Decoupling User Interface Design Using Libraries of Reusable Components

The integration of electronic and mechanical hardware, software and interaction design presents a challenging design space for researchers developing physical user interfaces and interactive artifacts. Currently in the academic research community, physical user interfaces and interactive artifacts are predominantly designed and prototyped either as one-off instances from the ground up, or using functionally rich hardware toolkits and prototyping systems. During this prototyping phase, undertaking an integral design of the interface or interactive artifact’s electronic hardware is frequently constraining due to the tight couplings between the different design realms and the typical need for iterations as the design matures. Several current toolkit designs have consequently embraced component-sharing and component-swapping modular designs with a view to extending flexibility and improving researcher freedom by disentangling and softening the cause-effect couplings. Encouraged by early successes of these toolkits, this research work strives to further enhance these freedoms by pursuing an alternative style and dimension of hardware modularity. Another motivation is our goal to facilitate the design and development of certain classes of interfaces and interactive artifacts for which current electronic design approaches are argued to be restrictively constraining (e.g., relating to scale and complexity). Unfortunately, this goal of a new platform architecture is met with conceptual and technical challenges on the embedded system networking front. In response, this research investigates and extends a growing field of multi-module distributed embedded systems. We identify and characterize a sub-class of these systems, calling them embedded aggregates. We then outline and develop a framework for realizing the embedded aggregate class of systems. Toward this end, this thesis examines several architectures, topologies and communication protocols, making the case for and substantial steps toward the development of a suite of networking protocols and control algorithms to support embedded aggregates. We define a set of protocols, mechanisms and communication packets that collectively form the underlying framework for the aggregates. Following the aggregates design, we develop blades and tiles to support user interface researchers

Peer production of Open Hardware: Unfinished artifacts and architectures in the hackerspaces

The dissertation adopts the theoretical framework of peer production to investigate the phenomena of open collaboration in hacker clubs through two case studies of small scale electronic artefacts. A critique of current theories of peer production is developed from a Science and Technology Studies point of view, arguing for the primacy of social constructivism over technological determinist narratives about the role of ICTs in late capitalism in general and hacker culture in particular. Properties of disruptive novelty and spontaneous emergence routinely attributed to ICTs – and by extension to the peer production practices of hackers – are approached sceptically with a historically informed ethnographic method that concentrates on continuities and contexts.La tesis adopta el marco teórico de la producción entre iguales para investigar los fenómenos de colaboración abierta en los clubs de hackers, a través de dos estudios de caso sobre artefactos electrónicos de pequeña escala. Se desarrolla una crítica de las teorías actuales sobre la producción entre iguales desde el punto de vista de los Estudios de Ciencia y Tecnología, defendiendo la primacía de la visión constructivista social por encima de las narrativas deterministas tecnológicas en el papel de las TIC en el capitalismo tardío, en general, y en la cultura hacker en particular. Nociones como la novedad perturbadora y la aparición espontánea, atribuidas habitualmente a las TIC y, por extensión, a las prácticas de producción entre iguales de los hackers, se tratan con escepticismo mediante un método etnográfico históricamente informado, que se concentra en las continuidades y contextos.La tesi adopta el marc teòric de la producció entre iguals per investigar els fenòmens de col·laboració oberta als clubs de hackers, a través de dos estudis de cas sobre artefactes electrònics de petita escala. S’hi desenvolupa una crítica de les teories actuals sobre la producció entre iguals des del punt de vista dels Estudis de Ciència i Tecnologia, defensant la primacia de la visió constructivista social per sobre de les narratives deterministes tecnològiques en el paper de les TIC en el capitalisme tardà, en general, i en la cultura hacker en particular. Nocions com la novetat pertorbadora i l’aparició espontània, atribuïdes habitualment a les TIC i, per extensió, a les pràctiques de producció entre iguals dels hackers, es tracten amb escepticisme mitjançant un mètode etnogràfic històricament informat, que es concentra en les continuïtats i els contextos.Societat de la informació i el coneixemen

cii Student Papers - 2022

In this collection of papers, we, the Research Group Critical Information Infrastructures (cii) from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, present eight selected student research articles contributing to the design, development, and evaluation of critical information infrastructures. During our courses, students mostly work in groups and deal with problems and issues related to sociotechnical challenges in the realm of (critical) information systems. Student papers came from five different cii courses, namely Emerging Trends in Internet Technologies, Emerging Trends in Digital Health, Digital Health, Critical Information Infrastructures, and Selected Issues on Critical Information Infrastructures: Collaborative Development of Innovative Teaching Concepts in summer term of 2021 and the winter term of 2021/2022

The role of visual art works in the theory and practice of education with reference to the perceptions of Western Australian primary visual arts specialist teachers

The study examines the role of visual art works in primary education. This involves three levels of investigation. Level 1 examines the role of these art works in the main philosophies of visual arts education; Level 2 examines the role of visual art works in the Western Australia Art and Crqft K-7 Syllabus; and Level 3 examines visual arts primary specialist teachers\u27 perceptions of the role of visual art works in their teaching programmes. The purpose is to establish the relationships between these three levels of analysis so as to contribute towards an explanation of the disparity between the high commitment towards the use of art works at the level of curriculum framework, and the apparently minimal use of visual art works in classroom art teaching. The first level of analysis deals with the role assigned to the use of visual art [unreadable] four major philosophical theories of art education, namely: hand-eye training, child-centred art education, discipline-based art education (DBAE), and contextualist art education. The second level of analysis examines the influences of this theoretical debate on the structure of the Western Australian Art and Crafts Syllabus K-7, and also examines attempts to implement policy regarding the use of visual art works in schools. This is based on an examination of the relevant curricula documents, and interviews with four art educators involved in curriculum development The third level of analysis is based on interviews with visual arts primary specialist teachers. These interviews sought to discover their understanding of the role of visual art works in primary art education and in their own teaching

BRIX₂ - A Versatile Toolkit for Rapid Prototyping and Education in Ubiquitous Computing

Zehe S. BRIX₂ - A Versatile Toolkit for Rapid Prototyping and Education in Ubiquitous Computing. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2018

The Politics of Feminist Citizenship: Violence, Law, and Affect in Post-Revolution Tunisia

Taking a historical and ethnographic approach, this dissertation examines citizenship as a historical, political, and ethical problem in Tunisia during a turbulent yet hopeful time of transition. It examines changes in the conceptualization of citizenship from one that is construed as a favor to one that is rights-based, and the political, ethical, and material effects of that shift in both official and popular discourses. I home in on the central and sometimes uneasy role feminists play in articulating and consolidating that discursive, legal, and affective transformation in citizenship by mediating between different legal and moral frameworks and attempting to reconcile competing demands for state reform through the curbing of its power and arbitrariness on the one hand and for accountability that required more state intervention on the other. Overall, this dissertation examines how citizenship and gender justice in Tunisia were being reconfigured and the central role feminists, the law, and affect played in such a process. I ask, Which forms of suffering and violence are recognized and made legible under the new conditions of the post-revolution moment wherein citizenship was shifting toward global human rights? How did feminists mediate between multiple moral and legal frameworks, discourses, and institutions as they sought to standardize the law and rid it of arbitrariness and sentiments on the one hand, and a messy reality that required the mobilization of specific kinds of affective dispositions on the other hand? Can the human rights framework in its focus on the victim’s individual suffering address the legacy of the dictatorship that produced gendered, economic inequalities? How might calls for accountability for crimes unwittingly end up reproducing a strong interventionist state and reinforce its carceral logics when the law has been for so long a tool for systemic violence under the dictatorship? To address these questions I follow a group of feminists who are part of the Coalition to End Violence Against Women (CEVAW) who paradoxically call on the state and invoke law, including its punitive tendency, to fight against neoliberal, structural, spatial, and patriarchal gender violence when these institutions themselves are inherently masculinist. I home in on what I call “sites of citizenship”—protests, NGO meetings, shelters for battered women, legal training workshops, social media, and the courts-- in which discussions and debates over citizenship and the law and negotiations between feminists and the state took place. I make two interrelated arguments about the reconfiguration of citizenship and gender justice in light of the dialectic of law and violence. First, I argue that the remaking of citizenship under the transition to democracy entailed not only the reform of laws, policies, and institutions, but also the reshaping of affective dispositions, moral orientations, and political subjectivities. Second, I argue that in their role as mediators deploying a law-centered approach to gender justice, CEVAW feminists were unwittingly reproducing and reinforcing the carceral logics of the state as they sought to respond to wide-spread revolutionary demands for accountability and an end to impunity that strengthened state power

Curriculum innovation and listening comprehension within the national English teaching reform in China

The ‘National English Teaching Reform’ at university level, also known as the Reform of College English, was initiated in China in 2003. The new mode of English teaching was a combination of classroom teaching and student self-access learning via CWISs (Campus-Wide Information System). The emphasis of the Reform was on developing the students' all-round ability, especially the ability of listening and speaking. The purpose of this study was to research the implementation of this curriculum innovation in a specific university. The research applied both quantitative and qualitative methods, namely, questionnaires, interviews, listening comprehension classroom observations, and document review. According to the data collected, multi-media facilities were more widely used than before but individual self-access facilities were insufficient for every student to get access when needed. At the same time, full advantage of the facilities was not being taken of. With regard to English Listening Comprehension, students spent more time in practising, but rather than being motivated by a wish to improve their all-round ability, many of them regarded it as necessary primarily for the purpose of passing the nationwide College English Test (CET), a qualification highly regarded by employers. A general finding was that autonomous study had not yet been realised in the university. Various reasons for this are explored, among them the fact that teachers did not provide a bridge between classroom instruction and self-access learning. Teachers' own difficulties in coping with the technology are also considered. Four series of English Listening Comprehension textbooks were designed for the Reform and were recommended by the Ministry of Education. However, the researched University used another textbook package because it was evaluated to be more suitable for students

Combining SOA and BPM Technologies for Cross-System Process Automation

This paper summarizes the results of an industry case study that introduced a cross-system business process automation solution based on a combination of SOA and BPM standard technologies (i.e., BPMN, BPEL, WSDL). Besides discussing major weaknesses of the existing, custom-built, solution and comparing them against experiences with the developed prototype, the paper presents a course of action for transforming the current solution into the proposed solution. This includes a general approach, consisting of four distinct steps, as well as specific action items that are to be performed for every step. The discussion also covers language and tool support and challenges arising from the transformation

Low-Resource Unsupervised NMT:Diagnosing the Problem and Providing a Linguistically Motivated Solution

Unsupervised Machine Translation hasbeen advancing our ability to translatewithout parallel data, but state-of-the-artmethods assume an abundance of mono-lingual data. This paper investigates thescenario where monolingual data is lim-ited as well, finding that current unsuper-vised methods suffer in performance un-der this stricter setting. We find that theperformance loss originates from the poorquality of the pretrained monolingual em-beddings, and we propose using linguis-tic information in the embedding train-ing scheme. To support this, we look attwo linguistic features that may help im-prove alignment quality: dependency in-formation and sub-word information. Us-ing dependency-based embeddings resultsin a complementary word representationwhich offers a boost in performance ofaround 1.5 BLEU points compared to stan-dardWORD2VECwhen monolingual datais limited to 1 million sentences per lan-guage. We also find that the inclusion ofsub-word information is crucial to improv-ing the quality of the embedding