ELICA: An Automated Tool for Dynamic Extraction of Requirements Relevant Information

Requirements elicitation requires extensive knowledge and deep understanding of the problem domain where the final system will be situated. However, in many software development projects, analysts are required to elicit the requirements from an unfamiliar domain, which often causes communication barriers between analysts and stakeholders. In this paper, we propose a requirements ELICitation Aid tool (ELICA) to help analysts better understand the target application domain by dynamic extraction and labeling of requirements-relevant knowledge. To extract the relevant terms, we leverage the flexibility and power of Weighted Finite State Transducers (WFSTs) in dynamic modeling of natural language processing tasks. In addition to the information conveyed through text, ELICA captures and processes non-linguistic information about the intention of speakers such as their confidence level, analytical tone, and emotions. The extracted information is made available to the analysts as a set of labeled snippets with highlighted relevant terms which can also be exported as an artifact of the Requirements Engineering (RE) process. The application and usefulness of ELICA are demonstrated through a case study. This study shows how pre-existing relevant information about the application domain and the information captured during an elicitation meeting, such as the conversation and stakeholders' intentions, can be captured and used to support analysts achieving their tasks.Comment: 2018 IEEE 26th International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshop

Feasibility and performance analysis of middleware support for a situated virtual-physical civic engagement platform

Abstract. With the prevalent ubiquitous computing technologies, it is possible to explore novel solutions for supporting civic engagement as a set of urban practices. One interesting urban practice is the soapbox, traditionally conceived as wooden structure, from where to hold impromptu speeches. For this thesis, a novel soapbox prototype with ubiquitous computing mediated technologies is introduced, with our focus on the feasibility and performance analysis of its middleware support, investigating how our middleware is able to meet the goals of a situated virtual-physical civic engagement platform. Based on our empirical evaluations, it is demonstrated that our prototype is effective to support civic engagement and serve purpose of continuously soapbox streaming

Using Twitter to learn about the autism community

Considering the raising socio-economic burden of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), timely and evidence-driven public policy decision making and communication of the latest guidelines pertaining to the treatment and management of the disorder is crucial. Yet evidence suggests that policy makers and medical practitioners do not always have a good understanding of the practices and relevant beliefs of ASD-afflicted individuals' carers who often follow questionable recommendations and adopt advice poorly supported by scientific data. The key goal of the present work is to explore the idea that Twitter, as a highly popular platform for information exchange, could be used as a data-mining source to learn about the population affected by ASD -- their behaviour, concerns, needs etc. To this end, using a large data set of over 11 million harvested tweets as the basis for our investigation, we describe a series of experiments which examine a range of linguistic and semantic aspects of messages posted by individuals interested in ASD. Our findings, the first of their nature in the published scientific literature, strongly motivate additional research on this topic and present a methodological basis for further work.Comment: Social Network Analysis and Mining, 201

A Visual Programming Paradigm for Abstract Deep Learning Model Development

Deep learning is one of the fastest growing technologies in computer science with a plethora of applications. But this unprecedented growth has so far been limited to the consumption of deep learning experts. The primary challenge being a steep learning curve for learning the programming libraries and the lack of intuitive systems enabling non-experts to consume deep learning. Towards this goal, we study the effectiveness of a no-code paradigm for designing deep learning models. Particularly, a visual drag-and-drop interface is found more efficient when compared with the traditional programming and alternative visual programming paradigms. We conduct user studies of different expertise levels to measure the entry level barrier and the developer load across different programming paradigms. We obtain a System Usability Scale (SUS) of 90 and a NASA Task Load index (TLX) score of 21 for the proposed visual programming compared to 68 and 52, respectively, for the traditional programming methods

Chatbot for digital marketing and customer support: an artificial intelligence approach

Dissertação de mestrado em Computer ScienceHuman interaction with machines has never been so frequent as nowadays. In order to reduce the redundant workload of a human being that answers repeated and trivial questions regarding customer support on a digital marketing website, this work has the purpose of replacing this tedious job with an informatics tool, a dialogue tool. A dialogue tool like a Chatbot that could handle customer support to a digital marketing website, provides the opportunity of placing human resources on ”non mechanical tasks”. Given that Chatbots exchange messages directly with customers, they could collect required protocol information in all the interactions. In spite of the possibility of needing human assistance, he will not need to ask these standard questions and will improve its efficiency. By automating these required dialogues to answer questions about certain products, that would otherwise be responded by a human, the organizations will have the opportunity to place human resources in another sectors that are not so easily automated.A interação humana com máquinas nunca foi tão frequente como nos dias de hoje. Com a intenção de reduzir a quantidade de trabalho de um ser humano que receberia ao responder a questões triviais e repetidas no que diz respeito a Suporte ao Cliente, este trabalho tem o propósito de substituir um trabalho entediante por uma ferramenta informática, uma ferramenta que possibilite o diálogo entre o cliente e o serviço de suporte. Uma ferramenta como um Chatbot que poderia fornecer suporte ao cliente num website de marketing digital iria providenciar às empresas a oportunidade de alocar trabalhadores para tarefas ”menos mecânicas”. Dado que os Chatbots trocam mensagens diretamente com os clientes, estes podem recolher informações que são sempre necessárias e protocolares em todas as interações. Assim sendo, mesmo que este diálogo requira possivelmente um ser humano, este irá prescindir de fazer estas perguntas padrão, melhorando assim a eficiência deste trabalho (Suporte ao Cliente). Ao automatizar diálogos necessários para responder a questões acerca de produtos que, de outra forma seriam respondidas por um ser humano, as organizações estarão a poupar tempo e dinheiro que podem ser aplicados noutros sectores menos propícios a serem automatizados

Context modeling and context retrieval in mobile usage scenarios – a framework for context-aware mobile applications

Die fortschreitende Verbreitung drahtloser Kommunikationsnetze sowie immer leistungsfähigerer mobiler Computer schafft ein großes Potenzial für ein breites Spektrum innovativer Anwendungen. Kontextsensitive Applikationen adaptieren die Gegebenheiten der jeweiligen Situation des Nutzers, wodurch neuartige, intelligente Anwendungen und Benutzungsschnittstellen möglich werden. Die zunehmende Menge verfügbarer Sensortechniken und die daraus resultierende Vielfalt erfassbarer Kontextinformationen erschweren jedoch vermehrt die Verbreitung dieser Applikationen. Ein Rahmenwerk zur Kontextrepräsentation soll die Entwicklung kontextsensitiver Applikationen ohne Berücksichtigung von Details der Kontexterfassung und -verwaltung ermöglichen. Außerdem sollen Austausch und Wiederverwendbarkeit von Kontextinformationen zwischen Applikationen und Nutzern gestattet werden. In dieser Arbeit wird ein solches Rahmenwerk entwickelt. Zu Beginn steht die Untersuchung von Fragen der Kontextmodellierung, auf deren Grundlage anschließend eine Konzeption erarbeitet wird. Der praktische Teil der Arbeit führt eine Referenzimplementation des Systems durch um zu evaluieren, ob die Konzeption auf Basis aktueller Technologien in die Realität umgesetzt, und als Grundlage für weitere Untersuchungen herangezogen werden kann.The progressive spreading of wireless networks and increasingly powerful mobile computers creates a big potential for a wide spectrum of innovative applications. Context-aware applications adapt the circumstances of the user s current situation which enables new and intelligent user interfaces. Nevertheless, the sheer diversity of exploitable contexts and the plethora of sensing technologies are actually working against the deployment of context-aware systems. A framework for context retrieval should enable the development of context-aware applications without considering details of context acquisition and context management. Moreover, exchange and reusability of context information should be allowed between applications and users. In this work such a framework is developed. At the beginning, an investigation of questions of context modeling is accomplished. After that, a concept is compiled on that foundation. In the practial part of this thesis a reference implementation of the system is conducted to evaluate whether the concept can be put into practice, and be pulled up as a basis for other investigations