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In university-level education, the computer network is a mandatory course for computer science and engineering majors. A computer network course provides theoretical and hands-on foundations for network connectivity, network topologies, internet protocols, networking devices, and gateways. In the traditional classroom, students face challenges in gaining essential knowledge and self-efficacy. Teachers face challenges in assessing students' quality of knowledge due to the abundance of online computer science teaching resources. Chatbot technologies have the potential to overcome these challenges and enhance essential knowledge and self-efficacy. However, the argument remains whether a course-specific standard chatbot or a generalizable chatbot could produce high-quality answers. Therefore, in this paper, we research 1) to what extent does using chatbots improve higher education students' essential knowledge of computers network? and 2) to what extent does using chatbots improve the self-efficacy of higher education students? Our first insight indicates that groundbreaking generalizable chatbots such as You and ChatGPT produce rather detailed answers to the questions associated with computer network courses, but those answers may not be the model answers that teachers expect from the students. Hence, research-based course-specific standard chatbots are required to teach computer network topics effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents information on the content and resources of the internationally certified Master’s program “High-Performance and Distributed Information Processing Systems” in the field of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. The paper studies scientific achievements of the academic staff, peculiarities of courses currently held, characteristics of available facilities and resources, prospects for the Master’s worldwide research activities at a high scientific level, and opportunities to pursue postgraduate studies and to defend a PhD thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been well documented for more than 30 years, that significantly more effort is needed to prepare the HPC workforce needed today and well into the future. The Blue Waters Virtual School of Computational Science (VSCSE) provides an innovative model for addressing this critical need. The VSCSE uses a Small Private Online Course (SPOC) approach to providing graduate level credit courses to students at multiple institutions. In this paper, we describe the rationale for this approach, a description of the implementation, findings from external evaluations, and lessons learned. The paper concludes with recommendations for future strategies to build on this work to address the workforce needs of our global society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active learning and formative assessment techniques are the cutting edge of the modern education. This paper considers peer assessment automation and touches the topic of high actuality in advancing ICT for active learning. The roots of the study are obtained difficulties in adoption of the currently available peer assessment systems to engineering education introductory courses. The main goal of the paper is to collect software requirements and to build a peer assessment system, which may be easily agreed with standard educational routines (e.g. e-mailing) and which is be able to support complex artifacts interchange during a peer assessment session. The software requirements specification (SRS) for such a system has been created as a result of reviewing educational studies, technical reports and academic publications on common peer assessment processes and existing peer assessment systems. We also introduce the open source Mail-based Randomized Double-Blinded Peer-assessment System for Complex Artifacts called PASCA, which is developed according to this SRS and the results of PASCA adoption to an introductory programming course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algorithm Visualisation (AV) tool is commonly used to learn data structures. However, since that tool does not address technical details, some students may not know how to implement the data structures. This paper integrates the AV tool with Program Visualisation (PV) tool to help the students understanding the data structures' implementation. The integration (which is implemented as a tool named DS-PITON) works similarly as a PV tool except that the data structures are visualised with the AV tool. Through quasi experiments, it can be stated that DS-PITON helps students to get better assessment score and to complete their assessment faster (even though the impact on completion time can work in reverse on slow-paced students). Further, according to a questionnaire survey, the students believe that DS-PITON helps them learning data structure materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with other courses, especially non-engineering ones, software development courses teaching (SDCT) has many unique characteristics, such as higher requirement to students' logical reasoning, the need for students to have comprehensive problem-solving capabilities, good communication and teamwork skills, etc. The practices of Agile Methodology can be compatible with these characteristics. Therefore, it is a matter of course to integrate Agile Methodology with SDCT. This paper analyses the problems and difficulties in the practices of applying agile teaching in SDCT. In addition, it uses an agile teaching project graph instead of linear teaching schedule to control teaching progress. Moreover, a deep generative model is used to obtain the abstract representation of students' implicit skill status so that the construction and implementation of agile teaching project graph can be carried out. Finally, a deep-learning-based agile teaching framework for SDCT is proposed, which has the potential to positively transform SDCT's future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software testing is the most used technique for quality assurance in industry. However, in computer science education software testing is still treated as a second-class citizen and students are unable to test their software well enough. One reason for this is that teaching the subject of software testing is difficult as it is a complex intellectual activity for which students need to allocate multiple cognitive resources at the same time. A myriad of primary and secondary studies have tried to solve this problem in education, however still with very limited results. Before we can design interventions to improve our pedagogical approaches, we need to gain more in-depth understanding and recognition of sensemaking as it is happening when students design test cases. An initial exploratory study identified four different sensemaking approaches used by students while creating test models. In this paper we present a follow-up study with 50 students from a large university in Spain. The used methodology was based on the previous study with the improvements that originated from its evaluation. We asked the participants to create a test model based on a description of a test problem using a specialized web-based tool for modeling test cases. We measured how well these models fit the test problem, the sensemaking process that students went through when creating the models, and the students' perception of the modeling task. The participants received no compensation for their efforts, and we scheduled the experiment during a regular class. Apart from the created models and their metadata, we also collected recordings of the students' computer screens made during the experiment and used a questionnaire to study their perspectives on the assignment. All the collected textual, graphical, and video data was analyzed using an iterative inductive analysis process to allow new information about the different sensemaking approaches to emerge. We gained better insights into the sensemaking processes of students while modeling test cases for a problem. The results enabled us to refine our previous findings, and we identified new sensemaking approaches. Based on these results, we can further investigate ways to influence the sensemaking process in education, the possible misconceptions that have a negative influence on it, and the desired mental model we want our students to have to design test cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Computer programming learning requires the acquisition of skills to design algorithms. The level of achievement of these skills depends on the student's effort involved to develop a program, as well as the final quality of the product. The level of skills that students achieve in programming courses is diverse, being able to observe significant differences in the degree of effectiveness of the solutions, as well as in the students' learning development time. This paper describes a pilot experience aimed at measuring the incidence of focused practical activities assigned by the teacher through a CMS, as well as the self-regulation carried out by them. These aspects were measured and based on indicators derived from the activities carried out by the students in the CMS. The results are not statistically conclusive regarding the qualifications; however, the experience shows that it significantly improves the information available to the teacher and the student: (1) It provides the teacher with information regarding the ability of each student to solve different types of problems, at different moments during the course directly. (2) It allows the teacher to recommend activities or exercises tending to improve students' learning results, and (3) It provides the student with immediate feedback of the solution developed, to correct it when appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This volume presents the selected papers of young computational scientists – participants of YSC-2017. Annual Young Scientist Conferences (YSC) in high performance computing, modeling and simulation are traditionally held since 2012 by the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and ITMO University (St. Petersburg, Russia) as the open international events which aim to develop a dialogue about the present and future of computational science with a focus on applications of modeling and simulation solving a wide range of problems of science, industry, and business. The conference has already been organized for six times, which gives us an opportunity for retrospective analysis of conference’ results and trends in high performance computing (HPC). The results are presented in this editorial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars use models and modeling e.g. to examine, explain or demonstrate ideas or phenomena. Modeling combines discipline specific traditions and general methods of modeling together. The interdisciplinary nature of modeling and simulation can sometimes cause challenges to a scientist. This paper identifies eight typical pitfalls a researcher may encounter in a modeling study. The study explains the pitfalls and connects them to the different phases of the modeling cycle. The purpose of the article is to provide some guidance for scientists how to avoid the general traps of modeling and simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communications technology systems are increasingly important to the modern society. Understanding the complex systems, which powers our everyday lives, is an important competence for future experts, since everything is getting connected from the simple household devices to the complex industrial systems. In this paper, a high-level concept for a complex learning environment is presented, which aims to simulate the Internet and offer a realistic environment where ICT (Information and Communications Technology) systems can be further studied. A model of Internet was used as a centre point to interconnect virtualized cases together and a simple, scalable virtualization platform was developed to meet the demands. This study was conducted to assess the performance and scalability of the solution, and test the system user experience and usability issues when under heavy workload. The results indicate that the system is capable of simulating several thousand different devices, and serve as a basis for further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supercomputing Centres worldwide, such as BSC, face the challenge of supporting a growing base of HPC users with little or no HPC experience and with mainly scientific background. In addition, HPC training centres feel the need to respond to the clearly observed convergence of Data Science and Computational Science research methods into Data and Compute Intensive Science methods. The goals of the training evaluation are to capture the impact of the training program and to afford an insight in the personal progress of the attendees, as well as to provide understanding how to support the attendees in implementing the learned methodologies/tools in their work. The paper presents the work by BSC Education and Training team to design a suitable exit evaluation and follow-on evaluation to tackle the issues of on-the-job implementation of training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays to explore and examine data from a variety of angles to tackle Big Data problems, to devise data-driven solutions to the most pressing challenges, it is necessary to build multidisciplinary students’ skills set for innovative methods not only for master’s in Data Science programs but in traditional Computer Science programs also. In the paper, we describe how teaching methods and tools, which are used to train students to develop Ontology-Based Data Access systems with natural language interface to relational databases helps Master’s Degree students in Computer Science to collaborate with Data Scientists in real-world interdisciplinary projects and to prepare them for a data science career. We use ontology engineering in a combination with Natural Language Processing methods based on lexico-syntactic patterns, in particular, to extract needful data from structured, semi-structured and unstructured datasets in a uniform way to analyze real-world Russian social networks related to new building area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While already established in other disciplines, integrated degree programs have become more popular in computer science and mathematical education in Germany as well over the last few years. These programs combine a theoretical education and a vocational training. The bachelor degree course “Scientific Programming”, offered at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, is such an integrated degree program. It consists of 50% mathematics and 50% computer science. It incorporates the MATSE (MAthematical and Technical Software dEveloper) vocational training in cooperation with research facilities and IT companies located in and nearby Aachen, Jülich and Cologne. This paper presents the general concept behind integrated degree programs in Germany and the Scientific Programming educational program in particular. A key distinguishing feature of this concept is the continuous combination of theoretical education at university level with practical work experience at a company. In this fashion, students end up being very well positioned for the labor market, and companies educate knowledgeable staff familiar with their products and processes. Additionally students are able to earn two degrees in three years, which is a rare approach for computer science programs in Germany. Therefore, Scientific Programming offers an important contribution towards reducing the shortage in advanced software development and engineering on the German labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-line teacher communities constitute a very popular and dynamic field while they foster a new philosophy for professional development which is characterised as associative, constructivist, reflective, situated, collaborative, and connectivist. This paper reports on the design and the implementation of a learning community consisting of computer science teachers teaching in primary and secondary public schools (K–9), in Greece. The conceptual and the operational dimensions of the on-line community design framework are presented in detail. The architecture of an integrated platform, developed to support the teacher community, as well as the tools and the features it incorporates are also outlined. Finally, we present the findings of a pilot study concerning teachers' presence within the community as well as their views and perceptions of community learning. The results provided supportive evidence of the effectiveness of the design framework and revealed important information with regard to critical indicators of teachers' learning presence within the community, i.e. members' participation, engagement, interaction and cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a process of adaptation of the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR devices for needs of immersive training application. The process was described on the example of virtual 3D human body atlas, created using EON Studio software. The aim of this application is to facilitate and make it more attractive to learn anatomy for students of medical disciplines. Possibilities of the application are, among others: selection of visibility level of certain organs or groups of organs, creation of complex sections in 3 planes and launching animations of selected organs. Application of each selected device required additional programming work. The work included both adaptation of Graphical User Interface for different display resolutions, as well as preparation of communication between integrated orientation tracking systems and the application, because none of the selected low-cost HMDs has a position tracking system, to allow navigation in the virtual space, two low-cost solutions were proposed, as well as traditional approach in form of a professional tracking system. First of the proposed low-cost solutions is application of a dedicated, customized controller built in the PUT VR Laboratory using commercial electronics and 3D printing technologies. The second solution is controlling the navigation via specific gestures recognized by the Kinect low-cost tracking device. After application was developed, a group of students tested all possibilities of interaction with the virtual environment using a professional HMD and both low-cost display and tracking solutions. During the evaluation performed by the test group, features like field of view, weight of devices and general impressions and feeling after prolonged use were taken into consideration. Intuitiveness of the proposed navigation solutions was evaluated separately. The evaluation performed by the test group can be used during work on subsequent versions of the medical educational application and design of new peripheral devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Industry 4.0 vision anticipates that internet technologies will find their way into future factories replacing traditional components by dynamic and intelligent cyber-physical systems (CPS) that combine the physical objects with their digital representation. Reducing the gap between the real and digital world makes the factory environment more flexible, more adaptive, but also demand broader skill of human workers. Interdisciplinary competencies from engineering, information technology, and computer science are required in order to understand and manage the diverse interrelations between physical objects and their digital counterpart. This paper proposes a system architecture for a mixed-reality based learning environment, which combines physical objects and visualization of its digital content via Augmented Reality. It allows to make the dynamic interrelations between real and digital factory visible and tangible. The proposed learning environment is not meant to work as a stand-alone solution, but should enrich existing academic and advanced training curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the idea of quantum computation is becoming more and more popular and there are many attempts to build quantum computers. Therefore, there is a need to introduce this topic to regular students of computer science and engineering. In this paper we present a concept of a course powered by the Quantum Integrated Development Environment (QuIDE), the new quantum computer simulator that joins features of GUI based simulators with inter- preters and simulation library approach. The idea of the course is to put together theoretical aspects with practical assignments realized on the QuIDE simulator. Such an approach enables studying a variety of topics in a way understandable for this category of students. The topics of the course included understanding the concept of quantum gates, registers and a series of algorithms: Deutsch and Bernstein-Vazirani Problems, Grover's Fast Database Search, Shor's Prime Factorization, Quantum Teleportation and Quantum Dense Coding. We describe results of QuIDE assessment during the course; our solution scored more points in System Usability Scale survey then the other tool previously used for that purpose. We also show that the most useful features of such a tool indicated by students are similar to the assumptions made on the simulator functionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About the speaker Ruli Manurung is a full-time faculty member at the Faculty of Computer Science, Universitas Indonesia, where he currently serves as the Coordinator for the various computer science study programs. His research interests vary between natural language processing, computational creativity, artificial intelligence, evolutionary computation, and machine learning. He has co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters, and conference papers, winning Best Paper awards at several international conferences. He has also held 11 research grants, both international and national in scope. He obtained his Ph.D from the University of Edinburgh in 2004 for his work on the automatic generation of poetry. From 2003 to 2006 he was a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh on an EPSRC research project that concerned the development of an innovative system that provided language-impaired children with the ability to tell novel jokes. He will gives talk about experience working on poetry generation, an exciting and challenging instance of computational linguistic creativity. Poetry generation is an extremely difficult problem that requires intelligence, world and linguistic knowledge, and creativity. Many different AI methods have been applied to this problem, ranging from evolutionary algorithms, constraint logic programming, case-based reasoning, and natural language generation. He will first introduce a model of poetry generation as a state space search problem, where a goal state is a text that satisfies the three properties of meaningfulness, grammaticality, and poeticness. Such a model requires a rich representation of various linguistic aspects, such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics, and an architecture that allows a system to simultaneously reason with all of these aspects and how they interact with each other. Several research works will be presented that have focused on different aspects, namely metre, rhyme, semantics, and topicality. Sample output will be presented, as well as the results of some Turing Test-style evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]