Hipster: Integrating Theory Exploration in a Proof Assistant

This paper describes Hipster, a system integrating theory exploration with the proof assistant Isabelle/HOL. Theory exploration is a technique for automatically discovering new interesting lemmas in a given theory development. Hipster can be used in two main modes. The first is exploratory mode, used for automatically generating basic lemmas about a given set of datatypes and functions in a new theory development. The second is proof mode, used in a particular proof attempt, trying to discover the missing lemmas which would allow the current goal to be proved. Hipster's proof mode complements and boosts existing proof automation techniques that rely on automatically selecting existing lemmas, by inventing new lemmas that need induction to be proved. We show example uses of both modes

[How] Can Pluralist Approaches to Computational Cognitive Modeling of Human Needs and Values Save our Democracies?

In our increasingly digital societies, many companies have business models that perceive users’ (or customers’) personal data as a siloed resource, owned and controlled by the data controller rather than the data subjects. Collecting and processing such a massive amount of personal data could have many negative technical, social and economic consequences, including invading people’s privacy and autonomy. As a result, regulations such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have tried to take steps towards a better implementation of the right to digital privacy. This paper proposes that such legal acts should be accompanied by the development of complementary technical solutions such as Cognitive Personal Assistant Systems to support people to effectively manage their personal data processing on the Internet. Considering the importance and sensitivity of personal data processing, such assistant systems should not only consider their owner’s needs and values, but also be transparent, accountable and controllable. Pluralist approaches in computational cognitive modelling of human needs and values which are not bound to traditional paradigmatic borders such as cognitivism, connectionism, or enactivism, we argue, can create a balance between practicality and usefulness, on the one hand, and transparency, accountability, and controllability, on the other, while supporting and empowering humans in the digital world. Considering the threat to digital privacy as significant to contemporary democracies, the future implementation of such pluralist models could contribute to power-balance, fairness and inclusion in our societies

Applying Formal Methods to Networking: Theory, Techniques and Applications

Despite its great importance, modern network infrastructure is remarkable for the lack of rigor in its engineering. The Internet which began as a research experiment was never designed to handle the users and applications it hosts today. The lack of formalization of the Internet architecture meant limited abstractions and modularity, especially for the control and management planes, thus requiring for every new need a new protocol built from scratch. This led to an unwieldy ossified Internet architecture resistant to any attempts at formal verification, and an Internet culture where expediency and pragmatism are favored over formal correctness. Fortunately, recent work in the space of clean slate Internet design---especially, the software defined networking (SDN) paradigm---offers the Internet community another chance to develop the right kind of architecture and abstractions. This has also led to a great resurgence in interest of applying formal methods to specification, verification, and synthesis of networking protocols and applications. In this paper, we present a self-contained tutorial of the formidable amount of work that has been done in formal methods, and present a survey of its applications to networking.Comment: 30 pages, submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

Building Bridges: Using the Office Consultation Project to Connect Students to Theory and Practice

The Office Consultation Project is an innovative capstone project that partners graduate students in student affairs preparation programs with academic and student affairs practitioners. It provides an opportunity for students to apply research and scholarship to practical settings, while giving practitioners new insight into their units, additional work support, and expanded professional networks. The project benefits graduate preparation programs by cultivating cross-divisional networking and increasing campus awareness about the student affairs profession that could generate new practicum and assistantship opportunities

The Antecedents of a ‘Chilly Climate’ for Women Faculty in Higher Education

The literature on women’s under-representation in academia asserts that faculty women face a ‘chilly climate’, but there are few theoretically based studies examining this proposition. Relational demography, organizational justice, and social network theories all identify possible antecedents of ‘chilly climate’. Using survey data of faculty at a private Midwestern US university, we test whether the perception of exclusion (chilly climate) is influenced by demographic dissimilarity, and perceptions of fairness and gender equity. We find that faculty women perceive more exclusion from academic departments with a low representation of women, consistent with relational demography. Perceptions of procedural fairness and gender equity are powerful factors that foster inclusion and warm the climate for both men and women. The ‘chilly climate’ for women faculty is a complex phenomenon with multiple causes. Policies that fail to address these multiple causes are unlikely to be effective

Applying the business process and practice alignment meta-model: Daily practices and process modelling

Background: Business Process Modelling (BPM) is one of the most important phases of information system design. Business Process (BP) meta-models allow capturing informational and behavioural aspects of business processes. Unfortunately, standard BP meta-modelling approaches focus just on process description, providing different BP models. It is not possible to compare and identify related daily practices in order to improve BP models. This lack of information implies that further research in BP meta-models is needed to reflect the evolution/change in BP. Considering this limitation, this paper introduces a new BP meta-model designed by Business Process and Practice Alignment Meta-model (BPPAMeta-model). Our intention is to present a meta-model that addresses features related to the alignment between daily work practices and BP descriptions. Objectives: This paper intends to present a meta-model which is going to integrate daily work information into coherent and sound process definitions. Methods/Approach: The methodology employed in the research follows a design-science approach. Results: The results of the case study are related to the application of the proposed meta-model to align the specification of a BP model with work practices models. Conclusions: This meta-model can be used within the BPPAM methodology to specify or improve business processes models based on work practice descriptions

Becoming Psychotherapists: Experiences of Novice Trainees in a Beginning Graduate Class

The authors investigated the experiences related to becoming psychotherapists for 5 counseling psychology doctoral trainees in their first prepracticum course. Qualitative analyses of weekly journals indicated that trainees discussed challenges related to becoming psychotherapists (e.g., being self-critical, having troubling reactions to clients, learning to use helping skills), gains made during the semester related to becoming psychotherapists (e.g., using helping skills more effectively, becoming less self-critical, being able to connect with clients), as well as experiences in supervision and activities that helped them cope with their anxieties. Results are discussed in 5 broad areas: feelings about self in role of psychotherapist, awareness of reactions to clients, learning and using helping skills, reactions to supervision, and experiences that fostered growth. Implications for training and research are provided