Transdisciplinary learning in technology degrees

© 2017 IEEE. This paper outlines a new kind of degree that has technology at its core, but is transdisciplinary in nature. Rather than students learning knowledge in discrete disciplinary blocks, they are exposed to ideas and practices from a wide variety of disciplines, and use these to create new ways of working that are underpinned by capabilities in computational thinking, complex systems, data and reasoning

On Creativity and Innovation in the Computing Curriculum

© 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. Graduates of computing degrees are extremely well placed to be entrepreneurs of the future. They have knowledge of recent advances in computing hardware, software and data sources, and skills to turn that knowledge into digital products like software applications and mobile apps that appeal to consumers or businesses. While entrepreneurship education encompasses many aspects, a starting point is finding a good idea that has market potential. This requires creativity: a skill that is not often made explicit in computing programs, or if so, perhaps confined to the realms of HCI or coding. Moreover, in many computing subjects, students are asked to find creative solutions to known problems, rather than exploring the problem space itself. This paper describes a case study of inviting students to demonstrate creativity and innovation in an e-commerce subject offered principally to computing students. Students are asked to identify human-centered problems that lend themselves to computing-oriented solutions, and to propose and test their ideas. The paper identifies four factors that were examined in relation to their influence on students’ creativity and innovation

Specifying ODP computational objects in Z

The computational viewpoint contained within the Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) shows how collections of objects can be configured within a distributed system to enable interworking. It prescribes certain capabilities that such objects are expected to possess and structuring rules that apply to how these objects can be configured with one another. This paper highlights how the specification language Z can be used to formalise these capabilities and the associated structuring rules, thereby enabling specifications of ODP systems from the computational viewpoint to be achieved

Under-modelled blind system identification for time delay estimation in reverberant environments

In multichannel systems, acoustic time delay estimation (TDE) is a challenging problem in reverberant environments. Although blind system identification (BSI) based methods have been proposed which utilize a realistic signal model for the room impulse response (RIR), their TDE performance depends strongly on that of the BSI, which is often inaccurate in practice when the identified responses are under-modelled. In this paper, we propose a new under-modelled BSI based method for TDE in reverberant environments. An under-modelled BSI algorithm is derived, which is based on maximizing the cross-correlation of the cross-filtered signals rather than minimizing the cross-relation error, and also exploits the sparsity of the early part of the RIR. For TDE, this new criterion can be viewed as a generalization of conventional cross-correlation-based TDE methods by considering a more realistic model for the early RIR. Depending on the microphone spacing, only a short early part of each RIR is identified, and the time delays are estimated based on the peak locations in the identified early RIRs. Experiments in different reverberant environments with speech source signals demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method

Studio-based learning in a first year engineering curriculum: Exploring students' learning experiences and reflections using the rich picture method

© 2019 IEEE. We have described engineering students in their first year participating in a 'studio' based experience. We used a rich picture method imbedded in research interviews to explore student's attitudes to, and understandings of their studio experience. Our findings demonstrate that this research method produces an enriched understanding of and deep insights into student experiences in the studio

Responses to supplementation by dairy cows given low pasture allowances in different seasons 2. Milk production

Two factorial experiments were designed to determine the effects of stage of lactation, and season of the year, on cow responses to supplementary feeding. These experiments were conducted over consecutive years with 128 high genetic merit multiparous Holstein-Friesian cows in early, mid and late lactation in spring, summer, autumn and winter. At each stage of lactation, and in each season of the year, cows were offered a restricted pasture allowance (25 to 35 kg dry matter (DM) per cow per day), either unsupplemented (control) or with supplement at 50 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per cow per day in experiment 1 and 80 MJ ME per cow per day in experiment 2. The two supplements given in both years were rolled maize grain (MG) and a mixture of foods formulated to nutritionally balance the diet (BR). In experiment 2, another treatment, of a generous pasture allowance (60 to 75 kg DM per cow per day) (AP), was imposed on an additional group of early lactation cows during each season. Direct milk solids (MS) (milk fat plus milk protein) responses in experiment 1 to MG were 169, 279, 195 and 251 g MS per cow per day in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively, while those to BR were 107, 250, 192, 289 g MS per cow per day. In experiment 2, however, milk solids responses to both supplements during spring were slightly below the control treatment, with values similar to those in experiment 1 in summer and autumn for cows on the BR but not the MG supplement. Milk solids responses to supplementary foods were largest during seasons of the year when the quantity and quality of pasture on offer resulted in the lowest milk solids yield from unsupplemented cows. When carry-over effects of feeding MG and BR on milk solids production were detected, they were only about half the magnitude of the direct effects. Serum urea concentrations were higher in control cows than those offered MG with a similar effect for BR in all but summer in experiment 1, while serum glucose concentrations were highest in winter and lowest in summer. The most important factor influencing milk solids responses was the relative food deficit (RFD) represented by the decline in milk solids yield of the respective control groups after,changing from a generous pasture allowance to restricted allowance when the feeding treatments were imposed. Total milk solids responses (direct and carry-over) to supplements were greatest when severe food restrictions, relative to the cows' current food demand, resulted in large reductions in milk solids yield of the control groups. The RFD was the best predictor of milk solids response to supplementary foods. Therefore, it is likely that cows are most responsive to supplementary foods during or immediately after the imposition of a severe food restriction

Responses to supplementation by dairy cows given low pasture allowances in different seasons 1. Pasture intake and substitution

Two factorial experiments were designed to determine the effects of stage of lactation, and season of the year, on cow responses to supplementary feeding. These experiments were conducted over consecutive years with 128 high genetic merit multiparous Holstein-Friesian cows in early, mid and late lactation in spring, summer, autumn and winter. At each stage of lactation, and in each season of the year, cows were offered a restricted pasture allowance (25 to 35 kg dry matter (DM) per cow per day), either unsupplemented (control) or supplemented with 50 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per cow per day in experiment 1 and 80 MJ ME per cow per day in experiment 2. Two different supplements were offered, namely, rolled maize grain (MG) and a mixture of foods (BR) formulated to nutritionally balance the diet. In experiment 2, a fourth treatment consisting solely of a generous pasture allowance (60 to 75 kg DM per cow per day, AP) was introduced. Offering MG and BR increased DM intake (DMI). At the restricted pasture allowance, increasing total ME allowance (MEA) by offering supplementary foods increased ME intake (MEI) by 0.68 (s.e. 0.047) MJ per extra MJ ME offered. This highly significant (P < 0.001) linear relationship was consistent across seasons, and did not diminish at higher MEA. In experiment 2, cows in early lactation had lower substitution rates than mid and late lactation cows irrespective of season. Substitution rate was higher when higher pasture allowance or quality of pasture on offer enabled the unsupplemented cows to achieve higher DMI from pasture than at other times of the year. These results suggest that one of the key factors determining the intake response to supplementary foods is pasture allowance. Within spring calving dairying systems, the largest increases in total DMI per kg of supplement offered is likely when offering supplements to early lactation cows grazing restricted allowances of high quality pasture

Assessment Design for Studio-Based Learning

© 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. Studio-based learning is not new to computing education, however as the ecosystem of available Open Educational Resources (OERs) expands, the capacity and desire for student self-directed learning is growing. However increasing student autonomy in how and when learning takes place creates challenges around assessment. This paper introduces the design of assessment tasks to support studiobased learning at undergraduate level. It describes an example of using learning contracts and portfolio-based assessment for evaluating individual and team performance. The paper presents some initial observations of the approach taken, and its transferability to other areas of the curriculum

Position paper: BE(Hons) data engineering

© 2016 IEEE. This paper describes the UTS view of Data Engineering, and the degree program that has been created to educate Data Engineers. The document describes the guiding philosophies and the key ideas used in designing the program. The design of the program takes advantage of the 3rd, 4th and 5th shifts in engineering education[1]. Namely the shift to emphasizing design (problem solving) (3), the shift to applying education, learning, and socialbehavioral sciences research, and the shift to integrating information, computational, and communications technology in education. Mills and Treagast[2] question the relative value of Problem Based or Project Based learning in the Australian context. They quote a comparison of problem-based and project-based learning at tertiary level by Perrenet et al[3]. They noted that the similarities between the two strategies are that they are both based on self-direction and collaboration, and that they both have a multidisciplinary orientation. The differences that they noted included: • Project tasks are closer to professional reality • Project work is more directed to the application of knowledge • Project-based learning is usually accompanied by subject courses (eg maths, physics etc. in engineering), whereas problem-based learning is not. • Management of time and resources by the students as well as task and role differentiation is very important in project-based learning • Self-direction is stronger in project work, compared with problem-based learning