Ända sedan 1960-talet har idén om ett symbiotiskt partnerskap mellan dator och människa presenterats och att detta partnerskap kan ge lösningar bättre än människan ensam kan. Detta symbiotiska partnerskap har spridit sig till processuell generering (PCG) genom angripningssättet “blandade initiativ”, där människa och dator turas om bidra med lösningar. Inom spelutveckling kan viss innehåll skapas bättre av en generator och en annan del av en människa. Denna forskning fokuserar på att tillämpa den “blandade initiativ” metoden för att skapa uppdrag i “dungeon” spel, genom den utvecklade artefakten kan användaren skapa uppdrag i “Evolutionary dungeon designer” (EDD) för att designa nivåer av spelgenren “dungeons”. Artefakten använder en generator för att ge användaren automatisk genererade förslag. Generatorn har utvärderats genom ett “expressive range”-experiment som utvärderade dominansen av de aktioner som fungerar som byggstenar för uppdragen. Utöver experimentet genomfördes en användarstudie för att utvärdera artefaktens användbarhet. Mottagandet av artefakten i användarstudien var positivt. En majoritet av deltagarna upplevde en ökad kreativitet och beskrev artefakten som ett resurseffektivt verktyg för spelutvecklare, som bidrar med snabba lösningar och hjälper till att motverka inspirationsblockeringar. / Ever since the 1960s the idea of a symbiotic partnership between computer and man has been laid out, suggesting a partnership can provide solutions better than man alone can. This symbiotic relationship has been branched out to procedural content generation (PCG), through it’s “mixed initiative” approach, taking turns to provide suggestions. Within game development, some content is better created by a generator, and some by a human. This research focuses on applying the mixed initiative approach in quest creation in dungeon games, through an artefact that lets the user create quests in “Evolutionary dungeon designer” (EDD) to design dungeons in dungeon games. The artefact developed uses a generator to provide the user with automatic generated suggestions. The generator has been evaluated through an expressive range experiment to investigate the dominance of the actions which acts like building blocks for the quests. In addition to the experiment a user study was conducted. The result of the user study was that the experiences relating to the artefact were positive. A majority of the participants experienced increased creativity and described the artefact as a resource efficient tool for game developers, providing fast solutions and helping reduce inspirational blockages.

This work is a case study focused on the practices of a comprehensive college access program that serves students in south Los Angeles that has maintained a high school graduation rate of 100% and a college matriculation rate of 98% since 1997. This study sought to utilize the voice and experience of students of color to discern the factors that are most effective in helping urban students of color and in turn, inform the future work of the college access community. The study was driven by the following research questions: a) which practices of a south Los Angeles college access program most impact a student's ability to matriculate to college? and b) How can the epistemology of urban students inform the work of college access programs? Through observations, interviews, journal exercises and document review, this study ranked the practices in order of importance according to the participants, and identified that structure and accountability are essential to the success of this college access program. In addition, the study revealed that the students of this program succeed academically because the program, provides students with structure, access and guidance; because it immerses its students in a college-going culture; because it offers access to academic and cultural resources; because it sets high academic expectations; because it engages the family of origin and creates a family within the program; and because it enhances the self-concept of its students: college access programs see students as scholars. Using funds of knowledge as a framework, this study also introduced the original term, “masked epistemologies” which refers to the shared experiences of college access students once they enter college. The concept of masked epistemologies refers to the experience of students who enter college via a college access program, who go on to feel like her ways of knowing, shaped by the unique experience of being a high achieving student participant of a college access program from an urban setting, are disregarded in the new, unknown terrain of college, and must be masked or concealed, only to be revealed in environments considered safe. The students’ epistemologies go from being highly praised and admired, to being ignored to the point of invisibility. This study found that students of this college access program struggle with adapting to the social realm of college because they have not been exposed to class differences throughout their tenure in the program.

Geotourism is becoming more popular and can play a critical role in creating literacy in communities. Moreover, the Big Ideas of the Earth Science Literacy Initiative can be used within signage to address literacy. Because all citizens should have a basic knowledge of Earth Science in order to make informed decisions that relate to Earth Science, geotourism can be used as a way to increase Earth Science knowledge, along with other positive outcomes related to communities' increased well-being. A careful investigation of N=59 geosites reveals that signage can be used to increase this knowledge but that there is a deficit in the number and quality of the signage present at some of these sites. A gap has been uncovered regarding the efforts to teach Earth Science

The number of African American males who are incarcerated is extremely high and alarming. African American males have the lowest attainment of associate degrees when compared to other ethnicities and to females. This places a monumental task on institutions of higher education, particularly community colleges, to enroll, retain, and graduate African American males. The purpose of this study was to examine the performance of an African American male initiative program at a small, rural community college in Mississippi. This study utilized a quantitative, cross-sectional research design to look at variables of Grade Point Average (GPA) and number of credits earned between African American male participants of the program and those who did not participate in the program over a period of six semesters. Results from this study showed a significant difference in number of credits earned between the students who participated in the program and those who did not, with non-participants earning an average of one to two credits more than participants. The study also showed that students who did not participate in the program had a slightly higher GPA than the students who did participate in the program for three out of the six semesters. This study enhances the ability for community college and university administrators to implement policies and best practices to engage African American male students.

BACKGROUND: Several groups have instituted helmet initiatives with varying success across the world. Helmet use has been well documented to prevent traumatic brain injury. Despite the known benefits, many people, including university students, refuse to utilize helmets when riding bikes, mopeds, or motorcycles. We recognized a need within our community regarding the lack of helmet use at University of Florida and developed a program to institute change. METHODOLOGY: We identified community champions and hosted weekly round table discussion initiatives. Through these round table discussions we identified events already going on within the community and developed new opportunities to promote helmet use. We had stories from survivors and parents, utilized school administration support, and partnered with local bike shops. RESULTS: The pilot initiative was successful in increasing awareness across the city and got stakeholders excited in the process. It also spearheaded more data driven initiatives that will look at reduction of traumatic brain injuries in the clinical setting. CONCLUSION: This project highlights the University of Florida Helmet Initiative that has already generated renewed interest in safety and traumatic brain injury prevention. The school of nursing has implemented safety protocols and further support is being garnered by the administration across campus. Most importantly we have identified community champions that will carry the work forward.

Survivability and reliability have become important factors in the design of a mission effective Strategic Defense System (SDS) that protects the United States against a ballistic missile attack by the Soviet Union. The SDS must be reliable and responsive in providing this defense. It must also be survivable to counter the Soviet tactics of negating the defense. To ensure an effective, responsive and affordable system, survivability and reliability features must be incorporated in the earliest phases of conceptual design and must be maintained throughout the SDS life cycle. The Engagement Timeline Analysis (ETA) model provides a tool for exploring survivability, reliability and other design trade-offs in the conceptual and preliminary design phases of the system engineering process. This paper presents a unique methodology for the derivation of system survivability and reliability requirements in an SDS design. Evaluations are at the engineering estimate level and are structured to allow sensitivity analyses of pertinent constellation design parameters and operational characteristics. / Master of Science

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Yes / This report on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is one of 13 case studies (all of the case studies can be found at www.bradford.ac.uk/cics). This report is the result of an 11-day visit to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in September 2004. Wider research and information were used to complement the stakeholder interviews held during this period. The authors would like to thank Julia Buxton and William Godnick for comments on an earlier draft. The analysis and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policy of DFID or the UK government.

Practitioners in creative domains such as web design, data visualization, and software development face many challenges while trying to create novel solutions that satisfy the guidelines around practical constraints and quality considerations. My dissertation work addresses two of these challenges. First, guidelines may conflict with each other, creating a need for slow and time-consuming expert intervention. Second, guidelines may be hard to check programmatically, requiring experts to manually use multipage style guides that suffer from drawbacks related to searchability, navigation, conflict, and obsolescence. In my dissertation, I focus on exploring mixed-initiative methods as a solution to these challenges in two complex tasks: biological network visualization where guidelines may conflict, and web design where task requirements are hard to check programmatically. For biological network visualization, I explore the use of crowdsourcing to scale up time-consuming manual layout tasks. To support the network-based collaboration required for crowdsourcing, I first implemented a system called GraphSpace. It fosters online collaboration by allowing users to store, organize, explore, lay out, and share networks on a web platform. I then used GraphSpace as the infrastructure to support a novel mixed-initiative crowd-algorithm approach for creating high-quality, biological meaningful network visualizations. I also designed and implemented Flud, a system that gamifies the graph visualization task and uses flow theory concepts to make algorithmically generated suggestions more readily accessible to non-expert crowds. Then, I proposed DeepLayout, a novel learning-based approach as an alternative to the non-machine learning-based method used in Flud. It has the ability to learn how to balance complex conflicting guidelines from a layout process. Finally, in the domain of web design, I present a real-world iterative deployment of a system called Critter. Critter augments traditional quality assurance techniques used in structured domains, such as checklists and expert feedback, using mixed-initiative interactions. I hope this dissertation can serve to accelerate research on leveraging the complementary strengths of humans and computers in the context of creative processes that are generally considered out of bounds for automated methods. / Doctor of Philosophy / Practitioners in creative domains such as web design, data visualization, and software development face many challenges while trying to create novel solutions that satisfy the guidelines around practical constraints and quality considerations. My dissertation work addresses two of these challenges. First, sometimes the guidelines may conflict with each other under a certain scenario. In this situation, tasks require expert opinion to prioritize one guideline over the other. This dependence on expertise makes the design process slow and time-consuming. Second, sometimes it is difficult to determine which guidelines have been fulfilled. In this scenario, experts have to manually go through a list of guidelines and make sure applicable guidelines have been successfully applied to the final product. However, using a list of guidelines has its own drawbacks. Not all guidelines are applicable to a project, and finding a relevant guideline can be strenuous for experts. Moreover, a design process is not as simple as following a list of guidelines. Design processes are dynamic, non-linear, and iterative. Due to these reasons, a simple list of guidelines does not align with the designers' workflow. My dissertation focuses on exploring mixed-initiative methods where computers and humans collaborate in a tight feedback loop to help follow guidelines. To this end, I present solutions for two complex creative tasks: biological network visualization where we can compute how well a design adheres to the guidelines but guidelines may conflict and web design where task requirements are hard to check programmatically. I hope this dissertation can serve to accelerate research on leveraging the complementary strengths of humans and computers in the context of creative processes that are generally considered out of bounds for automated methods.