High Speed A/D DSP Interface for Carrier Doppler Tracking

As on-board satellite systems continue to increase in ability to perform self diagnostic checks, it will become more important for satellites to initiate ground communications contact. Currently, the NASA Space Network requires users to pre-arranged times for satellite communications links through the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS). One of the challenges in implementing an on-demand access protocol into the Space Network, is the fact that a low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite's communications will be subject to a doppler shift which is outside the capability of the NASA ground station to lock onto. In a prearranged system, the satellite's doppler is known a priori, and the ground station is able to lock onto the satellite's signal. This paper describes the development of a high speed analog to digital interface into a Digital Signal Processor (DSP). This system will be used for identifying the doppler shift of a LEO satellite through the Space Network, and aiding the ground station equipment in locking onto the signal. Although this interface is specific to one application, it can be used as a basis for interfacing other devices with a DSP

Advanced Technology for Engineering Education

This document contains the proceedings of the Workshop on Advanced Technology for Engineering Education, held at the Peninsula Graduate Engineering Center, Hampton, Virginia, February 24-25, 1998. The workshop was jointly sponsored by the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Computational Technology and NASA. Workshop attendees came from NASA, other government agencies, industry and universities. The objectives of the workshop were to assess the status of advanced technologies for engineering education and to explore the possibility of forming a consortium of interested individuals/universities for curriculum reform and development using advanced technologies. The presentations covered novel delivery systems and several implementations of new technologies for engineering education. Certain materials and products are identified in this publication in order to specify adequately the materials and products that were investigated in the research effort. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement of products by NASA, nor does it imply that the materials and products are the only ones or the best ones available for this purpose. In many cases equivalent materials and products are available and would probably produce equivalent results

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Profiles, perceptions, and practices related to customizable computer-aided instructions (MacGAMUT) among postsecondary aural-training instructors

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this study was to examine relationships between demographic and educational characteristics of postsecondary aural-training instructors and their practices using CAI (here, MacGAMUT). Instructors who use MacGAMUT (N = 278) were surveyed about their profiles, perceptions, and practices using a pilot-tested, researcher-designed online questionnaire. Two separate four-way MANOVAs were chosen to simultaneously analyze whether respondents differed on eight dependent variables. Significant main effects were found for the whole model (p = .010), gender (p = .018), and years using MacGAMUT (p = .006) in MANOVA 1; and the whole model (p = .022), years teaching aural skills (p = .015), and years using MacGAMUT (p = .001) in MANOVA 2. Significant interaction effects included the influence of gender on monitoring student usages of MacGAMUT (p = .017), years using MacGAMUT on the impact of CAI on learning dictation skills (p < .0001), years using MacGAMUT on the impact of instructors' interactions and involvement with MacGAMUT on learning dictation skills (p < .0001), and years using MacGAMUT on the impact of customization on learning dictation skills (p = .004) in MANOVA 1; and the influence of years using MacGAMUT on the importance of requiring students to use MacGAMUT in Mastery Mode (p = .005), and years using MacGAMUT on how often students are required to submit MacGAMUT assignments (p = .011) in MANOVA 2. Conclusions focus on the instructional uses of MacGAMUT as having a positive impact on student learning of dictation, thus placing a greater responsibility on the instructor to coordinate their uses of CAI thoughtfully with the curriculum. Suggestions for further research include gender differences using more complex types of music technology, in-class practices of aural training, reasons for default changes, userfriendliness, reasons for discontinued use, professional development, graduate training in technology, foundational assumptions among Digital Natives, and a replication of the study

The abuses of literacy : the making of a worker 'basic skills' crisis in England and North America

Over the past two decades there has emerged a generalized critique of the quality of the labour supply in industrialized countries in relation to concerns about corporate profitability and national competitiveness. Frequently, the critique has focused, in whole or in part, on the so-called 'literacy' or 'basic skills' competencies of workers. This thesis examines the problematizing of workers' literacy competencies at a time when general educational attainments in Western countries have reached unprecedentedly high levels. Both broad-based and historically informed, the study focuses on the United States, Canada and England over the period of the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. The motives of the agencies and interests which have proclaimed a worker 'basic skills crisis', as well as the processes through which their claims have been disseminated, are analyzed. The ideological and material contexts in which these claims have resonated are described. The thesis concludes that the workforce basic skills 'crisis' is a socially constructed one which has little or no basis in fact. It is an issue which has had utility for a number of interests (including business, labour, educationalists and the state sector), however, and this, it is argued, accounts for the role they have taken in its social construction. The evidence presented here establishes that the workforce literacy issue has had real consequences for workers. It has operated to scapegoat sections of the working class and to further marginalize less formally qualified workers in their workplaces and in the labour market. This-the industrial relations context in which the putative workforce 'basic skills crisis' has operated-forms the principal focus of the thesis. The impacts on workers of actions stemming from the acceptance of the idea of a basic skills crisis-including increasing scrutiny of literacy and language competencies of workers and the promotion and establishment of 'basic skills' programmes of questionable value in workplaces-ought to give cause for many who have endorsed claims of a 'crisis' and embraced workplace literacy to re-evaluate their position

NASA Tech Briefs, June 1989

Topics include: New Product Ideas; NASA TU Services; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery; Fabrication Technology; Mathematics and Information Sciences; Life Sciences

Computing point-of-view : modeling and simulating judgments of taste

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-163).People have rich points-of-view that afford them the ability to judge the aesthetics of people, things, and everyday happenstance; yet viewpoint has an ineffable quality that is hard to articulate in words, let alone capture in computer models. Inspired by cultural theories of taste and identity, this thesis explores end-to-end computational modeling of people's tastes-from model acquisition, to generalization, to application- under various realms. Five aesthetical realms are considered-cultural taste, attitudes, ways of perceiving, taste for food, and sense-of-humor. A person's model is acquired by reading her personal texts, such as a weblog diary, a social network profile, or emails. To generalize a person model, methods such as spreading activation, analogy, and imprimer supplementation are applied to semantic resources and search spaces mined from cultural corpora. Once a generalized model is achieved, a person's tastes are brought to life through perspective-based applications, which afford the exploration of someone else's perspective through interactivity and play. The thesis describes model acquisition systems implemented for each of the five aesthetical realms.(cont.) The techniques of 'reading for affective themes' (RATE), and 'culture mining' are described, along with their enabling technologies, which are commonsense reasoning and textual affect analysis. Finally, six perspective-based applications were implemented to illuminate a range of real-world beneficiaries to person modeling-virtual mentoring, self-reflection, and deep customization.by Xinyu Hugo Liu.Ph.D

Future visioning system for designing and developing new product concepts in the consumer electronics industries

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis discusses development of a future visioning system model that can be adopted to create new product concepts for consumer electronics companies operating in a highly competitive business environment. The research work investigates consumer electronic product companies and their market environment to identify problematic issues and indicates that a proactive new product strategy which opens new markets through developing concept-led products is a strategic priority, thus the concept development stage in new product development process is in need of improvement. An evaluation of existing concept development tools for the purpose of proactive product strategy is presented and concludes that future visioning procedure is the most appropriate tool. To develop a future visioning system model as a concept development tool, the theoretical future visioning system models are analysed and mapped to extract essential structure and contents of future visioning procedure. The consequent future visioning system model is then revised according to the findings and suggestions from the field research work which investigated four major consumer electronics product companies in practice. The findings also validates the necessity of adopting a proactive product strategy and evaluates acceptability of the future visioning system model for practical use. The final future visioning system model is defined after the opinions of the design managers are considered and applied. The major suggestions from the research findings are: (1) Executing proactive product strategy can be a valuable strategic tool (2) A new process is necessary for the companies to create one-step-ahead product (3) Future visioning system is recommended as an advanced approach that creates new product concept. (4) Future visioning system model should consist of eight stages: project initiation, environmental scanning, future visioning, generating product concepts, scenario planning, concept testing, concept visualisation, and finalized concepts. (5) Product concepts can be generated from future vision by applying backcasting. (6) Scenario planning should be used in the future visioning system model as a concept testing tool providing objective validating criteria. (7) Executing a future visioning system model creates new roles for the designer such as information integrator, process moderator, and futurist

The 1995 Research Reports: NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program

This document is a collection of technical reports on research conducted by the participants in the 1995 NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This was the eleventh year that a NASA/ASEE program has been conducted at KSC. The 1995 program was administered by the University of Central Florida in cooperation with KSC. The program was operated under the auspices of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) with sponsorship and funding from the Office of Educational Affairs, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. The KSC Program was one of nine such Aeronautics and Space Research Programs funded by NASA Headquarters in 1995. The NASA/ASEE Program is intended to be a two-year program to allow in-depth research by the University faculty member

Software Engineering Laboratory Series: Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Software Engineering Workshop

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of application software. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that includes this document