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Visual programming tools are widely applied in the game industry to assist game designers in developing game artificial intelligence (game AI) and gameplay. However, testing multiple game engines is a time-consuming operation, which degrades development efficiency. To provide an asynchronous platform for game designers, this paper introduces Asyncflow, an open-source visual programming solution. It consists of a flowchart maker for game logic explanation and a runtime framework integrating an asynchronous mechanism based on an event-driven architecture. Asyncflow supports multiple programming languages and can be easily embedded in various game engines to run flowcharts created by game designers.

The paper is devoted to the development of methodological foundations for the application of virtual reality technologies (VR-technologies) at various stages of car design and their promotion on the market, in particular, when performing design, prototyping, development of educational and advertising products. The paper analyzes the main areas of application of virtual reality technologies in industrial design in mechanical engineering. An overview of the parameters of the specialized software Unreal Engine 4 and the HTC Vive hardware set used to create and demonstrate virtual projects is performed. System requirements for computer software and hardware for creating virtual projects have been formed. A generalization of our own experience of using virtual reality technologies in the design of an electric vehicle with a frame-panel structure is carried out. The technique of using virtual reality tools in order to create virtual projects for demonstration of design solutions and functionality of mechanical engineering products is described. The issues of choosing software and hardware, their characteristics are considered, as well as a description of the stages of creating a virtual project is given. The process of developing a virtual project is divided into the stages of preparing and transforming a three-dimensional computer model of the demonstrated product into its virtual digital prototype, creating a virtual environment for it, assigning materials and textures with the necessary properties to the environment and the object, setting lighting, navigation parameters and animated actions, optimizing the display of shadows and finalizing the project. The main results of approbation of the developed methodology are presented on the example of creating virtual projects for demonstrating an electric vehicle: in an urban virtual environment and in a virtual pavilion.

In the scientific field, data acquisition using commercial or self-developed sensors is a necessity for many research activities. Data security and data privacy are important requirements in all types of IoT applications, especially in the medical context. IoTree42 is a powerful, OpenSource platform that closes the gap between cost-efficiency, the ease of use and digital sovereignty. The flexible and user-friendly design makes the platform ideal for the originally conceived research context. Nevertheless, it can be used for smaller budget-oriented setups and industrial applications with thousands of sensors and actuators likewise. The platform was developed with security in mind by minimizing interfaces and the use of stable software components and transport protocols. IoTree42 utilizes lightweight OpenSource software cast into a flexible backend, allowing the deployment not only on full-fledged servers but also on single board computers like the Raspberry Pi. Data is transmitted with low overhead via MQTT, a robust protocol optimized for machine to machine communication. The transmission technology between all components is freely selectable. Besides data acquisition, IoTree42 enables control of actuators and automation through interfaces with visual programming tools. This allows for remote interventions without requiring prior programming experience. The incoming data can conveniently be visualized in dashboards or easily be exported for further analysis. The network consists of a central server and satellites (gateways) arranged in a star topology. Sensors and actuators connect to the gateway. The initial setup of the server and the gateways is automated, well documented, and can be done within minutes. Thanks to the increasing usage and the contribution of the community, the pool of code examples for sensors is growing and lowers the entry hurdle for users without programming background. IoTree42 is a fast-growing, multi-user, hardware and cloud agnostic, easy to deploy, privacy compliant and competitive solution compared to commercial IoT alternatives.

This study is dedicated to technology based on visual programming as a modern tool to support the design of building structures. It provides a brief background describing the computerization of design and discusses design-aided systems and the concept and tools of visual programming. The principles of the Visual Programming Language (VPL) are presented in detail. The programming and design environments used in the architecture and construction industry are presented. Dynamo, one of the VPL-based programs applicable to structural design, was used in the study. In order to best demonstrate and explore the capabilities of this environment, examples of the practical application of visual programming in structural design are presented. Both simple and more complex structures have been designed and discussed in detail. The integration of Dynamo with computational systems is also presented. A broad discussion was held on the possibilities of using visual programming in structural design, the problems and challenges, and the directions of its development in the architecture and construction industry.

In recent years, safety issues involving foundation pits have attracted extensive attention in the industry. The external angle of the foundation pit bears a greater load and is more prone to collapsing. Anchor support technology is one of the most widely used support technologies in construction engineering, but it has the problem of anchor rod crossing and colliding from the initial design stage, and this reduces anchoring force and eventually leads to many safety issues. Compared with traditional methods, Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology can save a lot of time as well as reduce costs, and applying it to concealed engineering can solve the problems that exist during the design stage and reduce unpredictable construction risks. This study proposes an optimization method based on BIM that can accurately and quickly optimize the drilling of anchor rods in the external angles of foundation pits. The results show that the proposed method can reduce the number of anchor rod collision points at the external angle of the foundation pit, minimize the loss of horizontal force caused by anchor rod collision, and ensure the safety and stability of the foundation pit support system.

In the fourth industrial revolution, programming promises to be a fundamental subject like mathematics, science, languages ​​or the arts. Architects design more than buildings developing innovative methods and they are among the pioneers in visual programming development. However, after more than 10 years of visual programming in architecture, despite the fast-learning curve, visual programming presents considerable limitations to solve complex problems. To overcome limitations, the authors propose to associate the advantages of visual and textual languages in Python. The article addresses an ongoing research study to implement Computational Methods in Architectural Education. The authors began by describing the general goal of this project, and of this article in particular. This article focuses on the implementation of two disciplines 'Computation for Architecture in Python' I and II. The first discipline uses programming based on the construction of functions in the imperative language, implemented in the text editor, in visual programming, using Grasshopper methods. The second discipline, which is under development, intends to teach object-oriented programming. The results of the first discipline are encouraging; despite reported difficulties in programming fundamentals, such as lists, loops and recursion. The development of the second discipline, in object-oriented programming, deals with the concepts of classes and objects, and more abstract principles such abstraction, inheritance, polymorphism or encapsulation. This paradigm allows building robust programs, but requires a more in-depth syntax. The article reports this ongoing research on this new paradigm of object-oriented language, expanding the application of a hybrid visual-textual language in Architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the world of structural design, in most cases, there is a need to control the shape of structural elements and—at the same time—the performance that each one can achieve. With the evolution of structural analysis tools, nowadays it is possible not only to have an immediate investigation of the structure's performance, but also to search for the best shape by imposing geometric constraints. The aim of this paper is to present an innovative methodology called the performative structural design optimization (PSDO) method, based on the use of algorithm-aided design (AAD). The proposed approach deals with an emptied voided beam; starting from the parameterization of a large-span beam, the search method for the most performing shape is accomplished by multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs). The obtained results are characterized by a double optimization: the structure achieved by the hypervolume estimation algorithm for multi-objective optimization (HypE Reduction) (OCTOPUS) represents the starting shape for the application of form-finding, giving so the possibility to obtain different feasible solutions from a single study and to choose the best one in terms of structural behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, it is increasingly important to develop economical construction processes and determine predictable costs. The current level of technology offers countless, even undeveloped opportunities to support architectural, engineering, and construction processes. Building information models created as results of design processes and databases associated with them can provide an appropriate base to fulfill the requirements. However, this information is mainly available only for the largest projects; the possibilities offered by traditional editable vector files (e.g., *.DWG) should also be examined. This study analyzes the efficiency increasing possibilities that can be achieved using low-detail 3D models generated by algorithms and applying 2D-based digital quantity estimation workflows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building information modeling is a complex and structure-based methodology. It applies predefined steps and frameworks; however, an audit procedure can be complicated and time-consuming. The steps of the evaluations are based on logical connections that also form algorithms in a manual workflow. Algorithms can be interpreted by computers with the help of software languages. A higher level of automation, more efficient workflows, and more economical and accurate results can be developed by using algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scratch, a kind of visual programming software, has been widely used in instruction for primary school children. Scratch constructs a digital world for children to design, develop, and create coursework in which their creative thinking is fostered. Different instructional methods have been designed and implemented to stimulate children's creative thinking skills through their coursework. This study investigated whether scaffolding construction with mind mapping promoted children's creative thinking in a Scratch course. Two groups of 84 fifth-grade pupils participated in the study. The experimental group of 44 students adopted the scaffolding construction with mind mapping in the Scratch course, while the control group of 40 students did not use the mind mapping method. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking-Figural (TTCT-F) and Torrance Creative Personality Self-Report Scale were used three times over the 16-week learning period. The results show that learning in the Scratch course promoted the children's creative thinking. The difference between the two groups indicates that mind mapping was beneficial to improve the children's creative thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational thinking – the ability to reformulate and solve problems in ways that can be undertaken by computers – has been heralded as a foundational capability for the 21st Century. However, there are potentially different ways to conceptualise and measure computational thinking, for instance, as generalized problem solving capabilities or as applied practice during computer programming tasks, and there is little evidence to substantiate whether higher computational thinking capabilities using either of these measures result in better quality computer programs. This study examines the relationship between different forms of computational thinking and two different measures of programming quality for a group of 37 pairs of pre-service teachers. General computational thinking capabilities were measured using Bebras tests, while applied computational thinking processes were measured using a Computational Thinking Behavioural Scheme. The quality of computer programs was measured using a qualitative rubric, and programs were also assessed using the Dr Scratch auto-grading platform. The Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (3rd edition, TONI-3) was used to test for confounding effects. While significant correlations between both measures of computational thinking and program quality were detected, regression analysis revealed that only applied computational thinking processes significantly predicted program quality (general computational thinking capability and non-verbal intelligence were not significant predictors). The results highlight the importance of students developing applied computational thinking procedural capabilities more than generalized computational thinking capabilities in order to improve the quality of their computer programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an innovative educational approach to organizing the out-of-school teaching of programming in middle childhood. The proposed DGBL model includes three distinct educational phases, i.e. learning visual programming, programming and robotics, and programming and electronics. The research was carried out during the school years of 2017–2019. The study sample consists of 329 primary school students from K4 to K10 from the Lodzkie Voivodeship in Poland. The results were obtained from anonymous questionnaires completed by course participants. The answers confirm that the proposed approach helps children to learn the main concepts of computational thinking and programming. The described approach reinforces the essential idea in children that programming, engineering, mathematics and technology are intertwined in the modern world. Moreover, the approach combines and balances practical, methodological and pedagogical issues and is suitably integrated with out-of-school programming education to facilitate the teaching and learning process.

The third article in a series of five papers devoted to hydrogen energy digitalization. The article discusses the process of interaction of various digital technologies for building a system of analysis, control and management of elements of a hydrogen liquefier. An example of the division of responsibility between programmable controllers by cryogenic system modules to provide convenient and quick access to data received from measuring instruments at the analog inputs of controllers is given. The article considers software methods for achieving the set goals for the digitalization of the analysis of cryogenic systems at the level of server technologies using visual programming methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Software‐Defined Networking (SDN) emerged, the research community and industry have developed numerous projects and fostered novel use cases. However, engineers now need to learn how to program the control and data planes, which might slow down technology acceptance. To accelerate it, visual programming abstractions facilitate the incorporation of SDN technologies and assist in creating new applications. So far, very little effort has been made in this field. This letter presents an early‐stage SDN visual abstraction initiative based on the Scratch/Blockly programming framework, initially aimed at kids. The objective is to illustrate how this work could be extended to provide value‐added resources for network programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently many researches have explored the potential of visual programming in robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and education. However, there is a lack of studies that analyze the recent evidence-based visual programming approaches that are applied in several domains. This study presents a systematic review to understand, compare, and reflect on recent visual programming approaches using twelve dimensions: visual programming classification, interaction style, target users, domain, platform, empirical evaluation type, test participants' type, number of test participants, test participants' programming skills, evaluation methods, evaluation measures, and accessibility of visual programming tools. The results show that most of the selected articles discussed tools that target IoT and education, while other fields such as data science, robotics are emerging. Further, most tools use abstractions to hide implementation details and use similar interaction styles. The predominant platforms for the tools are web and mobile, while desktop-based tools are on the decline. Only a few tools were evaluated with a formal experiment, whilst the remaining ones were evaluated with evaluation studies or informal feedback. Most tools were evaluated with students with little to no programming skills. There is a lack of emphasis on usability principles in the design stage of the tools. Additionally, only one of the tools was evaluated for expressiveness. Other areas for exploration include supporting end users throughout the life cycle of applications created with the tools, studying the impact of tutorials on improving learnability, and exploring the potential of machine learning to improve debugging solutions developed with visual programming.

Objective: Musculoskeletal modeling and simulation are powerful research and education tools in engineering, neuroscience, and rehabilitation. Interactive musculoskeletal models (IMMs) can be controlled by muscle activity recorded with electromyography (EMG). IMMs are typically coded using textual programming languages that present barriers to understanding for non-experts. The goal of this project was to use a visual programming language (Simulink) to create and test an IMM that is accessible to non-specialists for research and educational purposes. Results: The developed IMM allows users to practice a goal-directed task with different control modes (keyboard, mouse, and EMG) and actuator types (muscle model, force generator, and torque generator). Example data were collected using both keyboard and EMG control. One male participant in his early 40's performed a goal-directed task for four sequential trials using each control mode. For EMG control, the participant used a low-cost EMG system with consumer-grade EMG sensors and an Arduino microprocessor. The participant successfully performed the task with both control modes, but the inability to grade muscle model excitation and co-activate antagonist muscles limited performance with keyboard control. The IMM developed for this project serves as a foundation that can be further tailored to specific research and education needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of visual programming in early formal education has been found to promote computational thinking of students. Teachers' intuitive perspectives about optimal learning processes – "folk psychology" – impact their perspectives about teaching "folk pedagogy" and play a significant role in integrating educational technologies, such as visual programming, within the formal curriculum. This study was conducted based on the mixed method research paradigm. First, a folk pedagogy questionnaire was distributed to 89 teachers who integrate differing technologies in their classroom in order to identify the teachers' pedagogical perspectives: constructivist versus instructivist. Then, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 teachers who teach Scratch in order to gain a deeper understanding of their instructivist/constructivist perspectives and actual pedagogical practices and strategies. Finally, we analyzed 96 students' programming artifacts to explore differences, if any, in students' outcomes related to the pedagogical perspectives of their teachers. Findings revealed that pedagogical perspectives are reflected in teaching strategies and assessment practices employed in a visual programming environment. It is promising that teaching visual programming promoted constructivist pedagogy even among instructivist teachers and was consequently reflected in student perspectives and expressed in their programming artifacts. We discuss theoretical and educational implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the building sector pushed for its use in the geotechnical sector with evident benefits in projects around the world. Standardization, interoperability, and improved data management are some of the benefits of BIM if used on geotechnical data. This work focuses on transforming traditional workflows of handling geotechnical data into a BIM-based workflow that makes geotechnical data available in BIM contexts. For that, a definition of Product Data Template (PDT) for boreholes is proposed. A script is developed using visual programming tools to import data based on PDTs to the BIM platform and translate it into borehole objects. An additional script is used to represent the subsurface layers in 3D. Finally, the interoperability aspects of the information are discussed to ensure proper processes of IFC export/import in this context. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed workflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As beginners, many first-year students have difficulty understanding object-oriented programming material. To help students learn algorithmic and object-oriented programming material researchers have developed visual programming (PV). Visual programming is a tool to facilitate learning programming. The concept of learning to use PV visualizes the work processes of algorithms and programming. This research aims to compare three dynamic PV tools for object-oriented learning programming that are the most studied. To determine the PV to be compared, a survey was conducted in an online journal database, such as IEEE explore, ACM, and several well-known online publishers. From the survey results, three dynamic PVs were chosen, most widely discussed, namely Jeliot 3, Ville and Jive. All three tools are installed and studied. Comparison results show that each dynamic PV has advantages on certain characteristics. The instructor can choose visual programming by considering the advantages of each PV.

This study aims to examine the effects of Visual Programming course conducting in accordance with design-based research on students' learning experiences. The study was conducted in the fall semester in 2017-2018 at Software Engineering Department in Technology Faculty of a university in the north of Turkey. The sample of the study consists of 12 students taking the course. In this study based on a two-stage research method, the course was taught in accordance with design-based research for 14 weeks. Then the implications of teaching the course in that way for students’ visual programming learning experiences are analyzed with the specific case study. At the end of the study, the participants of the study were interviewed through a semi-structured interview form. The qualitative data obtained from the participants are subjected to content analysis. It is seen that students’ views can be grouped under five main themes. The results of the study show that the course process which is maintained in accordance with the design-based research method has important contributions for students learning experiences. It is concluded that the views of the students are generally positive but it can be said that there are also negative views about the process even if in limited numbers.

The relevance of the research. In the time of global digitalization, when such projects as Digital Earth become relevant, computer visualization is a key element of computer modelling both in academic research and in technology, especially in the fields of natural and mineral resources management, and geo-resources exploration. Computer visualization is also necessary for presenting the «big data», for instance, data accumulated in geological research of large spaces. Computer visualization as an independent branch of science has been developing for over thirty years now. Now, Virtual Reality is actively used in computer visualization. Virtual Reality can be used in the presentation of Earth Resources Data. It is possible to create three-dimension displays of graphic objects representing the elements of the landscape. One of its subbranches is software visualization. Software visualization is essential in presenting complex software systems related to design and development in different fields of technology, including energy efficient technologies. Objects. The paper is dedicated to research and development in the field of software visualization based on virtual reality. These researches can be applied in a number of areas related to Geoinformatics, as well as in the field of exploration of georesources. Methods: methods of computer visualization theory, in particular, the elements of visualization metaphor theory. The aim of the research and development is to find those approaches that will enable efficient use of virtual reality in solving complex problems that software specialists face. This software may be related to large volumes of geospatial data. Results. The paper provides a survey of the development of software visualization and description of projects in this field, developed over the past decades. It describes the projects of visual programming and software visualization systems, developed by the authors on the basis of virtual reality with the use of cosmic space metaphors and an expanded city metaphor. It reviews the psychological aspects of the human factor in the development of software visualization systems with the use of virtual reality, including the use of activity theory. The paper arises a problem of describing the activity of a software developer acting as a user of software visualization systems. Software development for real-life technical problems (for example, for geological engineering or geo-resources forecasting) requires specialization and personalization of visualization systems. The results of the conducted analysis allow us to conclude that we are now at the early stages of crucial research.

With the increasing ability to generate actionable insight from data, the field of data science has seen significant growth. As more teams develop data science solutions, the analytical code they develop will need to be enhanced in the future, by an existing or a new team member. Thus, the importance of being able to easily maintain and enhance the code required for an analysis will increase. However, to date, there has been minimal research on the maintainability of an analysis done by a data science team. To help address this gap, data science maintainability was explored by (1) creating a data science maintainability model, (2) creating a new tool, called MIDST (Modular Interactive Data Science Tool), that aims to improve data science maintainability, and then (3) conducting a mixed method experiment to evaluate MIDST. The new tool aims to improve the ability of a team member to update and rerun an existing data science analysis by providing a visual data flow view of the analysis within an integrated code and computational environment. Via an analysis of the quantitative and qualitative survey results, the experiment found that MIDST does help improve the maintainability of an analysis. Thus, this research demonstrates the importance of enhanced tools to help improve the maintainability of data science projects.

Building information modeling (BIM) can facilitate effective three-dimensional (3D) earthwork modeling by furnishing insightful information. An earthwork area is generally represented in a cell-based environment for planning purposes such as allocation plans or equipment plans. However, previous studies utilized conventional methods, which are tedious and time-consuming, to create cell-based representations. Therefore, a method that can be applied to automatically represent earthwork BIM models in a cell-based environment should be developed. To address that research gap, this paper proposes a novel method to develop voxel-based representations of earthwork models. The voxel-based method is parametric, and the size, number, and properties of the voxels can be easily varied. This method, validated for accuracy, rapidly creates a parametric voxel model linked with geotechnical information necessary for earthwork operations. A visual programming tool, Grasshopper, is used to develop an algorithm that can automatically divide the earthwork model into voxels. Finally, experiments are conducted to validate the proposed method using an actual earthwork BIM design. The paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by proposing a voxel-based earthwork representation and algorithm that automatically create a cell-based 3D environment that is flexible enough to integrate geotechnical parameters. The results indicate that the proposed method will help project engineers, planners, and managers create an optimal-size voxel-based earthwork model with customized geotechnical information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sediment is a universal issue that is generated in the river catchment and affects the river flow, reservoir capacity, hydropower generation and dam structure. This paper aims to present the result of experimentation in sediment load estimation using various machine learning algorithms as a powerful AI approach. The data was collected from eight locations in upstream area of Ringlet reservoir catchment. The input variables are discharge and suspended solid. It was found that there is strong correlation between sediment and suspended solid with correlation coefficient of R = 0.9. The developed ML model successfully estimated the sediment load with competitive results from ANN, Decision Tree, AdaBoost and SVM. The best result was produced by SVM (v-SVM version) where very low RMSE was generated for both training and testing dataset despite its more complicated hyperparameters setup. The results also show a promising application of machine learning for future prediction in hydro-informatic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. In the modern world, component development methods are becoming increasingly popular. They allow not only to quickly solve the assigned tasks, but also to meet the high requirements for the performance and reliability of the created software products. The use of the block approach in machine learning is a breakthrough method that makes the development of complex neural network architectures several times easier. The purpose of this work is to study the methods of component development and the technology of graph-symbolic programming for solving the problem of visual programming of neural networks. Materials and methods. The work develops methods and algorithms for configuring neural network models based on software systems that implement a graphical interface for creating neural networks using graph-symbolic programming based on the JavaScript programming language. Results. Comprehensive research has been carried out in the field of visual programming of neural networks using component development methods. A graphical interface has been developed for configuring neural network architectures. Conclusions. The presented approach to visual programming of neural networks simplifies the development process, avoids errors and creates more efficient and reliable systems.