This work describes a systematic review of the research on take-home exams in tertiary education. It was found that there is some disagreement in the community about the virtues of take-home exams but also a lot of agreement. It is concluded that take-home exams may be the preferred choice of assessment method on the higher taxonomy levels because they promote higher-order thinking skills and allow time for reflection. They are also more consonant with constructive alignment theories and turn the assessment into a learning activity. Due to the obvious risk of unethical student behavior, take-home exams are not recommended on the lowest taxonomy level. It is concluded that there is still a lot of research missing concerning take-home exams in higher education and some of this research may be urgent due to the emergence of massive online open courses (MOOCs) and online universities where non-proctored exams prevail.

/pdf/take-home-exams-in-higher-education-a-systematic-review-1874xkdjro.pdf

Take-Home Exams in Higher Education: A Systematic Review

Number theory in science and communication

This paper presents an integrated approach to hardware software partitioning and hardware design space exploration. We propose a genetic algorithm which performs hardware software partitioning on a task graph while simultaneously contemplating various design alternatives for tasks mapped to hardware. We primarily deal with data dominated designs typically found in digital signal processing and image processing applications. A detailed description of various genetic operators is presented. We provide results to illustrate the effectiveness of our integrated methodology.

Hardware/software partitioning with integrated hardware design space exploration

A major problem in teaching computer architecture and organization courses is how to help students make the cognitive leap that connects their theoretical knowledge with practical experience. Numerous researchers involved in computer architecture and organization education have tackled this problem, resulting in a variety of educational tools for computer system simulation. The tools differ greatly in scope, target architecture complexity, simulation level, and user interface. The available educational systems vary in how they handle digital system simulation. They usually offer tools for creating hardware component libraries, viewing simulation results, and conducting statistical analysis of system performance. Available systems range from sophisticated ones, for complex analysis, to simpler ones that are more readily understood by users, both instructors and students. Beyond system simulation, an educational system should support three key objectives. First, it must cover an extensive range of computer architecture and organization topics. Second, it should graphically depict a computer system, from the block level to the register-transfer level. Third, it must provide the means to follow system functions at the program, instruction, and clock cycle levels.

An integrated environment for teaching computer architecture

Loop pipelining is a widely-accepted technique in high-level synthesis to enable pipelined execution of successive loop iterations to achieve high performance. Existing loop pipelining methods provide inadequate support for pipeline flushing. In this paper, we study the problem of enabling flushing in pipeline synthesis and examine its implications in scheduling and binding. We propose novel techniques for synthesizing a conflict-aware flushing-enabled pipeline that is robust against potential resource collisions. Experiments with real-life benchmarks show that our methods significantly reduce the possibility of resource collisions compared to conventional approaches while conserving hardware resources and achieving near-optimal performance.

/pdf/flushing-enabled-loop-pipelining-for-high-level-synthesis-4w0si0euh0.pdf

Flushing-Enabled Loop Pipelining for High-Level Synthesis

This paper presents an efficient and objective procedure for the outcome-based assessment of engineering final year projects (FYP). The procedure, consisting of 6 steps, can easily be customized for different engineering curricula. A User Guide has been developed to help institutions create their own FYP assessment system. The guide includes the assessment procedure and aids for its implementation. Particularly, a set of FYP-oriented observable descriptors for Tuning outcomes was defined. The end-products of the proposed assessment procedure are a set of assessment reports that the evaluator agent/s must fulfil per milestone, marking the level reached by the student at every descriptor (0: unacceptable, 1: minimum acceptable, 2: good, 3: excellent). These marks are then gathered together in an overall assessment sheet showing, for every learning outcome, the evolution along the assessment milestones of the level reached by the student at any descriptor. This sheet is a very powerful tool for setting the final mark. All assessment agents use the same list of descriptors and the same levels of acquisition, thus improving the consistency, traceability and global quality of the assessment process.

/pdf/guidelines-for-the-final-year-project-assessment-in-4x3zic8i8w.pdf

Guidelines for the final year project assessment in engineering

This paper addresses the problem of Time-Constrained Loop Pipelining, i.e. given a fixed throughput, finding a schedule of a loop which minimizes resource requirements. This paper proposes a methodology, called TCLP, based on dividing the problem into two simpler and independent tasks: retiming and scheduling. TCLP explores different sets of resources, searching for a maximum resource utilization. This reduces area requirements. After a minimum set of resources has been found, the execution throughput is increased and the number of registers required by the loop schedule is reduced. TCLP attempts to generate a schedule which minimizes cost in time and area (resources and registers). The results show that TCLP obtains optimal schedules in most cases.

/pdf/time-constrained-loop-pipelining-204tf7e6wr.pdf

Time-constrained loop pipelining

Among their educational objectives, Computer Science courses do not usually aim at developing skills such as the gathering of information, oral and written communication, or teamwork; nor do they seek to heighten students' awareness in terms of solidarity, the environment, justice or progress. In the subject "PC Architecture" at the Facultat d'informatica de Barcelona (Spain), the aforementioned items are indeed included in the educational objectives, but without any additional effort to the student. The teaching strategies include the following: (i) students are organized into groups, which prepare a project on a topic related to the objectives of the course, (ii) students are required to make a public presentation of their project and answer questions from their colleagues, and (iii) the lab work is done in collaboration with an NGO. It consists of repairing PCs provided by donars. Once repaired, PCs are destined for projects in solidarity with developing countries. Over the last two years, we have evaluated four courses by means of student surveys, whose results have been very positive. As instructors, we have observed a remarkable improvement in the quality of the presentations throughout the course. Furthermore, some students continue their collaboration with the NGO beyond the end of the course.

Developing non-technical skills in a technical course

The introduction of sustainability skills into higher education curricula is a natural effect of the increasing importance of sustainability in our daily lives Topics like green computing, sustainable design or environmental engineering have become part of the knowledge required by today's engineers Furthermore, we strongly believe that the introduction of this skill will eventually enable future engineers to develop sustainable products, services and projects The Final Year Project is the last academic stage facing students and a step towards their future professional engineering projects As such, it constitutes a rehearsal for their professional future and an ideal opportunity for reflecting on whether their Final Year Project is sustainable or not, and to what extent It also provides a good tool for reviewing the lessons learned about sustainability during the degree course and for applying them in a holistic and integrated way In this paper, we present a guide that allows both students and advisors to think carefully about the sustainability of engineering projects, in particular the Final Year Project

/pdf/a-methodology-to-introduce-sustainability-into-the-final-1rjxr27cgi.pdf

A methodology to introduce sustainability into the final year project to foster sustainable engineering projects

In this paper, we present a methodology for Final Year Project (FYP) monitoring and assessment that considers the inclusion of the professional skills required in the particular engineering degree. This proper monitoring and clear evaluation framework provides the student with valuable support for the project implementation as well as for improving the quality of the projects, thereby reducing the academic drop-out rate. The proposed methodology has been implemented at the Barcelona School of Informatics at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya — BarcelonaTech. The FYP is structured around three milestones: project definition, project monitoring and project completion. Skills are assigned to each milestone according to the tasks required in that phase, and a list of indicators is defined for each phase. The evaluation criteria for each indicator at each phase are specified in a rubric, and are made public both to students and teachers. Thus, the FYP includes an exhaustive evaluation method distributed throughout the whole project implementation, thereby facilitating project organization for the student as well as providing a clear and homogeneous assessment framework. The methodology for the FYP organization, assessment and evaluation was launched and piloted over two semesters. We believe the experience to be general in the sense that it has been conducted as part of an ICT engineering degree, but may easily be extended to any other engineering degree.

/pdf/evaluation-and-assessment-of-professional-skills-in-the-1fguczyc9d.pdf

Evaluation and assessment of professional skills in the Final Year Project

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