A View from Elsewhere

This report provides an overview of activities carried out during Michaelmas Term, Autumn 2009, as part of a Cambridge University Library Arcadia Project Fellowship on "Rapid Innovation in the Library". The approach taken during the project was to look for opportunities for "quick wins" in the current library setting that could be used to illustrate potential (and tangible) benefits from engaging with current and emerging technologies and changing trends in user behaviour. Where possible, the work built on work undertaken as part of the previous Arcadia projects.The Arcadia Programme has been funded by a generous grant from the Arcadia Fund. http://www.arcadiafund.org.uk

Robotics and the meaning of life: a practical guide to things that think

The new Open University course T184 Robotics and the meaning of life: a practical guide to things that think is an introductory course on robotics. It is an undergraduate course taught at a distance over 10 weeks. The course is centred around a web site containing most of the course material, supported by two books: Ruth Aylett Robots: Bringing intelligent machines to life? which is a general survey of the field and Isaac Asimov I, Robot which is used to motivate questions about the relationship between man and machine. On-line conferences provide study support. There is also a strong practical element to the course. This was originally designed around the use of the Lego Mindstorms robotics kit. Besides mechanical components, the kit includes the Lego RCX brick – a programmable microcontroller with memory and interfaces to input and output devices such as touch and light sensors, motors and an IR channel to communicate with a PC. Students can build and program an autonomous wheeled robot to carry out a range of tasks of increasing difficulty. A new programming environment was developed at the Open University specifically to support the needs of adult learners with no prior experience of programming. This provided an opportunity to extend the capabilities of the Mindstorms kit. For example, the robot can now ‘talk’ by sending IR messages back to the PC where they are turned into spoken phrases. This richer environment is highly motivating. The new software can also take on a processing role to escape the limitations of memory and processing power onboard the robot. For example, students develop a two-agent system in which the mobile robot collects data, transmits it back to the PC where it is analysed using a neural network (built and trained by the student) and results are transmitted back to the running robot. Developing new software also provided an opportunity to produce a simulation of the robot and we can now offer students the choice of carrying out the practical activities with the Lego hardware or as a simulation. We will look at the attitudes and experiences of students who have chosen these different learning approaches

Structuring Spreadsheets with the “Lish” Data Model

A spreadsheet is remarkably flexible in representing various forms of structured data, but the individual cells have no knowledge of the larger structures of which they may form a part. This can hamper comprehension and increase formula replication, increasing the risk of error on both scores. We explore a novel data model (called the “lish”) that could form an alternative to the traditional grid in a spreadsheet-like environment. Its aim is to capture some of these higher structures while preserving the simplicity that makes a spreadsheet so attractive. It is based on cells organised into nested lists, in each of which the user may optionally employ a template to prototype repeating structures. These template elements can be likened to the marginal “cells” in the borders of a traditional worksheet, but are proper members of the sheet and may themselves contain internal structure. A small demonstration application shows the “lish” in operation

Wide, long, or nested data? Reconciling the machine and human viewpoints

Data expressed in tables may be re-arranged in various forms, while conveying the same information. This can create a tension when one form is easier to comprehend by a human reader, but another form is more convenient for processing by machine. This problem has received considerable attention for data scientists writing code, but rather less for end user analysts using spreadsheets. We propose a new data model, the “lish”, which supports a spreadsheet-like flexibility of layout, while capturing sufficient structure to facilitate processing. Using a typical example in a prototype editor, we demonstrate how it might help users resolve the tension between the two forms. A user study is in preparation

Ten simple rules for writing Dockerfiles for reproducible data science.

Computational science has been greatly improved by the use of containers for packaging software and data dependencies. In a scholarly context, the main drivers for using these containers are transparency and support of reproducibility; in turn, a workflow's reproducibility can be greatly affected by the choices that are made with respect to building containers. In many cases, the build process for the container's image is created from instructions provided in a Dockerfile format. In support of this approach, we present a set of rules to help researchers write understandable Dockerfiles for typical data science workflows. By following the rules in this article, researchers can create containers suitable for sharing with fellow scientists, for including in scholarly communication such as education or scientific papers, and for effective and sustainable personal workflows

Extended duration lunar lander

Selenium Technologies has been conducting preliminary design work on a manned lunar lander for use in NASA's First Lunar Outpost (FLO) program. The resulting lander is designed to carry a crew of four astronauts to a prepositioned habitat on the lunar surface, remain on the lunar surface for up to 45 days while the crew is living in the habitat, then return the crew to earth via direct reentry and land recovery. Should the need arise, the crew can manually guide the lander to a safe lunar landing site, and live in the lander for up to ten days on the surface. Also, an abort to earth is available during any segment of the mission. The main propulsion system consists of a cluster of four modified Pratt and Whitney RL10 rocket engines that use liquid methane (LCH4) and liquid oxygen (LOX). Four engines are used to provide redundancy and a satisfactory engine out capability. Differences between the new propulsion system and the original system include slightly smaller engine size and lower thrust per engine, although specific impulse remains the same despite the smaller size. Concerns over nozzle ground clearance and engine reliability, as well as more information from Pratt and Whitney, brought about this change. The power system consists of a combination of regenerative fuel cells and solar arrays. While the lander is in flight to or from the moon, or during the lunar night, fuel cells provide all electrical power. During the lunar day, solar arrays are deployed to provide electrical power for the lander as well as electrolyzers, which separate some water back into hydrogen and oxygen for later use by the fuel cells. Total storage requirements for oxygen, hydrogen, and water are 61 kg, 551 kg, and 360 kg, respectively. The lander is a stage-and-a-half design with descent propellant, cargo, and landing gear contained in the descent stage, and the main propulsion system, ascent propellant, and crew module contained in the ascent stage. The primary structure for both stages is a truss, to which all tanks and components are attached. The crew module is a conical shape similar to that of the Apollo Command Module, but significantly larger with a height and maximum diameter of six meters

The treatment of postnatal depression by health visitors: impact of brief training on skills and clinical practice

Background: Postnatal depression can be effectively treated by cognitive behavioural counselling (CBC), a simple intervention designed to be delivered by non-specialists in mental health. Methods: Health visitors were trained in CBC and post-training changes in counselling skills, clinical practice and costs were assessed. Results: Following training health visitors showed improved counselling skills, and they carried out more mental health assessments, recorded mental symptoms more often and treated more women themselves. However, their mean number of contacts with depressed women did not change; and the number of urgent contacts diminished. Referrals to general practitioners did not increase but there was an increase in referrals to mental health services. Costs to health visitor practice did not increase. Limitations: Assessment of clinical practice was based on health visitor records. The study uses a ‘before and after’ design rather than randomisation of subjects. Conclusions: Training health visitors in CBC leads to improved counselling skills and corresponding changes in clinical practice, without increasing the costs of health visitor practic

Innovating Pedagogy 2012: Open University Innovation Report 1

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. The first report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in postschool education. We have not deliberately excluded school education, but that is not our area of expertise. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in rough order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation