The cloud hovering over the virtual campus

The Virtual Campus has been around for about 20 years. It provides an online environment that mimics the processes and services of the physical campuses and classrooms. Its adoption is almost complete in countries where Internet access has become ubiquitous. For a time seemed like the innovation in education was happening in the Virtual Campus, but this is no more. Personal Learning Environments, Life Long Learning, MOOCS, Open Educational Resources, Mobile Apps, Gamification, Social Networks, free Cloud based services... al of the above and even more hint that not all the learning today is happening at school or in the Virtual Campus.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Optimization and Communication in UAV Networks

UAVs are becoming a reality and attract increasing attention. They can be remotely controlled or completely autonomous and be used alone or as a fleet and in a large set of applications. They are constrained by hardware since they cannot be too heavy and rely on batteries. Their use still raises a large set of exciting new challenges in terms of trajectory optimization and positioning when they are used alone or in cooperation, and communication when they evolve in swarm, to name but a few examples. This book presents some new original contributions regarding UAV or UAV swarm optimization and communication aspects

Enhancing and Transforming Global Learning Communities with Augmented Reality

Augmented and virtual reality applications bring new insights to real world objects and scenarios. This paper shares research results of the TalkTech project, an ongoing study investigating the impact of learning about new technologies as members of global communities. This study shares results of a collaborative learning project about augmented and virtual reality and their applications in a variety of businesses and industries. In the TalkTech project, students from universities in the United States and Romania collaboratively work together to research the use of augmented and virtual reality in an assigned industry, create original augmented reality artifacts, and communicate and share their findings with their international partners. The authors evaluate the TalkTech project through the lens of the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) framework as a pedagogy to enhance student learning about augmented reality and improve students’ digital skills. The paper also discusses the SAMR framework as implemented in the TalkTech project and its application to creating learning projects to transform Information Systems education

A Cloud-based Framework for Quality Assurance and Enhancement as a Service (QAEaaS) for Universities with Blended Learning Approach

The dynamic and multi-dimensional quality assurance process for Saudi higher education institutes under the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA) demands an integrated framework for management and support of internal quality reviews and evidence-based self -studies in a cost-effective way. Due to cross-institutional involvement, quality assurance compliance with NCAAA standards is even more challenging for institutes offering courses with blended learning paradigm in multiple campuses. This papers proposes a Cloud-based framework to realize Quality Assurance and Enhancement as a Service (QAEaaS) to facilitate the internal quality reviews by providing efficient data management and effective communication for different stakeholders. Architecture of the proposed framework is described with respective features to cope with the identified quality assurance challenges and issues faced by the Saudi higher education institutes

Hyper-Local Weather Predictions with the Enhanced General Urban Area Microclimate Predictions Tool

This paper presents enhancements to, and the demonstration of, the General Urban area Microclimate Predictions tool (GUMP), which is designed to provide hyper-local weather predictions by combining machine-learning (ML) models and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations. For the further development and demonstration of GUMP, the Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) campus was used as a test environment. Local weather sensors provided data to train ML models, and CFD models of urban- and suburban-like areas of ERAU’s campus were created and iterated through with a wide assortment of inlet wind speed and direction combinations. ML weather sensor predictions were combined with best-fit CFD models from a database of CFD flow fields, providing flight operational areas with a fully expressed wind flow field. This field defined a risk map for uncrewed aircraft operators based on flight plans and individual flight performance metrics. The potential applications of GUMP are significant due to the immediate availability of weather predictions and its ability to easily extend to arbitrary urban and suburban locations

University Chronicle [February 2021]

St. Cloud State University student newspaper, volume 96, issue 5, February 2021https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/chron/1014/thumbnail.jp

Following the Evidence: Approaches to Assessment in Academic Libraries

In an environment of strained budgets and heightened accountability, academic libraries need to base their planning, decision-making, and advocacy on evidence more than ever before. Fortunately, the resources required to collect, analyze, and visualize data—thus turning it into evidence—are increasingly accessible. This session will challenge participants to grow in their handling of evidence by exposing them to a range of data sources and analysis tools. In order to accomplish this goal, the presenter will share brief sketches of a number of recent library assessment efforts, focusing on projects with which he has been involved personally. The session’s brevity will preclude showing participants the mechanics of any specific kind of assessment. Therefore, the presenter’s primary aim will be to impart a vision for using evidence to increase efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction. A secondary aim will be to refer participants to a variety of resources for further exploration: tools, books, journal literature, conferences, and more

National research on the postgraduate student experience:Case presentation on postgraduate student diversity (Volume 2 of 3)

This is volume two of a set of three case studies that explore the postgraduate student experience. The theme of this case study is postgraduate student diversity and is based on experiences derived from student engagement breakfasts, interviews, and focus groups with 366 people across the stakeholder groups of postgraduate students, educators, and university executives from 26 institutions. The case studies constitute part of the output from the project, Engaging postgraduate students and supporting higher education to enhance the 21st century student experience

A matlab-based low-cost autopilot for autonomous helicopter development

The challenges associated with the software and hardware integration activities in development of flight autopilot system for autonomous helicopter have called for a change of tactics. The resulting effect is for example, a long time delay in autopilot system design, testing and deployment coupled with the fact that several other autonomous helicopter development tasks depend largely on availability of the autopilot system. Though, the use of off-the-shelf autopilot for a flight control system may ease these challenges, they are generally characterized with limited functionalities, and restrict the user’s design authority. As alternative approach, this paper presents the development of a MATLAB-based autopilot system for autonomous helicopter development. This approach provides an integrated design environment for rapid-prototyping of a low-cost autopilot system. The results of real-time application of the autopilot for flight data logging are presented. The performance shows the effectiveness of the developed autopilot system in small scale autonomous helicopter design and implementation. This is hope to reduce the design cycle time involves in the deployment of small scale autonomous helicopter in various civil low-cost, small payload applications

IMSA360: Spring 2015

As most of you know, I have been President of IMSA for only seven months, not yet a full year. I feel like I am beginning to get to know IMSA better and better each month, and what I am learning continues to excite me and encourages me to spread the word to others about this amazing place. That is why this issue is going out to hundreds of new readers for the first time, and I welcome the many new superintendents, educators, and friends who will hopefully learn more about IMSA, just as I have these past few months. Excerpt: From the Presiden