motion important changes to make CD more valuable to member countries

On the Presence of Green and Sustainable Software Engineering in Higher Education Curricula

Nowadays, software is pervasive in our everyday lives. Its sustainability and environmental impact have become major factors to be considered in the development of software systems. Millennials-the newer generation of university students-are particularly keen to learn about and contribute to a more sustainable and green society. The need for training on green and sustainable topics in software engineering has been reflected in a number of recent studies. The goal of this paper is to get a first understanding of what is the current state of teaching sustainability in the software engineering community, what are the motivations behind the current state of teaching, and what can be done to improve it. To this end, we report the findings from a targeted survey of 33 academics on the presence of green and sustainable software engineering in higher education. The major findings from the collected data suggest that sustainability is under-represented in the curricula, while the current focus of teaching is on energy efficiency delivered through a fact-based approach. The reasons vary from lack of awareness, teaching material and suitable technologies, to the high effort required to teach sustainability. Finally, we provide recommendations for educators willing to teach sustainability in software engineering that can help to suit millennial students needs.Comment: The paper will be presented at the 1st International Workshop on Software Engineering Curricula for Millennials (SECM2017