81,135 research outputs found
Towards Flexible Teamwork
Many AI researchers are today striving to build agent teams for complex,
dynamic multi-agent domains, with intended applications in arenas such as
education, training, entertainment, information integration, and collective
robotics. Unfortunately, uncertainties in these complex, dynamic domains
obstruct coherent teamwork. In particular, team members often encounter
differing, incomplete, and possibly inconsistent views of their environment.
Furthermore, team members can unexpectedly fail in fulfilling responsibilities
or discover unexpected opportunities. Highly flexible coordination and
communication is key in addressing such uncertainties. Simply fitting
individual agents with precomputed coordination plans will not do, for their
inflexibility can cause severe failures in teamwork, and their
domain-specificity hinders reusability. Our central hypothesis is that the key
to such flexibility and reusability is providing agents with general models of
teamwork. Agents exploit such models to autonomously reason about coordination
and communication, providing requisite flexibility. Furthermore, the models
enable reuse across domains, both saving implementation effort and enforcing
consistency. This article presents one general, implemented model of teamwork,
called STEAM. The basic building block of teamwork in STEAM is joint intentions
(Cohen & Levesque, 1991b); teamwork in STEAM is based on agents' building up a
(partial) hierarchy of joint intentions (this hierarchy is seen to parallel
Grosz & Kraus's partial SharedPlans, 1996). Furthermore, in STEAM, team members
monitor the team's and individual members' performance, reorganizing the team
as necessary. Finally, decision-theoretic communication selectivity in STEAM
ensures reduction in communication overheads of teamwork, with appropriate
sensitivity to the environmental conditions. This article describes STEAM's
application in three different complex domains, and presents detailed empirical
results.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for an online appendix and other files
accompanying this articl
Measuring adaptation to non-permanent employment contracts using a conjoint analysis approach
This study attempts to uncover the ârealâ impact of temporary contracts on workersâ perceived job quality, prior to the psychological phenomena of adaptation, coping and cognitive dissonance coming into play. This is done by using a novel conjoint analysis approach that examines the ex ante preferences over different contract statuses of a newly generated sample of low-skilled employees from seven European countries. Other things equal, it is shown that the anticipated psychological âcostsâ of moving from a riskless permanent contract to the insecurity of a temporary job or no work at all appear to be quite significant. In contrast, temporary employees, who have presumably already adapted to the circumstances surrounding a non-permanent contract, are found to be statistically indifferent between permanent and temporary employment, and request much smaller wage premiums in order to switch from one status to the other. The well-documented distress associated with joblessness is also confirmed in our data. The methodology developed here can provide policymakers with an alternative and relatively inexpensive method of quantifying the immediate impact of any shift in their employment policies.European Commissio
Resistance to teamworking in a UK research and development laboratory
This article presents an ethnographic exploration of resistance to teamworking in a UK research and development laboratory named RDL. It focuses on the nature of autonomy and responsibility and the implications for resistance. It finds that resistance is shaped by the laboratory techniciansâ individualistic interactions with technology, the laboratory layout and the techniciansâ desire for personal task-related autonomy and individual responsibility rather than team-based accountability. However, although resistance is linked to an individualistic interpretation of work it is supported by collective collusion. The article also finds that resistance is not necessarily anti-work. It is simultaneously oriented towards the interests of the company and individual technicians through the techniciansâ desire to perform their job well. Finally, the article demonstrates the local and constructed nature of resistance
Assessing the impact of âmore-flexibleâ learning as part of a study program
With the increasing use of Flexible Learning approaches in Higher Education at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), measuring their effectiveness, from both an educational and a participant's point of view, is of particular importance. In response to the limited scientific contributions on this topic, this article presents a possibility of how an assessment can take place: this study analyzes 62 undergrad-uate student responses to a Blended Learning task and compares the participant findings with a pre-existing educational competency framework
National Industrialization Strategies and Firm Level IR/HR Practices: Case Studies in Malaysia and Philippines
[Excerpt] Any economy is characterized by several different patterns of industrial relations (IR)and human resource (HR) practices at the level of the workplace. Often, the patterns of IR/HR practices of firms differ based on the nature of the industry, the nature of technology and production methods used, the specific economic circumstances facing firms, and in some cases the IR/HR philosophy of key individuals. Patterns of IR/HR practices also differ based on economic sectors, with IR/HR practices in the service sector showing differences with patterns in the manufacturing sector
(MU-CTL-01-12) Towards Model Driven Game Engineering in SimSYS: Requirements for the Agile Software Development Process Game
Software Engineering (SE) and Systems Engineering (Sys) are knowledge intensive, specialized, rapidly changing disciplines; their educational infrastructure faces significant challenges including the need to rapidly, widely, and cost effectively introduce new or revised course material; encourage the broad participation of students; address changing student motivations and attitudes; support undergraduate, graduate and lifelong learning; and incorporate the skills needed by industry. Games have a reputation for being fun and engaging; more importantly immersive, requiring deep thinking and complex problem solving. We believe educational games are essential in the next generation of e-learning tools. An extensible, freely available, engaging, problem-based game platform that provides students with an interactive simulated experience closely resembling the activities performed in a (real) industry development project would transform the SE/Sys education infrastructure.
Our goal is to extend the state-of-the-art research in SE/Sys education by investigating a game development platform (GDP) from an interdisciplinary perspective (education, game research, and software/systems engineering). A meta-model has been proposed to provide a rigourous foundation that integrates the three disciplines. The GDP is intended to support the semi-automated development of collections of scripted games and their execution, where each game embodies a specific set of learning objectives. The games are scripted using a template based approach. The templates integrate three approaches: use cases; storyboards; and state machines (timed, concurrent, hierarchical state machines). The specification templates capture the structure of the game (Game, Acts, Scenes, Screens, Challenges), storyline, characters (player, non-player, external), graphics, music/sound effects, rules, and so on. The instantiated templates are (manually) transformed into XML game scripts that can be loaded into the SimSYS Game Play Engine. As a game is played, the game play events are logged; they are analyzed to automatically assess a playerâs accomplishments and automatically adapt the game play script.
Currently, we are manually defining a collection of games. The games are being used to ensure the GDP is flexible and reliable (i.e., the prototype can load and correctly run a variety of game scripts), the ontology is comprehensive, and the templates assist in defining well-organized, modular game scripts. In this report, we present the initial part of an Agile Software Development Process game (Act I, Scenes 1 and 2) that embodies learning objectives related to SE fundamentals (requirements, architecture, testing, process); planning with Gantt charts; working with budgets; and selecting a team for an agile development project. A student player is rewarded in the game by getting hired, scoring points, or getting promoted to lead a project. The game has a variety of settings including a classroom, job fair, and a work environment with meeting rooms, cubicles, and a water cooler station. The main non-player characters include a teacher, boss, and an evil peer.
In the future, semi-automated support for creating new game scripts will be explored using a wizard interface. The templates will be formally defined, supporting automated transformation into XML game scripts that can be loaded into the SimSYS Game Engine. We also plan to explore transforming the requirements into a notation that can be imported into a commercial tool that supports Statechart simulation
Making Law More Accessible: Designing Collaborative Learning Environments for Physically Remote Generation Y Students
In addition to an understanding of substantive law, the undergraduate law degree at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) aims to develop studentsâ lifelong skills. In the unit âPrinciples of Equityâ the skill developed includes teamwork, in the context of legal letter writing. Given the increased technological mobility of Generation Y students, the presenters have developed and trialled a model that enables these skills to be learnt and practiced online. The result is a more flexible environment that not only ensures congruent learning experiences between internal and external (or physically remote) students, but provides a connected or engaged educational program to supplement existing teaching method. This paper outlines the above project, the pedagogy that influenced it, and its impact on student learning experiences. Some issues for the development of such learning innovations in the future are also addresse
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The evaluation of interdisciplinary learning initiative in managing depression
This paper reports the findings from a descriptive study exploring community-nursing studentsâ experiences of interdisciplinary learning on managing depression. The study was completed as part of a specialist module workshop included in a post-registration community specialist practitioner programme. Questionnaire data included attitude ratings and qualitative evaluations of problem-based learning (PBL). A cohort of 34 community nurses responded. The findings identified issues relating to the learning process and its influence on the knowledge gained and attitudes to team work. Community nurses reported the workshop was thought provoking and the challenging issue is the different opinions of the district nurses role in managing depression from the perspective of the students. This study suggests that problem based learning had a positive impact on studentsâ learning which makes it a well-received contribution to learning. It also reinforced the importance of healthy attitudes towards collaboration in promoting mental health practice. All of these do ultimately have implications for clinical practice
Towards a flexible future ? The nature of organisational response in the clothing industry.
In this contribution, the central questions concern the need for structural transformation, the diffusion of innovative organisational practices, and the dominance of particular organisational models in the Belgian clothing industry. In order to answer these questions, the results of two Trend Study surveys are used, covering a total of 104 companies : a 1995 survey among companies employing more than 50 workers and a 1996 survey in the segment of companies employing between 20 and 50 workers.Industry;
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