Block-Based Development of Mobile Learning Experiences for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things enables experts of given domains to create smart user experiences for interacting with the environment. However, development of such experiences requires strong programming skills, which are challenging to develop for non-technical users. This paper presents several extensions to the block-based programming language used in App Inventor to make the creation of mobile apps for smart learning experiences less challenging. Such apps are used to process and graphically represent data streams from sensors by applying map-reduce operations. A workshop with students without previous experience with Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile app programming was conducted to evaluate the propositions. As a result, students were able to create small IoT apps that ingest, process and visually represent data in a simpler form as using App Inventor's standard features. Besides, an experimental study was carried out in a mobile app development course with academics of diverse disciplines. Results showed it was faster and easier for novice programmers to develop the proposed app using new stream processing blocks.Spanish National Research Agency (AEI) - ERDF fund

CONTREX: Design of embedded mixed-criticality CONTRol systems under consideration of EXtra-functional properties

The increasing processing power of today’s HW/SW platforms leads to the integration of more and more functions in a single device. Additional design challenges arise when these functions share computing resources and belong to different criticality levels. CONTREX complements current activities in the area of predictable computing platforms and segregation mechanisms with techniques to consider the extra-functional properties, i.e., timing constraints, power, and temperature. CONTREX enables energy efficient and cost aware design through analysis and optimization of these properties with regard to application demands at different criticality levels. This article presents an overview of the CONTREX European project, its main innovative technology (extension of a model based design approach, functional and extra-functional analysis with executable models and run-time management) and the final results of three industrial use-cases from different domain (avionics, automotive and telecommunication).The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2011 under grant agreement no. 611146

Teaching IIoT through Hands-on Activities

This chapter describes a hands-on educational approach to teach Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), including activities like problem analysis, programming, testing and debugging. Students are given autonomy to propose and evaluate different solutions, using adequate tools and following best practices. In parallel, key competencies like team management, project planning, costing and time scheduling, are imbibed in students to prepare them to become deployable automation engineers. To illustrate the proposed approach, we elaborate on the experience gained from teaching an elective course to undergraduate engineering students, in terms of learning outcomes, methodology, assessment and feedback. This course was centered on the Node Red platform (based on Node.js), using hardware devices like Arduino Uno, Nano and Raspberry Pi. Sensors commonly used and protocols like Modbus RTU/TCP, OPC UA, MQTT are discussed in the framework of common industrial applications

Insights Into Global Engineering Education After the Birth of Industry 5.0

Insights Into Global Engineering Education After the Birth of Industry 5.0 presents a comprehensive overview of recent developments in the fields of engineering and technology. The book comprises single chapters authored by various researchers and edited by an expert active in the engineering education research area. It provides a thorough overview of the latest research efforts by international authors on engineering education and opens potential new research paths for further novel developments

Proceedings of the Conference on Production Systems and Logistics: CPSL 2022

[no abstract available

Critical success factors for public-private partnerships in South Africa

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2011ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is a popular instrument for public service delivery. It is important that public managers will be able to recognize when a PPP would be an appropriate service delivery option, and will be able to maximize a PPP‘s chances of success when it is the chosen service delivery instrument. The research question addressed in this dissertation is: ―What are the critical factors that can be replicated that separate successful PPPs from PPPs that do not deliver or that collapse? In this dissertation critical success factors for PPPs are identified through a step-by-step process in which different sources of success factors are analysed and where successively identified sets of success factors are compared and combined in a repetitive layered process of synthesis. A list of success factors is created and expanded through an iterative process of evaluation, removal of duplications, combination of related success factors and listing of unique success factors. Success factors are found in literature while describing the PPP concept and partnership mechanics and management. Success factors are identified in partnership literature, in public governance literature, in private sector collaboration literature, in entrepreneurial studies and in a collection of perspectives on success. These perspectives include those of stakeholders, of private operators, of the third sector as well as perspectives from disciplines and knowledge and practice frameworks such as project management, corporate governance, enterprise risk management and organisational design. Additional success factors are identified in a discussion on the evaluation of partnerships, where it is shown that success factors can be derived from evaluation based on characterization, from partnership definitions, from the perspective of programme evaluation, from measuring the performance of business improvement districts, from alternating focus partnership evaluation (sector by sector, theme-based, local-level) and from service delivery evaluation. The evaluation of partnership examples also provides insight into success factors. The final filtering and synthesis of evidence uses the results of questionnaires, from which success factors are derived, to conduct a final distillation and produce the final list of success factors identified. A total of 466 individual success factors are identified in this dissertation, these factors are grouped into 43 distinct categories. The two most critical success factors for PPPs are identified as firstly delivering a publicly needed service and secondly achieving the objectives of the partnership. The answer to the research question described above is that critically, two conditions must be met to make a PPP successful, and that is that the goals of the PPP must be achieved and that a public need must be satisfied. There are many additional success factors which can further define success and degrees of success, all of which are descriptions of desired conditions from the perspective of stakeholders. The exploratory and hypothesis-generating study culminates in a hypothesis that states that if public managers are faced with a choice of service delivery options, and the use of a PPP is one option, and if the manager applies the categories of recommended critical success factors identified in this dissertation, the manager will be able to determine whether a PPP would be an appropriate service delivery vehicle, and furthermore, if PPP is chosen as service delivery vehicle, the public manager would, through the application of the success factors identified in this dissertation, have a greater chance of successful implementation of the PPP through purposeful collaboration. The study contributes to the public management body of knowledge by covering new ground in terms of the evaluation and management of public-private partnerships.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Publiek-Privaat Vennootskappe (PPVe) is 'n gewilde instrument vir die lewering van openbare dienste. Dit is belangrik dat openbare bestuurders sal weet wanneer 'n PPV 'n goeie opsie sal wees vir openbare dienslewering en hoe om 'n PPV se geleentheid vir sukses te verhoog as dit die gekose dienslewerings-instrument is. Die navorsings-vraag wat in hierdie proefskrif aangespreek word is: Wat is die kritieke sukses-faktore wat gerepliseer kan word wat suksesvolle PPVe onderskei van PPVe wat nie presteer nie of wat ineenstort? In hierdie proefskrif word kritieke suksesfaktore vir PPVe geïdentifiseer deur 'n stap-vir-stap proses waardeur verskillende bronne van suksesfaktore ge-analiseer word en agtereenvolgende stelle van suksesfaktore vergelyk en gekombineer word in 'n herhalende, gelaagde proses van sintese. 'n Lys van suksesfaktore word geskep en uitgebrei deur ‗n iteratiewe proses van evaluasie, die verwydering van herhalings, die kombinasie van verwante faktore en die lys van unieke faktore. Suksesfaktore word gevind in literatuur terwyl die PPV konsep en vennootskap meganismes en -bestuur beskryf word. Suksesfaktore word geïdentifiseer in vennootskap literatuur, in openbare bestuur literatuur, in privaatsektor samewerkingsliteratuur, in entrepeneur studies en in 'n versameling perspektiewe op sukses. Hierdie perspektiewe sluit in die van belanghoudendes, van private operateurs, van die derde sektor sowel as perspektiewe van dissiplines en kennis en praktyk raamwerke soos projekbestuur, korporatiewe bestuur, ondernemingsrisikobestuur en organisatoriese ontwerp. Bykomende suksesfaktore word geïdentifiseer in 'n bespreking oor die evaluasie van vennootskappe, waar dit aangedui word dat suksesfaktore afgelei kan word van karakter-gebaseerde evaluasie, van die prestasiemeting van besigheidsverbeteringsdistrikte ("Business Improvement Districts"), van alternatiewelik-fokusende vennootskap-evaluasie (sektor-vir-sektor, tema-gebasseerd, plaaslike vlak) en van dienslewerings-evaluasie. Die evaluering van vennootskap voorbeelde voorsien ook insig in suksesfaktore. Die finale filtrasie en sintese van bewyse gebruik vraelyste, waarvandaan suksesfaktore afgelei word, vir 'n finale distillasie en die saamstel van 'n finale lys van geïdentifiseerde suksesfaktore. In totaal word 466 indiwiduele suksesfaktore in hierdie proefskrif geïdentifiseer, wat in 43 aparte kategorieë gegroepeer word. Die twee mees kritieke suksesfaktore wat uitgewys word is om eerstens 'n benodigde publieke of openbare behoefte te bevredig of diens te lewer, en tweedens om die doelwitte van die vennootskap te bereik. Die antwoord op die navorsings-vraag wat hierbo beskryf word is dat daar krities aan twee voorwaardes voldoen moet word om 'n PPV susksevol te maak, en dit is dat die vennootskap se doelwitte moet bereik word en dat ‗n openbare behoefte bevredig moet word. Daar is verskeie bykomende suksesfaktore wat sukses en die mate van sukses verder kan definieer, waarvan almal beskrywings is van verlangde toestande uit die oogpunt van belanghebbendes. Die uitset van die verkennende en hipotese-vormende studie is 'n hipotese wat lei dat, indien openbare bestuurders met 'n keuse van dienslewerings opsies gekonfronteer word, en indien die gebruik van 'n PPV een van hierdie opsies is, en indien die bestuurder dan die kategorieë van voorgestelde suksesfaktore wat in hierdie proefskrif geïdentiseer is toepas, sal dit vir die bestuurder moontlik wees om te bepaal of 'n PPV 'n toepaslike diensleweringsvoertuig kan wees, en verder dat, indien 'n PPV die gekose diensleweringsvoertuig is, die openbare bestuurder deur die toepassing van die susksesfaktore wat in hierdie proefskrif geïdentifiseer is 'n groter kans sal hê vir suksesvolle implementering van die PPV deur doelgerigte samewerking