1,721,060 research outputs found
A comprehensive text analysis of lecture slides to generate concept maps
No full textAbstract not availableThushari Atapattu, Katrina Falkner, Nickolas Falkne
Broadening participation in computer science: key strategies from international findings
No full textThis special session is based around key findings of a Barbara Cail STEM Fellowship that aims to inform key stakeholders about international best practices for broadening participation and diversity in computer science. This special session provides opportunities for the audience to contribute to this research discussion and to analyse and develop strategies for their own unique contexts, in a facilitated approach using the benchmark framework and key findings.Rebecca Vivian, Katrina Falkner, Claudia Szab
Combat management systems: Predicting performance early in the design lifecycle
No full textIn this paper we show how designs of COTS-based real-time systems, such as Naval combat management systems, can be realistically analysed early in their design lifecycle using the technique of executable modelling, potentially identifying problems earlier in the design lifecycle than by using traditional design methodologies, with resultant cost and time savings. Our emphasis is on verifying performance through-life as components change, and in the initial design where military off-the-shelf components may be used in a platform with different capabilities than originally intended.Matthew Britton, Katrina Falkner, Gavin Pudd
Automated extraction of semantic concepts from semi-structured data: supporting computer-based education through the analysis of lecture notes
No full textComputer-based educational approaches provide valuable supplementary support to traditional classrooms. Among these approaches, intelligent learning systems provide automated questions, answers, feedback, and the recommendation of further resources. The most difficult task in intelligent system formation is the modelling of domain knowledge, which is traditionally undertaken manually or semi-automatically by knowledge engineers and domain experts. However, this error-prone process is time-consuming and the benefits are confined to an individual discipline. In this paper, we propose an automated solution using lecture notes as our knowledge source to utilise across disciplines. We combine ontology learning and natural language processing techniques to extract concepts and relationships to produce the knowledge representation. We evaluate this approach by comparing the machine-generated vocabularies to terms rated by domain experts, and show a measurable improvement over existing techniques.Thushari Atapattu, Katrina Falkner and Nickolas Falkne
Using the compliant systems architecture to deliver flexible policies within two-phase commit
No full textThe original publication is available at www.springerlink.comThe compliant systems architecture (CSA) is a structuring methodology for constructing software systems that exhibit strict separation of policy and mechanism. Components of an instantiated CSA adapt to their environment under application control. This ability to evolve allows a single system to provide optimal support for arbitrary applications through flexible policy specification. Applications may determine their preferred level of participation in the specification of policy. In a distributed database system, two-phase commit (2PC) delineates a family of algorithms governed by policies that affect different performance, overhead and recovery characteristics. Whilst the literature describes many different algorithms, a given implementation employs a particular subset of policy choices. Consequently applications are captive to decisions made by the underlying system and are unable to exploit domain-specific knowledge. This paper outlines an instantiation of a distributed CSA and illustrates how it delivers flexibility within 2PC.Diana Howard, Henry Detmold, Katrina Falkner and David Munr
Broadening participation not border protection: how universities can support women in computer science
No full textComputer science, like technology in general, is seen as a masculine field and the under-representation of women an intransigent problem. In this paper, we argue that the cultural belief in Australia that computer science is a domain for men results in many girls and women being chased away from that field as part of a border protection campaign by some males - secondary school teachers, boys and men playing games online and young men on campus at university. We draw on American feminist philosopher, Iris Marion Young’s analysis of the ‘five faces’ of oppression to suggest strategies whereby Australian universities could support women in computer science and educate men about respectful behaviour and gender equity.Dee Michell, Anna Szorenyi, Katrina Falkner and Claudia Szab
Task-adapted concept map scaffolding to support quizzes in an online environment
No full textThis paper investigates the effect of different forms of concept maps as scaffolding techniques to support answering quizzes in an online learning environment. Concept maps which represent a course topic have being utilised as a scaffolding technique for learning the subject matters and problem solving. However, due to the typical amount of information presented in the topic concept maps, learners might feel overwhelmed, reducing their motivation and increasing the learners' disorientation. In order to overcome this issue, a study was conducted with 59 undergraduates of a Software Engineering course to measure the effect of different forms of concept maps on learning. The study obtained statistically significant results when using concept maps adapted to given quizzes (known as task-adapted concept maps). Students' reflections collected through a questionnaire were very positive towards task-adapted concept maps as a scaffolding technique.Thushari Atapattu, Katrina Falkner, Nickolas Falkne
S-RVM: a secure design for a high-performance java virtual machine
No full textReference protection mechanisms, which control the propagation of references, are commonly used to isolate and to provide protection for components that execute within a shared runtime. These mechanisms often incur an overhead for maintaining the isolation or introduce inefficiencies in the communication between the components. This paper proposes a novel approach for component isolation that avoids runtime overheads by controlling references at compile time. We use the proposed approach to build S-RVM, a Java Virtual Machine based on JikesRVM, which enhances JikesRVM’s security by isolating the VM from the application. Our experiments show that on the average S-RVM incurs no performance overhead when executing optimised code.Yuval Yaron, Katrina Falkner and David S. Munr
Architectural support for model-driven performance prediction of distributed real-time embedded systems of systems
No full textSystems of systems (SoS) are large-scale systems composed of complex systems with difficult to predict emergent properties. One of the most significant challenges in the engineering of such systems is how to predict their non-functional properties such as performance, and more specifically, how to model non-functional properties when the overall system functionality is not available. In this paper, we define an approach to SoS performance prediction based on the modelling of system interactions and their impacts. We adopt an Event Driven Architecture to support this modelling, as it allows for more realistic and flexible performance simulation, which enables more accurate performance prediction. We introduce a generic architecture and present its instantiation in a software architecture for the performance prediction of defence SoS. Our architecture allows for loose coupling, interoperability, and adaptability and facilitates sustainable evolution of the performance model of the SoS.Vanea Chiprianov, Katrina Falkner, Claudia Szabo, Gavin Pudd
Educational question answering motivated by question-specific concept maps
No full textLecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence is a Subseries of Lecture Notes in Computer Science.Question answering (QA) is the automated process of answering general questions submitted by humans in natural language. QA has previously been explored within the educational context to facilitate learning, however the majority of works have focused on text-based answering. As an alternative, this paper proposes an approach to return answers as a concept map, which further encourages meaningful learning and knowledge organisation. Additionally, this paper investigates whether adapting the returned concept map to the specific question context provides further learning benefit. A randomised experiment was conducted with a sample of 59 Computer Science undergraduates, obtaining statistically significant results on learning gain when students are provided with the question-specific concept maps. Further, time spent on studying the concept maps were positively correlated with the learning gain.Thushari Atapattu, Katrina Falkner, and Nickolas Falkne
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