Weaving Lighthouses and Stitching Stories: Blind and Visually Impaired People Designing E-textiles

We describe our experience of working with blind and visually impaired people to create interactive art objects that are personal to them, through a participatory making process using electronic textiles (e-textiles) and hands-on crafting techniques. The research addresses both the practical considerations about how to structure hands-on making workshops in a way which is accessible to participants of varying experience and abilities, and how effective the approach was in enabling participants to tell their own stories and feel in control of the design and making process. The results of our analysis is the offering of insights in how to run e-textile making sessions in such a way for them to be more accessible and inclusive to a wider community of participants

The Mathematics of Information Science

This paper describes a course, The Mathematics of Information Science, which was taught at Towson University in Spring 1998, 1999, and 2000. This course is the junior level interdisciplinary course of the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation program. The effectiveness of the course in teaching problem solving techniques and abstract mathematical ideas is documented. The students constructed their own knowledge from laboratory experiences involving digital logic circuits. They were subsequently challenged to abstract this knowledge and to find ways to solve progressively more difficult problems using these digital logic circuits. The mathematics of encoding and decoding information constituted the major mathematical content of the course. This course is shown to be effective in introducing prospective elementary and middle school teachers to abstract mathematical ideas and problem solving techniques

Developing the knowledge-based human resources that support the implementation of the National Dual Training System (NDTS): evaluation of TVET teacher's competency at MARA Training Institutions

Development in the world of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) on an ongoing basis is a challenge to the profession of the TVET-teachers to maintain their performance. The ability of teachers to identify the competencies required by their profession is very critical to enable them to make improvements in teaching and learning. For a broader perspective the competency needs of the labour market have to be matched by those developed within the vocational learning processes. Consequently, this study has focused on developing and validating the new empirical based TVET-teacher competency profile and evaluating teacher’s competency. This study combines both quantitative and qualitative research methodology that was designed to answer all the research questions. The new empirical based competency profile development and TVET-teacher evaluation was based upon an instructional design model. In addition, a modified Delphi technique has also been adopted throughout the process. Initially, 98 elements of competencies were listed by expert panel and rated by TVET institutions as important. Then, analysis using manual and statistical procedure found that 112 elements of competencies have emerged from seventeen (17) clusters of competencies. Prior to that, using the preliminary TVET-teacher competency profile, the level of TVETteacher competencies was found to be Proficient and the finding of 112 elements of competencies with 17 clusters was finally used to develop the new empirical based competency profile for MARA TVET-teacher. Mean score analysis of teacher competencies found that there were gaps in teacher competencies between MARA institutions (IKM) and other TVET institutions, where MARA-teacher was significantly better than other TVET teacher. ANOVA and t-test analysis showed that there were significant differences between teacher competencies among all TVET institutions in Malaysia. On the other hand, the study showed that teacher’s age, grade and year of experience are not significant predictors for TVET-teacher competency. In the context of mastering the competency, the study also found that three competencies are classified as most difficult or challenging, twelve competencies are classified as should be improved, and eight competencies are classified as needed to be trained. Lastly, to make NDTS implementation a reality for MARA the new empirical based competency profile and the framework for career development and training pathway were established. This Framework would serve as a significant tool to develop the knowledge based human resources needed. This will ensure that TVET-teachers at MARA are trained to be knowledgeable, competent, and professional and become a pedagogical leader on an ongoing basis towards a world class TVET-education system

Investigation of a Rotating Shaft with a Novel Integrated Wireless Accelerometer

Rotating shafts are the most critical components of rotating machines such as motors, pumps, engines and turbines. Due to their heavy workloads, defects are more likely to develop during operation. There are many techniques used to monitor shaft defects by analysing the vibration of the shaft as well as the instantaneous angular speed (IAS) of the shaft. The signals are measured either using non-contact techniques such as laser-based measurement or indirect measurement such as the vibration on bearing housings. The advancement in low cost and low power Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) make it possible to develop an integrated wireless sensor mounted on rotating shafts directly. This can make the fault diagnosis of rotating shafts more effective as it is likely to capture more details of shaft dynamics. This paper presents a novel integrated wireless accelerometer mounted directly on a rotating shaft and demonstrates that it can effectively monitor different degree of misalignments occurring commonly in a shaft system

Risks and remedies in e-learning system

One of the most effective applications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the emergence of E-Learning. Considering the importance and need of E-Learning, recent years have seen a drastic change of learning methodologies in Higher Education. Undoubtedly, the three main entities of E-Learning system can be considered as Student, Teacher & Controlling Authority and there will be different level, but a good E-Learning system needs total integrity among all entities in every level. Apart from integrity enforcement, security enforcement in the whole system is the other crucial way to organize the it. As internet is the backbone of the entire system which is inherently insecure, during transaction of message in E-Learning system, hackers attack by utilising different loopholes of technology. So different security measures are required to be imposed on the system. In this paper, emphasis is given on different risks called e-risks and their remedies called e-remedies to build trust in the minds of all participants of E-Learning system

Implementation of packaged integrated antenna with embedded front end for Bluetooth applications

The design, integration and realization of system in enhanced package approach towards fully functional system level integration by using a compact Bluetooth USB dongle as the demonstrator is presented here. The integration was done on FR4 substrates, which is totally compatible with today’s printed circuit board manufacturing capability. A commercially available Bluetooth integrated chip was chosen as the chipset of our demonstrator, and a package integrated antenna together with an embedded front end completes the system in package integration. The front end developed here is based on an embedded meander line combline filter and an embedded transformer balun. The filter has a 35% area reduction when compared with the classical combline filter and similar performance. The balun has the coils distributed on three layers that minimized the board area needed it and optimizes the performances. The proposed packaged integrated antenna approach is successfully demonstrated here and the new module shows excellent performance when compared with a commercial solution, surpassing the normal Bluetooth class II dongle range which is up to 10 m and increasing the module range up to 120 m without an extra power amplifier

Resonating Experiences of Self and Others enabled by a Tangible Somaesthetic Design

Digitalization is penetrating every aspect of everyday life including a human's heart beating, which can easily be sensed by wearable sensors and displayed for others to see, feel, and potentially "bodily resonate" with. Previous work in studying human interactions and interaction designs with physiological data, such as a heart's pulse rate, have argued that feeding it back to the users may, for example support users' mindfulness and self-awareness during various everyday activities and ultimately support their wellbeing. Inspired by Somaesthetics as a discipline, which focuses on an appreciation of the living body's role in all our experiences, we designed and explored mobile tangible heart beat displays, which enable rich forms of bodily experiencing oneself and others in social proximity. In this paper, we first report on the design process of tangible heart displays and then present results of a field study with 30 pairs of participants. Participants were asked to use the tangible heart displays during watching movies together and report their experience in three different heart display conditions (i.e., displaying their own heart beat, their partner's heart beat, and watching a movie without a heart display). We found, for example that participants reported significant effects in experiencing sensory immersion when they felt their own heart beats compared to the condition without any heart beat display, and that feeling their partner's heart beats resulted in significant effects on social experience. We refer to resonance theory to discuss the results, highlighting the potential of how ubiquitous technology could utilize physiological data to provide resonance in a modern society facing social acceleration.Comment: 18 page

Evolutionary Economics celebrates Innovation and Creativity based Economy\ud

The paper draws issue on the evolutionary economics that open our mind on seeing economy as growing and living organism with any characters of robustness, self-organization, adaptation, and evolution. This has been recognized, as in global picture, we enter the phase in which information and knowledge acquisition rapidly plays a major role in economy. The discussions is presented by demonstrating some qualitative properties and theoretical explorations on long range historical economic growth and development and thus followed by some highlights on innovation, creativity and elaborations regarding to fitness landscapes incorporating memetics, as works related to social and cultural aspects of social system, while talking about economic system in general. The discussions depicts some important notions on market and product diversifications that have been the source of the economic growth in general