Analyzing Handwritten and Transcribed Symbols in Disparate Corpora

Cuneiform tablets appertain to the oldest textual artifacts used for more than three millennia and are comparable in amount and relevance to texts written in Latin or ancient Greek. These tablets are typically found in the Middle East and were written by imprinting wedge-shaped impressions into wet clay. Motivated by the increased demand for computerized analysis of documents within the Digital Humanities, we develop the foundation for quantitative processing of cuneiform script. Using a 3D-Scanner to acquire a cuneiform tablet or manually creating line tracings are two completely different representations of the same type of text source. Each representation is typically processed with its own tool-set and the textual analysis is therefore limited to a certain type of digital representation. To homogenize these data source a unifying minimal wedge feature description is introduced. It is extracted by pattern matching and subsequent conflict resolution as cuneiform is written densely with highly overlapping wedges. Similarity metrics for cuneiform signs based on distinct assumptions are presented. (i) An implicit model represents cuneiform signs using undirected mathematical graphs and measures the similarity of signs with graph kernels. (ii) An explicit model approaches the problem of recognition by an optimal assignment between the wedge configurations of two signs. Further, methods for spotting cuneiform script are developed, combining the feature descriptors for cuneiform wedges with prior work on segmentation-free word spotting using part-structured models. The ink-ball model is adapted by treating wedge feature descriptors as individual parts. The similarity metrics and the adapted spotting model are both evaluated on a real-world dataset outperforming the state-of-the-art in cuneiform sign similarity and spotting. To prove the applicability of these methods for computational cuneiform analysis, a novel approach is presented for mining frequent constellations of wedges resulting in spatial n-grams. Furthermore, a method for automatized transliteration of tablets is evaluated by employing structured and sequential learning on a dataset of parallel sentences. Finally, the conclusion outlines how the presented methods enable the development of new tools and computational analyses, which are objective and reproducible, for quantitative processing of cuneiform script

Challenges for engineering students working with authentic complex problems

Engineers are important participants in solving societal, environmental and technical problems. However, due to an increasing complexity in relation to these problems new interdisciplinary competences are needed in engineering. Instead of students working with monodisciplinary problems, a situation where students work with authentic complex problems in interdisciplinary teams together with a company may scaffold development of new competences. The question is: What are the challenges for students structuring the work on authentic interdisciplinary problems? This study explores a three-day event where 7 students from Aalborg University (AAU) from four different faculties and one student from University College North Denmark (UCN), (6th-10th semester), worked in two groups at a large Danish company, solving authentic complex problems. The event was structured as a Hackathon where the students for three days worked with problem identification, problem analysis and finalizing with a pitch competition presenting their findings. During the event the students had workshops to support the work and they had the opportunity to use employees from the company as facilitators. It was an extracurricular activity during the summer holiday season. The methodology used for data collection was qualitative both in terms of observations and participants’ reflection reports. The students were observed during the whole event. Findings from this part of a larger study indicated, that students experience inability to transfer and transform project competences from their previous disciplinary experiences to an interdisciplinary setting

Exploring the practical use of a collaborative robot for academic purposes

This article presents a set of experiences related to the setup and exploration of potential educational uses of a collaborative robot (cobot). The basic principles that have guided the work carried out have been three. First and foremost, study of all the functionalities offered by the robot and exploration of its potential academic uses both in subjects focused on industrial robotics and in subjects of related disciplines (automation, communications, computer vision). Second, achieve the total integration of the cobot at the laboratory, seeking not only independent uses of it but also seeking for applications (laboratory practices) in which the cobot interacts with some of the other devices already existing at the laboratory (other industrial robots and a flexible manufacturing system). Third, reuse of some available components and minimization of the number and associated cost of required new components. The experiences, carried out following a project-based learning methodology under the framework of bachelor and master subjects and thesis, have focused on the integration of mechanical, electronic and programming aspects in new design solutions (end effector, cooperative workspace, artificial vision system integration) and case studies (advanced task programming, cybersecure communication, remote access). These experiences have consolidated the students' acquisition of skills in the transition to professional life by having the close collaboration of the university faculty with the experts of the robotics company.Postprint (published version