European Stakeholder Round Table on Citizen and DIY Science and Responsible Research and Innovation

Göbel, C., Agnello, G., Baïz, I., Berditchevskaia, A., Evers, L., García, D., Pritchard, H., Luna, S., Ramanauskaite, E. M., Serrano, F., Boheemen, P. v., Völker, T., Wyszomirski, P., Vohland, K. (2017): European Stakeholder Round Table on Citizen and DIY Science and Responsible Research and Innovation. Doing-it-Together Science Report. URI: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1563626 / The report is the result of an event on 8th November 2016 in Berlin. The round table has been organized by ECSA as part of the Doing-it-Together Science project (DITOs) and realized in the framework of the Berlin Science Week

Microservice Transition and its Granularity Problem: A Systematic Mapping Study

Microservices have gained wide recognition and acceptance in software industries as an emerging architectural style for autonomic, scalable, and more reliable computing. The transition to microservices has been highly motivated by the need for better alignment of technical design decisions with improving value potentials of architectures. Despite microservices' popularity, research still lacks disciplined understanding of transition and consensus on the principles and activities underlying "micro-ing" architectures. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping study that consolidates various views, approaches and activities that commonly assist in the transition to microservices. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the transition; it also contributes a working definition of the transition and technical activities underlying it. We term the transition and technical activities leading to microservice architectures as microservitization. We then shed light on a fundamental problem of microservitization: microservice granularity and reasoning about its adaptation as first-class entities. This study reviews state-of-the-art and -practice related to reasoning about microservice granularity; it reviews modelling approaches, aspects considered, guidelines and processes used to reason about microservice granularity. This study identifies opportunities for future research and development related to reasoning about microservice granularity.Comment: 36 pages including references, 6 figures, and 3 table

Turing’s Sunflowers: Public research and the role of museums

In recent years, public engagement in museums is increasingly being influenced by the paradigm of “citizen science”, that is, active participation in research teams by members of the general public with no formal training in the field of research concerned. This paper provides an overview of citizen science approaches which museums can deploy using online platforms, digital tools and apps. It also aims to highlight challenges and innovations, as well as possible opportunities for cultural organisations to include public participation in research and knowledge creation

Understanding the impact of engineering through appropriate technology development

Abstract: This research describes a pilot project which aimed to introduce CDIO-type (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate), project-based learning through a community-based project in a third year Material Science module. The project formed part of an agriculture research initiative, and relied on interdisciplinary research collaboration between engineering, social sciences, management, entrepreneurship, and industrial arts. The initiative seeks to develop an agribusiness solution that will create an open-market, growth-oriented food economy. As part of the initiative, engineering students, participating in teams, worked alongside a community of urban farmers, most of whom are working poor, so as to develop appropriate, intermediate technology/ies that could support the farmers. This was informed by the need to have students demonstrate high level understanding of disciplinary content, but also to engage in human-centered design thinking and practice

An exploratory case study on the preparation of undergraduate civil engineering students at the University of Cape Town to contribute to an inclusive society for people with disabilities

Based on the experiences of the researcher who is a quadriplegic, people with disabilities still encounter many challenges within the built environment. As civil engineers play a central role, this study set out to address the question - How are undergraduate Civil Engineering students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) being prepared to contribute to an inclusive society that accommodates people with disabilities? Based on a conceptual theoretical framework that draws from a broader context of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, a production line analogy was adopted to explore the resources, approaches and experiences of key stakeholders involved in the preparation of the students. The adopted model recognised the students as the "raw materials", the graduates as the "products", UCT as the "factory", the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) as the "quality controller", the Engineering Industry "utilised and refined" the product, while people with disabilities were the "consumers". A qualitative, exploratory, multiple case design was utilised incorporating interviews with representatives of UCT, the Engineering Industry, and people with disabilities, while the contents of the website of ECSA was reviewed. ECSA has a transformation agenda that does not explicitly identify issues about disability. However, there were opportunities to incorporate the concept of Universal Design (UD) into the exit level outcomes of the undergraduate civil engineering programme. Furthermore, while UCT, Industry and people with disabilities identified legislation around disability as a major resource for the training of students, and UCT and Industry shared an open minded approach to the concept of UD, its inclusion in the education programme is still lacking. There was a conspicuous gap for collaboration between the stakeholders, which seem to hinder the adoption of a multidisciplinary approach in the preparation of the students. The study highlighted the need to formalise a platform that brings the key stakeholders together in the preparation of civil engineering students to contribute to the development of an inclusive society that accommodates people with disabilities

A guide to online assessment in large engineering design classrooms

Abstract: Student protests in 2015 and 2016 along with the inherent colonial nature of African universities has sparked reflective conversation among university academics in the areas of curriculum development and teaching practice in South Africa. Consequently, the online classroom, though typically perceived as pedagogically unconventional at residential universities in South Africa, is increasingly seen as an innovative way to encourage educator and student engagement with discipline-specific content. In addition, online assessment at residential universities in South Africa is growing in popularity due to its time-saving and efficiency properties. However, there is very little guidance available to educators who wish to conduct online assessments in large classrooms. The purpose of this study is to provide a guide to educators on how to execute online assessment in large classrooms, with specific application to engineering design. The study begins by outlining why an educator may want to consider online assessment for a large classroom. Thereafter, the study explores face-to-face assessment theory vis-à-vis online assessment theory with respect to purpose and efficiency. Following this, the study characterizes the nature of the engineering design classroom used in this study. Subsequently, the study explains the merits and drawbacks of online assessment and provides practical recommendations on how to overcome potential and typical challenges faced in a large engineering design classroom. Findings may prove valuable to other teaching environments and disciplines interested in effective online assessment for large classrooms

Roadmap on CeOS in the Balkans

This document outlines the potential for Citizen Science, as a component of Open Science, to be more broadly used in the Balkan countries. It highlights the importance of knowledge exchange, trust-building, and long-term collaboration in the region, specifically focusing on the topic of CeOS (presumably referring to a specific field or initiative). The Roadmap aims to identify the capacities of university libraries in the Balkans and uncover any unused opportunities for public involvement in Open Science. Read more about the CeOS_SE project on our website: https://ceosse-project.eu

Expanding the evidence base and networks for sexual violence response in East and Southern Africa—Completion report for the period May 2014–February 2018

This is the final report of the Expanding the Evidence Base and Networks for Sexual Violence Response program, which, over the years, has enabled regional partners to collectively test and document experiences in tackling violence against children and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in humanitarian contexts. To foster SGBV prevention and ensure that responses to SGBV are effective, the program has targeted a range of stakeholders, including influential regional bodies; the health, education, and justice sectors; and children and refugees—as survivors as well as members of communities where prevention is being promoted. The program has helped to change the way people in the region think about SGBV, and how to respond to it, evinced by the responses of regional bodies such as the UNHCR Regional Service Centre in Nairobi, which established technical cooperation with Population Council’s Kenya office at the beginning of the program, to ensure utilization of evidence-based programming in refugee operations in the region. The report highlights six main lessons learned as well as remaining challenges to strengthening the capacities of the medical, legal, and justice sectors to care for survivors of such violence

Mutual learning exercise on citizen science initiatives: policy and practice: final report

Over the past decade, great advances have been made in applying innovative participatory and inclusive research practices across a wide range of domains. These have involved increasing numbers of citizens in monitoring, observing, and co-researching societal issues such as climate change impacts on the environment and public health, sustainable mobility, and plastic pollution in rivers and oceans. Important outcomes have been achieved, from fundamental scientific discoveries1 to data that support evidence-informed policy