The design and implementation of an in-application automated testing and evaluation system for computer literacy skills based on the European and international computer driving licence (ECDL/ICDL)

models which, in turn, contributed to the development of the corresponding assessment tools and systems. With the ECDL at the forefront of the international computer literacy skills market and with its important role in the specification of digital literacy agenda, it becomes vitally important to ensure that assessment systems leading to this qualification are of the highest technical and pedagogical quality. This paper presents the experiences gained from the design, testing and implementation of such an assessment system and its deployment in a big-bang approach on a national basis in Cyprus. It explains the system’s technical architecture and components, its functionalities and services and discusses the pedagogical and educational aspects embedded in the design and highlights the pitfalls and lessons learned in the areas of team building and project

Mobile video tele-echography robotic platform over 4G-LTE network

L'objectif de cette thèse est le déploiement et l'évaluation d'une plate-forme de télé-échographie mobile, utilisée pour fournir un diagnostic et des soins à distance dans des milieux médicalement isolés. La plateforme intègre de nouveaux concepts qui permettent de l’utilisation de la télé-échographie robotisée sur les réseaux sans fil 3G, 4G et 5G pour satisfaire au transfert de qualité des vidéos ultrasonores pour un diagnostic médical robuste. Ce travail contribue au domaine des Sciences et Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication appliquées au secteur de la santé et en particulier à la robotique médicale téléopérée. Les principales contributions de la thèse sont : I. Un état de l’art des systèmes télé-robotiques appliqués au médical menée sur la base de publications écrites entre 2004 et 2016, II. L'évaluation objective et subjective (clinique) de la qualité vidéo a démontré que les normes H.264/AVC et HEVC peuvent atteindre une qualité vidéo sans perte de diagnostic à des débits (1024 et 2048 Kbps) bien en deçà des débits de données supportés par les réseaux 4G. Les normes de codage vidéo antérieures (Mpeg-4, Mpeg-2) ne peuvent pas être utilisées pour le diagnostic clinique à ces débits car elles présentent une perte d'information pour le diagnostic médical, III. Les experts médicaux ont apprécié la réactivité dynamique mécanique de la plate-forme en raison du faible délai présenté par les canaux LTE. La limitation la plus importante soulevée par l'expert médical, empêchant une évaluation globale clinique favorable au diagnostic, était le positionnement initial du robot sur le corps du patient et son déplacement vers l'obtention d’une échographie cardiaque, Les résultats fournissent une forte indication que la plate-forme télé-échographie robotisée peut être utilisée pour fournir un diagnostic fiable et à distance sur les réseaux sans fil émergents 4G et au-delà.The objective of this Thesis was the deployment and evaluation of an end-to-end mobile tele-echography platform used to provide remote diagnosis and care within medically isolated settings. The platform integrates new concepts that enable robotized tele-echography over commercially available 4G and beyond mobile networks for rendering diagnostically robust medical ultrasound video. It contributes to the field of Information and Communication technologies applied in the healthcare sector. The main contributions of the Thesis are: I. A systematic review on the state of the art in medical telerobotic systems was conducted based on publications of the last decade, and more specifically between the years 2004 to 2016. II. Both objective and subjective (clinical) video quality assessment demonstrated that H.264/AVC and HEVC standards can achieve diagnostically-lossless video quality at bitrates (1024 and 2048 Kbps) well within the LTE supported data rates. Earlier video coding standards (Mpeg-4 & Mpeg-2) cannot be employed for clinical diagnosis at these rates as they present loss of clinical information.III. Medical experts highly appreciated the proposed platform’s mechanical dynamic responsiveness due to the low end-to-end delay (latency) facilitated by LTE-channels. The most important limitation raised by the medical expert and prevented higher overall rating and ultimately clinical QoE was the robot initial positioning on the patient’s body and navigation towards obtaining the cardiac ultrasound. IV. Results provides a strong indication that the proposed robotized tele-echography platform can be used to provide reliable, remote diagnosis over emerging 4G and beyond wireless networks

Using the Kahoot Game-Based Learning Platform in a University Environment

Due to the limitations inherent in traditional learning management systems as regards the assessment options, educators are faced with the challenge to either invent and improvise new ways of engaging students based on their experiences and expertise or rely on the exploitation of software tools that have been proliferating for this purpose. The authors preferred the latter approach and used Kahoot, a game based learning platform to engage their students in a second year class of 58 students of a nursing department at a University in Cyprus. The results of this experience will be presented highlighting the increased degree of satisfaction amongst students for enhancing their learning and motivating them to take up assessment tasks for achieving better academic results

Robotics in Healthcare Global status & Future Trends

Surgical robotic systems are nowadays being used in various surgical fields successfully. However, a significant number of prominent designed and piloted systems did not manage to reach the commercialization stage and hence to be adopted in clinical practice. This is partially attributed to the strict approval requirements that usually takes a significant amount of time that it also requires high financial costs. Da Vinci by Intuitive Surgical has been the predominant robotic system used in laparoscopic surgery for the past decades that led to increasing costs and slow down innovation. This presentation focuses on the status of the global robotic surgery market, the FDA regulatory approval process and its impact on the robotic market. It also presents and compares the Da Vinci system with other robotic systems that have been approved for clinical use in different areas of the world and the market competition resulting from such developments