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Publicações

2024

Editorial to the Second IFIP WG 2.7/13.4 Workshop on HCI Engineering Education

Autores
Spano, LD; Campos, JC; Dittmar, A;

Publicação
DESIGN FOR EQUALITY AND JUSTICE, INTERACT 2023, PT I

Abstract
The second workshop on HCI Engineering Education continued the effort of the IFIP Working Group 2.7/13.4 on User Interface Engineering by discussing the issues and identifying the opportunities in teaching and learning Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Engineering. The workshop attracted eight papers covering different teaching contexts, ranging from massive university courses, passing through different teaching experiences in specific academic curricula, and even teaching engineering concepts to children. In addition, the workshop received input for improving and adapting the repository material to the dynamic nature of this field. The discussion after the presentation of the contributions focused on how to model competencies, the support to interdisciplinary work, the overall course design, the recruitment of the students and the provision of educational resources, paving the way for further editions of the workshop.

2024

Leveraging Large Language Models to Support Authoring Gamified Programming Exercises

Autores
Montella, R; De Vita, CG; Mellone, G; Ciricillo, T; Caramiello, D; Di Luccio, D; Kosta, S; Damasevicius, R; Maskeliunas, R; Queirós, R; Swacha, J;

Publicação
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL

Abstract
Featured Application The presented solution can be applied to simplify and hasten the development of gamified programming exercises conforming to the Framework for Gamified Programming Education (FGPE) standard.Abstract Skilled programmers are in high demand, and a critical obstacle to satisfying this demand is the difficulty of acquiring programming skills. This issue can be addressed with automated assessment, which gives fast feedback to students trying to code, and gamification, which motivates them to intensify their learning efforts. Although some collections of gamified programming exercises are available, producing new ones is very demanding. This paper presents GAMAI, an AI-powered exercise gamifier, enriching the Framework for Gamified Programming Education (FGPE) ecosystem. Leveraging large language models, GAMAI enables teachers to effortlessly apply storytelling to describe a gamified scenario, as GAMAI decorates natural language text with the sentences needed by OpenAI APIs to contextualize the prompt. Once a gamified scenario has been generated, GAMAI automatically produces exercise files in a FGPE-compatible format. According to the presented evaluation results, most gamified exercises generated with AI support were ready to be used, with no or minimum human effort, and were positively assessed by students. The usability of the software was also assessed as high by the users. Our research paves the way for a more efficient and interactive approach to programming education, leveraging the capabilities of advanced language models in conjunction with gamification principles.

2024

Programming languages ranking based on energy measurements

Autores
Gordillo, A; Calero, C; Moraga, MA; García, F; Fernandes, JP; Abreu, R; Saraiva, J;

Publicação
SOFTWARE QUALITY JOURNAL

Abstract
Software is developed using programming languages whose choice is made based on a wide range of criteria, but it should be noted that the programming language selected can affect the quality of the software product. In this paper, we focus on analysing the differences in energy consumption when running certain algorithms that have been developed using different programming languages. Therefore, we focus on the software quality from the perspective of greenability, in concrete in the aspects related to energy efficiency. For this purpose, this study has conducted an empirical investigation about the most suitable programming languages from an energy efficiency perspective using a hardware-based consumption measurement instrument that obtains real data about energy consumption. The study builds upon a previous study in which energy efficiency of PL were ranked using a software-based approach where the energy consumption is an estimation. As a result, no significant differences are obtained between two approaches, in terms of ranking the PL. However, if it is required to have a more realistic knowledge of consumption, it is necessary to use hardware approaches. Furthermore, the hardware approach provides information about the energy consumption of specific DUT hardware components, such as, HDD, graphics card, and processor, and a ranking for each of component is elaborated. This can provide useful information to make a more informed decision on the choice of a PL, depending on several factors, such as the type of algorithms to be implemented, or the effects on power consumption not only in overall, but also depending on specific DUT hardware components.

2024

When Amnesia Strikes: Understanding and Reproducing Data Loss Bugs with Fault Injection

Autores
Ramos, M; Azevedo, J; Kingsbury, K; Pereira, J; Esteves, T; Macedo, R; Paulo, J;

Publicação
Proc. VLDB Endow.

Abstract
We present LazyFS, a new fault injection tool that simplifies the debugging and reproduction of complex data durability bugs experienced by databases, key-value stores, and other data-centric systems in crashes. Our tool simulates persistence properties of POSIX file systems (e.g., operations ordering and atomicity) and enables users to inject lost and torn write faults with a precise and controlled approach. Further, it provides profiling information about the system’s operations flow and persisted data, enabling users to better understand the root cause of errors. Weuse LazyFS to study seven important systems: PostgreSQL, etcd, Zookeeper, Redis, LevelDB, PebblesDB, and Lightning Network. Our fault injection campaign shows that LazyFS automates and facilitates the reproduction of five known bug reports containing manual and complex reproducibility steps. Further, it aids in understanding and reproducing seven ambiguous bugs reported by users. Finally, LazyFS is used to find eight new bugs, which lead to data loss, corruption, and unavailability.

2024

Collective Asset Sharing Mechanisms for PV and BESS in Renewable Energy Communities

Autores
Guedes, W; Oliveira, C; Soares, TA; Dias, BH; Matos, M;

Publicação
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID

Abstract
The energy sector transition to more decentralized and renewable structures requires greater participation by local consumers, which may be enabled by innovative models such as the setup of renewable energy communities (RECs). To maximize the self-consumption of local renewable energy generated by assets normally connected to the low voltage distribution grid, these RECs typically involve jointly owned assets such as collective photovoltaic solar panels (CPVs) and collective energy storage systems (CESS). This work proposes a novel mathematical model for a REC, accounting for three distinct economic approaches to the redistribution of collective benefits among community members. The main objective of this study is to understand how the participation of community members in collective assets (CAs) can help increase the fairness and equity of RECs. An illustrative REC case comprising members with individual and collective ownership of the assets is used to assess the proposed economic approaches. Extracting several answers, among them that the most advantageous configuration comes from agents with quotas in the CESS and CPV. An important conclusion is that depending on the selected economic approach, the social welfare and agent's revenue vary significantly. In any case, CESSs increase equity among REC members.

2024

Enhancing Cobot Design Through User Experience Goals: An Investigation of Human-Robot Collaboration in Picking Tasks

Autores
Pinto, A; Duarte, I; Carvalho, C; Rocha, L; Santos, J;

Publicação
HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract
The use of collaborative robots in industries is growing rapidly. To ensure the successful implementation of these devices, it is essential to consider the user experience (UX) during their design process. This study is aimed at testing the UX goals that emerge when users interact with a collaborative robot during the programming and collaborating phases. A framework on UX goals will be tested, in the geographical context of Portugal. For that, an experimental setup was introduced in the form of a laboratory case study in which the human-robot collaboration (HRC) was evaluated by the combination of both quantitative (applying the User Experience Questionnaire [UEQ]) and qualitative (semistructured interviews) metrics. The sample was constituted by 19 university students. The quantitative approach showed positive overall ratings for the programming phase UX, with attractiveness having the highest average value (M=2.21; SD=0.59) and dependability the lowest (M=1.64; SD=0.65). For the collaboration phase, all UX ratings were positive, with attractiveness having the highest average value (M=2.46; SD=0.78) and efficiency the lowest (M=1.93; SD=0.77). Only perspicuity showed significant differences between the two phases (t18=-4.335, p=0.002). The qualitative approach, at the light of the framework used, showed that efficiency, inspiration, and usability are the most mentioned UX goals emerging from the content analysis. These findings enhance manufacturing workers' well-being by improving cobot design in organizations.

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