Open Data-driven Usability Improvements of Static Code Analysis and its Challenges

Context: Software development is moving towards a place where data about development is gathered in a systematic fashion in order to improve the practice, for example, in tuning of static code analysis. However, this kind of data gathering has so far primarily happened within organizations, which is unfortunate as it tends to favor larger organizations with more resources for maintenance of developer tools. Objective: Over the years, we have seen a lot of benefits from open source and recently there has been a lot of development in open data. We see this as an opportunity for cross-organisation community building and wonder to what extent the views on using and sharing open source software developer tools carry across to open data-driven tuning of software development tools. Method: An exploratory study with 11 participants divided into 3 focus groups discussing using and sharing of static code analyzers and data about these analyzers. Results: While using and sharing open-source code (analyzers in this case) is perceived in a positive light as part of the practice of modern software development, sharing data is met with skepticism and uncertainty. Developers are concerned about threats to the company brand, exposure of intellectual property, legal liabilities, and to what extent data is context-specific to a certain organisation. Conclusions: Sharing data in software development is different from sharing data about software development. We need to better understand how we can provide solutions for sharing of software development data in a fashion that reduces risk and enables openness

Integrated design for urban mobility

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 402-412).This thesis demonstrates a rethinking of urban mobility through ecological design. Human mobility and ecological accountability are inextricably linked in city design; our current world ecological crisis underscores this fundamental connection. Through original design exploration ranging in scale from automobiles to tall building clusters, this work proffers a critical vision towards green urbanism. These conceptions challenge the everyday practices of city planning and design by offering an interdisciplinary framework for design production. The work concludes with the necessity for a new design field entitled "Ecotransology". Ecotransology is still in the nascent stages. It has the potential to become a far-reaching awareness that bonds the disciplines of road ecology, urban design, transportation planning, automotive engineering, and energy consultation. This work establishes the theoretical foundations for Ecotransology in four parts. Part one, Ideation, is a survey of visions on cities illustrating original concepts such as "Gentle Congestion", "Transport User Interface (TUI) Valley Section" and "Netwheels". Part two, Eco, illustrates the principles of ecological design in projects such as "MATscape" and "Fab Tree Hab".(cont.) Part three, Trans, conveys the principles of smart mobility in "Soft Cars" and "Omni-Flocking" vehicles. Part four, Ecotrans, synthesizes these approaches in a series of designs for circulation in bridged tall building clusters such as "PeristalCity". The work describes a burgeoning field, Ecotransology, which promotes ecological transitions within urban contexts. By linking tall building clusters and cars, unique green design proposals for urbanization were produced, which promote a new role in defining the ciphers of future design thought.by Mitchell Whitney Joachim.Ph.D

31th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases

Information modelling is becoming more and more important topic for researchers, designers, and users of information systems.The amount and complexity of information itself, the number of abstractionlevels of information, and the size of databases and knowledge bases arecontinuously growing. Conceptual modelling is one of the sub-areas ofinformation modelling. The aim of this conference is to bring together experts from different areas of computer science and other disciplines, who have a common interest in understanding and solving problems on information modelling and knowledge bases, as well as applying the results of research to practice. We also aim to recognize and study new areas on modelling and knowledge bases to which more attention should be paid. Therefore philosophy and logic, cognitive science, knowledge management, linguistics and management science are relevant areas, too. In the conference, there will be three categories of presentations, i.e. full papers, short papers and position papers

Computational Approaches to Understanding Structure-Function Relationships at the Intersection of Cellular Organization, Mechanics, and Electrophysiology

The heart is a complex mechanical and electrical environment and small changes at the cellular and subcellular scale can have profound impacts at the tissue, organ, and organ system levels. The goal of this research is to better understand structure-function relationships at these cellular and subcellular levels of the cardiac environment. This improved understanding may prove increasingly important as medicine begins shifting toward engineered replacement tissues and organs. Specifically, we work towards this goal by presenting a framework to automatically create finite element models of cells based on optical images. This framework can be customized to model the effects of subcellular structure and organization on mechanical and electrophysiological properties at the cellular level and has the potential for extension to the tissue level and beyond. In part one of this work, we present a novel algorithm is presented that can generate physiologically relevant distributions of myofibrils within adult cardiomyocytes from confocal microscopy images. This is achieved by modelling these distributions as directed acyclic graphs, assigning a cost to each node based on observations of cardiac structure and function, and determining to minimum-cost flow through the network. This resulting flow represents the optimal distribution of myofibrils within the cell. In part two, these generated geometries are used as inputs to a finite element model (FEM) to determine the role the myofibrillar organization plays in the axal and transverse mechanics of the whole cell. The cardiomyocytes are modeled as a composite of fiber trusses within an elastic solid matrix. The behavior of the model is validated by comparison to data from combined Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Carbon Fiber manipulation. Recommendations for extending the FEM framework are also explored. A secondary goal, discussed in part three of this work, is to make computational models and simulation tools more accessible to novice learners. Doing so allows active learning of complicated course materials to take place. Working towards this goal, we present CellSpark: a simulation tool developed for teaching cellular electrophysiology and modelling to undergraduate bioengineering students. We discuss the details of its implementation and implications for improved student learning outcomes when used as part of a discovery learning assignment

Unmediated Interaction: Communicating with Computers and Embedded Devices as If They Are Not There

Although computers are smaller and more readily accessible today than they have ever been, I believe that we have barely scratched the surface of what computers can become. When we use computing devices today, we end up spending a lot of our time navigating to particular functions or commands to use devices their way rather than executing those commands immediately. In this dissertation, I explore what I call unmediated interaction, the notion of people using computers as if the computers are not there and as if the people are using their own abilities or powers instead. I argue that facilitating unmediated interaction via personalization, new input modalities, and improved text entry can reduce both input overhead and output overhead, which are the burden of providing inputs to and receiving outputs from the intermediate device, respectively. I introduce three computational methods for reducing input overhead and one for reducing output overhead. First, I show how input data mining can eliminate the need for user inputs altogether. Specifically, I develop a method for mining controller inputs to gain deep insights about a players playing style, their preferences, and the nature of video games that they are playing, all of which can be used to personalize their experience without any explicit input on their part. Next, I introduce gaze locking, a method for sensing eye contact from an image that allows people to interact with computers, devices, and other objects just by looking at them. Third, I introduce computationally optimized keyboard designs for touchscreen manual input that allow people to type on smartphones faster and with far fewer errors than currently possible. Last, I introduce the racing auditory display (RAD), an audio system that makes it possible for people who are blind to play the same types of racing games that sighted players can play, and with a similar speed and sense of control as sighted players. The RAD shows how we can reduce output overhead to provide user interface parity between people with and without disabilities. Together, I hope that these systems open the door to even more efforts in unmediated interaction, with the goal of making computers less like devices that we use and more like abilities or powers that we have

Measure of Abstraction: Embodied Fabrication and the Materiality of Intimacy

This thesis presents a theoretical and practical research conducted for the last 4 years on interactive fabrication. Interactive fabrication is an emerging field and takes as a starting point with the numerical control of digital fabrication machines, modulated with parameters of interactivity. 

I approach digital fabrication as an ambiguous technology in the ways it articulates the digital with the material, the shapeless with the finite, the abstract with the concrete. As the realm of digital fabrication expands into mainstream culture and maverick machines rise again, there is an opportunity to tamper with expectations of precision and proficiency. Interactivity is the modus operandi for such experimentation: embracing time, latency, distance and the “decor of everyday life” as conditions. Personal data such as emails, text messages or sleeping data can turn into parameters of control of a CNC-machine, supplanting the typical predetermined file. This is the premise for a human-machine companionship or ‘embodied fabrication’. 3 art projects, Twipology, Rabota and Streamline have been prototyped to enact these possibilities. The fabricated outcomes move beyond functional or ornamental categories, inspiring a mutating and odd materiality, one of intimacy. These objects are objects of a third kind, “born witness” of a moment of interaction with the material world. This thesis is an ‘undisciplinary’ endeavor, proposing a research method involving art, design, ontology and HCI considerations

The Whitworthian 2001-2002

The Whitworthian student newspaper, September 2001-April 2002.https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/whitworthian/1085/thumbnail.jp

Cops, councils and crime and disorder : a critical review of three community safety partnerships

This dissertation critically reviews three community safety partnerships. It contributes to learning by using new data to examine some of the enduring challenges faced by the partnerships as they respond to the changing socio-political context. These multi-agency bodies primarily involve the police and local authority, along with the fire service, and primary care trust as statutory partners, and other criminal justice agencies. Although multi-agency work has a long history, Community Safety Partnerships originated most notably within the Morgan Report published in 1991. The principles outlined within the Morgan Report were subsequently embodied in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which itself attempted to formalise and standardise community safety structures and practice. The research has involved fifty-eight in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, and observation of twenty-nine meetings held in Birmingham, Cambridge and Lincoln. These three areas were chosen to facilitate comparison in terms of the size of the city, local authority structure, level of urbanisation and concomitant social deprivation, and levels of crime. My research suggests four key challenges. The first of these concerns the development of structures within the post Crime and Disorder Act 1998 period. The purpose, structure and processes varied between areas. Birmingham, for example, struggled to develop an appropriate structure because of its size and the devolution of local authority services. In all three areas, however, those interviewed noted a lack of decisionmaking and implementation which raised questions about the purpose of the partnerships beyond being 'talking shops' . The second challenge concerns the changing social context for new partnership developments. For example, the two-tier local authority structure in Cambridge and Lincoln posed particular problems. Moreover, in all three areas community involvement appeared to be symbolic rather than 'real'; this inhibited developments and emphasised some of the difficulties inherent in communitariarusm. The third challenge relates to funding and performance monitoring arrangements. Here, practitioners noted the influence of bureaucracy and 'short-termism'. The early 'honeymoon period' where there was relatively little government interference (Phillips et al., 2002) had ended and the partnerships had clearly experienced increasing managerialist pressure, but in spite of this pressure, evidence of longer-term success remained scarce. As outlined in the Audit Commission (2002), practitioners in the three partnerships acknowledged that with the exception of specific initiatives, the post 1998 developments had yet to make a significant impact on crime and disorder or that at best, they remained unclear about the impact. Such uncertainty about impact could be a consequence of the difficulties of measuring performance, of course, due to difficulties in accessing relevant data and information about community safety initiatives. Fourth, there appear to be inherent difficulties in assuming that 'many agencies are better than one' in addressing community safety (Liddle, 2001). An 'ideology of unity' (Crawford and Jones, 1995), however, may mask underlying tensions. My research revealed tensions at different levels, including tensions between the local partnerships and national government. This is not to say that local practitioners lacked autonomy, however, as they were able to resist some of the governmental constraints. But interagency relationships appeared to be underpinned by power struggles which served to undermine joined-up community safety practice; in particular, the struggles raised questions about who was responsible for community safety in each area. The challenges for the partnerships, as revealed in this dissertation, suggest that the recommendations within the Morgan Report of 1991 have not been addressed nor has the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 standardised community safety structures and practice. The notion of 'responsibilisation' (Garland, 2001) through decentralised governance is clearly a complex issue; the Government appears to wish to both 'steer' and 'row' each of the partnerships and this leaves practitioners uncertain of their own role. This is one example of the contradiction between the 'reality' and symbolism of community safety practice which seems to underpin the partnerships