Girls in IT: How to develop talent and leverage support

The objectives of this panel are to inform the audience about national and regional initiatives developed by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) to reach out to middle and high school girls; learn from promising experiences in which the panelists have been directly involved; and discuss venues to scale and sustain efforts to increase women\u27s participation in technology careers. Panelists will describe their particular experiences, and discuss ways to utilize the Aspirations in Computing program to increase enrollment and retention of females in computing. A minimum of 30 minutes will be set aside for question and answer

QuizPower: a mobile app with app inventor and XAMPP service integration

This paper details the development of a mobile app for the Android operating system using MIT App Inventor language and development platform. The app, Quiz Power, provides students a way to study course material in an engaging and effective manner. At its current stage the app is intended strictly for use in a mobile app with App Inventor course, although it provides the facility to be adapted for other courses by simply changing the web data store. Development occurred during the spring semester of 2013. Students in the course played a vital role in providing feedback on course material, which would be the basis for the structure of the quiz as well as the questions. The significance of the project is the integration of the MIT App Inventor service with a web service implemented and managed by the department

Admission testing for higher education:A multi-cohort study on the validity of high-fidelity curriculum-sampling tests

<div><p>We investigated the validity of curriculum-sampling tests for admission to higher education in two studies. Curriculum-sampling tests mimic representative parts of an academic program to predict future academic achievement. In the first study, we investigated the predictive validity of a curriculum-sampling test for first year academic achievement across three cohorts of undergraduate psychology applicants and for academic achievement after three years in one cohort. We also studied the relationship between the test scores and enrollment decisions. In the second study, we examined the cognitive and noncognitive construct saturation of curriculum-sampling tests in a sample of psychology students. The curriculum-sampling tests showed high predictive validity for first year and third year academic achievement, mostly comparable to the predictive validity of high school GPA. In addition, curriculum-sampling test scores showed incremental validity over high school GPA. Applicants who scored low on the curriculum-sampling tests decided not to enroll in the program more often, indicating that curriculum-sampling admission tests may also promote self-selection. Contrary to expectations, the curriculum-sampling tests scores did not show any relationships with cognitive ability, but there were some indications for noncognitive saturation, mostly for perceived test competence. So, curriculum-sampling tests can serve as efficient admission tests that yield high predictive validity. Furthermore, when self-selection or student-program fit are major objectives of admission procedures, curriculum-sampling test may be preferred over or may be used in addition to high school GPA.</p></div

A complementary view for better understanding the term computational thinking

The term Computational Thinking is closely related to efforts connected to teach a systematic and well-structured way of problem solving that includes a set of tools and techniques used in Computer Science. While substantial research in this field has shown promising outcomes concerning distinct intervention programs and teaching initiatives, the term Computational Thinking itself requires to be revised in order to get a wider consensus about its meaning and purpose. This paper contributes to the ongoing quest concerning the definition of the term by starting with a fundamental perspective on computational theory and corresponding concepts in order to describe the theoretical building blocks of a systematic view to further elaborate on an approach for teaching and learning about Computational Thinking. Additionally, based on this foundational effort, more advanced concepts are presented and discussed in order to better understand this domain. Finally, the paper identifies and discusses a set of relevant challenges taking a cognitive psychology perspective on Computational Thinking

Augmented Reality Interfaces for Efficient and Safe Applications in Industry and Services

Lo scopo della ricerca ha riguardato la concezione, l'implementazione ed il test di nuovi concetti di interfaccia basati sulla Realta' Aumentata (AR) per applicazioni nei campi dell'industria e dei servizi, tenendo conto della rapida evoluzione dei sistemi e dei dispositivi inerenti a tale tecnologia in continuo sviluppo. Il risultato finale dello studio e' principalmente rappresentato da un “Video-Based Adaptive and Collaborative AR System”, in cui (a) la tecnologia AR ottica (see-through) è abilitata alla ricezione di stream video multipli in tempo reale da differenti videocamere e/o display (“Video-Based”), (b) gli utenti condividono lo stesso ambiente ma sperimentano differenti visualizzazioni AR ("Adaptive"), (c) lo scambio di informazioni avviene fra tutte le componenti e fra tutti i livelli – fra gli operatori, nonché fra gli stessi ed i loro supervisori, quest’ultimi aventi il compito di ottimizzare le strategie di teamwork in tempo reale ("Collaborative"). Tale Sistema AR ha valore generale e può essere esteso a numerosi campi di applicazione del mondo dell’industria e dei servizi. Come casi di studio particolari, sono stati considerati i contesti "safety-critical" delle torri di controllo aeroportuali e degli elicotteri. In questo modo, la trattazione ha riguardato rispettivamente sia gli impianti di gestione/controllo che i mezzi di trasporto, oovero le due macro-aree in cui ricadono non solo tutte le applicazioni AR relative al campo aeronautico, bensì all’intero settore dei trasporti (terrestri, marittimi, aerei), sia di carattere civile che militare. Integrando stream video multipli in tempo reale all’interno dei layers virtuali della tecnologia AR ottica (see-through), la caratteristica “Video-Based” del Sistema AR implementato offre la possibilita' di colmare il gap di ricerca rappresentato dall’assenza di soluzioni ibride derivanti dalla fusione delle differenti funzionalità che caratterizzano entrambe le categorie distinte (rispettivamente tecnologia AR ottica e video) in cui vengono suddivisi tutti i dispositivi AR.The overall aim of the research was to conceive, develop and test new interface concepts based on Augmented Reality (AR) for applications in industry and services, taking into account the fast evolution of systems and devices dedicated to this quickly maturing technology. The final result of the PhD study is mainly represented by a “Video-Based Adaptive and Collaborative AR System”, where optical AR technology is enabled to receive multiple live video streams from different cameras and/or displays (“Video-Based”), users share the same environment but experience different AR visualizations (Adaptive) and where information exchange happens among all components and all levels (Collaborative) - among users and between users and team supervisors, with the latter having the role of optimizing team strategies in real-time. This AR System has a flexible character and can be generalized and easily extended to many application fields in industry and services. The case studies here considered, namely related to the airport control towers and helicopters, have been developed in order to support in understanding the impact that the implementation of this kind of AR concept would bring to such safety-critical operations in the aeronautical sector. The “Video-Based” feature offers the possibility of integrating multiple live video streams in the virtual layer of an optical AR system and tackles the research gap represented by the lack of hybrid solutions deriving from the fusion of the different functionalities characterizing both the distinctive categories the whole AR technology is divided into, namely optical and video AR technology

An evaluation of the challenges of Multilingualism in Data Warehouse development

In this paper we discuss Business Intelligence and define what is meant by support for Multilingualism in a Business Intelligence reporting context. We identify support for Multilingualism as a challenging issue which has implications for data warehouse design and reporting performance. Data warehouses are a core component of most Business Intelligence systems and the star schema is the approach most widely used to develop data warehouses and dimensional Data Marts. We discuss the way in which Multilingualism can be supported in the Star Schema and identify that current approaches have serious limitations which include data redundancy and data manipulation, performance and maintenance issues. We propose a new approach to enable the optimal application of multilingualism in Business Intelligence. The proposed approach was found to produce satisfactory results when used in a proof-of-concept environment. Future work will include testing the approach in an enterprise environmen

XXIII Edición del Workshop de Investigadores en Ciencias de la Computación : Libro de actas

Compilación de las ponencias presentadas en el XXIII Workshop de Investigadores en Ciencias de la Computación (WICC), llevado a cabo en Chilecito (La Rioja) en abril de 2021.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informátic