Conference skills in practice

Conference skills comprise a wide range of activities and tasks students should master to be professional and informed conference participants. The first chapter of the paper introduces the theoretical background of the project called a “mock scientific conference”, which may be seen as an instance of project-based learning. This methodology builds on the concepts of social constructivism, deeper learning, critical thinking, collaboration and learner-independence, which advocate for a student-centred and experiential approach to education through exploring real-world situations and problems. The second and third parts of the paper discuss individual tasks and activities designed for the students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, ranging from poster presentation practice to delivering expert talks, writing abstracts and bionotes, chairing sessions and leading discussions. The students find the conference simulation to be highly motivating because it gives them the opportunity to show their expert knowledge and erudition as well as the ability to collaborate and interact with their peers. Therefore, they enhance their speaking and writing skills in a context relevant for their future careers and acquire a range of transferable skills such as organizing an event and communicating effectively.

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Meeting the Unique Needs of Gifted Students Through an Arts-Integrated, Project-Based Learning Opportunity: The EncycloMEdia Project

Gifted Child Today ◽

10.1177/10762175211008516 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 151-170

Author(s):

Dhara Baiden

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Gifted And Talented ◽

Arts Integration ◽

Writing Skills ◽

Gifted Students ◽

Subject Area ◽

Project Based Learning ◽

Learning Opportunity ◽

Integrated Project ◽

Talented Students

The “EncycloMEdia” project provides a stimulating project-based opportunity for gifted and talented students in the middle and upper grades. Its first component is an arts-integration piece in the form of an altered book. The second component is a cumulative assessment document containing students’ text-based analyses that correspond to the entries in the altered book. Both components of the project require students to develop valuable critical thinking and writing skills. This integrated, project-based unit can be modified to address any subject area. Detailed descriptions of the content, process, and product are included so educators can implement this idea with their own gifted students.

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Goal-driven active learning

Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems ◽

10.1007/s10458-021-09527-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Nicolas Bougie ◽

Ryutaro Ichise

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Reinforcement Learning ◽

Learning Process ◽

Real World ◽

Imitation Learning ◽

Learning Approaches ◽

Wide Range ◽

Fixed Set ◽

Complex Decision Making ◽

Complex Decision

AbstractDeep reinforcement learning methods have achieved significant successes in complex decision-making problems. In fact, they traditionally rely on well-designed extrinsic rewards, which limits their applicability to many real-world tasks where rewards are naturally sparse. While cloning behaviors provided by an expert is a promising approach to the exploration problem, learning from a fixed set of demonstrations may be impracticable due to lack of state coverage or distribution mismatch—when the learner’s goal deviates from the demonstrated behaviors. Besides, we are interested in learning how to reach a wide range of goals from the same set of demonstrations. In this work we propose a novel goal-conditioned method that leverages very small sets of goal-driven demonstrations to massively accelerate the learning process. Crucially, we introduce the concept of active goal-driven demonstrations to query the demonstrator only in hard-to-learn and uncertain regions of the state space. We further present a strategy for prioritizing sampling of goals where the disagreement between the expert and the policy is maximized. We evaluate our method on a variety of benchmark environments from the Mujoco domain. Experimental results show that our method outperforms prior imitation learning approaches in most of the tasks in terms of exploration efficiency and average scores.

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A CFD Study of Focused Extreme Wave Impact on Decks of Offshore Structures

Volume 2: CFD and VIV ◽

10.1115/omae2014-23804 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Xin Lu ◽

Pankaj Kumar ◽

Anand Bahuguni ◽

Yanling Wu

Keyword(s):

Real World ◽

Offshore Structures ◽

Air Gap ◽

Irregular Waves ◽

Linear Wave ◽

Extreme Wave ◽

Wave Impact ◽

Loading Test ◽

Wide Range ◽

Wave Maker

The design of offshore structures for extreme/abnormal waves assumes that there is sufficient air gap such that waves will not hit the platform deck. Due to inaccuracies in the predictions of extreme wave crests in addition to settlement or sea-level increases, the required air gap between the crest of the extreme wave and the deck is often inadequate in existing platforms and therefore wave-in-deck loads need to be considered when assessing the integrity of such platforms. The problem of wave-in-deck loading involves very complex physics and demands intensive study. In the Computational Fluid Mechanics (CFD) approach, two critical issues must be addressed, namely the efficient, realistic numerical wave maker and the accurate free surface capturing methodology. Most reported CFD research on wave-in-deck loads consider regular waves only, for instance the Stokes fifth-order waves. They are, however, recognized by designers as approximate approaches since “real world” sea states consist of random irregular waves. In our work, we report a recently developed focused extreme wave maker based on the NewWave theory. This model can better approximate the “real world” conditions, and is more efficient than conventional random wave makers. It is able to efficiently generate targeted waves at a prescribed time and location. The work is implemented and integrated with OpenFOAM, an open source platform that receives more and more attention in a wide range of industrial applications. We will describe the developed numerical method of predicting highly non-linear wave-in-deck loads in the time domain. The model’s capability is firstly demonstrated against 3D model testing experiments on a fixed block with various deck orientations under random waves. A detailed loading analysis is conducted and compared with available numerical and measurement data. It is then applied to an extreme wave loading test on a selected bridge with multiple under-deck girders. The waves are focused extreme irregular waves derived from NewWave theory and JONSWAP spectra.

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Classification of unlabeled online media

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-85608-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sakthi Kumar Arul Prakash ◽

Conrad Tucker

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Real World ◽

Graphical Model ◽

Ground Truth ◽

Classification Problem ◽

Machine Learning Algorithms ◽

Social Media Networks ◽

Online Social Media ◽

Wide Range

AbstractThis work investigates the ability to classify misinformation in online social media networks in a manner that avoids the need for ground truth labels. Rather than approach the classification problem as a task for humans or machine learning algorithms, this work leverages user–user and user–media (i.e.,media likes) interactions to infer the type of information (fake vs. authentic) being spread, without needing to know the actual details of the information itself. To study the inception and evolution of user–user and user–media interactions over time, we create an experimental platform that mimics the functionality of real-world social media networks. We develop a graphical model that considers the evolution of this network topology to model the uncertainty (entropy) propagation when fake and authentic media disseminates across the network. The creation of a real-world social media network enables a wide range of hypotheses to be tested pertaining to users, their interactions with other users, and with media content. The discovery that the entropy of user–user and user–media interactions approximate fake and authentic media likes, enables us to classify fake media in an unsupervised learning manner.

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An information theoretic approach to link prediction in multiplex networks

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-92427-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Seyed Hossein Jafari ◽

Amir Mahdi Abdolhosseini-Qomi ◽

Masoud Asadpour ◽

Maseud Rahgozar ◽

Naser Yazdani

Keyword(s):

Real World ◽

Link Prediction ◽

Large Scale ◽

Similarity Measures ◽

Prediction Method ◽

General Purpose ◽

Fast Method ◽

Theoretic Approach ◽

Multiplex Networks ◽

Wide Range

AbstractThe entities of real-world networks are connected via different types of connections (i.e., layers). The task of link prediction in multiplex networks is about finding missing connections based on both intra-layer and inter-layer correlations. Our observations confirm that in a wide range of real-world multiplex networks, from social to biological and technological, a positive correlation exists between connection probability in one layer and similarity in other layers. Accordingly, a similarity-based automatic general-purpose multiplex link prediction method—SimBins—is devised that quantifies the amount of connection uncertainty based on observed inter-layer correlations in a multiplex network. Moreover, SimBins enhances the prediction quality in the target layer by incorporating the effect of link overlap across layers. Applying SimBins to various datasets from diverse domains, our findings indicate that SimBins outperforms the compared methods (both baseline and state-of-the-art methods) in most instances when predicting links. Furthermore, it is discussed that SimBins imposes minor computational overhead to the base similarity measures making it a potentially fast method, suitable for large-scale multiplex networks.

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Comparing optical performance of a wide range of perovskite/silicon tandem architectures under real-world conditions

Nanophotonics ◽

10.1515/nanoph-2020-0643 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Manvika Singh ◽

Rudi Santbergen ◽

Indra Syifai ◽

Arthur Weeber ◽

Miro Zeman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Real World ◽

Solar Spectrum ◽

Photocurrent Density ◽

Angle Of Incidence ◽

Optical Study ◽

Optical Performance ◽

Tandem Solar Cells ◽

Bottom Cell ◽

Wide Range

Abstract Since single junction c-Si solar cells are reaching their practical efficiency limit. Perovskite/c-Si tandem solar cells hold the promise of achieving greater than 30% efficiencies. In this regard, optical simulations can deliver guidelines for reducing the parasitic absorption losses and increasing the photocurrent density of the tandem solar cells. In this work, an optical study of 2, 3 and 4 terminal perovskite/c-Si tandem solar cells with c-Si solar bottom cells passivated by high thermal-budget poly-Si, poly-SiOx and poly-SiCx is performed to evaluate their optical performance with respect to the conventional tandem solar cells employing silicon heterojunction bottom cells. The parasitic absorption in these carrier selective passivating contacts has been quantified. It is shown that they enable greater than 20 mA/cm2 matched implied photocurrent density in un-encapsulated 2T tandem architecture along with being compatible with high temperature production processes. For studying the performance of such tandem devices in real-world irradiance conditions and for different locations of the world, the effect of solar spectrum and angle of incidence on their optical performance is studied. Passing from mono-facial to bi-facial tandem solar cells, the photocurrent density in the bottom cell can be increased, requiring again optical optimization. Here, we analyse the effect of albedo, perovskite thickness and band gap as well as geographical location on the optical performance of these bi-facial perovskite/c-Si tandem solar cells. Our optical study shows that bi-facial 2T tandems, that also convert light incident from the rear, require radically thicker perovskite layers to match the additional current from the c-Si bottom cell. For typical perovskite bandgap and albedo values, even doubling the perovskite thickness is not sufficient. In this respect, lower bandgap perovskites are very interesting for application not only in bi-facial 2T tandems but also in related 3T and 4T tandems.

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3D Technology – Additive Manufacturing Applications and Prospects (Vol. 24, No. 9, Full Issue)

Asia-Pacific Biotech News ◽

10.1142/s0219030320001093 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 (09) ◽

Keyword(s):

Additive Manufacturing ◽

3D Printing ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Real World ◽

Vaccine Development ◽

Health Screening ◽

Wide Range ◽

The World ◽

Real World Applications ◽

Manufacturing Applications

For the month of September 2020, APBN dives into the world of 3D printing and its wide range of real-world applications. Keeping our focus on the topic of the year, the COVID-19 pandemic, we explore the environmental impact of the global outbreak as well as gain insight to the top 5 vaccine platforms used in vaccine development. Discover more about technological advancements and how it is assisting innovation in geriatric health screening.

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Mechanical engineering, computer science and art in interdisciplinary project-based learning projects

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education ◽

10.1177/0306419017715427 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 83-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Carla MC e Cavalcante Koike ◽

Dianne M Viana ◽

Flavio B Vidal

Keyword(s):

Implementation Process ◽

Project Based Learning ◽

Skills Acquisition ◽

Transferable Skills ◽

Science And Art ◽

Interdisciplinary Project ◽

Undergraduate Programs ◽

The University ◽

Learning Projects

This article describes the approach to promote project-based learning and interdisciplinarity within established engineering undergraduate programs at the University of Brasilia. The implementation process and some representative projects developed are presented, as well, as a discussion about the role of interdisciplinarity in transferable skills acquisition and their many benefits for all students from undergraduate courses involved.

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Caucasian Languages: Genetic-Typological Communities and Areal Relations. Collection of articles based on the materials of the VII International Scientific Conference

10.31029/caucaslanguages2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Magomed Abdulkadirovich Magomedov ◽

Khizri Abdulmadzhidovich Yusupov

Keyword(s):

Scientific Conference ◽

Wide Range

The collection includes materials of the VII International Scientific Conference "Caucasian Languages: Genetic-Typological Communities and Areal Relations", held on June 24-25, 2021 in Makhachkala. Articles are written on the basis of reports read at this conference. They are devoted to various aspects of the study of genetic-typological communities and areal connections of the Caucasian and foreign-structural languages. For linguists, students of philological faculties of universities and a wide range of readers. Articles are published in the author's edition.

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Comparing different block propagation modelling approaches using the Platrock simulation platform

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10619 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Vincent Acary ◽

Franck Bourrier ◽

David Toe ◽

Francois Kneib

Keyword(s):

Expert Knowledge ◽

Material Point ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Propagation Models ◽

Rockfall Hazard ◽

Wide Range ◽

Natural Terrain ◽

Block Propagation ◽

Propagation Modelling ◽

Modelling Approaches

Block propagation models are routinely used for the quantitative assessment of rockfall hazard. In these models, one of the major di&#64259;culties is the development of physically consistent and &#64257;eld applicable approaches to model the interaction between the block and the natural terrain. For most of propagation models, a thorough calibration of the input parameters is not available over the wide range of configurations encountered in practice. Consequently, the parameters choice is strongly depending on expert knowledge. In addition, most of models exhibit substantial sensitivity to some parameters, i.e. small changes of these parameters entail large differences in the simulation results.The trajectory analysis platform Platrock, freely available upon request (contact: [email protected]), allows performing 2D and 3D simulations using both material point rebound models and models, based on non-smooth mechanics, that explicitly account for block shape. This platform provides several simulation tools for detailed analyses of block propagation on study sites.The possibilities of the predictive capabilities of different block propagation modelling approaches integrated into the Platrock platform have been assessed on a well-documented study site, where a benchmark of propagation models has been done in the context of C2ROP research project. This analysis emphasized the capacities of trajectory analyses to traduce block propagation but also demonstrated their substantial sensitivity to model parameters. The results from these simulations cannot be relevantly interpreted if they are not accompanied with calibration proofs, sensitivity analysis, and detailed interpretation of the results from the expert in charge of the study.

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