A Software Radio Challenge Accelerating Education and Innovation in Wireless Communications

This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents our methodology and tools for introducing competition in the electrical engineering curriculum to accelerate education and innovation in wireless communications. Software radio or software-defined radio (SDR) enables wireless technology, systems and standards education where the student acts as the radio developer or engineer. This is still a huge endeavor because of the complexity of current wireless systems and the diverse student backgrounds. We suggest creating a competition among student teams to potentiate creativity while leveraging the SDR development methodology and open-source tools to facilitate cooperation. The proposed student challenge follows the European UEFA Champions League format, which includes a qualification phase followed by the elimination round or playoffs. The students are tasked to build an SDR transmitter and receiver following the guidelines of the long-term evolution standard. The metric is system performance. After completing this course, the students will be able to (1) analyze alternative radio design options and argue about their benefits and drawbacks and (2) contribute to the evolution of wireless standards. We discuss our experiences and lessons learned with particular focus on the suitability of the proposed teaching and evaluation methodology and conclude that competition in the electrical engineering classroom can spur innovation.Comment: Frontiers in Education 2018 (FIE 2018

SET for success : the supply of people with science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills : the report of Sir Gareth Roberts' review

In March 2001, Sir Gareth Roberts was asked by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretaries of State at the Department of Trade and Industry and at the Department for Education and Skills to undertake a review into the supply of science and engineering skills in the UK. The review was commissioned as part of the Government's productivity and innovation strategy. Sir Gareth Roberts' final report was published on 15 April. The report sets out a series of recommendations to the Government, employers and others with an interest in fostering science, engineering and innovation in the UK. The Government is currently considering Sir Gareth's report and recommendations. The full report is available below in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website

Literature Review: Open Innovation in Software Engineering

Antud töö uurib, kuidas on avatud innovatsiooni põhimõtteid rakendatud tarkvaratehnika valdkonnas. Selleks, et asjakohast teaduskirjandust süstemaatiliselt otsida ja töödelda, lähtutakse süstemaatilise analüüsi meetodist. Kuna avatud innovatsioon on üsna uudne nähtus, siis on praegu puudus mudelitest ja tööriistadest, mis aitaksid avatud innovatsiooni põhimõtteid rakendada sellistes spetsiifilistes tarkvaratehnika protsessides, nagu seda on näiteks tarkvara testimine. Need tarkvaraprojektid, kus avatud innovatsiooni põhimõtteid on rakendatud, on põhiliselt koostööd suurettevõtete ja kõrgkoolide vahel; aga ka väike- ja keskmise suurusega ettevõtted ja riigiasutused kohandavad vähehaaval avatud innovatsiooni põhimõtteid. Üldiselt on täheldada puudust teadustööst, mis annaks selgesõnalise ülevaate avatud innovatsiooni rakendamise võimalustest tarkvaraprojektides.This thesis explores how the principles of open innovation have been applied in the software engineering domain. To methodically gather and analyze studies, the systematic literature review approach is adopted. The relative novelty of open innovation means that there is a lack of models and tools that adopt the principles of open innovation according to different activities of software engineering, such as software testing. Software projects that do employ open innovation are mostly fostered by partnerships between large enterprises and higher education institutions, but small-medium enterprises and government institutions are slowly adopting the open innovation approach as well. All in all, it seems there is need of research that would clearly establish the possibilities of adopting open innovation in software engi-neering projects

Contrasting Innovation Competence FINCODA Model in Software Engineering: Narrative Review

[EN] Purpose: Innovation competences are expected both in businesses and in higher education. Software organizations, in particular, require engineers that collaborate to deliver better services and products. Staff recruitment and training are human resource management tasks that are crucial to insuring that applicants and job holders have the competences that will facilitate quality output in software development processes. This paper narrates the results of the mapping review accomplished to determine the competences that describe high-performing, innovative professionals in software engineering and weighs them against the FINCODA model on innovation competences devised to assess and enhance individuals' capacity to innovate; a core outcome of the Framework for Innovation Competences Development and Assessment Project. Design/methodology/approach: A review protocol was followed to examine the literature on software engineering to identify the innovation competence and behavioral indicators that are required in individuals. Findings: According to the literature, the innovation competences required of the staff in software companies are creativity, critical thinking, initiative, team work and networking, dimensions that are contained in the FINCODA model. Findings also support the inclusion of the thirty-four behavioral indicators that constitute the five dimensions of the FINCODA model. Originality/value: Business organizations need tools to assess innovation competences in employees. Universities, as well, lack the instruments to measure development of innovation competence in undergraduates that teaching/learning methods should enhance before students reach the workplace. This research sheds light on innovative workplace behaviors of software engineers and on feasible designs of training programs for staff and undergraduates by using the FINCODA model and its behavioral indicators. Future research will focus on ratifying the validation of the model and the online assessment tool derived from it.This work has been conducted as part of a European project financed by the European Union ["FINCODA" Project 554493-EPP-1-2014-1-FI-EPPKA2-KA] (http://bit.ly/FINCODA-EUsite01). (The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein).Andreu Andrés, MA.; González-Ladrón-De-Guevara, F.; García Carbonell, A.; Watts Hooge, FI. (2018). Contrasting Innovation Competence FINCODA Model in Software Engineering: Narrative Review. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management. 11(4):715-734. https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.2656S71573411

Challenges in Education in Global Software Engineering: What are the problems in communication mismatches, and how to ensure information consistency

This talk presents needs, challenges and experience of education of Global Software engineering. In Global Software Development the developers and other stakeholders are acting in a distributed environment, with different contexts and with different assumptions. This usually causes different understanding of the same information and different reactions of the stakeholders which may lead to different problems during the development process. What can be done to avoid these problems? This talk addresses these questions through an analysis of education for distributed development, performed in a distributed environment. In particular, experiences from a course Distributed Software Development” (DSD) will be discussed. DSD course was organized and performed between the School for Innovation, Design and Engineering at Mälardalen University (MDH), Sweden, the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), Croatia, and partially joined by the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. The talk will discuss the challenges in creating and performing a joint DSD course due to misunderstanding of information and the solutions implemented at DSD, lessons learned, and success stories

Intramural, collaborative learning systems

This thesis focuses on three related concepts: problem-based collaborative learning; the use of multimedia tools in learning systems; and participatory design as a software engineering methodology to create multimedia tools to be used in learning systems. A literature review of the three areas is followed by an overview of the pedagogical, technological, and business trends that affect the direction of innovation in education, including problem-based learning. A discussion of a software engineering project to develop a multimedia application that enhances the learning of geography skills and puts the programming, interface design and multimedia systems capabilities of college students into action ensues. The project results are presented, and suggestions for future research are proposed

Research and Education in Computational Science and Engineering

Over the past two decades the field of computational science and engineering (CSE) has penetrated both basic and applied research in academia, industry, and laboratories to advance discovery, optimize systems, support decision-makers, and educate the scientific and engineering workforce. Informed by centuries of theory and experiment, CSE performs computational experiments to answer questions that neither theory nor experiment alone is equipped to answer. CSE provides scientists and engineers of all persuasions with algorithmic inventions and software systems that transcend disciplines and scales. Carried on a wave of digital technology, CSE brings the power of parallelism to bear on troves of data. Mathematics-based advanced computing has become a prevalent means of discovery and innovation in essentially all areas of science, engineering, technology, and society; and the CSE community is at the core of this transformation. However, a combination of disruptive developments---including the architectural complexity of extreme-scale computing, the data revolution that engulfs the planet, and the specialization required to follow the applications to new frontiers---is redefining the scope and reach of the CSE endeavor. This report describes the rapid expansion of CSE and the challenges to sustaining its bold advances. The report also presents strategies and directions for CSE research and education for the next decade.Comment: Major revision, to appear in SIAM Revie

Proceedings of the 3rd Open Source Geospatial Research & Education Symposium OGRS 2014

The third Open Source Geospatial Research & Education Symposium (OGRS) was held in Helsinki, Finland, on 10 to 13 June 2014. The symposium was hosted and organized by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Aalto University School of Engineering, in partnership with the OGRS Community, on the Espoo campus of Aalto University. These proceedings contain the 20 papers presented at the symposium. OGRS is a meeting dedicated to exchanging ideas in and results from the development and use of open source geospatial software in both research and education.  The symposium offers several opportunities for discussing, learning, and presenting results, principles, methods and practices while supporting a primary theme: how to carry out research and educate academic students using, contributing to, and launching open source geospatial initiatives. Participating in open source initiatives can potentially boost innovation as a value creating process requiring joint collaborations between academia, foundations, associations, developer communities and industry. Additionally, open source software can improve the efficiency and impact of university education by introducing open and freely usable tools and research results to students, and encouraging them to get involved in projects. This may eventually lead to new community projects and businesses. The symposium contributes to the validation of the open source model in research and education in geoinformatics

Building a Research University Ecosystem: the Case of Software Engineering Education at Sofia University

This paper analyses the specifics and the tendencies in building of the knowledge society and the role of the universities in this process. Some European policies and programs dedicated to the new role of the universities in realizing the Lisbon Strategy are analysed as well. It is emphasized on the importance of integration of the ‘knowledge triangle’ (education, research and innovation) into a research university and on the urgent need to re-design the university activities according the new requirements. This paper describes some real experiences, emerging models and lessons learnt based on the case of Software Engineering education and research being held at Sofia University