In a technology driven world, efforts are being made to make education/learning available to individuals at any time with no compromise in the quality of teaching/training. To make learning flexible, different techniques such as distributing learning material, uploading audio lectures on the web, and creating intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) are being used. The technique considered here is an adaptive ITS, a system that replicates the learning that occurs in a student teacher relationship. This thesis develops an adaptive intelligent tutoring system architecture prototype where the addition, modification and removal of educational material are relatively easy. The resulting software will take into account: the goals of the specific educational experience, the concepts to be covered, the preferred learning style of the student, measures to detect misuse of the system functionality, behavior based on the student's performance and the generation of hint sequences and feedback messages to improve learning gain. The system will accomplish these objectives by assessing the student's prior knowledge level, observing the actions performed by the student and by adapting to his/her learning abilities. The ITS will attempt to be more intelligent by performing some actions traditionally done by a human teacher - such as diagnosing misconceptions, identifying the most suitable learning style, stressing concepts that the student is finding difficult to understand, switching back to the learning material if the student shows no improvement after a set of trials. The system makes sure that the student is getting feedback where appropriate. Using this prototype system, the student will be tutored to acquire declarative knowledge. A problem based learning (PBL) approach will be used to strengthen the acquired knowledge by providing a high degree of personal attention to the student. To show how the prototype system works, an example of analysis of a control system problem using bode plot technique will be used to assist the student in using the technique to perform the stability analysis of an analog, linear, time-invariant control system problems and to recommend a controller to attain stability (if the system is not stable). Ideas of porting the system from standalone to web-based architecture and features required for collaborative learning will be discussed and an architecture for a web-based tutoring system for supporting multiple students enabling communication between students and sharing data among them will be proposed. / Electrical and Computer Engineering

Published Article / Atkinson distinguishes between four types of prototypes, categorised through its end-use: •Design or aesthetic prototypes •Geometrical prototypes •Functional prototypes •Technological prototypes Shigley and Mitchell define the design process according to the following six phases: Recognition of need Definition of problem Synthesis Analysis and optimization Evaluation Presentation The Centre for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacture (CRPM) of the Central University of Technology, Free State was asked to assist in the development of a newly developed gynaecological cream applicator. Apart from needing a freeform fabrication system to give form fit and function to the very complex design, the product needed Rapid Tooling / Rapid Manufacturing support to enable a first batch production for medical trials and evaluation. The paper will describe the total product development process alongside prototype categories described by Atkinson and design phases defined by Shigley and Mitchell (including some iterations enabled through timeous prototyping, including various Rapid Prototyping (RP) Technologies, soft tooling and vacuum casting). More importantly, results from Rapid Tooling for limited run production (due to the complexity of the product the cycle time of the Prototype Tool is fairly long), as well as the economical impact made possible through the support of CAD / CAM and RP Technologies, will be discussed.

Inbyggda system blir allt vanligare i dagens samhälle. De inbyggda systemen finns i nästan allt nuförtiden, från diverse fordon till leksaker för barn. Dagens teknik innebär bland annat att gårdagens lösningar kan realiseras på en bråkdel av den tidigare ytan. Allt mer blir ytmonterat med mindre och mer komplexa kretsar. Detta är inte alltid till utvecklarnas fördel då montering av prototypkort blir en svår och/eller dyr process. Målet är att ta fram ett inbyggt system med en ARM-processor. Systemet ska innehålla USB-OTG, ethernet, minne av olika slag som FRAM och microSD samt en display med pekskärm för användargränssnitt. Projektet omfattar allt från komponentval till test och verifiering med programkod. Tiden räckte inte till för att få med alla delar som planerats. Resultatet av projektet blev ett prototypkort och två små programsekvenser, en som blinkar två lysdioder på kortet och en som skriver ut en bild på displayen. Detta inbyggda system är i första hand till för utvärdering av ARM-processorer för Mikrodidakt AB. / Embedded systems has become more and more common in today's society. The embedded systems are included in almost everything today, from various vehicles to children's toys. Today's technology means that yesterday's solutions can be realised on a fraction of the area. More and more become surface mounted with smaller and more complex circuits. This is not always an advantage for the developers when assembling and soldering prototype circuit boards become a more difficult and/or an expensive process. The goal is to create an embedded system with an ARM-processor. The system will consist of USB-OTG, ethernet, various memory like FRAM and microSD and a display with touchscreen for user interface. The project includes everything from choice of components to test and verification with program code. The time was too short to include all the parts that was planned. The result of the project was a prototype card and two small program sequences, one that blinks the two light diodes on the card and one that writes a picture on the display. This embedded system is intended for evaluating ARM-processors by Mikrododakt AB.

This thesis contains the research findings from my participation in two research projects. The first is the development and assessment of Active Learning Modules (ALMs) for engineering students. The ALMs assist students in learning complex Finite Element Analysis (FEA) principles. We measure the effectiveness of the modules by issuing pre- and post-module quizzes and analyze the differences of the quiz scores. Active learning modules are used to meet the needs of all students’ learning styles. Each student who uses an ALM takes a series of learning style assessment quizzes (MBTI, LIS …). We statistically compare the learning styles and quiz scores to ensure all learning styles are improving equally well. In cases where they are not, we created a tool to make suggestions to the ALM developer on how to adjust the ALM to meet the needs of the outlying learning style group(s). Following modification, the implementation and evaluation process of the ALM is repeated. My second area of research focused on the development of a concise prototype strategy development tool. This tool guides engineering product development teams through six critical prototype strategy choices: (1) How many concepts should be prototyped? (2) How many iterations of a concept should be built? (3) Should the prototype be virtual or physical? (4) Should subsystems be isolated? (5) Should the prototype be scaled? (6) Should the design requirements be temporarily relaxed? This list of choices is not comprehensive but served as a starting point for this groundbreaking research. The tool was tested at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Air Force Academy. Results indicate the method did improve students’ performance across a number of assessment metrics. / text

Today most demolition projects undertaken are complex and involve many parties who must comply with a myriad of regulations as well as other constraints (e.g. finance). The management of demolition projects requires individual team members to have a wide range of skills and knowledge in addition to practical experience. Demolition processes currently operated are frequently performed in an unstructured, intuitive manner with considerable reliance on experience, skill, knowledge or subjective judgement of the demolition engineer or other individual responsible for a demolition project. Research on demolition ‘process management' is a new area that has rarely been addressed. However, within the building design and construction management sectors, there are a number of intelligent solutions that have been developed to assist in the management of business processes and business process re-engineering. Process management systems and process mapping through the use of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) technology have been applied to help the construction industry significantly improve performance. In an attempt to provide intelligent support to the management of dynamic demolition processes, this research reports upon that was developed using ICT applications a management system prototype entitled “Demolish-IT”. The prototype of Demolish-IT utilises four tiers of information which includes: (1) the standard demolition process map; (2) user-defined demolition process map; (3) demolition task manager; and (4) database of demolition process requirements. The prototype provides on ICT platform that unifies demolition processes and requirements to achieve improved process management. The research involved a combination of face-to-face interviews with demolition experts; real projects document reviews and site observation to produce the generic demolition process map. Other products of the work included: database solutions to store demolition process requirements; and process modelling to manage demolition task compliance flow within relevant industry standards. Evaluation of the research work proved its validity, acceptance and applicability within industry. Future work will aim to transpose the outputs into commercially viable software.

Esse trabalho tem por objetivo descrever o desenvolvimento e os atuais resultados do protótipo dataflow PIFLOW, um processador baseado no modelo de dataflow dinâmico, inspirado na Maquina Dataflow de Manchester e desenvolvido no Instituto de Física de São Carlos, da Universidade de São Paulo. Esse protótipo foi capaz de oferecer speedups muito próximos do ideal, a partir de programas que possuem grande grau de paralelismo, apresentando o grande potencial deste modelo - já bastante estudado no decorrer das últimas décadas - em oferecer desempenho superior ao de processadores sequenciais comerciais modernos. / The aim of this work is to describe the development and the current results of the PIFLOW dataflow prototype, a processor based on the dynamic dataflow model of execution, inspired by the Manchester Dataflow Machine and developed in the Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo. This prototype shows speedups very close to the ideal case, when executing programs with a high degree of parallelism, showing the dataflow model potential, which has been extensibly analysed in the last decades, to offer higher performance when compared to commercial modern sequential processors.

Em trabalhos anteriores realizados em síntese e caracterização cristalográfica, a existência de uma nova fase de estequiometria Ta1-xHfxB (com x variando no intervalo entre 0,05 e 0,4) que cristaliza no protótipo FeB foi descoberta. Este ternário cristaliza num protótipo diferente do protótipo CrB aceito no binário TaB. Na verdade, essa substituição é capaz de gerar uma mudança significativa na estrutura cristalina de TaB, a qual sofre uma distorção e modifica o protótipo CrB para FeB. Além desta mudança estrutural os compostos de composição global Ta1-xHfxB apresentam supercondutividade com temperatura crítica supercondutora acima do binário TaB (Tc ~ 4,0 K). Foi observado que a supercondutividade otimizada na composição Ta0,7Hf0,3B com Tc ~ 6,7 K na qual medidas de calor específico revelam forte assinatura de manifestação multibanda neste novo composto. Motivados por esta descoberta, neste trabalho são investigadas a possiblidade desta transformação estrutural bem como o seu impacto nas propriedades supercondutoras em ligas de composição global Ta1-xZrxB, devido à similaridade eletrônica entre Zr e Hf na tabela periódica. De fato, resultados publicados a respeito da transformação cristalográfica com a substituição de Ta por Zr revelam o mesmo comportamento observado nas ligas produzidas com Hf e este trabalho revela que os compostos Ta1-xZrxB também são supercondutores. A composição com a maior temperatura crítica é Ta0,8Zr0,2Be tem uma temperatura de transição aproximadamente 7,8 K. Entretanto, esse composto tem evidencia de um supercondutor não convencional. Assim, este trabalho revela a existência de supercondutividade não convencional em ligas do sistema ternário Ta-Zr-B revelados por medidas de resistividade, magnetização e caracterização estrutural e microestrutural. / In previous works carried out in synthesis and crystallographic characterization, the existence of a new Ta1-xHfxB stoichiometry phase (with x varying in the interval between 0.05 and 0.4) that crystallizes in the FeB prototype was discovered. This ternary crystallizes in a prototype different from the prototype CrB accepted in the TaB binary. In fact, this substitution is capable of generating a significant change in the crystalline structure of TaB, which undergoes distortion and modifies the CrB prototype for FeB. In addition to this structural change, the compounds of global composition Ta1-xHfxB present superconductivity with critical superconducting temperature above the TaB Tc ~ 4.0 K. It was observed that the superconductivity optimizes at Ta0,7Hf0,3B composition with Tc ~ 6.7 K in which specific heat measurements reveal a strong multiband manifestation signature in this new compound. Based on this finding, this work investigates the possibility of this structural transformation as well as its impact on the superconducting properties of alloys of global composition Ta1-xZrxB, due to the electronic similarity between Zr and Hf in the periodic table. In fact, published results on crystallographic transformation with the substitution of Ta by Zr reveal the same behavior observed in the alloys produced with Hf and this work reveals that the Ta1-xZrxB compounds are also superconducting. The composition with the highest critical temperature is Ta0,8Zr0,2Band has a transition temperature of about 7.8K. However, this compound has evidence of an unconventional superconductor. Thus, this work reveals the existence of unconventional superconductivity in alloys of the Ta-Zr-B ternary system revealed by resistivity, magnetization and structural and microstructural characterization measurements.

Em trabalhos anteriores realizados em síntese e caracterização cristalográfica, a existência de uma nova fase de estequiometria Ta1-xHfxB (com x variando no intervalo entre 0,05 e 0,4) que cristaliza no protótipo FeB foi descoberta. Este ternário cristaliza num protótipo diferente do protótipo CrB aceito no binário TaB. Na verdade, essa substituição é capaz de gerar uma mudança significativa na estrutura cristalina de TaB, a qual sofre uma distorção e modifica o protótipo CrB para FeB. Além desta mudança estrutural os compostos de composição global Ta1-xHfxB apresentam supercondutividade com temperatura crítica supercondutora acima do binário TaB (Tc ~ 4,0 K). Foi observado que a supercondutividade otimizada na composição Ta0,7Hf0,3B com Tc ~ 6,7 K na qual medidas de calor específico revelam forte assinatura de manifestação multibanda neste novo composto. Motivados por esta descoberta, neste trabalho são investigadas a possiblidade desta transformação estrutural bem como o seu impacto nas propriedades supercondutoras em ligas de composição global Ta1-xZrxB, devido à similaridade eletrônica entre Zr e Hf na tabela periódica. De fato, resultados publicados a respeito da transformação cristalográfica com a substituição de Ta por Zr revelam o mesmo comportamento observado nas ligas produzidas com Hf e este trabalho revela que os compostos Ta1-xZrxB também são supercondutores. A composição com a maior temperatura crítica é Ta0,8Zr0,2Be tem uma temperatura de transição aproximadamente 7,8 K. Entretanto, esse composto tem evidencia de um supercondutor não convencional. Assim, este trabalho revela a existência de supercondutividade não convencional em ligas do sistema ternário Ta-Zr-B revelados por medidas de resistividade, magnetização e caracterização estrutural e microestrutural. / In previous works carried out in synthesis and crystallographic characterization, the existence of a new Ta1-xHfxB stoichiometry phase (with x varying in the interval between 0.05 and 0.4) that crystallizes in the FeB prototype was discovered. This ternary crystallizes in a prototype different from the prototype CrB accepted in the TaB binary. In fact, this substitution is capable of generating a significant change in the crystalline structure of TaB, which undergoes distortion and modifies the CrB prototype for FeB. In addition to this structural change, the compounds of global composition Ta1-xHfxB present superconductivity with critical superconducting temperature above the TaB Tc ~ 4.0 K. It was observed that the superconductivity optimizes at Ta0,7Hf0,3B composition with Tc ~ 6.7 K in which specific heat measurements reveal a strong multiband manifestation signature in this new compound. Based on this finding, this work investigates the possibility of this structural transformation as well as its impact on the superconducting properties of alloys of global composition Ta1-xZrxB, due to the electronic similarity between Zr and Hf in the periodic table. In fact, published results on crystallographic transformation with the substitution of Ta by Zr reveal the same behavior observed in the alloys produced with Hf and this work reveals that the Ta1-xZrxB compounds are also superconducting. The composition with the highest critical temperature is Ta0,8Zr0,2Band has a transition temperature of about 7.8K. However, this compound has evidence of an unconventional superconductor. Thus, this work reveals the existence of unconventional superconductivity in alloys of the Ta-Zr-B ternary system revealed by resistivity, magnetization and structural and microstructural characterization measurements.

<p>The aim of this study was to find a connection between changes in societies and changes in semantic prototypes by examining the prototypes of ‘fruit’ and ‘car’ among Slovenes that reached adulthood in Yugoslavia and Slovenes that that reached adulthood in the Republic of Slovenia and to compare those results with a control group of native English speakers. The results of the study suggests that in some aspects, the prototypes of ‘fruit’ and ‘car’ amongyounger Slovenes have moved closer to what they are in cultures that have a long history of capitalism and consumerism. The opinions about how good an example of a ‘fruit’ a banana is, is the best example of this. Younger Slovenes and the control group see it as a very good example, while older Slovenes rated it lower. The older Slovenes were also slightly more accepting of a very small car model being a good example of a ‘car’, than both younger Slovenes and the control group were.</p>

<p>Rapporten handlar om framställningen av ett prototypverktyg för konsultfirman Logica. Marknaden har idag ett stort behov av ett prototypverktyg och det är en lösning på det problemet som vi utvecklat. Utvecklingsarbetet är utfört i Java och har resulterat i ett program som kan rita upp prototyper och ett som kan visa och köra prototypprojekt. Projektets syfte har varit att effektivisera Logicas arbetssätt och tillgodose ett behov av en mjukvara som är avsett för att skapa och hantera prototyper av mjukvarusystem. Därutöver har projektet syftat till att erbjuda Logicas kunder mervärde då de får en körbar prototyp av det system de överväger att köpa.</p>