The culture of education

[서평]「The Unified Modeling Language User Guide」

Several physico-mechanical designs evolved in fish are currently inspiring robotic devices for propulsion and maneuvering purposes in underwater vehicles. Considering the potential benefits involved, this paper presents an overview of the swimming mechanisms employed by fish. The motivation is to provide a relevant and useful introduction to the existing literature for engineers with an interest in the emerging area of aquatic biomechanisms. The fish swimming types are presented, following the well-established classification scheme and nomenclature originally proposed by Breder. Fish swim either by body and/or caudal fin (BCF) movements or using median and/or paired fin (MPF) propulsion. The latter is generally employed at slow speeds, offering greater maneuverability and better propulsive efficiency, while BCF movements can achieve greater thrust and accelerations. For both BCF and MPF locomotion, specific swimming modes are identified, based on the propulsor and the type of movements (oscillatory or undulatory) employed for thrust generation. Along with general descriptions and kinematic data, the analytical approaches developed to study each swimming mode are also introduced. Particular reference is made to lunate tail propulsion, undulating fins, and labriform (oscillatory pectoral fin) swimming mechanisms, identified as having the greatest potential for exploitation in artificial systems.

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Review of fish swimming modes for aquatic locomotion

The effective application of sliding mode control to mechanical systems is not straightforward because of the sensitivity of these systems to chattering. Higher-order sliding modes can counteract this phenomenon by confining the switching control to the higher derivatives of the mechanical control variable, so that the latter results are continuous. Generally, this approach requires the availability of a number of time derivatives of the sliding variable, and, in the presence of noise, this requirement could be a practical limitation. A class of second-order sliding mode controllers, guaranteeing finite-time convergence for systems with relative degree two between the sliding variable and the switching control, could be helpful both in reducing the number of differentiator stages in the controller and in dealing with unmodelled actuator dynamics. In this paper different second-order sliding mode controllers, previously presented in the literature, are shown to belong to the above cited class, and some cha...

A survey of applications of second-order sliding mode control to mechanical systems

One of the most important control problems is control under heavy uncertainty conditions. While there are a number of sophisticated methods like adaptation based on identification and observation, or absolute stability methods, the most obvious way to withstand the uncertainty is to keep some constraints by "brutal force". Indeed any strictly kept equality removes one " uncertainty dimension". The most simple way to keep a constraint is to react immediately to any deviation of the system stirring it back to the constraint by a sufficiently energetic effort. Implemented directly, the approach leads to so-called sliding modes, which become main operation modes in the variable structure systems (VSS) [55]. Having proved their high accuracy and robustness with respect to various internal and external disturbances, they also reveal their main drawback: the so-called chattering effect, i.e., dangerous high-frequency vibrations of the controlled system. Such an effect was considered as an obvious intrinsic feature of the very idea of immediate powerful reaction to the minutest deviation from the chosen constraint. Another important feature is proportionality of the maximal deviation from the constraint to the time interval between the measurements (or to the switching delay).

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/rnc.1229

Higher order sliding modes

The aim of this paper is describing the SCOMaker, a user friendly authoring tool for the automated production of SCOs, mainly oriented to distance learning and learning object design. It is a freely available open source application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML, XML markup or any other language. SCOMaker can export content as self-contained web pages or as SCORM 2004 packages usable on a LMS server or designed for a database SCO repository. This project has been developed by ELKM (E-Learning & Knowledge Management) and led by the University of Genoa.

/pdf/design-and-implementation-of-a-user-friendly-environment-for-2s4ki6fmfx.pdf

Design and implementation of a user friendly environment for Learning Objects creation

In this paper we recall a previous research on the future development of the current model of higher education, which highlighted that the labor market is looking for people with competences and skills reflecting a T-shape model. As a consequence, universities should include a wider mix of disciplines in the curricula of their courses. Hence, to overcome existing criticisms and to provide some suggestions on how to enhance universities’ performances, we thought of education as a process with inputs, outputs, and relevant dependencies. We based our research on a smart-city-like model due to the fact that next generation networks and relevant services are going to be more and more integrated with existing infrastructure and information management systems. Thus, it is mandatory that smart solutions are the most prominent assets of modern university environments, to improve the effectiveness of higher education. We called such a university a “smarter university” in which knowledge is a common heritage of teachers and students. In this paper, we report experimental results from a specific case study of collaboration between industry and university, which could be used as a reference for the definition of patterns to be applied in the redesign of the current education systems, even tough it is referred to a technological application scenario. Keywords-cloud computing; smart applications; collaborative systems; technology enhanced learning.

/pdf/teaching-computer-programming-in-a-platform-as-a-service-4lgg0gjygy.pdf

Teaching Computer Programming in a Platform as a Service Environment

Il Web Semantico appare offrire interessanti opportunita nell’ambito dei sistemi educativi per soddisfare il principio dell’ “apprendimento per tutti, in qualunque momento e in ogni luogo”. In linea con questo principio, in questo lavoro vengono discussi due progetti di ricerca: CADDIE (Content  Automated Design & Development Integrated Editor), sviluppato presso il DIST dell’Universita di Genova, e IWT (Intelligent Web Teacher), sviluppato presso il DIIMA dell’Universita di Salerno, entrambi caratterizzati dall’uso di ontologie e tecnologie semantiche per supportare la progettazione didattica e processi di apprendimento personalizzati. Il primo mira allo sviluppo di un sistema autore per la progettazione di risorse per l’apprendimento e percorsi didattici basato su un modello di annotazione logico e astratto, creato con l’obiettivo di garantire la fessibilita e la personalizzazione dei processi di progettazione didattica, la riusabilita dei materiali educativi e delle relative strutture di conoscenza. Il secondo rappresenta una soluzione innovativa per l’e-learning in grado di supportare la modellazione di domini di conoscenza, delle competenze e delle preferenze degli utenti, tramite un approccio semantico al fine di creare attivita di apprendimento personalizzate e  contestualizzate, e in grado di consentire agli utenti di comunicare, cooperare, e creare dinamicamente nuovi contenuti da distribuire e condividere.

Approcci basati su ontologie per l’apprendimento per tutti, in qualunque momento e in ogni luogo: studio dei casi CADDIE e IWT

TThe diffusion of modern mobile devices and applications coupled with the pervasive use of social network services and communications tools, are dramatically changing the way people work, live and learn In this perspective, this work will discuss an innovative proposal, to be considered as a new paradigm in mobile learning In particular, we present the use of a Web-radio channel as an educational tool in a mobile-learning environment Such a medium has unique characteristics of an interactive tool and, furthermore, interaction among users can be enabled by the integration with social networking Therefore, given the special characteristics of such a medium, it is quite natural to design educational activities relying on social networking, which can be implemented in a mobile environment, according to a novel Web-radio social networking mobile education model

The use of web-radio in mobile learning

Lo sviluppo pervasivo delle nuove tecnologie dell’informazione, e in particolare di Internet, rappresenta un fattore di accelerazione e, al tempo stesso, lo strumento per “reinventare” le modalita di organizzazione e funzionamento delle amministrazioni pubbliche. In questo articolo viene presentato un sistema per la gestione automatica sul Web di gare d’appalto bandite dalla Pubblica Amministrazione in Italia basata sulla tecnologia ad agenti offerta dal framework AgentService. L’applicazione si avvantaggia quindi dell’elevata dinamicita e flessibilita delle comunita di agenti software e della interoperabilita offerta dai Web Service.

Mauro Coccoli

Papers

Design and implementation of a user friendly environment for Learning Objects creation

Teaching Computer Programming in a Platform as a Service Environment

Approcci basati su ontologie per l’apprendimento per tutti, in qualunque momento e in ogni luogo: studio dei casi CADDIE e IWT

The use of web-radio in mobile learning

Un'applicazione di e-government per la gestione di gare d'appalto nella Pubblica Amministrazione.