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Creating an immersive learning environment for teaching agile scrum and team software process: a framework for software engineering education
No full textMost of the principles and concepts that need to be taught in Software Engineering courses are hard to share the realistic experiences because it is difficult to give the student practical exposure to the insight and processes involved. This paper presents an innovative framework tailored for the establishment of an immersive learning environment within the context of a Software Engineering Project course. The overarching objective is to effectively tackle the inherent challenges associated with teaching intricate software engineering concepts, notably Agile Scrum and Team Software Process (TSPi). Conventional pedagogical approaches often prove inadequate in providing a comprehensive and engaging learning experience for students, educators and stakeholders. In response, our study introduces a pioneering immersive learning approach, offering a robust solution to this educational gap. To gauge the framework's efficacy and pertinence, we conducted online surveys, specifically targeting third-year students enrolled in the Software Engineering Laboratory course and the project stakeholders involved. These surveys were instrumental in collecting valuable feedback on the practicality and impact of our approach in enhancing the teaching and learning processes. This study presents a thorough exposition encompassing the framework's conceptualization, implementation and iterative evolution. Our research outcomes reveal that our immersive learning approach has successfully met the predefined course objectives, effectively addressing the intrinsic challenge of imparting hands-on experiences associated with software engineering principles and concepts. As a significant contribution to the ongoing initiatives aimed at elevating software engineering education, our study underscores the importance of providing students with tangible exposure to vital concepts such as Agile Scrum and TSPi. Moreover, this paper delineates the collaborative journey involved in the creation, execution and refinement of the course framework. Ultimately, our research endeavours to evaluate the degree to which our innovative framework aligns with the objectives established by both students and stakeholders. By doing so, it underscores the transformative potential of our approach in reshaping the landscape of software engineering education, ultimately enhancing its effectiveness and relevance
Expatriates in flexible global work arrangements
No full textThe purpose of this chapter is to synthesise the literature on expatriates in flexible global work arrangements. With an increasing need for agile business operations, global mobility in organisations has evolved, increasingly considering more flexible global working arrangements. The COVID-19 pandemic further transformed global mobility with organisations revisiting their approaches to coordinating and controlling their global businesses. In our integrative review, we depict international business travellers, international commuters, and short-term assignees as three types of flexible global work expatriates characterised by physical collocation for a condensed and defined period ranging from a few days to up to one year. We highlight the strategic value of these flexible global work expatriates to organisations and unpack ongoing sustainability concerns. The chapter concludes with afuture research agenda, reflecting on wellbeing and effectiveness outcomes, as well as offering a broader perspective on the reassessment of expatriates in flexible global work arrangements and collocation dependence
Improving student engagement through gamification in a systems security and cryptography course
No full textThis innovative practice full paper describes the impact of gamification as a pedagogical strategy to enhance student engagement in a second-year Systems Security and Cryptography course. In response to historically low attendance and participation, a gamified revision practical was introduced in the second week of the semester. The session incorporated cryptographic puzzles, ciphers, and a collaborative crossword challenge designed to reinforce prior knowledge while fostering interaction and motivation. A mixed-methods evaluation, including comparative attendance data and student feedback, revealed a significant increase in engagement. Attendance during the gamified session reached 62.5\%, compared to 25.5\% in the equivalent session of the previous academic year. Furthermore, 100\% of student respondents rated the experience as “good” or “excellent,” and reported feeling “engaged” or “very engaged.” The findings support the efficacy of cooperative, game-based learning in cybersecurity education, particularly when implemented early in the course. Future work will explore the scalability of this approach across additional sessions and its long-term influence on academic outcomes
Double-Double laminates: a comprehensive assessment of the mechanical performance in comparison to traditional Quad laminates
No full textThis study presents a comprehensive evaluation of Double-Double (DD) laminates as a viable alternative to traditional Quad laminates in composite structural applications. DD laminates are a new layup design approach, typically comprising repeated Building Block (BB)s or sub-laminates, formed from two sets of bi-angled plies, e.g. [∕ − ∕∕ − ], where denotes the number of sub-laminate repeats. A Python-based framework is developed to convert any laminate stacking sequence into a stiffness-equivalent DD configuration, incorporating both closed-form and optimisation-based solutions for in-plane and out-of-plane stiffness matching. The framework integrates homogenisation criteria to ensure warpage-free designs and supports both traditional DD and Symmetry-Enhanced Double-Double (SEDD) stacking sequences. Experimental validation of the framework was conducted for both in-plane and out-of-plane conversions. Unnotched tension, unnotched compression, Open-Hole Tension (OHT), Open-Hole Compression (OHC), and flexural tests were performed on a diverse set of laminates to comprehensively assess mechanical performance. Results show that DD laminates generally exhibit higher unnotched compressive and OHC strengths, comparable OHT performance, but moderately lower unnotched tensile strength relative to their Quad counterparts. Progressive Failure Analysis (PFA) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) are employed to investigate failure mechanisms and interlaminar stresses of laminates under unnotched tension, respectively. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) was conducted during OHT and OHC tests, providing insight into the observed failure trends. Flexural behaviour was found to be highly dependent on the specific stacking sequences, with no universal trend favouring either configuration. Overall, DD laminates demonstrate competitive mechanical performance compared to traditional Quad laminates, while offering significant design flexibility and manufacturing advantages. <br/
Multicharged zwitterions form superior antifouling interfaces
No full textThe long-term prevention of unwanted protein and microbial accumulation on surfaces, including medical devices, remains a significant and largely unresolved challenge. Decades of research into antifouling surfaces have suggested that addressing this issue will require a sustained approach focused on incremental advances in chemical design. The creation of highly hydrophilic surfaces has long been recognized as a key strategy, initially pursued through polyethylene glycol-functionalized coatings. More recently, zwitterionic groups have emerged as effective antifouling moieties. However, the limited chemical diversity of zwitterion-forming chemical entities has constrained further progress. In this study, an alternative approach to enhancing surface hydrophilicity is presented by employing multicharged zwitterionic molecules (MZWs), which increase the density of charged hydrophilic groups per monomer unit. Surfaces functionalized with MZWs exhibited 40–45% lower protein adsorption compared to benchmark single zwitterionic molecules. Remarkably, the synthesized MZWs spontaneously assemble into vesicular aggregates (130–170 nm) without the need for additives or any form of external force. These findings strongly support further exploration of MZW-functionalization as a novel strategy to enhance antifouling performance, while remaining readily adaptable via minor modifications to existing synthetic routes used for the incorporation of conventional zwitterions into polymers, self-assembled monolayers, hydrogels, and nanocarriers.<br/
Double-Double laminates: a comprehensive assessment of the mechanical performance in comparison to traditional Quad laminates
No full textThis study presents a comprehensive evaluation of Double-Double (DD) laminates as a viable alternative to traditional Quad laminates in composite structural applications. DD laminates are a new layup design approach, typically comprising repeated Building Block (BB)s or sub-laminates, formed from two sets of bi-angled plies, e.g. [∕ − ∕∕ − ], where denotes the number of sub-laminate repeats. A Python-based framework is developed to convert any laminate stacking sequence into a stiffness-equivalent DD configuration, incorporating both closed-form and optimisation-based solutions for in-plane and out-of-plane stiffness matching. The framework integrates homogenisation criteria to ensure warpage-free designs and supports both traditional DD and Symmetry-Enhanced Double-Double (SEDD) stacking sequences. Experimental validation of the framework was conducted for both in-plane and out-of-plane conversions. Unnotched tension, unnotched compression, Open-Hole Tension (OHT), Open-Hole Compression (OHC), and flexural tests were performed on a diverse set of laminates to comprehensively assess mechanical performance. Results show that DD laminates generally exhibit higher unnotched compressive and OHC strengths, comparable OHT performance, but moderately lower unnotched tensile strength relative to their Quad counterparts. Progressive Failure Analysis (PFA) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) are employed to investigate failure mechanisms and interlaminar stresses of laminates under unnotched tension, respectively. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) was conducted during OHT and OHC tests, providing insight into the observed failure trends. Flexural behaviour was found to be highly dependent on the specific stacking sequences, with no universal trend favouring either configuration. Overall, DD laminates demonstrate competitive mechanical performance compared to traditional Quad laminates, while offering significant design flexibility and manufacturing advantages. <br/
GKM-OD: Gaussian knowledge based modelling for outlier detection
No full textOutlier detection is a critical process in data engineering. Leveraging machine learning techniques for outlier detection enables the handling of large-scale, high-dimensional data, enhancing detection accuracy and efficiency. Traditional methods typically model data directly in the data space. However, these approaches often struggle to accurately distinguish inliers from outliers when dealing with complex data distributions. GMM can flexibly fit complex, multi-peak distributions using multiple Gaussian components and effectively identify outliers through probabilistic modelling. We introduce a novel outlier detection approach, which improves detection efficiency by indirectly modelling data in a latent space using a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM).This approach aligns with a growing trend in AI, notably advocated by Yann LeCun, that emphasizes decision-making and learning in latent representation spaces, instead of depending on raw token or feature spaces. For this, we design an encoder-decoder neural network with a GMM as the decision layer, enabling effective identification of outliers through probabilistic modelling. Our method not only addresses practical needs in anomaly detection but also contributes to this broader trend of latent space modelling as a step toward more autonomous and generalisable learning systems.Extensive evaluations on public and proprietary datasets demonstrate that our method outperforms existing approaches, including DAGMM and ECOD, highlighting its superiority in accuracy.<br/
The mechanisms by which a whole-school intervention might improve sexual health: qualitative realist research nested in a trial in English secondary schools
No full textWhole-school interventions go beyond classroom education, promoting health by modifying school environments. These can be effective in delaying sexual debut and increasing contraception use but mechanisms are poorly understood. Qualitative research within realist evaluation can explore mechanisms via building ‘context-mechanism-outcome configurations’, describing how interventions trigger mechanisms that interact with context to generate outcomes. We explored these for the Positive Choices whole-school sexual health intervention within the intervention arm of a randomised trial conducted 2021–2025. Using ‘dimensional analysis’, we analysed 52 interviews with teachers and 40 focus-groups involving 266 students from 22 English secondary schools. Our results suggest seven mechanisms through which whole-school interventions might ‘work’: improving knowledge using diverse pedagogies; improving confidence and ability to talk by normalising talk about sexual health; changing gender attitudes through challenging stereotypes and providing insights and empathy with others' perspectives; promoting access to sexual health and other services via helping students understand their needs and entitlements; building school engagement by providing new student roles on decision-making groups; increasing inclusion of sexual-minority students by normalising consideration of non-heterosexual identities and practices; and reducing sexual harassment and abuse by helping students understand consent and when to intervene in harassment. Contextual contingencies included: high initial student needs; teacher skills and commitment; and school commitment and capacity. Our research suggests novel mechanisms via which whole-school interventions might promote sexual health. Quantitative analyses will now be conducted to examine these mechanisms and contingencies
Ballistic response of composite helmets engineered with cellular metamaterials
No full textThis study investigates the integration of cellular metamaterials into combat helmet systems under ballistic loading, with a focus on realistic helmet geometries and both direct and oblique impact conditions. As global conflict zones increasingly demand lightweight and high-performance protective gear for enhanced mobility and survivability, auxetic structures, particularly the double arrowhead (DAH) topology, demonstrated substantial improvements in head protection, reducing injury metrics such as peak linear acceleration and head injury criterion (HIC) by over 50% compared to non-auxetic designs. Cellular helmet pad systems, explored here for the first time, achieved comparable or superior impact mitigation while halving system weight. Detailed damage evolution analysis revealed that DAH structures exhibited more gradual and confined failure compared to re-entrant designs, further supporting their superior performance. These results offer valuable insights into the mechanics of impact resistance and set a new benchmark for the design of lightweight, high-performance protective equipment
Quantification of antibiotic diffusion in biofilms using gold nanostar surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy
No full textThe increased resistance to antibiotics shown by bacteria in biofilms is believed to be partly the result of the limited penetration of antibiotics. However, there are no well-established techniques which allow quantitative, label-free monitoring of antibiotic transport in biofilms. Here, it is shown that surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with gold nanostars (NS) can be used for the detection of levofloxacin (Levo) in Staphylococcus aureus biofilms at clinically relevant concentrations. Ex situ studies showed that although matrix interference reduced the sensitivity compared to aqueous solutions, quantitative detection remained possible. With intact biofilms, monitoring the SERS signals from layers of NS embedded at specific depths allowed the time-dependence of the penetration of Levo from the surface to the embedded layer to be measured and the diffusion coefficient of Levo to be calculated. The measured value of D = 2.79 ± 0.79 × 10−9 cm2 s−1 is over three orders of magnitude lower than in aqueous solutions. This work is the first demonstration that SERS can be a powerful method for investigating antibiotic transport in biofilms, offering new insights into resistance mechanisms and supporting the development of more effective antimicrobial strategies.<br/