Wepsim: an online interactive educational simulator integrating microdesign, microprogramming, and assembly language programming

Our educational project has three primary goals. First, we want to provide a robust vision of how hardware and software interplay, by integrating the design of an instruction set (through microprogramming) and using that instruction set for assembly programming. Second, we wish to offer a versatile and interactive tool where the previous integrated vision could be tested. The tool we have developed to achieve this is called WepSIM and it provides the view of an elemental processor together with a microprogrammed subset of the MIPS instruction set. In addition, WepSIM is flexible enough to be adapted to other instruction sets or hardware components (e.g., ARM or x86). Third, we want to extend the activities of our university courses, labs, and lectures (fixed hours in a fixed place), so that students may learn by using their mobile device at any location, and at any time during the day. This article presents how WepSIM has improved the teaching of Computer Structure courses by empowering students with a more dynamic and guided learning process. In this paper, we show the results obtained during the experience of using the simulator in the Computer Structure course of the Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and Engineering at University Carlos III of Madrid

WepSIM: Simulador de un procesador elemental con unidad de control microprogramada

WepSIM es un simulador de un procesador elemental con unidad de control microprogramada basado en el procesador diseñado por el personal del grupo de investigación ARCOS del Departamento de Informática de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid para la docencia en la asignatura Estructura de Computadores. Con esta herramienta se ofrece una visión integrada de la microprogramación de un computador y la programación en lenguaje ensamblador, dando la posibilidad de especificar distintos juegos de instrucciones y ofreciendo un nivel de detalle a nivel de ciclo de reloj. Gracias al diseño modular propuesto en el cual está basado este simulador, es posible añadir, modificar o quitar elementos existentes al modelo hardware diseñado. Debido a que solo precisa de un navegador web, es posible utilizarlo en casi cualquier momento y dispositivo. Todas estas características, hacen de WepSIM el primer simulador docente que unifica la microprogramación y la programación en lenguaje ensamblador permitiendo una fácil personalización del modelo hardware a simular y el uso de diferentes juegos de instrucciones. Mediante este simulador se busca facilitar la enseñanza y aprendizaje en el área docente de Estructura y Arquitectura de Computadores.eaching the topics related to the architecture of a computer is a basic and fundamental part of the training of computer science students. In these subjects, students achieve a low-level vision and understanding of the components of a computer. In order to facilitate the correctly understanding of the theoretical foundations, it is necessary to use practical classes, where the student should interact with the architecture of a computer in a similar way to that one explained in theory and also manage to extrapolate the theoretical foundations to the actual behavior. One of the main problems when preparing these practical classes is to emulate the necessary resources seen in the theoretical classes. Currently, there are different tools that enable the emulation of different components of a computer. However, there is a lack of tools that unify the simulation of these components, being a problem when trying to obtain a global view of the operation of a computer. These tools can be classified into two main types: emulators and simulators. An emulator is a software that imitates the behavior of a computer, so that programs designed for a particular architecture can be executed in a different one. On the other hand, a simulator is a software that aims to reproduce the behavior of a computer, but with a lower level of realism than the emulators. There are different simulators that can be used in order to work with the main aspects treated in the subjects of “Computer Architecture and Computer Sctructure” such as assembler, cache, etc. Most of these simulators are focused on a specific type of simulation, which implies that, to obtain a global vision on the architecture of the computer several simulators are needed. Therefore, it is much better to count with a tool that offers a complete simulation of the architecture and combines the maximum possible functionalities. We identify another important problem: most of the simulators are designed for running as PC applications. One of the goals we put forward with WepSIM is that it could be used in smartphones or tablets in order to offer greater flexibility in its usage to the student. In addition to having a portable simulator, it must also be as self-contained as possible. Therefore, it must integrate support for its use inside the tool(not as a separate document that serves as a user manual to be printed), allowing the end-user to make full use of the application without the need of getting out of it. In conclusion, we have considered how to offer a simulator that is simple and modular, and that at the same time allows to integrate the teaching of the microprogramming language with programming in assembly. In particular, it can be used to microprogram a customized instruction set and observe the basic operation of a processor, as well as to create assembler programs based on the assembler defined by the above microcode. This is of great help, for example, for system programing, since it is possible to follow how the software interacts in assembly with the hardware in the treatment of interruptions. The idea is to offer a simulator that offers a global vision of a computer, integrating both hardware and software components and also avoiding the extra time involved in learning different tools.Ingeniería Informátic

Diseño y desarrollo de un simulador genérico para programación en ensamblador

CREATOR es un simulador docente genérico para programar en ensamblador en el que se puede simular el funcionamiento de diferentes arquitecturas sobre la misma herramienta. Este simulador está diseñado para ser utilizado como una herramienta en la que los alumnos pueden poner en práctica los cocimientos vistos en las clases teóricas de las asignaturas de Arquitectura y Estructura de Computadores. En esta herramienta los usuarios pueden modifcar las principales características que tiene la arquitectura de un computador como puede ser el conjunto de instrucciones que ejecuta o el conjunto de registros que dispone. Además, durante la ejecución podrán ver el estado en el que se encuentra el computador, es decir, el valor que almacenan los registros y la memoria. Otra funcionalidad destacada que ofrece esta herramienta es la posibilidad de generar bibliotecas de funciones y también poder utilizar en un programa en ensamblador bibliotecas externas. Como se trata de una aplicación web permite que CREATOR pueda ser utilizado en cualquier situación y dispositivo. Debido a todas las características que se han mencionado anteriormente con este simulador se persigue hacer la enseñanza y aprendizaje de estas asignaturas mucho más fácil para los alumnos.CREATOR is a generic teaching simulator to program in assembly in which you can simulate the operation of diferent architectures on the same tool. This simulator is designed to be used as a tool in which students can put into practice the brews seen in the theoretical classes of the subjects of Architecture and Computer Structure. In this tool, users can modify the main characteristics of a computer’s architecture, such as the set of instructions it executes or the set of registers it has. In addition, during the execution, they will be able to see the state in which the computer is, that is to say, the value that the registers and the memory store. Another outstanding functionality ofered by this tool is the possibility of generating function libraries and also being able to use external libraries in an assembly program. As it is a web application, CREATOR can be used in any situation and device. Due to all the features that have been mentioned previously, with this simulator is intended to make teaching and learning of these subjects much easier for students.Ingeniería Informátic

Addressing the new generation of spam (Spam 2.0) through Web usage models

New Internet collaborative media introduce new ways of communicating that are not immune to abuse. A fake eye-catching profile in social networking websites, a promotional review, a response to a thread in online forums with unsolicited content or a manipulated Wiki page, are examples of new the generation of spam on the web, referred to as Web 2.0 Spam or Spam 2.0. Spam 2.0 is defined as the propagation of unsolicited, anonymous, mass content to infiltrate legitimate Web 2.0 applications.The current literature does not address Spam 2.0 in depth and the outcome of efforts to date are inadequate. The aim of this research is to formalise a definition for Spam 2.0 and provide Spam 2.0 filtering solutions. Early-detection, extendibility, robustness and adaptability are key factors in the design of the proposed method.This dissertation provides a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art web spam and Spam 2.0 filtering methods to highlight the unresolved issues and open problems, while at the same time effectively capturing the knowledge in the domain of spam filtering.This dissertation proposes three solutions in the area of Spam 2.0 filtering including: (1) characterising and profiling Spam 2.0, (2) Early-Detection based Spam 2.0 Filtering (EDSF) approach, and (3) On-the-Fly Spam 2.0 Filtering (OFSF) approach. All the proposed solutions are tested against real-world datasets and their performance is compared with that of existing Spam 2.0 filtering methods.This work has coined the term ‘Spam 2.0’, provided insight into the nature of Spam 2.0, and proposed filtering mechanisms to address this new and rapidly evolving problem

Application Platforms for the Internet of Things: Theory, Architecture, Protocols, Data Formats, and Privacy

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the next industrial revolution: we will interact naturally with real and virtual devices as a key part of our daily life. This technology shift is expected to be greater than the Web and Mobile combined. As extremely different technologies are needed to build connected devices, the Internet of Things field is a junction between electronics, telecommunications and software engineering. Internet of Things application development happens in silos, often using proprietary and closed communication protocols. There is the common belief that only if we can solve the interoperability problem we can have a real Internet of Things. After a deep analysis of the IoT protocols, we identified a set of primitives for IoT applications. We argue that each IoT protocol can be expressed in term of those primitives, thus solving the interoperability problem at the application protocol level. Moreover, the primitives are network and transport independent and make no assumption in that regard. This dissertation presents our implementation of an IoT platform: the Ponte project. Privacy issues follows the rise of the Internet of Things: it is clear that the IoT must ensure resilience to attacks, data authentication, access control and client privacy. We argue that it is not possible to solve the privacy issue without solving the interoperability problem: enforcing privacy rules implies the need to limit and filter the data delivery process. However, filtering data require knowledge of how the format and the semantics of the data: after an analysis of the possible data formats and representations for the IoT, we identify JSON-LD and the Semantic Web as the best solution for IoT applications. Then, this dissertation present our approach to increase the throughput of filtering semantic data by a factor of ten

Soporte de interacciones multimodales para aplicaciones web

En este trabajo de tesis se propone una herramienta que hace posible aprovechar mas de una modalidad dentro del contexto de una aplicación web, de forma que se aumente el conjunto de interacciones, soportando así nuevas interacciones multimodales. Por interacciones multimodales, se hace referencia a todas aquellas interacciones, tanto para con el mundo físico real, como para el virtual a través de los diferentes modos; cada uno de estos modos esta “asociado” a los sentidos del ser humano, de acuerdo a Bourguet. Se busca, de esta forma, eliminar o disminuir barreras en la comunicación hombre-máquina/aplicación, e. g. eliminando o dando una alternativa al uso del teclado, eligiendo favorecer a nuevas capacidades de interacción naturales, i. e. asociados a los sentidos. Cuando se permite operar con mas de uno de estos modos en simultáneo, estamos frente a interacciones multimodales, una de las aplicaciones clásicas que abrió el camino multimodal, es el trabajo de Bolt con put-that-there, donde se estudiaba la interacción en una aplicación, de la voz y gestos para indicar comandos. Las aplicaciones web son crecientemente populares, extendiéndose continuamente a nuevos dominios y plataformas. Un número increíblemente grande de usuarios entran en contacto directos con aplicaciones web diariamente utilizando dispositivos que ofrecen mecanismos de interacción diferentes, los cuales en muchos casos, pueden ser utilizados de manera simultánea. Teniendo en cuenta este contexto, se ha desarrollado una plataforma, denominada Plusultra, junto a un protocolo de comunicación y un cliente modular, Gyes, que no solo permite consumir eventos generados por las modalidades si no también definir nuevos drivers para ampliar el catálogo de modalidades soportadas. Todas estas herramientas son open source lo que significa que no solo pueden ser mejoradas por la comunidad si no también extendidas en alcance, por ejemplo, como se mencionó a través del desarrollo de nuevos drivers. Así es como se aumentan las capacidades interactivas de las aplicaciones web. El contenido de este documento está organizado de la siguiente manera; el primer capítulo introduce al lector en el estado del arte actual del soporte a interacciones multimodales. En el segundo y tercer capítulo se analiza en dos partes las estrategias elegidas para desarrollar la plataforma Plusultra y el módulo cliente Gyes. Luego, en el capítulo cuatro, se define que se entiende por aplicación web y como se extienden sus capacidades de interacción usando la plataforma. En el capítulo cinco, se muestra a todo el conjunto de tecnologías desarrolladas en acción, usando como ejemplo a la aplicación Shapes, desarrollada específicamente para este trabajo. Finalmente, el lector encontrará en el capítulo seis, las conclusiones y las posibilidades de extensión, detalladas como trabajo a futuro. A su vez se agregan dos apéndices con información en detalle sobre las modalidades elegidas en el trabajo, estas son háptica y gestual.Facultad de Informátic

Decision Support Systems

Decision support systems (DSS) have evolved over the past four decades from theoretical concepts into real world computerized applications. DSS architecture contains three key components: knowledge base, computerized model, and user interface. DSS simulate cognitive decision-making functions of humans based on artificial intelligence methodologies (including expert systems, data mining, machine learning, connectionism, logistical reasoning, etc.) in order to perform decision support functions. The applications of DSS cover many domains, ranging from aviation monitoring, transportation safety, clinical diagnosis, weather forecast, business management to internet search strategy. By combining knowledge bases with inference rules, DSS are able to provide suggestions to end users to improve decisions and outcomes. This book is written as a textbook so that it can be used in formal courses examining decision support systems. It may be used by both undergraduate and graduate students from diverse computer-related fields. It will also be of value to established professionals as a text for self-study or for reference

Proceedings of The Multi-Agent Logics, Languages, and Organisations Federated Workshops (MALLOW 2010)

http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-627/allproceedings.pdfInternational audienceMALLOW-2010 is a third edition of a series initiated in 2007 in Durham, and pursued in 2009 in Turin. The objective, as initially stated, is to "provide a venue where: the cost of participation was minimum; participants were able to attend various workshops, so fostering collaboration and cross-fertilization; there was a friendly atmosphere and plenty of time for networking, by maximizing the time participants spent together"