Context awareness for collaborative learning with uncertainty management

Postprint (published version

Ubiquitous and context-aware computing modelling : study of devices integration in their environment

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementIn an almost imperceptible way, ubiquitous and context-aware computing make part of our everyday lives, as the world has developed in an interconnected way between humans and technological devices. This interconnectedness raises the need to integrate humans’ interaction with the different devices they use in different social contexts and environments. In the proposed research, it is suggested the development of new scenario building based on a current ubiquitous computing model dedicated to the environment context-awareness. We will also follow previous research made on the formal structure computation model based on social paradigm theory, dedicated to embed devices into different context environments with social roles developed by Santos (2012/2015). Furthermore, several socially relevant context scenarios are to be identified and studied. Once identified, we gather and document the requirements that devices should have, according to the model, in order to achieve a correct integration in their contextual environment

A Knowledge-driven Distributed Architecture for Context-Aware Systems

As the number of devices increases, it becomes a challenge for the users to use them effectively. This is more challenging when the majority of these devices are mobile. The users and their devices enter and leave different environments where different settings and computing needs may be required. To effectively use these devices in such environments means to constantly be aware of their whereabouts, functionalities and desirable working conditions. This is impractical and hence it is imperative to increase seamless interactions between the users and devices,and to make these devices less intrusive. To address these problems, various responsive computing systems, called context- aware systems, have been developed. These systems rely on architectures to perceive their physical environments in order to appropriately and effortlessly respond. Currently, the majority of the existing architectures focus on acquiring data from sensors, interpreting and sharing it with these systems

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Context-Aware Data Association for Multi-Inhabitant Sensor-Based Activity Recognition

Recognizing the activities of daily living (ADLs) in multi-inhabitant settings is a challenging task. One of the major challenges is the so-called data association problem: how to assign to each user the environmental sensor events that he/she actually triggered? In this paper, we tackle this problem with a contextaware approach. Each user in the home wears a smartwatch, which is used to gather several high-level context information, like the location in the home (thanks to a micro-localization infrastructure) and the posture (e.g., sitting or standing). Context data is used to associate sensor events to the users which more likely triggered them. We show the impact of context reasoning in our framework on a dataset where up to 4 subjects perform ADLs at the same time (collaboratively or individually). We also report our experience and the lessons learned in deploying a running prototype of our method

Context Aware Computing for The Internet of Things: A Survey

As we are moving towards the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of sensors deployed around the world is growing at a rapid pace. Market research has shown a significant growth of sensor deployments over the past decade and has predicted a significant increment of the growth rate in the future. These sensors continuously generate enormous amounts of data. However, in order to add value to raw sensor data we need to understand it. Collection, modelling, reasoning, and distribution of context in relation to sensor data plays critical role in this challenge. Context-aware computing has proven to be successful in understanding sensor data. In this paper, we survey context awareness from an IoT perspective. We present the necessary background by introducing the IoT paradigm and context-aware fundamentals at the beginning. Then we provide an in-depth analysis of context life cycle. We evaluate a subset of projects (50) which represent the majority of research and commercial solutions proposed in the field of context-aware computing conducted over the last decade (2001-2011) based on our own taxonomy. Finally, based on our evaluation, we highlight the lessons to be learnt from the past and some possible directions for future research. The survey addresses a broad range of techniques, methods, models, functionalities, systems, applications, and middleware solutions related to context awareness and IoT. Our goal is not only to analyse, compare and consolidate past research work but also to appreciate their findings and discuss their applicability towards the IoT.Comment: IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials Journal, 201

Scientometric analysis of BIM-based research in construction engineering and management

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the latest research of BIM adoption in construction engineering and management (CEM) and propose research directions for future scholarly work. During the recent decade, building information modeling (BIM) has gained increasing applications and research interest in the construction industry. Although there have been review-based studies that summarized BIM-based research in the overall architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) area, there is limited review that evaluates the current stage of BIM-based research specifically in the CEM sub-area. Design/methodology/approach CEM falls into the scope of AEC. It involves construction-related tasks, activities and processes (e.g. scheduling and cost estimates), issues (e.g. constructability), as well as human factors (e.g. collaboration). This study adopted a holistic literature review approach that incorporates bibliometric search and scientometric analysis. A total of 276 articles related to BIM applied in CEM were selected from Scopus as the literature sample for the scientometric analysis. Findings Some key CEM research areas (e.g. CEM pedagogy, integrated project delivery, lean and off-site construction) were identified and evaluated. Research trends in these areas were identified, and analyses were carried out with regard to how they could be integrated with BIM. For example, BIM, as a data repository for ACE facilities, has substantial potential to be integrated with a variety of other digital technologies, project delivery methods and innovative construction techniques throughout the whole process of CEM. Practical implications As BIM is one of the key technologies and digital platforms to improve the construction productivity and collaboration, it is important for industry practitioners to be updated of the latest movement and progress of the academic research. The industry, academics and governmental authorities should work with joint effort to fill the gap by first recognizing the current needs, limitations and trends of applying BIM in the construction industry. For example, it needs more understanding about how to address technical interoperability issues and how to introduce the integrated design and construction delivery approach for BIM implementation under the UK BIM Level 2/3 framework. This study contributed to the body of knowledge in BIM by proposing a framework leading to research directions including the differences of BIM effects between design-bid-build and other fast-track project delivery methods; the integration of BIM with off-site construction; and BIM pedagogy in CEM. It also addressed the need to investigate the similarities and differences between academia and industry toward perceiving the movement of BIM in construction field work

Total Constraint Management for Improving Construction Work Flow in Liquefied Natural Gas Industry

Australia has benefited and will continue to benefit significantly from Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) investments underway. Managing these LNG projects is challenging as they become increasingly complex and technologically demanding. The primary goal of this thesis is to develop a Total Constraint Management (TCM) method to improve construction work flow during LNG construction. Five controlled experiments were conducted and results show that successful implementation of TCM can significantly improve construction productivity and reduce schedule overruns

Personalization in cultural heritage: the road travelled and the one ahead

Over the last 20 years, cultural heritage has been a favored domain for personalization research. For years, researchers have experimented with the cutting edge technology of the day; now, with the convergence of internet and wireless technology, and the increasing adoption of the Web as a platform for the publication of information, the visitor is able to exploit cultural heritage material before, during and after the visit, having different goals and requirements in each phase. However, cultural heritage sites have a huge amount of information to present, which must be filtered and personalized in order to enable the individual user to easily access it. Personalization of cultural heritage information requires a system that is able to model the user (e.g., interest, knowledge and other personal characteristics), as well as contextual aspects, select the most appropriate content, and deliver it in the most suitable way. It should be noted that achieving this result is extremely challenging in the case of first-time users, such as tourists who visit a cultural heritage site for the first time (and maybe the only time in their life). In addition, as tourism is a social activity, adapting to the individual is not enough because groups and communities have to be modeled and supported as well, taking into account their mutual interests, previous mutual experience, and requirements. How to model and represent the user(s) and the context of the visit and how to reason with regard to the information that is available are the challenges faced by researchers in personalization of cultural heritage. Notwithstanding the effort invested so far, a definite solution is far from being reached, mainly because new technology and new aspects of personalization are constantly being introduced. This article surveys the research in this area. Starting from the earlier systems, which presented cultural heritage information in kiosks, it summarizes the evolution of personalization techniques in museum web sites, virtual collections and mobile guides, until recent extension of cultural heritage toward the semantic and social web. The paper concludes with current challenges and points out areas where future research is needed