Online Programming Judge System (UOJ)

This research conducts a study to build an Online Programming Judge system with a mechanism to generate test cases automatically using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The system has the function to judge programming code by evaluating the output that the program produced. Based on the problem that it is time consuming for lecturers to manually compile, run and verify every student programs for judging. Moreover, they also need to define test cases for different programming exercises in order to judge student‘s code. The system is built on the purpose to assist lecturers in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS in judging code submitted from students and generate test cases for every programming exercise automatically. It also helps UTP students practice and enhancing their programming skills. In this research, details of judging process are explored. Moreover, the mechanism of test cases generation using PSO algorithm is deeply analyzed. The study would focus on the primary structure of PSO and the proposed fitness function to calculate fitness value for each generated test case. There are comparisons between manual and automatic PSO test case generation results that would be conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method. Finally, conclusion of current results and recommendation for future development are also stated

The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions

The mirroring hypothesis predicts that the organizational patterns of a development project (e.g. communication links, geographic collocation, team and firm co-membership) will correspond to the technical patterns of dependency in the system under development. Scholars in a range of disciplines have argued that mirroring is either necessary or a highly desirable feature of development projects, but evidence pertaining to the hypothesis is widely scattered across fields, research sites, and methodologies. In this paper, we formally define the mirroring hypothesis and review 102 empirical studies spanning three levels of organization: within a single firm, across firms, and in open community-based development projects. The hypothesis was supported in 69% of the cases. Support for the hypothesis was strongest in the within-firm sample, less strong in the across-firm sample, and relatively weak in the open collaborative sample. Based on a detailed analysis of the cases in which the mirroring hypothesis was not supported, we introduce the concept of actionable transparency as a means of achieving coordination without mirroring. We present examples from practice and describe the more complex organizational patterns that emerge when actionable transparency allows designers to 'break the mirror.'Modularity, innovation, product and process development, organization design, design structure, organizational structure, organizational ties

Auto-marking System: A Support Tool for Learning of Programming

Computer programming requires skills in designing algorithms, understanding syntax, writing programs, as well as the ability to correct errors in order to produce good programs. These skills can be developed through a lot of practice on a continuous basis. The students’ proficiency in programming is measured by the number of exercises that can be solved correctly within a specified time frame. From past observations, it is discovered that most students were able to solve the problems given during laboratory sessions. However, their performances did not carry over to laboratory tests. This situation points to the possibility that the students might have not perform adequate self-practice in preparing for laboratory tests. In a student-centred learning environment, fulfilling the notional learning hours is essential to ensure that students are prepared to take their subsequent classes. Based on a constructivist learning framework, this article reports the development and evaluation of a prototype system to assist in self learning of programming. The online Auto-marking Programming Exercise System was developed based on the UVa Online Judge as benchmark. The system can provide real time feedback to students immediately after the students submit their programs. This instant feedback is an important characteristic of the constructivist approach to learning. This will help students learn programming in an effective way. The system is tested and evaluated for usability by selected users from among instructors and former students of computer programming course

Sensemaking on the Pragmatic Web: A Hypermedia Discourse Perspective

The complexity of the dilemmas we face on an organizational, societal and global scale forces us into sensemaking activity. We need tools for expressing and contesting perspectives flexible enough for real time use in meetings, structured enough to help manage longer term memory, and powerful enough to filter the complexity of extended deliberation and debate on an organizational or global scale. This has been the motivation for a programme of basic and applied action research into Hypermedia Discourse, which draws on research in hypertext, information visualization, argumentation, modelling, and meeting facilitation. This paper proposes that this strand of work shares a key principle behind the Pragmatic Web concept, namely, the need to take seriously diverse perspectives and the processes of meaning negotiation. Moreover, it is argued that the hypermedia discourse tools described instantiate this principle in practical tools which permit end-user control over modelling approaches in the absence of consensus

The Italian Job: Moving (Massively) Online a National Olympiad

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a pervasive effect worldwide, including local, national and international Olympiads in Informatics. Most national Olympiads had to be moved online, a process which poses a number of serious challenges. Help across countries is of uttermost importance in this context, to enable a successful continuation of the IOI during globally hard times. In this paper, we share the experience gained and tools produced during a year of online Olympiads in Italy, hoping that other countries can take profit of these (freely available) tools and suggestions for their own Olympiads

How Songbirds Learn to Sing Provides Suggestions for Designing Team Projects for Computing Courses

Understanding how our brain works and how we learn is perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing twenty-first computer science. Songbirds are good candidates for trying to unravel some of this mystery. Over the last decade, a large amount of research has been made to better understand how songbirds learn complex songs. The Canary (Serinus canaria) and the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) have been widely used bird models to study these brain and behavior relationships. Like songbirds, we humans are vocal and social learners. In such learners, the development of communication is initially steered by social interactions with adult tutors. In songbirds, song development is further shaped through interactions with peers and by attending to the consequences of others interacting. In this paper, we review three key areas in a bird’s brain which perform three specific roles (i.e. actor, experimenter and critic). Similarly, there are three roles (i.e. coder, designer and tester) that are being played in software firms for developing products. We can bring the same roles into the computer science classroom by designing a term project which involves students who play these three different roles. We demonstrate our methodology by showing how it works in a senior level computer science course. We then discuss and qualitatively show the benefits of such a role-based project design