Expansion and update version of the SERIES database

This document joins deliverables D6.2 "Expansion of the SERIES database" and D6.3 "Updated version of SERIES database" of the SERA project. Maintenance and expansion of the SERIES database is one of the two main objectives of SERA work package 6 "Networking experimental seismic engineering databases (SERIES)". The actions taken to achieve this objective are described in the following and include the creation of the graphical user interface (GUI) and its user manual, the development of tools that assist in the creation of experimental data, and the modifications in the Data Access Portal (DAP) website and back-end. The installation manual and the user manual are given in AnnexesJRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Building

Validation of pre-operational access phase to selected SERIES datasets

This deliverable is written within the framework of the project “Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research Infrastructure Alliance for Europe – SERA” (Project no: 730900), funded by the Horison2020, INFRAIA-01-2016-2017 Programme. Main objective of this deliverable is to describe the pre-operational access phase of selected SERIES datasets through the existing EPOS service as a new Thematic Core Service (TCS).JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Building

Maintenance of the SERIES database

This deliverable is written within the framework of the project “Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research Infrastructure Alliance for Europe – SERA” (Project no: 730900), funded by the Horison2020, INFRAIA-01-2016-2017 Programme. Main objective of this deliverable is the maintenance of the SERIES databases and the update of user interface of the SERIES Data Access Portal.JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Building

Review of current SERIES and EPOS Databases

In a world-wide scale, collaborations in earthquake engineering lack a common interoperability framework, resulting in tedious and complex procedures to integrate data and results. Up to now, the most significant effort in Europe towards the interoperability of earthquake engineering experimental data was the SERIES project (Seismic Engineering Research Infrastructures for European Synergies) in the period 2009 - 2013. Global sharing of seismological data has been a long-lasting tradition tracing back to the beginning of the previous century. Recently, the ESFRI (European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures) initiative and the EPOS project (European Plate Observing System), provided a larger framework for the integration of all solid Earth science data into a single Pan-European e-infrastructure. Up to now, the two adjacent scientific disciplines, i.e. the earthquake engineering and seismology, have not interfaced their data structures, lacking an interoperable data-sharing structure. However, there is need to increase the interaction of the earthquake engineering and seismology communities by integrating the most important databanks and related informatics services in Europe, i.e. SERIES and EPOS. This deliverable presents a review of the current SERIES and EPOS systems: the main features of the two are discussed, focusing on their architecture, content, databases, functionality and access portals. It is noted that aiming to a better knowledge of the EPOS and SERIES projects, the deliverable needed to review also two approaches for data sharing and integration (governance, architecture, collaboration), and not be only limited to a review of current SERIES and EPOS databases. The review presented in the deliverable will serve as the basis for the future roadmap for integration of earthquake engineering and seismological data and informatics services that will support the needs of the two research communities and beyond.JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Building

Design tools for location based game for informal learning

This dissertation studies the design of location-based multi-player mobile games. These are games which are played using devices such as PDAs or, more recently, smartphones. The devices allow the players to have access to digital information during the game. An important aspect is that this information is related to the location and state of the player. This context-sensitive information as well as the possibility to play at places of cultural importance or other places of high information density offers the opportunity to use this games for informal learning (e.g. by pupils who visit museums, archaeological parks etc.)The aim of this dissertation has been formulated as "to support the design of location-based mobile games in places of informal learning". We followed a methodology based on design research and we examined the processes of designing, implementing and evaluating of these games. The methodological approach that we followed consisted of three stages.1. Research clarification: the characteristics of location-based mobile games and of pervasive computing environments were examined, which play a significant role in the development of location-based games.2. Development of design support, which was conducted in three stages. First, a solution for a real-world design problem was developed, a location-based mobile game for pupils who visit a museum. The result was the game MuseumScrabble. Additionally, the design practices of other design teams were studied.Study of design practices, applying an ethnographic content analysis approach. Six publications were analyzed which concerned three cases of designing, implementing and evaluating games of this kind.Design workshops were conducted where the participating designers, of varying and multi-disciplinary background, designed game concepts which were subsequently analyzed to extract game design patterns.The results of these studies were three design support tools. A design framework, which describes the design space, a set of heuristic design guidelines and a number of game design patters which can support the task of designers.3. Evaluation of the design support tools.By applying the design support in the development of a new game, «Invisible City: Rebels Vs. Spies», where the tools were employed at stages of the design.By studying the tools using a contextual inquiry technique, where it was asked of designers to use the design support tools in order to design a new game.Η εργασία αυτή μελετά τη σχεδίαση χώρο-ευαίσθητων φορητών παιχνιδιών για πολλούς παίχτες. Τα παιχνίδια αυτά παίζονται χρησιμοποιώντας συσκευές όπως PDAs και πιο πρόσφατα έξυπνα τηλέφωνα. Οι συσκευές δίνουν τη δυνατότητα στους παίχτες να έχουν πρόσβαση σε ψηφιακή πληροφορία κατά την ώρα του παιχνιδιού. Σημαντική είναι η δυνατότητα η πληροφορία αυτή να έχει σχέση με τη θέση και κατάσταση του παίχτη. Η πλαισιογνωστική αυτή πληροφορία καθώς και η δυνατότητα παιξίματος σε χώρους πολιτισμού και χώρους με μεγάλη πυκνότητα πληροφορίας, δίνουν τη δυνατότητα να χρησιμοποιηθούν τα παιχνίδια αυτά στην άτυπη μάθηση (π.χ. από τάξεις μαθητών που επισκέπτονται μουσεία, αρχαιολογικά πάρκα κλπ.).Ο στόχος της μελέτης αυτής διατυπώθηκε ως «η υποστήριξη της σχεδίασης χώρο-ευαίσθητων φορητών παιχνιδιών σε χώρους άτυπης μάθησης». Ακολουθήσαμε μεθολογία βασισμένη στη σχεδιαστική έρευνα και εξετάσαμε τη διαδικασία σχεδίασης, υλοποίησης και αξιολόγησης τέτοιων παιχνιδιών. Ακολουθήθηκε μεθοδολογική προσέγγιση με τρία στάδια.1. Αποσαφήνιση της έρευνας: εξετάστηκαν τα χαρακτηριστικά των παιχνιδιών και του περιβάλλοντος διάχυτου υπολογισμού τα οποία έχουν σημασία στην ανάπτυξη χώρο-ευαίσθητων παιχνιδιών. 2. Ανάπτυξη εργαλείων σχεδιαστικής στήριξης: αναπτύχθηκε μια λύση σε ένα σχεδιαστικό πρόβλημα, ένα παιχνίδι μάθησης για ένα μουσείο. Το αποτέλεσμα ήταν το MuseumScrabble, που απευθύνεται σε τάξεις μαθητών. Στη συνέχεια μελετήθηκαν οι σχεδιαστικές πρακτικές άλλων ομάδων σχεδιαστών.Μελέτη σχεδιαστικών πρακτικών, με τη μέθοδο της εθνογραφικής ανάλυσης περιεχομένου. Αναλύθηκαν έξι δημοσιεύσεις που αφορούσαν τρεις περιπτώσεις σχεδίασης, υλοποίησης και αξιολόγησης τέτοιων παιχνιδιών.Εργαστήρια σχεδίασης, όπου σχεδιάστηκαν και εκτελέστηκαν εργαστήρια με τη συμμετοχή σχεδιαστών με ποικίλο τεχνικό και επιστημονικό υπόβαθρο.Το αποτέλεσμα ήταν τρία εργαλεία σχεδιαστικής στήριξης. Το πλαίσιο σχεδίασης που περιγράφει σε αδρές γραμμές το χώρο σχεδιασμού, οι οδηγίες σχεδίασης και τα πρότυπα σχεδίσης που παρέχουν οδηγίες για τη στήριξη των σχεδιαστών.3. Αξιολόγηση της σχεδιαστικής στήριξης:Με την εφαρμογή της στην ανάπτυξη ενός νέου παιχνιδιού, του «Αόρατη πόλη: Επαναστάτες εναντίον κατασκόπων», όπου χρησιμοποιήθηκαν τα εργαλεία σχεδιαστικής στήριξης σε κάποιες από τις φάσεις σχεδίασης.Με τη μελέτη των εργαλείων στο πλαίσιο χρήσης τους, όπου ζητήθηκε από σχεδιαστές να χρησιμοποιήσουν τα εργαλεία που αναπτύχθηκαν σε αυτή τη διατριβή για να σχεδιάσουν ένα παιχνίδι

Design of Location-Based Mobile Games: Introduction

Part 6: CoursesInternational audienceThe objective of this course, is to introduce the participants to location-based games and to the challenges relating to designing them. Key characteristics of this new genre are introduced first, followed by a design framework and a set of design guidelines. Examples of location-based games will be presented and typical design patterns as extracted from previous workshops will be discussed. This course has already been run in the frame of several conferences and summer schools (Sintoris 2015). Typical course participants include interaction designers, game designers and developers, practitioners and researchers interested in location-based games. The course is presented by researchers who have been involved in designing and studying human interaction with location-based games for many years. Examples of games developed by the course organizers include MuseumScrabble, RebelsVsSpies, Taggling, etc

DeCACHe: Supporting Designers in Creating Cognition-Centered Adaptive Cultural Heritage Activities

Cultural heritage (CH) institutions attract wide and heterogeneous audiences, which should be efficiently supported and have access to meaningful CH content. This introduces numerous challenges when delivering such experiences, given that people have different cognitive characteristics which influence the way we process information, experience, behave, and acquire knowledge. Our recent studies provide evidence that human cognition should be considered as a personalization factor within CH contexts, and thus we developed a framework that delivers cognition-centered personalized CH activities. The efficiency and the efficacy of the framework have been successfully assessed through two user studies, but non-technical professionals (e.g., CH designers) may face difficulties when attempting to use it and create personalized CH activities. In this paper, we present DeCACHe, which supports CH designers in creating cognition-centered personalized CH activities throughout different phases of the design lifecycle. We also report a user study with seventeen professional CH designers, who used our tool to design CH activities for people with different cognitive characteristics

Out of the box: Using gamification cards to teach ideation to engineering students

This paper reports on innovative teaching interventions in the frame of Internet of Things (IoT) design ideation classes. A card-based gamification approach has been applied in two different engineering masters courses. The participating students had already a good understanding of IoT technologies and they were asked to produce innovative designs by using them. We examine here the produced design ideas and the students’ perception of the collaborative design process and tools. The paper discusses broader issues relating to applicability of design- and ideation-focused gamification methods in the context of engineering education and the effect they have on collaborative design and innovation

Discovering the invisible city: Location-based games for learning in smart cities

In this paper we discuss how location-based mobile games can be designed for learning in modern technology enhanced public spaces. We start with the description of the design process and we identify the main challenges faced. We elaborate the case of the game Invisible City: Rebels vs. Spies, a game to be played in a city centre using mobile devices. Through this case we highlight the adaptation of an original party game into a mobile form, the issues we faced and the key aspects conductive to learning in a smart city. It is claimed that creating mobile city games for learning is a new challenge, as our city landscapes are augmented with an increasing number of layers of digital information in which a new generation of city games are played