In this blog post we present some ideas that one can consider before conducting a qualitative survey to evaluate new software engineering tools and systems. These tips derive from our own surveys conducted on Android developers as part of my research in software engineering.
Gamification of University-level courses is becoming a common practice, as many professors decide to try offering their students a more engaging learning environment. Nevertheless, we still do not have a clear idea on how individual students engage differently with a gamified course. But now a detailed, long-term study from the University of Lisbon has presented some insightful observations on this topic.
During the course of their study, the researchers observed three editions of a gamified University of Lisbon course on Multimedia Content Production. The course employed a blended learning method that combined theoretical lectures, lab classes, and an online Moodle component where students engaged in discussions and completed online assignments.
Throughout the years, the researchers have learned from the experience and improved the course’s gameful design. A general observation from the student’s feedback is that they all felt the gamified course was indeed more engaging than the previous non-gamified editions. However, there were some noticeable differences on how individual students engaged with the course, which the researchers sought to investigate.
The Surface Studio. (Image Credit: https://news.microsoft.com/surface-studio-2/)
Agile methods on software development are very popular. The root of these methods must be sought in the on the Agile Manifesto that says:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
In short, these lines says that the world is always changing, the adaptation to change, the collaboration between people and the transfer of knowledge should be a priority in our professional life.
These objectives fit with software development but also with research because, we software developers and researchers are always looking for new challenges, always updating our professional network and making improvement in science.
October is the breast cancer awareness month. Cancer is classified as a genetic disease caused by the abnormal cell division that destroy body tissue. Wait! Cell? Body tissue? Disease? So now you might be wondering: what does this have to do with computers?
In fact, cancer research has been in the heart of life sciences for the past few decades. Since genetics play an important role in most cancers, computational methods are crucial in understanding the development of the disease as well as predicting the results of clinical trials for treatment. That’s where computer science comes into action.
Before we define the computational problem, let’s review some biology from high school and learn some facts about cancer.
Our human body consists of trillions of cells. Although each cell has the exact same DNA all over your body, every cell carries out its own function. The DNA is a long sequence of nucleotides preserved inside a cell nucleus.
Photo adapted from: The Fatal Lover, Mata Hari (2016) watch online 1080