Learning requirements engineering within an engineering ethos

An interest in educating software developers within an engineering ethos may not align well with the characteristics of the discipline, nor address the underlying concerns of software practitioners. Education for software development needs to focus on creativity, adaptability and the ability to transfer knowledge. A change in the way learning is undertaken in a core Software Engineering unit within a university's engineering program demonstrates one attempt to provide students with a solid foundation in subject matter while at the same time exposing them to these real-world characteristics. It provides students with a process to deal with problems within a metacognitive-rich framework that makes complexity apparent and lets students deal with it adaptively. The results indicate that, while the approach is appropriate, student-learning characteristics need to be investigated further, so that the two aspects of learning may be aligned more closely

Understanding requirements engineering process: a challenge for practice and education

Reviews of the state of the professional practice in Requirements Engineering (RE) stress that the RE process is both complex and hard to describe, and suggest there is a significant difference between competent and "approved" practice. "Approved" practice is reflected by (in all likelihood, in fact, has its genesis in) RE education, so that the knowledge and skills taught to students do not match the knowledge and skills required and applied by competent practitioners. A new understanding of the RE process has emerged from our recent study. RE is revealed as inherently creative, involving cycles of building and major reconstruction of the models developed, significantly different from the systematic and smoothly incremental process generally described in the literature. The process is better characterised as highly creative, opportunistic and insight driven. This mismatch between approved and actual practice provides a challenge to RE education - RE requires insight and creativity as well as technical knowledge. Traditional learning models applied to RE focus, however, on notation and prescribed processes acquired through repetition. We argue that traditional learning models fail to support the learning required for RE and propose both a new model based on cognitive flexibility and a framework for RE education to support this model

Cognitive change in women's empowerment in rural Bangladesh

Rural women in Bangladesh have limited access to resources and public spheres due to socio-cultural restrictions. Women suffer from severe discrimination, due partly to a lack of access to information. Information and communication and technologies (ICT) are tools that potentially can reach rural women and address their knowledge and information needs. Considering this scenario, the aim of this paper is to examine the situation of rural women using ICT tools provided by non-government and government organizations, and investigate whether access to ICT has changed their lives in terms of socio-economic development. Using a structured questionnaire, data was collected from women in villages where two different ICT projects have been introduced. The change in women's awareness, skills and knowledge of the wider environment on various issues (including health, education, legal rights) is described. These cognitive changes were compared in women with ICT intervention and women who did not use ICT. The overall cognitive awareness of the women indicates more changes among women with ICT intervention than without. Therefore, ICT intervention in rural villages in Bangladesh is leading to empowerment

Learning theory and its application to female learner support in engineering

School of Engineering at Murdoch University is now in its fifth year: a new School sited on the new regional Campus. This environment enabled the staff to take an innovative approach to the School's development. One key issue addressed from the outset was that of women in a nontraditional area. Positive action was taken to attract high calibre female staff and as a consequence over 50% of the School's staff, academic and non-academic, are female. From the student perspective, issues confronting females studying in Engineering, which are reflected in international low recruitment and retention, continue to be addressed. Individuals are different and these differences affect how a student performs. In particular, gender differences in learning styles have been noted. This has directed us to administer, as part of a first year foundational unit, learning style inventories to all first year students, who then identify their self-reported learning styles. In this positive atmosphere many varied and successful initiatives, based on our learning style research, are being trialled to encourage female students into our programs and then support and retain them throughout their four years of study. This research discusses the initial learning style results and their application to our initiatives

Deconstructing students’ attitude to learning: a case study in IT education

Decreasing enrolment in IT programs suggests it is important to understand how students learn a discipline in order to support student success. This paper describes a study to examine student attitude to learning in the IT discipline of Engineering (ie Software Engineering). The Approaches to Study Inventory was applied to successive cohorts of students. The results describe a level of orientation (meaning or reproduction) for each participant and the cohort as a whole. However, examination of the subscales of the ASI indicate that the level of coherence in study approach exhibited by individual students is somewhat masked in their overall ASI result. Student reflective comments support the interpretations made of the subscale scores. The results suggest such a deconstruction enables teachers to assist students to know themselves as learners, thus raising their metalearning awareness, which, in turn has the potential to enhance student success

Developing an undergraduate software engineering degree

As those who have done it can attest, developing an undergraduate degree in software engineering is a daunting and challenging task, and there have been instances where a department has tried, but failed to get its program approved. A strong desire to develop a program in software engineering together with interested faculty may not be enough to build a credible degree, let alone a curriculum that will be approved by all the administrative and State organizations who may have a say in it .This panel brings together a group whose experience in developing software engineering degrees at their respective institutions may be helpful to those thinking about doing so. Each member of the group will describe his/her experiences in developing an undergraduate program in software engineering and address key issues and problems that should be considered in any such effort. There will also be ample opportunity for interaction among the participants

The Impact of e-Skills on the settlement of Iranian refugees in Australia

Aim/Purpose The research investigates the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on Iranian refugees’ settlement in Australia. Background The study identifies the issues of settlement, such as language, cultural and social differences. Methodology The Multi-Sited Ethnography (MSE), which is a qualitative methodology, has been used with a thematic analysis drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with two groups of participants (51 Iranian refugees and 55 people with a role in assisting refugees). Contribution The research findings may enable the creation of a model for use by the Aus-tralian Government with Iranian refugees. Findings The findings show the vital role ICT play in refugees’ ongoing day-to-day life towards settlement. Recommendations for Practitioners The results from this paper could be generalised to other groups of refugees in Australia and also could be used for Iranian refugees in other countries. Recommendation for Researchers Researchers may use a similar study for refugees of different backgrounds in Australia and around the world. Impact on Society ICT may assist refugees to become less isolated, less marginalized and part of mainstream society. Future Research Future research could look into the digital divide between refugees in Australia and main stream Australians

Intelligent component selection

Component-based software engineering (CBSE) provides solutions to the development of complex and evolving systems. As these systems are created and maintained, the task of selecting components is repeated. The context-driven component evaluation (CdCE) project is developing strategies and techniques for automating a repeatable process for assessing software components. This paper describes our work using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to classify components based on an ideal component specification. Using AI we are able to represent dependencies between attributes, overcoming some of the limitations of existing aggregation-based approaches to component selection

The impact of utilising mobile assisted language learning (MALL) on vocabulary acquisition among migrant women English learners

Aim/Purpose To develop a framework for utilizing Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) to assist non-native English migrant women to acquire English vocabulary in a non-formal learning setting. Background The women in this study migrated to Australia with varied backgrounds including voluntary or forced migration, very low to high levels of their first language (L1), low proficiency in English, and isolated fulltime stay-at-home mothers. Methodology A case study method using semi-structured interviews and observations was used. Six migrant women learners attended a minimum of five non-MALL sessions and three participants continued on and attended a minimum of five MALL sessions. Participants were interviewed pre- and post-sessions. Data were analysed thematically. Contribution The MALL framework is capable of enriching migrant women’s learning experience and vocabulary acquisition. Findings Vocabulary acquisition occurred in women from both non-MALL and MALL environment; however, the MALL environment provided significantly enriched vocabulary learning experience. Future Research A standardised approach to measure the effectiveness of MALL for vocabulary acquisition among migrant women in non-formal settin

An experimental investigation of chatter effects on tool life

Tool wear is one of the most important considerations in machining operations as it affects surface quality and integrity, productivity and cost. The most commonly used model for tool life analysis is the one proposed by F.W. Taylor about a century ago. Although the extended form of this equation includes the effects of important cutting conditions on tool wear, tool life studies are mostly performed under stable cutting conditions where the effect of chatter vibrations are not considered. This paper presents an empirical attempt to understand tool life under vibratory cutting conditions. Tool wear data are collected in turning and milling on different work materials under stable and chatter conditions. The effects of cutting conditions as well as severity of chatter on tool life are analyzed. The results indicate significant reduction in tool life due to chatter as expected. They also show that the severity of chatter, and thus the vibration amplitude, strongly reduces the life of cutting tools. These results can be useful in evaluating the real cost of chatter by including the reduced tool life. They can also be useful in justifying the cost of chatter suppression and more rigid machining systems